Better late than never seems to be my mantra these days. I have been working on presentations and posts for the many new features of SharePoint 2010. I am excited that I’ll be speaking at the SharePointPro Summit March 16-19, 2010 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. I am covering the following IP Pro Sessions:

HITP03: Enterprise Social Computing with SharePoint 2010

SharePoint 2010 introduces new features that support social computing for organizations of all types. Whether you have a “formal vision” or loose idea of what “social” means to your organization, this session will introduce you to the key concepts and features that can aid in your planning and implementation of social computing for your organization. This session will highlight how companies gain value out of the social computing capabilities of SharePoint.

Just when I thought I could not possibly squeeze another session into my schedule my friend George DeMet called and asked to join him on a panel at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin. Our panel will be Saturday March 13th at 12:30. The topic is “Bringing it All Back Home: CMS Communities” We’re going to compare and contrast the different CMS products and the communities that have grown up around them. In George’s words"

I am back in San Antonio Thursday March 4th speaking at Innotech San Antonio. I’ll be presenting Developing Social Applications with SharePoint 2010.

This lecture focuses on the developer interfaces for the Social Computing API and Web services for SharePoint 2010. Social Computing with SharePoint involves creating people aware applications that take advantage of User Profiles, Social Data, and Personalization built into SharePoint. This session will demonstrate development techniques for:

• Using SharePoint 2010 User Profiles
• Working with the SharePoint User Profile and Social Data Web Services
• Taking action on User Profile Changes
• Using Social Data in Custom Applications

I am in the process of updating all of my SharePoint 2010 projects from Beta to RC. I had a lot of fun learning how to use the Bing Maps Silverlight control for a few social computing demos that I built. Version 1 was released late last year and now it’s time to get upgraded! I figured there might be a few other folks in my position so here are the steps I followed.

Catapult Systems is taking the most popular in-person events and producing a series of web casts.

SharePoint 2010 Webcast Series

• Wednesday, March 17^th – 11:00am CST: Managed Metadata
• Wednesday, March 31^st – 11:00am CST: Social Computing
• Wednesday, April 14^th – 11:00am CST: Search
• Wednesday, April 28^th – 11:00am CST: Improvements in Document & Records Management
• Wednesday, May 12^th – 11:00am CST: Upgrades & Migrations
• Wednesday, May 26^th – 11:00am CST: SharePoint 2010 Multi-Tenant Hosting

Business Intelligence Webcast Series

• Tuesday, March 9^th – 11:00am CST: Improvements in BI with SharePoint 2010
• Tuesday, March 30^th – 11:00am CST: Excel Services Integration with PowerPivot
• Tuesday, April 13^th – 11:00am CST: Providing BI Solutions within SharePoint – Practical Examples

I haven’t blogged in a while because I have been crushed with both project work and dog training. The project work has exposed me to some JQuery techniques that I have wanted to learn. I have also been reviewing the new features of SharePoint 2010 search and FAST Search Server for SharePoint 2010. There are some great new features coming out with both products, features that many of my clients have been asking for. One feature that is supported by FAST and not oob with SharePoint 2010 is the Visual Best Bet, essentially a best bet that uses HTML rather than just text like the Best Bets in SharePoint 2007 (and unchanged in SharePoint 2010). I have to say, I really like JQuery. I can’t say “love” yet… I would not have gotten this far if it wasn’t for some great examples on Jan Tielens site.

This session will take an in-depth look into the Business Data Catalog (BDC) with Microsoft SQL Server. It will include an overview of the Business Data Catalog, an introduction to configuring the BDC, and a demonstration of integrating the BDC with list forms.

During this meeting we will also share firsthand information and experience around the value of the Microsoft Certified Master program. These programs offer the top tier technical training and certifications available from Microsoft and will highlight the program in three areas including training, certification and networking.

Sid Atkinson, Sr. Lead Consultant, Catapult Systems, will provide an overview of the great new Business Intelligence features of SharePoint 2010.

This session will cover the Insights Business Intelligence platform in SharePoint 2010. Microsoft made a significant investment in BI and has made available a broad range of tools and applications to service reporting and analytical needs. In this session we will cover enhancements to Reporting Services and its integration with SharePoint, Report Builder, Excel Services, PowerPivot and PerformancePoint Services. Time permitting, we will also briefly cover Access and Visio Services and its impact on the BI space within the context of SharePoint 2010.

I have been playing around with SharePoint 2010 Search this morning. I love the new UI. The search refinements panel is just begging to be messed with. In my case I wanted to add the file extension JPG as an Image Type refiner.

Simple Refiner Tweak

Here is how you add a file extension refinement.

1. Put the page in edit mode.

2. Choose the drop down menu for “Refinement Panel” and choose Edit Web Part.

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In order to support my SharePoint 2010 demo environment I have become quite a fan on Microsoft Hyper-V. I admit that I did not enjoy the learning curve and that there are a few “features” missing that would make it significantly easier to use as a portable demo environment, features that I have grown quite attached to in both Virtual PC and VMware. Now before you get all protective of Hyper-V I do understand that it is not intended for the use to which I am putting it. I mean, I suppose, drag and drop from host to guest could be considered a security hole in a production virtualization environment and “local shares” could present a performance issue…but is it that hard to add it to tools that I can choose to disable? Anyway, I got over all that by using remote desktop to connect to my guests rather than Hyper-V Manager. The remote connection makes up for almost all of the missing features.