Content Wrap-up for September

I’m beginning to like this idea of summarizing my article writing each month. It provides a great opportunity to look back and trace my thought patterns. What would be interesting would be to map out the content I write against the articles and books I am reading at the time, and see how much is influenced by my content consumption. Of course, I just re-read Lev Grossman’s Magician King, and I’m not seeing any relevance here. Hmmm. Maybe I should apply for a government grant to study the issue further. If I can somehow link the grant to green energy, I’m sure to get the funding. The US government adores flushing taxpayer money down green energy sinkholes…

At the top of the list this past month was the topic of security and the cloud. I suppose I was still thinking about the webinar I did with Joel Oleson (@joeloleson) at the end of August, with reference to the NSA breach. You can watch a recording of our webinar here. In addition to more articles exploring ideas around security and cloud platforms, I also hosted my first official tweetjam at Metalogix that is summarized below in a blog post, with some of the more interesting tweets captured using Storify.

• Is the NSA Leak Really Impacting Cloud Adoption? (AIIM) http://bit.ly/1bxabDQ
• September TweetJam: Security and Cloud Collaboration (Metalogix blog) http://bit.ly/14qyTBs
• TweetJam Recap: Expert Feedback on Moving to the Cloud (Metalogix blog) http://bit.ly/18KLNcW
• How secure is collaboration in the cloud? (Storify) http://bit.ly/1hiaIYu

Beyond the security concerns around moving your data onto cloud environments, I argued through other articls that data integrity was the least of your troubles – that the real issues with the cloud have more to do with parity of functionality between online and offline systems, and how – I believe – organizations will struggle with mobile and pure-cloud solutions for a few more years until the ability to do all (and more) on these alternate platforms achieves and exceeds what we can accomplish today via server-based platforms. In short, moving toward the cloud will be a complex undertaking, and organizations that do not carefully consider the limitations – along with the anticipated cost benefits – will have a rude awakening.

• The cloud: Mitigating risks as you relinquish control (TechRepublic) http://tek.io/19eVSTt
• Delivering Complexity via Cloud Will Take Time (AIIM) http://bit.ly/1boOQgG
• The cloud may not solve your data silo problems (AIIM) http://bit.ly/18KM6oh

Always a hot topic on my plate is enterprise social. I keynoted events in Cape Town and Durban, South Africa where I talked at length about the inevitable move toward social (and cloud) platforms, and the need to start now internally with questions about what social means to your culture, and how you will align these tools and processes to your business activities. Much like the well-documented SharePoint deployment failures, rolling out social tools without a plan is a sure path to failure.

• Does Social Media Equal Collaboration? (buckleyPLANET) http://bit.ly/1bqrUdJ
• SharePoint 2013 Vs. Yammer: Battle Royale?: An Interview With Christian Buckley, SharePoint MVP (Portal Solutions) http://bit.ly/19kb63Q
• Enabling "Emergent" Innovation through Collaboration (AIIM) http://bit.ly/1hibyEA
• Understanding Social Inside The Enterprise (buckleyPLANET) http://bit.ly/15IFEft
• Social is Not Like Facebook, It's Like eBay (SlideShare) http://slidesha.re/1eKsaYO

A topic I’ve also been thinking about this past month is how consumers are driving the shift in spending around corporate IT. I wrote one article on the increasing focus on mobile, and the rise of the consumer – but you can bet I’ll be writing more on this topic soon, as Microsoft and other OEMs and ISVs view the consumer as the road to IT spend going forward.

• Consumers Are The Backseat Drivers Of Enterprise (buckleyPLANET) http://bit.ly/19eW5Gm

And finally, I can’t go weeks on the road without writing something about my adventures, which this time included great white sharks off the coast of Cape Town, and swinging from the rafters of a 90,000 person stadium in high winds (Scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life – but I did it). I love my interactions with the global SharePoint community – but even these articles discuss some content, with links to the presentations I gave at SharePoint Saturday Cape Town, SharePoint Saturday Durban, and SharePoint Saturday Redmond. Three weeks of SPS in a row. Whew!

• #SPSRED Signed, Sealed, And Delivered (buckleyPLANET) http://bit.ly/1dUci2R
• Connecting with Community at SharePoint Saturday (Metalogix blog) http://bit.ly/1bvXtVR
• Update from the Road: SharePoint in South Africa (Metalogix blog) http://bit.ly/16dMBIZ

I’m already plotting out my editorial calendar for the month. coming up are new articles for CMSWire, TechRepublic, Business2Community, Wired, and of course AIIM, the Metalogix blog, and my personal blog. I also have partially-completed articles written for Microsoft’s DigitalWPC.com, the Scribble blog, and some original content for the European SharePoint Community site. Lots coming.