The Buzz Behind SharePoint 2016

Here we are once again on the eve of a new SharePoint release (well, sort of) with the community stepping up their efforts to share and re-share what little information has been released about SharePoint 2016, and (mostly) speculate on the future of SharePoint. Don’t get me wrong – I’m excited to see the SharePoint community continue to thrive, but am just a little bit wary of the parade of zealots and haters alike that follow anything new. In case you’re not yet part of the Office 365 Network on Yammer, Microsoft senior technical product manager Bill Baer (@williambaer) announced the availability of the SP2016 IT Preview yesterday that he says are “representative of our early investments in SharePoint Server 2016 and provides access to initial, foundational IT-centric investments that will define how SharePoint Server 2016 is deployed and managed.”

There is already a veritable cornucopia of content available discussing what is included – and not included – within this preview, which will be expanded upon before end of calendar year with a full preview. Articles on CIO.com.au and ZDNet focus largely on hybrid search, with Mary Jo Foley’s latest article pointing to a few more specifics, such as the expansion of the App Launcher, more extensive compliance and security controls, and more tightly integrated Project Server capabilities. I also like Benjamin Niaulin’s (@bniaulin) more granular review. As I discussed with Bill Baer more than a year or so ago, this release is much more foundational than past on prem releases because it’s the first release in an Office 365-world, where innovation in the cloud is driving what will be released on prem. So while hybrid is nothing new, and many of the “new” features seem more incremental and evolutionary than revolutionary, there’s still going to be a lot under the hood when this release goes live in early to mid-2016.

Which is why I wanted to make SharePoint 2016 the focus of this month’s CollabTalk tweetjam, which takes place this Thursday, August 27th at 9am PST, bringing the community together once again to hash it out over Twitter to discuss the topic “The Resurgence Behind SharePoint 2016.” You’ll hear from a panel of experts, as well as interested members of the community, as they share opinions and customer experiences on what they are excited about – or concerned about – surrounding the latest SharePoint release, and how their organizations, partners, and customers are preparing for the latest release. If you’re interested in hearing from a huge panel of experts on this topic, simply follow along on Twitter using the #CollabTalk hashtag, or join the conversation at Twubs.com/CollabTalk

If you’ve never participated in one of these tweetjams, they can be a lot of fun – and for those like me who do a lot of blogging, they are also a great source of material for future posts. Within each hour-long session using the Twitter UI of your choice (Twitter.com, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Twubs, whatever) we will go through a series of questions over the course of the hour, responding to Q1, Q2, Q3 and so forth with A1, A2, A3 and always including the #CollabTalk hashtag with your answers. Feel free to reply as often (or as little) as you’d like, ask your own follow up questions, share relevant links, retweet others, and engage with the audience.

The questions we will discuss during the session include:

• What is the current state of SharePoint today – as a brand and as a platform?
• What are your expectations for SharePoint 2016?
• Does Microsoft’s continued support for on-prem curtail movement to the cloud?
• Is hybrid SharePoint a transition, or a permanent state?
• Which features are most likely to convince on-prem customers to adopt the cloud?
• How fast do you anticipate moving to SharePoint 2016 compared to previous releases?
• What does SharePoint need to do next? Where should Microsoft focus their R&D?

Participating on this panel are a number of MVPs and experts on SharePoint and Office 365. Of course, this is open to the public, so please join in the discussion!

• Dan Holme (@danholme), Office365 MVP, evangelist, and co-founder of ITUnity  
• Bill Baer (@williambaer), senior technical product manager at Microsoft 
• Brian Culver (@SPbrianculver), SharePoint MCM and founder, president of Expert Point Solutions
• Eric Overfield (@ericoverfield), branding expert and author, founder of PixelMill  
• Jeremy Thake (@jthake), senior product marketing manager at Microsoft
• Eric Riz (@rizinsights), SharePoint MVP and ceo of Empty Cubicle   
• Trevor Seward (@NaupliusTrevor), SharePoint MVP and developer, architect at Microsoft
• Jordi Plana (@joplana), founder and ceo of Beezy
• Tamara Bredemus (@tamarabred), director of collaborative services at City of Minneapolis
• Joel Oleson (@joeloleson), director of business development at Konica Minolta Business Solutions
• Gokan Ozcifci (@gokanozcifci), SharePoint MVP and IT infrastructure consultant at Neoxy
• Jeff Willinger (@jwillie), director of collaboration and social business at Rightpoint  
• Knut Relbe-moe (@sharePTkarm), Office 365 MVP and chief technical architect at Knowledge Factory
• Nick Inglis (@nickinglis), ceo at Optismo and co-founder of the Information Governance Conference
• Naomi Moneypenny (@nmoneypenny), Office365 MVP and cto at ManyWorlds 
• John White (@diverdown1964), SharePoint MVP and cto at UnlimitedViz Inc. 
• Eric Lytle (@sharepointmastr), SharePoint MCM and ceo/founder at Audgio  
• Mark Jones (@markqjones), founder of SharePoint-Community.Net and Collaboris
• Asif Rehmani (@asifrehmani), consultant, trainer and SharePoint MVP at VisualSP 
• Jeff Fried (@jefffried), cto and vp of engineering at BA Insight 
• Stacy Deere-Strole (@sldeere), owner of Focal Point Solutions 
• Agnes Molnar (@molnaragnes), SharePoint MVP, founder and managing consultant at Search Explained 
• Randy Drisgill (@drisgill), SharePoint MVP and dev and UX manager at Rackspace 
• Brett Hill (@bretthill), Office365 MVP and manager of technical marketing at Riverbed Technology 
• Ryan Schouten (@ShrPntKnight) sr SharePoint architect and evangelist at Intermountain Technology Group
• Craig Tarr (@craig_tarr), co-founder and coo at GTconsult 
• Jeff Shuey (@jshuey), founder NuNalu
• Edin Kapic (@ekapic), SharePoint MVP and senior architect at Sogeti
• Gina Montgomery (@ginammontgomery), vp of corporate strategy at Softmart
• Oliver Wirkus (@owirkus), senior SharePoint consultant at Softlanding
• Patrick Curran (@pcfromdc), director, federal group at Plan et Technologies
• Treb Gatte (@tgatte), Project Server MVP and principal at Tumble Road
• Michelle Caldwell (@shellecaldwell), SharePoint MVP and director of collaboration at Avanade  
• Rene Modery (@modery), Office365 MVP and collaboration & SharePoint applications team lead at Sulzer 
• and your host, Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), Office365 MVP and chief marketing officer for Beezy

The panel size may increase over the next couple days, but as always everyone is invited to participate whether or not you’re part of the panel. Join the conversation using the #CollabTalk hashtag and share your thoughts!