John Martin's Blog : Expression

NOW LIVE: Microsoft's New Social App for MSDN, TechNet, and Expression Sites

John Martin — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:52:00 GMT

In May, we released a preview of our social bookmarking application. Today, we released v1.0 of social bookmarking for MSDN, TechNet, and Expression. Renamed "Social" (e.g., "TechNet Social"), v1.0 offers social bookmarking and provides several important new capabilities. ...(read more)

At TechEd Australia? Stop by and Meet Us!

John Martin — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:00:00 GMT

TechEd Australia is next week! And, our own Shanna Del Conte and Chris Slemp ... ...will be there to meet you, talk with you, show you how we are opening up the MSDN and TechNet sites to the technical community, and get your input. If you are at the event,...(read more)

Microsoft is Planning Much More Than Just Social Bookmarking

John Martin — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:16:00 GMT

Our vision is for the MSDN, TechNet, and Expression sites to be the largest and most vibrant online communities for technical professionals, enabling easy connections to the best resources and most knowledgeable people from Microsoft and the global community. Social bookmarking plays a vital role in that vision, but is just one application amongst a network of increasingly integrated applications - all running on a common social platform....(read more)

PREVIEW: v 1.0 of Social Bookmarking on MSDN and TechNet

John Martin — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:45:00 GMT

Microsoft is opening up the MSDN, TechNet, and Expression sites to the community, so that technical professionals can better connect with each other, share knowledge, and succeed. Tagging - and especially social bookmarking - are essential ingredients for making this happen.

Back in May, just before TechEd North America, we released a preview version of our new social bookmarking app for MSDN, for TechNet, and for Expression. Since then, thousands of technical professionals from around the world have begun using it to save their web favorites online, share them with others, see what other technical pros are favoriting, and connect with others.

We also got a lot of great feedback on the app itself (thank you!) and I'm happy to say that in early September, we plan on releasing a full version of the app - v 1.0. Here are some new things to look for:

Subscribe to Tags or People: Find a tag you want to follow? Or a fellow bookmarker that bookmarks really good stuff? With the new app, it will be easy to get an RSS subscription for that tag or person (as in, click the orange button).
Browse & Find Users: Search or browse to find people by their display name (e.g., mine is "johmar") and other criteria.
Import Tools: Recognizing that a lot of people already have favorites saved in their browsers or in other social bookmarking sites, the new app will provide a tool for importing your favorites from Microsoft Internet Explorer and from Delicious.
Bookmarking Widget: If you have your own blog or other website, our new bookmarking widget will make it easy for people to bookmark your pages directly to their social bookmarks on MSDN, TechNet, or Expression. You'll get traffic from Microsoft when your bookmarked page is published in "social feeds" on our global sites.

Availability in 12 Languages: With the September release, the social bookmarking application will be available in Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

Here is a screenshot of the v 1.0 home page for MSDN:

Questions? Comments? Feedback?

Let us know by commenting on this blog or in the Social Bookmarks Discussion Forum.

Try the New Windows Live Translator Widget

John Martin — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:41:00 GMT

To help extend the reach and availability of technical content across global languages and markets, Server & Tools Online (the group that manages the global MSDN, TechNet, Expression, and CodePlex sites) will be leveraging the latest translation technology from the Windows Live and Microsoft Research teams.

The Windows Live Translator is a web app that can translate English web pages or snippets of text into any one of these supported languages: German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, and Netherlands Dutch.

The Translator Add-in can be added to any web page and makes it really easy for visitors to quickly translate the page into any one of the same supported languages. The translation is conveniently displayed side-by-side with the original page so that both original and translated languages are available to the reader. There are also other display options available to try out.

I have added the add-in to the header of my blog (see above). The add-in senses the language setting of your browser and offer translations in that language.

Going forward, we will be using this technology to translate valuable content from MSDN and TechNet Magazine, community-generated content from applications like Forums and Blogs, documentation from the MSDN and TechNet libraries, and more.

So, try it out and send the Translator team your feedback.

Add MSDN/TechNet "Bookmarklet" to Any Web Page

John Martin — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:13:00 GMT

In May, we released a preview of social bookmarking for MSDN, TechNet, and Expression. Since then, thousands of people worldwide have installed our browser-based bookmarklet to add web pages from across the web to the MSDN, TechNet, and Expression "bookmarkspace."

Now, using the javascript below, you can add a link to any web page (like your blog) that will open the appropriate Save a Bookmark page and allow people to bookmark your page to MSDN, TechNet, or Expression.

Try it out!

Bookmark to MSDN

<a href="javascript:void(0);"

onclick="javascript:window.open('http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/bookmarks/en-US/action/Create/s/E/?url=' + encodeURIComponent(location.href) + '&ttl=' + encodeURIComponent(document.title||''), '_blank')">Bookmark on MSDN</a>

<br>

Bookmark to TechNet

<a href="javascript:void(0);"

onclick="javascript:window.open('http://social.technet.microsoft.com/bookmarks/en-US/action/Create/s/E/?url=' + encodeURIComponent(location.href) + '&ttl=' + encodeURIComponent(document.title||''), '_blank')">Bookmark on TechNet</a>

Bookmark to Expression

<a href="javascript:void(0);"

onclick="javascript:window.open('http://social.expression.microsoft.com/bookmarks/en-US/action/Create/s/E/?url=' + encodeURIComponent(location.href) + '&ttl=' + encodeURIComponent(document.title||''), '_blank')">Bookmark on Expression</a>

MSDN/TechNet GM Talks about Future Investment Areas

John Martin — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:21:00 GMT

Today, Dan Truax, GM of Server & Tools Online, the group that runs the global MSDN, TechNet, Expression, and CodePlex sites, blogged about the high-level investment themes for our Social Platform and web sites...

***************************

The Major Themes for Our Social Platform Investments

In May, when I first blogged on our social vision, I also said that we'd publish more information about our site and platform roadmap. We're ready to start doing that now. They best way to begin the conversation is to first talk about our investments themes.

Think of themes as high-level things that we think are important. They are...

An Integrated Site Experience

Better Discovery

Enabling Social Connections

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Read the original post on Dan's blog. Let us know what you think in the blog or on the Futures Forums for MSDN or TechNet.

Next up: specific features and site enhancements...

VIDEO: "No Need to Shout" - Ninjas and Pirates Just Might Be Able to Get Along After All...

John Martin — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:43:00 GMT

For your enjoyment - this video came out of TechEd 2008 North America.

Fun and funny way to learn about Microsoft online community offerings, including the latest from MSDN, TechNet, CodePlex, and Expression. Most of the comments I've seen on it are actually serious debates on Pirates and Ninjas!

For more fun and interesting things, see http://microsoftcommunities.com/

Video: No Need to Shout

VIDEO: Learn about New MSDN, TechNet, and Expression Forums from the people who built it

John Martin — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:24:00 GMT

While we were at TechEd 2008 last week, Brent Serbus (Program Manager), Chris Slemp (Program Manager), and Don Tan (Test Lead) cut a great TechTalk video on our new Forums app.

Millions of customers use forums every month to get support and learn about Microsoft products - find out about the latest new features and see a demo.

What's Different about Social Bookmarking on MSDN, TechNet, and Expression

John Martin — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 01:11:00 GMT

Quite a few in the blogosphere have noticed our Social Bookmarking Preview (thanks!) but some have also commented that it doesn't really offer anything new or different to the "space."

A few thoughts on that (kind of long ones, sorry)...

The difference between our approach and the approach of other social bookmarking providers becomes more clear when you look at Social Bookmarks not as a stand-alone experience, but as one feature of a larger integrated community site (i.e., MSDN or TechNet) powered by a single Social Platform.

When you look at it that way...

Bookmarking and tagging will be baked into the entire site experience. You can see tagging in a lot of places on our sites today, including the MSDN and TechNet Libraries, Codeplex, MSDN Code Gallery, and our new Forums application. When you tag a Library page or Forum thread, you are actually bookmarking the object and applying a tag. With Social Bookmarks, a URL is just another object to which you can apply a tag. The fact that tagging “stuff” – whether it’s a forum thread or a URL – is technically the same, makes it easy for us to integrate all the things on our sites that have been tagged. And the more tagged objects you have, the more powerfully you can describe, organize, filter, and display information on the sites. Jeff Day has a good blog post on this. Also see the new social feeds on MSDN.

So, why should you care? Our bookmarking actually supports "inline bookmarking" (see Forums) for easy tagging of on-site content and customers can manage tagged on-site content and off-site content (Social Bookmarks) together in one place - My Bookmarks. It also means we can build rich feeds of "related content" of all kinds (based on tags) and make those feeds available in key places like our Developer Centers on MSDN and TechCenters on TechNet (better faster discoverability).

As a part of our Social Platform, tagging on-site content and social bookmarking will be integrated into our Recognition System - the same system that awards points and medals for asking and answering questions in Forums.

So, why should you care? Using our bookmarking and tagging, customers will get credit or recognition within the technical community for their contributions (more Return for the Investment of bookmarking). Looking at it the other way, seeing a popular item bookmarked on an a site like Delicious may be helpful, but how differently would you think about that bookmark if you saw it was provided by a highly-rated Microsoft MVP?

Finally, unlike most dedicated social bookmarking sites, the community of bookmarkers and taggers on MSDN, TechNet, and Expression Social Bookmarks will be almost entirely made up of technical professionals, all interested in some way and to one degree or another, in learning about, using, and succeeding with Microsoft products and technologies. Simply put, when you look at the All Bookmarks view, you're seeing things that have been bookmarked by other people in your field.

So, why should you care? The focus and depth of the technical community on our sites increases the relevance of the bookmarks in the system and the value of the connections you might create with other bookmarkers.

I hope this helps provide more clarity into what we are doing with social bookmakring on the sites. As our team gets beyond the preview, we will be integrating bookmarking and tagging more fully into the sites and you should see what I'm talking about above become a reality.

NOW LIVE: Social Bookmarking Preview for MSDN, TechNet, and Expression

John Martin — Thu, 29 May 2008 00:59:00 GMT

The Social Bookmarking Preview for MSDN, TechNet, and Expression is now live and can be accessed with these links:

http://msdnbookmarks.com

http://technetbookmarks.com

http://expressionbookmarks.com

While the Preview does not have full functionality and is not yet integrated into the rest of the MSDN, TechNet, and Expression sites, it does allow members of the community to bookmark any URL on the web, apply tags, and save bookmarks in the new My Bookmarks tool. Further, all bookmarks, bookmarkers, and tags are enabled as links and can be “surfed” to discover new content and people.

The All Bookmarks view (default view) is a great place to see these features. Here also are my bookmarks, Beth Massi's bookmarks (Visual Basic Community Champion), and Sara Ford's bookmarks (of Visual Studio Tip of the Day fame) as examples.

Individuals' social bookmarks are also integrated into their new Profile page and give every member of the community a great new way to increase their visibility and influence. Here is my profile.

From each of these sites, go to the Getting Started page for instructions on how to install our bookmarklet, some short instructional videos, blogs from the team, and our FAQ. If you have questions or feedback visit our social bookmarks forum.

Pls let us know what you think!

MSDN & TechNet Forums 3.3

John Martin — Fri, 23 May 2008 06:49:00 GMT

Back in February, we released a totally new Forums application for MSDN Forums, TechNet Forums, and Expression Forums.

In addition to an overhauled UX, and better performance, the new Forums app has some notable new features like filters to quickly find the posts you need and Live Update, which can make a forums discussion as interactive and responsive as an IM session.

Next week, we're releasing an update to the Forums app and migrating some major forums from the old app to the new one. At this time, all forums on the new app and begin migrated are English-language; non-English forums migrations are being planned for the Fall.

Find about the new features and which forums are moving over in this Announcement from Andrew Brenner, Product Planner for Forums.