Eli Robillard's World of Blog.

After a year and 32065 web views, I've reorganized and moved the SharePoint resource page into an article. In addition to giving it a more sensible URL, the switch reflects the fact that this is a continuously updated resource and not a one-time posting. I've also added hand-tuned searches, making it easy to locate the most current information for each topic. Don't forget to update your bookmarks and links, and as always, enjoy!

[Eli's SharePoint Resources]

It's surprising. When it happens that someone hears you work with people from Microsoft on a nearly daily basis, after the obligatory next sentence which includes some reference to this "Bill" guy, the first real question they ask is... "so will I be able to play my old games on the new Xbox?"

And it has an answer, now that marketing collateral is being produced for the Xbox 360. Unless something goes horribly wrong (a phrase I can't get enough of lately), the answer appears be: yes, "original Xbox games are still compatible."

Soon, the next question may be, "what the heck is this site about?" Plenty of speculation including something about a massive marketing effort on September 27, perhaps race-themed console demos, circles (which are also prominent on the XBox 360 site) and really, who knows or has the spare cycles to give a proper damn until September 27th.

Bil's been posting aplenty on the SharePoint Application Templates (the SPATs?), I'll play aggregator.

The Templates

A demo site

 A comparison of the basic and custom versions of each

The Fixes for InfoPath 
In addition to Bil's great tips on fixing the data connections and submit links, you'll find out fast that even the less complex forms need some help. You'll want to open each in design mode (Open the forms library, Modify settings and columns, Edit form) and then re-Publish back to the site to avoid the ".xsn not found" message.

The SharePoint Template Project on SourceForge

A great company is hiring, is Saskatoon right for you? Features include: a mighty river, affordable real estate, the best jazz festival outside Montreal's, a beautiful university campus (featuring gothic architecture, a kick-ass synchotron, a dead Prime Minister, vampire hunters, and the airplane room, a massive mural [description] by the guy who did the picture that was excerpted for Van Halen's Fair Warning album cover [description]), outdoor Shakespeare, one of the best coffee roasteries in the country, terrain including sand dunes, prairie, two types of forest, and canadian shield within a 3 hour drive, the Rockies in like 6 hours by backroad, a lake of 20" rainbow trout an hour away, the 2nd fastest growing economy in Canada, a pretty solid local music scene (Amigo's, Bud's, Louis', the Wash 'n' Slosh for starters), an all-in-one nirvana where you can do your laundry, see a metal band, play on a z-shaped pool table, and get sloshed (again, the Wash 'n' Slosh [update: damn, it's now the Roxy and they replaced the laundry with a restaurant, oh well]), northern lights visible from inside the city, fantastic berries named after the city, and the heaviest radio show the world has ever known (Metalurgy).

Does this sound like your cup o' Red Rose?

Click on through and check the specs. . . 

A while back I griped about the lack of team sites that meet actual scenarios; today I'm pleased to report that Microsoft just released a pile of great sites that fit the bill nicely. It sets a great precedent and demonstrates what's possible, and I hope to see more collections like it sprout online.

Downloads available from SharePoint Applications site:

Absence and Vacation Schedule Board of Directors Case Work Management Change Management Classroom Management Competitive Intelligence Employee Activities Site Employee Timesheet and Scheduling Employee Training Event Coordination

Expense Reimbursement Help Desk HR Programs and Services IT Developer Team Site Legal Document Review Workflow Loan Initiation Management Marketing Campaigns Meeting Management New Product Development Performance Review

Professional Svcs Contracts Professional Svcs Site Project Team Site Public Official Activity Public Relations Work Site Publication Editorial Review Recruiting Resource Center Request for Proposal Management Room and Equipment Reservation Travel Request

Also included is a decent end-user walkthrough of SharePoint features.

[Updated: Yay Bil! Bil Simser has installed the applications to a public server so you can see how they look and what the heck they do!]

While we're on the subject of end-users, APress just released another good SharePoint book, this time it's one for "everyone else." It's the SharePoint 2003 User's Guide, and it's a terrific companion to internal training. Judging by the early feedback on Amazon, it strikes a sweet spot for people who don't like the online documentation or the scattered Training Kit, can't get IT to answer questions without further confusing matters, and don't need to learn about deployment or architecture. You can read a detailed description on the APress site.