I knew that by using WSS 3.0 to host the SharePoint Community Champions team site , I would run into scenarios that would challenge some of the design assumptions that went into the development of the out-of-the-box webparts in SharePoint. In particular...

Well, after more than a year of tinkering with different blog options mainly for non-work related content, I have finally decided to create my work blog here. Since this is my first real blog entry, I'd like to provide a quick (or perhaps no-so-quick...

Today, I had a 2 hour meeting with a customer to review the agenda for a 3 day onsite briefing with their "technology evaluation team" next week. We're competing against IBM and another vendor for the privilege of being chosen as the company's technology...

Wow! Scott Guthrie , the person whose ASP.NET presentation a few years ago convinced me to return to Microsoft , just posted the most comprehensive and insightful account of how a key piece (ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Web Developer) of the Microsoft .NET...

Practically any one in my accounts, who has a significant investment in Microsoft server products and who has seen a demo of MOM 2005 , just loves it and wants to evaluate it immediately. Why? They, mostly IBM Tivoli shops, love the MOM Connector Framework...

Personally, I believe that screencasts will quickly become the de facto way for many people to learn how to use a new piece of software like Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. In today’s fast paced, YouTube crazed world, it’s often times more efficient...

Note to self: Remember to read Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint before preparing for my exec review of my SharePoint Community Advancement Initiative in the next few weeks. That’s right, I’ve renamed it from “Development” to “Advancement” because...

Wallop launched its private beta this morning, and the blogosphere is yet again abuzz with excitement about social networking. My fellow MS blogger, Don Dodge, provided a good summary of Wallop. By pure coincidence, Wallop’s Web Operations Manager is...

Long time no post. Yes, I've been very busy indeed. Well, it’s finally time to move this blog to its new home that’s powered by Office SharePoint Server. The URL is http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blogs/lliu . Although it’s slightly longer to type...

True story. This morning in the restroom, as I walked over to the paper towel dispenser after washing my hands, I noticed a few (most likely used) pieces of paper towel on the floor. Then, before I got there, someone reached down, picked them up, and...

The blog application that is created with WSS V3’s Blog site template is limited to just one category per post. How to customize it to support multiple categories per post has become an FAQ, so here’s a series of screenshot snippets that shows just how...

Joe Kraus (co-founder of Excite , which is now a part of AskJeeves ) has just written an exceptionally concise and easy-to-understand post on his blog about the Long Tail phenomenon even though he ends it with a marketing spin towards his startup, JotSpot...

I just left Joe Kraus a comment that describes why I think his startup, JotSpot , is doomed – or at least will have a very short Tail. J The thing is, in order to be the Head of a healthy, ever growing Long Tail , many, many, many (did I mention “many...

A couple of other bloggers have already discovered it, but we launched the SharePoint Team Blog in stealth mode this past Monday. The first entry was posted by Kurt Delbene , Corporate VP of the Office Servers product group, and a second entry was just...

I see that a couple of MSofties ( Eileen and Mayur ) have excitedly blogged about Microsoft's new "OC" application that was announced as part of the Real-Time Collaboration launch event that I attended on March 8th. Although its IM features will be best...

Building SharePoint Web Parts? Then this post (excerpted below) from Dino Esposito is a must read: WebParts: From SharePoint to ASP.NET 2.0 In the Windows world, SharePoint products and technologies simplify and support various forms of collaboration...

A lot of buzz for “ Enterprise 2.0 ” was generated last week from Socialtext’s announcement of SocialPoint for SharePoint. As usual with new and exciting “the next big thing” announcements related to Microsoft products and technologies like this, my colleague...

I see that Arpan has just listed his Top 10. Well, here are mine: A "Global" Template that is applied/provisioned before any other template, and a Feature Framework that provides modularity for “additive” templates OOB document review/approval...

Forrester Research originally published its Trends 2005: Collaboration analyst report in December, 2004, which provided a succinct and objective assessment of the key trends in collaboration as the technology “enters the realm of the strategic.” Two of...

Microsoft is a pretty big place, so no matter how hard I try to keep up with everything, I still end up missing a bit of important news from time to time. But by following the blogs on MSDN and TechNet , I don't miss anything important for very long....

I’ve been dreaming (and done lots of thinking and talking – mostly internally at Microsoft and with the SharePoint MVPs) about this for the past several months, so it’s immensely gratifying for me to see the project finally on CodePlex (at http://www...

The SharePoint Team Blog just keeps getting better as the number and technical depth of posts increases. Jon Kauffman’s recent couple of posts is an excellent example of why so many Microsoft blogs have become so popular – they provide an insider’s look...

One of the best parts about my job (actually, it’s all good!) is my responsibility for (both online and offline) community development. Much of what I’ve been doing related to communities over the past few months has been transitioning (from Arpan ),...

Yesterday, the 2007 Microsoft Office system preview site went live at http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview . It’s so gratifying for me to see the deliverables that I had spent a few months working on finally being published on the Web and available...

True story. During my weekly trip to the local public library yesterday, I decided to use one of their Internet surfing machines to quickly check my e-mail. While sitting there, I noticed that the woman next to me is frantically looking for someone (tech...