Getting More Social Around the Office
Atlassian, a well-known wiki provider, and NewsGator Technologies Inc., a well-known
developer of RSS technologies, announced they're working cooperatively with
another well-known company (Microsoft) to
create
greater Web 2.0-based social computing opportunities around Office SharePoint
Server 2007.
According to Derek Burney, Microsoft's GM in charge of SharePoint, the collaboration
with the two companies should result in new opportunities for "integrating
social computing technology into a company's business productivity infrastructure."
One NewsGator executive, Dave Keller, GM for Enterprise at the company, was
almost giddy about the deal, saying he believed companies of all sizes are starting
to look to SharePoint as the foundation for social computing development.
Speaking at the fourth annual Web 2.0 Summit yesterday, Burney said that Microsoft's
use of social computing includes a commitment to create up to 100 next-generation
business applications on the SharePoint platform by next calendar year. He also
noted that the Community Kit for SharePoint (CKS) 2.0 -- a volunteer-driven
initiative to develop a set of best practices, templates, Web Parts, tools and
source code -- enables even novice users to create a community Web site based
on SharePoint technologies. More information on the CKS is available here.
Microsoft officials said they expect revenues from SharePoint technologies
to exceed $800 million for fiscal year 2007.
Posted by Ed Scannell on October 18, 2007