The Understanding SharePoint Journal is a periodical focusing on building understanding of various aspects of SharePoint, including development, customization, usage, business intelligence, workflow, business process automation, and other topics.

The report is targeted at business analysts and managers who want to know whether to go with SharePoint or not. I’ll show you strengths and weaknesses of SharePoint, show some sample scenarios in which you would or would not use SharePoint, and show you some simple questions to ask yourself or your organization to determine whether you should look more into SharePoint.

The report is available in the free content section on this website. Access is for USPJ mailing list members only, but you can sign up to get access right now.

Sign up on the new report web site at http://www.issharepointrightforme.com/

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spoint.me has a ton of features and I’m not going to bore you with those, but what’s important is this:

There’s a USP Journal group at spoint.me. Inside that group is a set of forums where you can ask questions, leave comments, yell at me for whatever you want, or simply chat with other readers about what you’ve learned.

You need to sign up for spoint.me but it’s free and takes but a few minutes. After that, you get all the brilliant benefits from spoint.me including USPJ forum access

Sign up and join the USP Journal spoint.me group afterwards!

http://spoint.me/

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Now, one year later, thousands of readers have learned about SharePoint through USPJ.

Now, one year later, we’re running full speed toward bringing the world’s first SharePoint academy online. Even through desperate financial times, the USPJ team has grown to more than 10 people, most of which are working on that academy.

Keep your eyes peeled on this blog next Monday, as I have a nice surprise for you then

Happy birthday, USPJ, and thank you so much to all readers, employees, and authors!

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Throughout this issue, I’ll introduce you to SharePoint 2010 whether you are a developer, an administrator, or an end-user (Sorry Mark, I had to put something in for end users since you’re not…)

Here is an overview of the content:

SharePoint 2010 New Features Overview
Get an overview of the new features of SharePoint 2010. In addition, I’ll walk you through installing SharePoint 2010 Beta 2 in a 40 minute video, including installing Active Directory, SQL Server 2008, and the pre-requisites for SharePoint 2010.

Getting Started with SharePoint 2010
This issue will get you started with SharePoint 2010 in record time and walk you through several exercises to show you many of the new features in action. I’ll also show you, in four accompanying videos, how to set up a metadata model in SharePoint.

SharePoint Designer 2010
SharePoint Designer 2010 offers massive improvements over the previous version. I’ll walk you through this new version, including setting up your first SharePoint Designer workflow using the new workflow editor.

Visual Studio 2010 and SharePoint
Visual Studio 2010 completely changes the playing field for SharePoint development. Find out what features will benefit you and if this tool is really for you.

The New SharePoint 2010 Developer
It’s time to learn what the new SharePoint 2010 development model means for you as a developer. I’ll walk you through what you need to learn in order to harness the new features of SharePoint, including the client object model, LINQ to SharePoint, REST and WCF services, using the new UI features, and more!

SharePoint 2010 Administrator Update
The administrator’s job gets a whole lot easier in SharePoint 2010. I’ll walk you through the features that will make your life easier as an IT-pro, including upgrading sites from SharePoint 2007, PowerShell (I promise to make it easy), managing a SharePoint 2010 farm and performance and monitoring.

Oh, and I’ve also included more than two hours of video to walk you through important features of SharePoint 2010, including a 40 minute vide on installing everything you need for a SharePoint 2010 lab environment.

What’s keeping you? Get over to the Introducing SharePoint 2010 site and get your copy now!

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USPJA is an online university style academy dedicated to providing SharePoint training for developers, administrators, and business users on all levels, from beginners to professional SharePointers.

Here’s the official presentation:

http://www.understandingsharepoint.com/training/

I’ll reveal far more information over the coming weeks and if you want to keep up-to-date, there’s even a special mailing list to serve your information thirst.

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Throughout 88 pages you learn about the following aspects of SharePoint development:

• The conflict of developer control versus user freedom
• How to afford users freedom while maintaining control
• Converting STP templates into WSP solutions
• Working with setup, layout, and upgrade features
• Core solutions and specialization solutions
• Using features to affect existing sites and site collections

I will also show you the 42 lines of code that will save your SharePoint solutions forever.

http://www.professionalsharepointdevelopment.com/

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If you didn’t win, don’t worry, I’ll make sure to hold equally cool competitions later

Congratulations to the grand prize winner: Danny Chin!

Danny will be my guest at the SharePoint Technology Conference in February and receive a full pass for the entire conference, a 4-night stay at the conference hotel, personal training from me, plus all the journal issues he can carry.

Well, he can’t actually carry any of them, since they are electronic journals, but you get the point.

Here’s Danny’s contribution:

Bjorn provides a highly informative overview of Nintex Workflow 2007.
Topics covered but were not limited to setup & administration ,
the Nintex Designer , simple every day tasks and working with external
data. Each chapter is presented in a clear conversational style accompanied
by screenshots , a chapter review followed by Questions & Answers. Finally,
he presents you with a complete sample application applying what
you’ve just learned. If you’re organization is investigating workflows
selected chapters from this issue could be presented in series of
"Lunch & Learn" sessions. Another GREAT issue !

The five second prize winners are:

• Mike Rieger
• Daniele Guarneri
• Sandy Ussia
• Thomas Sullivan
• Audun M. Solheim

All have received their 13-issue subscription bundles.

Thanks to all who participated, I’m thrilled about the responses I got and will start putting your testimonials up on the various web pages soon.

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A lot.

Here’s the deal.

USPJ is sponsoring the event this year as a media sponsor. That means I’m entitled to bring one guest to the conference.

I want my guest to be one of the members of the USP Journal mailing list. And I don’t want this to be just any giveaway. I want you to feel that you are my guest, and I want to take care of you.

So, on January 23, 2010, I’m going to draw one winner out of the proverbial hat who will get a free three-day pass, valued at $1,595.00.

That means you get the full package, including access to workshops, classes, special events, meals, and everything as described on http://sptechcon.com/register_sf.html.

Oh, but don’t think that’s all.

As my guest, of course you will stay at the conference hotel, the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport hotel, for four nights, from February 9 through February 13.

That means you arrive the day prior to the conference and can stay until the day after the conference. This has a value of around $600.00.

I’ll be staying there myself, which brings up the third part of this prize.

Every day of the conference, for one full hour, you get personal training with me, on any topic you choose. If you can’t choose, I have multiple topics I can teach you, both on SP2007 and on SP2010.

You will get this training all three days of the conference plus the day you arrive. If you arrive late, we can do two hours on one of the other days instead.

I’ll even record the session and produce it for you so you get your personal training as a DVD for later use.

I normally charge $300 per hour for such training, so this is valued at $1,200.00.

And, to make sure you get all the current issues and many of the future issues of USPJ, I’m including a 13-issue subscription bundle, valued at $149.50.

The grand prize thus is worth more than $3,500.

Note: I can’t pay for your plane ticket, as I have no idea from where you will be arriving, and that would change the value of the prize depending on where you live.

But I’m not stopping there. Five other winners will also receive a 13-issue subscription bundle, valued at $149.50.

The total amount of prizes is thus valued at more than $4,200.

Here’s what you have to do.

I’m looking for testimonials to put up on the various issue sites. To enter, you need to send me a one-paragraph testimonial about what you think of one of the issues.

Does this means that you need to purchase an issue to participate? No! Why not read through the free Nintex issue, or any of the free preview issues, such as the first issue of the Introducing SharePoint 2010 series. You can even do this for one of the bonus issues available in the free section of the USP website.

Here’s an example (not an actual testimonial):

"Reading SharePoint Designer Workflows really made me understand how to create and work with workflows in SharePoint Designer. The issue was easy to read, and the accompanying videos were very valuable."

Some rules apply, though.

• No purchase is necessary. If you have purchased an issue, feel free to write about that, but if not, simply review any of the free content and tell me what you think. You can check out free previews for all the issues in the menu.
• You cannot get cash instead of the prize. The prize is as it is.
• You must be an actual reader of the issue for which you write your testimonial. This is required by the feds in the United States, and although I’m legally registered in Norway and not subject to U.S. regulations, I still want to play fair.
• You must be a member of the USPJ mailing list. If you are not a member of the mailing list at the time of the drawing (January 23, 2010), you’ll forfeit your contribution.
• You must allow me to post your testimonial along with your first name and either city or country of origin, whether you win or not. (In other words, if you are John Yarkes from the United Kingdom, I’m going to post your testimonial as coming from John, UK.) If required, I may edit the testimonial for clarity but not for meaning.
• You must send your testimonial to me in an email to journal@understandingsharepoint.com bearing a subject containing at least the text "Customer Testimonial: Issue X" (where X is the number of the issue). You may add more, but at least those parts are required.

The winner will be drawn by random from all testimonials posted, so there is absolutely not point in trying to write a nice testimonial to increase your chances. Every testimonial, regardless of quality or content, is eligible for winning.

The randomness will be based on me putting all the names of contributors in an Excel sheet and then using a random number generator (Random() in .NET) to pick one of the numbers in the list.

There are no requirements for quality or anything like that. Simply tell me what you think, and you could be spending a few days in January with some of the world’s greatest SharePoint experts. 

So, don’t just sit there, sign up for the Understanding SharePoint Journal mailing list and write me an email at journal@understandingsharepoint.com with the stated subject, and you could be the grand prize winner.

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The new series, titled Introducing SharePoint 2010, will guide you through what’s new in SharePoint 2010 over a series of six shorter issues. These issues are released 2-3 weeks apart and are 25-30 pages long for a total of somewhere between 150 and 180 pages.

Here is an overview of the issues in the series:

SharePoint 2010 New Features Overview

Getting Started with SharePoint 2010

SharePoint Designer 2010

Visual Studio 2010 and SharePoint

The New SharePoint 2010 Developer

SharePoint 2010 Administrator Update

The price is still $14.95 for all the issues, so there is no recurring payment or anything like that. Pay once and you will get updates every time a new issue releases. Of course, you also get access to any issues already released as well as any supporting files and videos.

So, if you want to get quickly up to speed without having to spend hours searching the internet for information, get your subscription today at http://www.sharepoint2010beta.com/.

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