Those who have been following my tweets and blog posts (1, 2) recently know that I’ve been helping SharePoint governance impresario Paul Culmsee of CleverWorkarounds fame to bring his Master Class to Toronto this May 12–13.  It could be the time of year and May seeming like a long way off with visions of the cottage dancing in folks’ heads, but it’s been a slow burn to build interest. 

And it makes no sense because I know this class addresses an important issue for a lot of consultants, analysts, project managers and customers  here in the Greater Toronto Area.

Long story short:  We’re on the cusp of making a go/no-go decision this week.  Paul’s got a heavy agenda that’s taking him across the USA and they are gung-ho to have him deliver his practical, deep-dive curriculum.  To lose out here in Canada would be a real shame as he’s not likely to make a trip back this way for a while.  And it’s a horrible way to show our world-famous hospitality, to boot!

So:

This is an exceptional value for two days’ deep-dive into Information Architecture.  You’ll be getting an EXCEPTIONAL value for $1650 CDN!  How exceptional?  When I was with MCS, I’d have to come to you for a minimum of three days at $250/h to give you a mere shadow of the great guidance you’ll get from Paul through a pre-packaged offering that would not address some of the most important issues for your governance planning.  That’s a savings of over $4000!  And you’ll come away with a governance plan that people will actually use!

So:

You’ll be glad you did.  If we can get at least ten folks interested, Paul will seriously consider keeping this afloat and come to Toronto.  Let’s meet this challenge!

UPDATE: Want a sample of what Paul has to offer?  See this sampler vid from one of his recent presentations on SharePoint governance (click to launch):

Missed this one – on November 19/09, Microsoft launched a new TechNet site, Update Center for Microsoft Office, Office Servers and Related Products, that consolidates the hitherto somewhat scattered updates for their Office and Office Server stack.  It now provides an up-to-the-minute dashboard of the latest released service packs and security updates – with RSS feeds, of course.

Previously, a really reliable source for this kind of info was the SharePoint Product Team’s blog (still is), but their content, esp. around service packs, hasn’t been consistently tagged of late which can lead to some confusion.  I’d recommend keeping both sites in your pocket so you can get a good overview of the current patch state for the stack.

With SharePoint 2010 on the horizon and increasing waves of “millenials” joing the workforce, we’re finding customers more and more concerned about how to approach governance around social networking media.  They know they need to get on top of this, but aren’t sure how to do it while maintaining control over corporate resources.

I recently came across a couple of resources that provide a really good starting point:

• Mashable.com – Social Media Policies from 80+ Organizations
• Database of Social Media Policies via Chris Boudreaux’s site for his upcoming book Social Media Governance

This is an area where even within MCS we are just starting to formulate guidance for enterprise customers, and it’s not because we’re necessarily behind the curve, but that it is a very subjective and complex issue:  It depends heavily on the culture of the organization and its political will to open up traditionally locked-down lines of communication.

Case-in-point:  I was engaged on a project for a large customer last year who was wanting to introduce social networking where an experienced partner was brought in to help develop and structure their efforts.  They recommended an approach that seems to run contrary to common sense, but is in fact the exact right thing to do:

1. Develop and publish a policy that advises employees the rules of engagement on social media, ie. it’s a communication medium like any other, you are responsible for what you post, think about what you’re writing, there are penalties for breaching existing codes of conduct online, etc.
2. Start out with all the social networking spigots turned “on”
3. Observe how employees interact with the system; mediate conflicts quickly.
4. Begin to turn off the spigots that aren’t being used or are causing problems.

Think of the “spigots” as features – blogs, wikis, discussion threads, MySites, corporate Facebook pages, Twitter, etc.

A really sensible approach when you think about it.

Other resources:

• TechNet: Governance Resource Center for SharePoint 2007
• MSFT: SharePoint Collaboration Service Governance Plan
• White Paper: SharePoint Internet Presence Governance Plan
• MSFT:  Sean Livingston’s SharePoint Customization Policy
• MSFT:  Original SharePoint Governance Plan