Kenneth Lo, PMP

Marcy Kellar took this jump shot of Geoff Varosky as Dan Usher and I watched on from safety.

It was a snowy Saturday, but that did not deter 100+ devoted attendees from showing up at SPSDC! Dan Usher, Dux Raymond Sy, Gino Degregori, the corporate sponsors and volunteers, as always, did an amazing job putting this event together. And thanks again to all my peer speakers for making this event so much fun! Check out the “jump shot” that Marcy Kellar took of Geoff Varosky as Dan Usher and I watched on from safety! I can hardly wait until the next SPSDC in this spring.

As promised during my session, I have uploaded my slide deck:
Secret Ingredients of Successful SharePoint Project Management

It is also available on slideshare.net

In addition, the delicious bookmarks were updated to help attendees locate the resources we discussed in class:
Helpful Resources on SharePoint Project Management

Shoot me an email if you have any questions regarding the session or other SharePoint project management topics. Cheers!

The final session scheudle for the upcoming SharePoint Saturday DC has been released. Pick among four tracks: End User, Developer, Administrator, Special Interest. My session, starting at 4:40pm, is titled Secret Ingredients of Successful SharePoint Project Management. Looks like the turnout will be huge. I look forward to seeing you all there!

By the way, Salvation Army notified us today that there is a big need for brand new children’s clothing (any age) in the Washington DC area. If you can donate these that would be great! They’ll still accept other new or used clothing donations as well.

Don’t forget to bring your donations this Saturday. Let’s show the true meaning of sharing during this holiday season.

I am extremely pleased to have been picked as one of those speakers at the upcoming SharePoint Saturday DC in the Microsoft Reston office. The presentation is titled Secret Ingredients of Successful SharePoint Project Management.

In this session we will be going over  time-proven project management techniques that will:

• Generate executive support
• Control schedules and finances
• Keep project teams aligned
• Encourage user adoption
• Lead teams to successful deployments

About SharePoint Saturday:

Join SharePoint architects, developers, and other professionals that work with Microsoft SharePoint Technologies for ‘SharePoint Saturday’, on Saturday, December 5, 2009 at the Microsoft Technology Center on Sunset Hills Road Reston, VA. SharePoint Saturday will be an educational, informative & lively day filled with sessions from respected SharePoint professionals & MVPs, covering a wide variety of SharePoint-orientated topics. SharePoint Saturday is FREE, open to the public and is your local chance to immerse yourself in SharePoint!

The long-awaited SharePoint 2010 Beta was finally released this week. It has set the entire community on fire! Many new features have been added and existing ones improved. I will be posting a series of blog posts next few weeks as the adventures take place. Stay tuned!

Before you start installing the beta in your sandbox environment, you will need to have the 64-bit hardware ready. Below is a list of the minimum requirements:

• Windows Server 2008 64-bit with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later OR Windows Server 2008 R2
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 64-bit with SP2 or later OR SQL Server 2008 64-bit
• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 with SP1

Level 1 Internet browser options running on the Windows operating system:

• Internet Explorer 7 32-bit
• Internet Explorer 8 32-bit
• Firefox 3.x 32-bit

Level 2 Internet browsers options:

• Internet Explorer 7 64-bit
• Internet Explorer 8 64-bit
• Firefox 3.x on non Windows operating system
• Safari 3.x

For the complete and updated list of prerequisites for installing SharePoint Server 2010, see “Determine hardware and software requirements (SharePoint Server 2010)” (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=166546) on the Microsoft TechNet Web site.

The Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Modeler Add-in enables effective integration of Microsoft Office Visio 2007 and Microsoft Office Project Standard 2007 by providing a new approach to creating, editing and modifying project plans graphically in Visio 2007. The WBS Modeler offers the ability to manage project elements in a graphical view, and to layout a WBS in Visio 2007.

The WBS Modeler can either be used to visualize and edit an existing project plan or to create a new project plan in Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Professional and then export it to Microsoft Office Project (2003+) to carry out the next planning steps.

The WBS Modeler Add-in has 5 main features:

1. Once installed, the WBS Modeler can be accessed directly within Visio.
2. Existing project plans created with Microsoft Office Project can be imported directly into Visio.
3. Visualize selected phases or an entire project plan dynamically in Visio 2007.
4. Project plans can be edited directly within Visio 2007.
5. Visually compare and review Visio diagram edits against the original project plan.

Follow the link below and go to the Visio toolbox for more information:

http://visiotoolbox.com/downloads/addins/WBS%20Modeler%20Add-In_51.aspx

Instead of running various Instant Messaging (IM) tools that clutter up your desktop and kill your bandwidth, you can stay connected with your contacts on MSN, AIM, GoogleTalk, and other IM networks with a single tool. This blog entry aims to help you find the ultimate unified IM tool.

Trillian

Trillian is a powerful Instant Messenger that has over 400 features. It is compatible with most of the popular IM tools and social networks and shows not only the contact list, but also news, feeds and many more.

Digsby

Digsby condenses all your AIM, MSN, GoogleTalk, Facebook chat into one simple, concise list. You can also manage your emails at Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo accounts.

VoxOx

VoxOx includes every conceivable way of communication and it makes it easier. Video call, IM, fax, text messaging, email all merge into one, VoxOx promises that. However, it looks like it’s still in beta and many features are not yet available. But expect more to come and VoxOx will be in serious business.

The table below summarizes the key criteria for the three Unified IM clients (maximum score is 5).

I was struggling to find a handy application that allowed me to tweet effectively on my sexy iPhone 3G S. After some intense research and experiments, I have come up with three of my favorite iPhone Twitter applications. This will save you hours of legwork. Send me some cookies if you insist!

Twitterific

This solid application has an gorgeous interface. It uses different color displays to distinguish the types of tweets. Twitteriffic, however, has far more than just good looks. It also supports multiple accounts, has auto refreshing and many more features that will make you fall straight in love with it. Currently I’m using Twitterific and it’s terrific!

TweetDeck

TweetDeck is on iPhone! Like the TweetDeck you may already be using on your desktops, it also features column views, multiple accounts and group arrangments. Basically it’s just the mobile version of the desktop TweetDeck. The size shrinks but not its functionality.

Twinkle

To the best of my knowledge, Twinkle is the first Twitter client that offers geolocation (location-sensitive). Twinkle will publish your location along with your tweets and in turn you can view other places where tweets come from. So communicating with people near you becomes much easier!

All of three applications are solid. If you are still not ready to commit to one application even after reading this article, simply try them all out! While only one application can run at a time (please do not get me started, Apple), these Twitter applications happily co-exist on your iPhone. Have fun tweeting!

The table below summarizes the key criteria for the Big Three (maxiumu score is 5).

If you have been using Twitter for any amount of time, you probably have wondered whether there is a better tool to manage your tweets than the Twitter website. How about managing multiple Twitter accounts? Perhaps you find yourself constantly logging in and out of different accounts in the web browser.

There are easier ways to to manage all your tweets and accounts than using the regular Twitter website. You can easily achieve high efficiency with the help of a Twitter desktop application. Let’s examine three of the most popular Twitter desktop applications to help you determine which one would work best for you.

TweetDeck

TweetDeck enables users to split their Twitter feed into columns, creating a clear and simple overview of tweets. With TweetDeck, users can also group their friends. Other features include multiple account management, favorites, and URL shortening. However, TweetDeck does not synch with versions on other computers, so it’s frustrating that users have to do all the settings again when they switch computers.

Seesmic

It does many of the same things that other client managers do, and it works very much like TweetDeck. But Seesmic makes photo sharing easier by allowing users to drag them into a small window. I currently use Seesmic as my primary Twitter application.

Twhirl

Users can view their archive tweets in Twhirl, a feature that TweetDeck doesn’t have. Twhirl is superior to TweetDeck in that it gives users more freedom in customizing colors and themes, which will come in handy when you have tons of tweets flooding in from different accounts.

The table below summarizes the key criteria for the Big Three (maxiumu score is 5).

The Bay Bridge is one of the most exciting spectacles in the San Francisco Bay Area. At night, when the city is fast asleep, her shimmering lights brighten up the shore, sparking cheerful colors onto the water. Not far from the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay Bridge is another dazzling gem in this area. It was overwhelming standing there and watching her as she glows under the night sky, I couldn’t help tripping the shutter to record her irresistible beauty. Her appearances in the films didn’t do her justice, now take a great, quick visual tour with my pictures!

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It was such a great time catching up with old friends and making new ones at SharePoint Saturday Baltimore this past weekend! I had to change my travel plans slightly and ended up getting there in the afternoon and missed all the parties!

First of all, I would like to thank everyone for coming out to SharePoint Saturday Baltimore on such a gorgeous weekend. It ran from early morning all the way to the early evening. The turnout was awesome. Eric Harlan and Buddy Weber, the event organizers, truly did a superb job and deserved our standing ovation!

For a late Saturday afternoon, the attendees for my session were rather animated despite Business Process Management (BPM) and workflow are both pretty heavy topics. I truly appreciated all the lively interactions and discussions. A few questions came up surrounding SharePoint & Designer 2010. Having been selected a Beta tester for SharePoint 2010, I will start writing about those topics in the coming weeks. So stay tuned to my blog for follow-up and further details.

I have posted the PowerPoint presentation here for your “enjoyment”. Please drop me an email if you have any questions. Cheers!

SharePoint Saturday Baltimore: Designer or Custom Workflows – Do I Look Fat in This?