Sparkrelief crowdsourcing disaster relief Eli HayesEli Hayes
We see a world where empowered communities help one another through disasters. We promise to do our best to “Empower you to provide disaster relief.” We seek to create simplicity and hope around the disaster relief experience. Where complexity and despair currently prevails. And hope you will join us in creating a better world
How to use technology to empower the community to help those affected by disaster. Sparkrelief created a site for people to give housing to those made homeless by the Japan earthquake.
Sparkrelief crowdsourcing disaster relief Eli HayesEli Hayes
We see a world where empowered communities help one another through disasters. We promise to do our best to “Empower you to provide disaster relief.” We seek to create simplicity and hope around the disaster relief experience. Where complexity and despair currently prevails. And hope you will join us in creating a better world
How to use technology to empower the community to help those affected by disaster. Sparkrelief created a site for people to give housing to those made homeless by the Japan earthquake.
Reliability-based design of pile foundations Desh Sonyok
Reliability based design (RBD) refers to any design methodology that are based on a rigorous reliability analysis. RBD is the only methodology available to date that can ensure self-consistency from both physical and probabilistic requirements and is compatible with the theoretical basis underlying structural design (Kulhawy & Phoon, 2002). It is considered as fundamental theoretical basis for all Load and Resistance Design (LRFD) and is capable of mitigating numerous logical inconsistencies inherent in current geotechnical design.
Customising user profiles in share point 2010Michal Pisarek
Having successfully configured user profile synchronization within SharePoint 2010 you may be left wondering what’s next? In this session we will go through the vast array of configuration options that are available such as:
• Creating custom user properties that can be applied to user profiles
• Creating User Sub-Types to have unique user profiles within an organization
• Creating a taxonomy of terms to be used with user profile properties
• Customizing User Profiles with additional links, pages and locations
Diaspora Investment: Opportunities and Challenges in Transport Infrastructure...Desh Sonyok
Abstract
Nepal has been experiencing unprecedented human mobility since late 1990s. According to the World Bank Survey (2009), a total of 2.1 million Nepalese migrant workers, here forth called Nepali diaspora, out of 29 million populations, are abroad. The rate of migration has been continuously increasing and consequently, remittance inflow is staggering. Nepal received remittance of 3.5 billion USD in 2010 which constitutes 20% of its total GDP. However, most of the remittance flow is limited to intra-family financial activities that basically support their family and relatives. Due to the absence of proper mechanism, financial flow from diaspora to productive investment sector, especially infrastructure development, is not channelized effectively. On the other hand, Nepal has one of the lowest transport densities and effective network access levels which are vital to development and socio-economic transformation. Numerous transport infrastructure projects ranging from medium to large scale cannot be materialized due to lack of development fund. Government has limited internal resources and dependence on donor support is ever increasing. Therefore, fund for transport infrastructure has always remained a key issue. Recently government of Nepal has brought forward strategy of public private partnership (PPP) under various schemes namely, Build Operate Transfer (BOT), Service Contract (SC), Management Contract (MC), and Annuity Contract (AC), Special Project Vehicle (SPV) Contract, User Community or User Group or NGO based contract. Under current PPP approach, Nepali diaspora capital from various host countries can be mobilized in infrastructure development project with profitable rate of return. This will benefit all stakeholders—homeland, hostland and diaspora themselves.
ABM: How to Define Your Ideal Customer ProfileSaasMQL
Learn how to build the right target account list. By focusing all your efforts toward the ideal accounts, you'll maximize your campaign's efficacy and conversion. We'll talk about nailing your niche, leveraging data from multiple sources to generate the target account list, automate your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) building, and how to track your progresses using Engagio and AirTable.
KMWorld, Enterprise Search and Discovery 2019
Congratulations! You’ve just been given the responsibility for search at your organization! Perhaps there is a new initiative to improve search, or perhaps the previous search manager mysteriously disappeared. In any case, you’ve discovered that search is a deceptively tricky domain, and that the expectations of many of your stakeholders are difficult to meet or even to define. This workshop provides an orientation and exposure to the key issues, effective processes, and technology—independent of what brand of search engine you use. It provides lay-of-the-land information and approaches to get you off to a good start. Topics include getting started and where to find practical guidance in search management; kinds of tasks and roles involved in managing search; building a cross-functional team; assessing the current state of search; establishing a vision and creating a findability strategy; getting stakeholders together and constructively involved; discovering and managing expectations; top misconceptions about search and how to educate your organization; top five and next five tools and techniques for improving search; updates and improvements; and measuring search: KPIs, tools, and techniques for internal search engine optimization. If you have been in the search manager’s role for a while but feel like you are missing a grounding in successful practices and management techniques, this workshop is still useful.
Presentation to Analytics Network of the OR Society Nov 2020Paul Laughlin
Presentation on 'The Softer Skills that Analysts need' presented by Paul Laughlin at a virtual event run for the Analytics Network group within the UK OR Society. Exploring Paul's 9 Step Model for effective analysis & explaining how Softer Skills are essential throughout that workflow.
State Of The Industry: What's Changed In The Past Few Years With Digital Work...Richard Harbridge
Office 365 and SharePoint are evolving fast. A few years ago many of us may have begun modernizing our Digital Workplace environments - planning an upgrade or a migration to a new SharePoint server or even SharePoint Online. Since that time many things have changed in both SharePoint and Office 365, not to mention within our organizations. New services have been added, and many of those services are improving with each passing month. What approaches, strategies and rollout models are other organizations using? What can we learn from their successes?
Join us for this facilitated and interactive discussion where instead of just looking forward, we look back into key changes that we all need to understand better. This discussion will be facilitated by Richard Harbridge, a Microsoft MVP, and internationally recognized expert on Office 365 and SharePoint. Together we will discuss what has changed in the past few years for developers, IT professionals, and Digital Workplace leads while exploring how organizations are leveraging related Microsoft services in different ways today.
Anyone can tag a document, but that is the problem. People will tag with varying degrees of accuracy, or worse still, with no accuracy. If documents are tagged accurately, then controlling and managing unstructured documents correctly is made possible. This session will review the pitfalls of manual tagging, and demonstrate the current capabilities of automatic document classification. It will also explore how intelligent metadata solutions benefit business operations, by improving migration, records management, deduplication and search.
Making the most of your SharePoint – Intranet & AppsAmos Wachanga
Organizations can solve many of their growth challenges by creating an intranet that uses SharePoint out-of-box features which can be extended using 3rd party tools or custom apps.
Reliability-based design of pile foundations Desh Sonyok
Reliability based design (RBD) refers to any design methodology that are based on a rigorous reliability analysis. RBD is the only methodology available to date that can ensure self-consistency from both physical and probabilistic requirements and is compatible with the theoretical basis underlying structural design (Kulhawy & Phoon, 2002). It is considered as fundamental theoretical basis for all Load and Resistance Design (LRFD) and is capable of mitigating numerous logical inconsistencies inherent in current geotechnical design.
Customising user profiles in share point 2010Michal Pisarek
Having successfully configured user profile synchronization within SharePoint 2010 you may be left wondering what’s next? In this session we will go through the vast array of configuration options that are available such as:
• Creating custom user properties that can be applied to user profiles
• Creating User Sub-Types to have unique user profiles within an organization
• Creating a taxonomy of terms to be used with user profile properties
• Customizing User Profiles with additional links, pages and locations
Diaspora Investment: Opportunities and Challenges in Transport Infrastructure...Desh Sonyok
Abstract
Nepal has been experiencing unprecedented human mobility since late 1990s. According to the World Bank Survey (2009), a total of 2.1 million Nepalese migrant workers, here forth called Nepali diaspora, out of 29 million populations, are abroad. The rate of migration has been continuously increasing and consequently, remittance inflow is staggering. Nepal received remittance of 3.5 billion USD in 2010 which constitutes 20% of its total GDP. However, most of the remittance flow is limited to intra-family financial activities that basically support their family and relatives. Due to the absence of proper mechanism, financial flow from diaspora to productive investment sector, especially infrastructure development, is not channelized effectively. On the other hand, Nepal has one of the lowest transport densities and effective network access levels which are vital to development and socio-economic transformation. Numerous transport infrastructure projects ranging from medium to large scale cannot be materialized due to lack of development fund. Government has limited internal resources and dependence on donor support is ever increasing. Therefore, fund for transport infrastructure has always remained a key issue. Recently government of Nepal has brought forward strategy of public private partnership (PPP) under various schemes namely, Build Operate Transfer (BOT), Service Contract (SC), Management Contract (MC), and Annuity Contract (AC), Special Project Vehicle (SPV) Contract, User Community or User Group or NGO based contract. Under current PPP approach, Nepali diaspora capital from various host countries can be mobilized in infrastructure development project with profitable rate of return. This will benefit all stakeholders—homeland, hostland and diaspora themselves.
ABM: How to Define Your Ideal Customer ProfileSaasMQL
Learn how to build the right target account list. By focusing all your efforts toward the ideal accounts, you'll maximize your campaign's efficacy and conversion. We'll talk about nailing your niche, leveraging data from multiple sources to generate the target account list, automate your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) building, and how to track your progresses using Engagio and AirTable.
KMWorld, Enterprise Search and Discovery 2019
Congratulations! You’ve just been given the responsibility for search at your organization! Perhaps there is a new initiative to improve search, or perhaps the previous search manager mysteriously disappeared. In any case, you’ve discovered that search is a deceptively tricky domain, and that the expectations of many of your stakeholders are difficult to meet or even to define. This workshop provides an orientation and exposure to the key issues, effective processes, and technology—independent of what brand of search engine you use. It provides lay-of-the-land information and approaches to get you off to a good start. Topics include getting started and where to find practical guidance in search management; kinds of tasks and roles involved in managing search; building a cross-functional team; assessing the current state of search; establishing a vision and creating a findability strategy; getting stakeholders together and constructively involved; discovering and managing expectations; top misconceptions about search and how to educate your organization; top five and next five tools and techniques for improving search; updates and improvements; and measuring search: KPIs, tools, and techniques for internal search engine optimization. If you have been in the search manager’s role for a while but feel like you are missing a grounding in successful practices and management techniques, this workshop is still useful.
Presentation to Analytics Network of the OR Society Nov 2020Paul Laughlin
Presentation on 'The Softer Skills that Analysts need' presented by Paul Laughlin at a virtual event run for the Analytics Network group within the UK OR Society. Exploring Paul's 9 Step Model for effective analysis & explaining how Softer Skills are essential throughout that workflow.
State Of The Industry: What's Changed In The Past Few Years With Digital Work...Richard Harbridge
Office 365 and SharePoint are evolving fast. A few years ago many of us may have begun modernizing our Digital Workplace environments - planning an upgrade or a migration to a new SharePoint server or even SharePoint Online. Since that time many things have changed in both SharePoint and Office 365, not to mention within our organizations. New services have been added, and many of those services are improving with each passing month. What approaches, strategies and rollout models are other organizations using? What can we learn from their successes?
Join us for this facilitated and interactive discussion where instead of just looking forward, we look back into key changes that we all need to understand better. This discussion will be facilitated by Richard Harbridge, a Microsoft MVP, and internationally recognized expert on Office 365 and SharePoint. Together we will discuss what has changed in the past few years for developers, IT professionals, and Digital Workplace leads while exploring how organizations are leveraging related Microsoft services in different ways today.
Anyone can tag a document, but that is the problem. People will tag with varying degrees of accuracy, or worse still, with no accuracy. If documents are tagged accurately, then controlling and managing unstructured documents correctly is made possible. This session will review the pitfalls of manual tagging, and demonstrate the current capabilities of automatic document classification. It will also explore how intelligent metadata solutions benefit business operations, by improving migration, records management, deduplication and search.
Making the most of your SharePoint – Intranet & AppsAmos Wachanga
Organizations can solve many of their growth challenges by creating an intranet that uses SharePoint out-of-box features which can be extended using 3rd party tools or custom apps.
Best Practices in Gathering Requirements for SharePoint ProjectsDux Raymond Sy
Poor requirements can be attributed to failed SharePoint implementations. The key to successful SharePoint implementation is properly developing requirements. A lot of people know that this is important, however, only a handful of folks truly understand what it takes to do this right.
In this presentation participants will be able to identify:
- The key components of requirements gathering process
- Why requirements traceability is paramount in defining ROI in SharePoint projects
- Why having a well defined business case is necessary to effectively initiate requirements gathering
Presented at the Atlanta SharePoint Users Group Meeting on August 17, 2009
Intranets With Office 365: What You Need To Know #spsdenver #spscolo #spsdenKanwal Khipple
There is a growing trend of organisations moving to “the cloud” to meet their intranet needs. While many organisations are running their Intranets “on premise”, many are considering entirely cloud-based solutions or running them on platforms like Office 365. What's more organizations are challenging the Intranet to be more of an interactive and engaging digital hub for their digital workplace than just a communication centric portal.
The top two questions for many companies is “should our intranet be built with Office 365?” and "how should we best leverage it with Office 365?"
In this session lets explore:
- The benefits Office 365 brings to an intranet...
- Where the issues and challenges will lie...
- When and how you may integrate Office 365 with your existing intranet and digital workplace today..
This speech was delivered to Duke PhD students to provide a high level understanding of organization planning, Project Management foundation, and Skills needed to manage Projects.
Create Great Search Experiences with SharePoint 2013 WebinarPerficient, Inc.
In this presentation, Perficient covers the key components of designing and delivering optimal search experiences using Microsoft’s SharePoint 2013 platform including:
1. Developing a core understanding of the user
2. Determining appropriate search parameters
3. Implementing advanced filtering
4. Displaying and sorting results effectively
5. Leveraging technology to deliver on the desired user experience
Age of Exploration: How to Achieve Enterprise-Wide DiscoveryInside Analysis
The Briefing Room with Dr. Robin Bloor and IBM Information Management
Live Webcast Nov. 19, 2013
Watch the archive: https://bloorgroup.webex.com/bloorgroup/lsr.php?AT=pb&SP=EC&rID=7808847&rKey=73cc8052da2d9962
The bigger data volumes get, the wider the range of sources available, the more companies need to secure a strategic view of their information assets. This is no small challenge for all kinds of reasons, not the least of which is access to the growing array of valuable data sets available. Today's most innovative companies are using creative solutions to ride the information wave.
Register for this episode of The Briefing Room to hear veteran Analyst Dr. Robin Bloor, as he explains how the unbridled growth of data and information systems requires a holistic approach to information access. He will be briefed by Mark Myers and Scott Parker of IBM, who will showcase the company’s InfoSphere Data Explorer product, a solution aimed squarely at the need to gain a cohesive view of enterprise data, wherever it may be. Myers and Parker will discuss how Data Explorer can help organizations to get more from their SharePoint investments, enabling them to deliver information to front-line employees regardless of where it is managed.
Visit InsideAnalysis.com for more information
Sudheer Mechineni, Head of Application Frameworks, Standard Chartered Bank
Discover how Standard Chartered Bank harnessed the power of Neo4j to transform complex data access challenges into a dynamic, scalable graph database solution. This keynote will cover their journey from initial adoption to deploying a fully automated, enterprise-grade causal cluster, highlighting key strategies for modelling organisational changes and ensuring robust disaster recovery. Learn how these innovations have not only enhanced Standard Chartered Bank’s data infrastructure but also positioned them as pioneers in the banking sector’s adoption of graph technology.
Securing your Kubernetes cluster_ a step-by-step guide to success !KatiaHIMEUR1
Today, after several years of existence, an extremely active community and an ultra-dynamic ecosystem, Kubernetes has established itself as the de facto standard in container orchestration. Thanks to a wide range of managed services, it has never been so easy to set up a ready-to-use Kubernetes cluster.
However, this ease of use means that the subject of security in Kubernetes is often left for later, or even neglected. This exposes companies to significant risks.
In this talk, I'll show you step-by-step how to secure your Kubernetes cluster for greater peace of mind and reliability.
A tale of scale & speed: How the US Navy is enabling software delivery from l...sonjaschweigert1
Rapid and secure feature delivery is a goal across every application team and every branch of the DoD. The Navy’s DevSecOps platform, Party Barge, has achieved:
- Reduction in onboarding time from 5 weeks to 1 day
- Improved developer experience and productivity through actionable findings and reduction of false positives
- Maintenance of superior security standards and inherent policy enforcement with Authorization to Operate (ATO)
Development teams can ship efficiently and ensure applications are cyber ready for Navy Authorizing Officials (AOs). In this webinar, Sigma Defense and Anchore will give attendees a look behind the scenes and demo secure pipeline automation and security artifacts that speed up application ATO and time to production.
We will cover:
- How to remove silos in DevSecOps
- How to build efficient development pipeline roles and component templates
- How to deliver security artifacts that matter for ATO’s (SBOMs, vulnerability reports, and policy evidence)
- How to streamline operations with automated policy checks on container images
Removing Uninteresting Bytes in Software FuzzingAftab Hussain
Imagine a world where software fuzzing, the process of mutating bytes in test seeds to uncover hidden and erroneous program behaviors, becomes faster and more effective. A lot depends on the initial seeds, which can significantly dictate the trajectory of a fuzzing campaign, particularly in terms of how long it takes to uncover interesting behaviour in your code. We introduce DIAR, a technique designed to speedup fuzzing campaigns by pinpointing and eliminating those uninteresting bytes in the seeds. Picture this: instead of wasting valuable resources on meaningless mutations in large, bloated seeds, DIAR removes the unnecessary bytes, streamlining the entire process.
In this work, we equipped AFL, a popular fuzzer, with DIAR and examined two critical Linux libraries -- Libxml's xmllint, a tool for parsing xml documents, and Binutil's readelf, an essential debugging and security analysis command-line tool used to display detailed information about ELF (Executable and Linkable Format). Our preliminary results show that AFL+DIAR does not only discover new paths more quickly but also achieves higher coverage overall. This work thus showcases how starting with lean and optimized seeds can lead to faster, more comprehensive fuzzing campaigns -- and DIAR helps you find such seeds.
- These are slides of the talk given at IEEE International Conference on Software Testing Verification and Validation Workshop, ICSTW 2022.
Elevating Tactical DDD Patterns Through Object CalisthenicsDorra BARTAGUIZ
After immersing yourself in the blue book and its red counterpart, attending DDD-focused conferences, and applying tactical patterns, you're left with a crucial question: How do I ensure my design is effective? Tactical patterns within Domain-Driven Design (DDD) serve as guiding principles for creating clear and manageable domain models. However, achieving success with these patterns requires additional guidance. Interestingly, we've observed that a set of constraints initially designed for training purposes remarkably aligns with effective pattern implementation, offering a more ‘mechanical’ approach. Let's explore together how Object Calisthenics can elevate the design of your tactical DDD patterns, offering concrete help for those venturing into DDD for the first time!
PHP Frameworks: I want to break free (IPC Berlin 2024)Ralf Eggert
In this presentation, we examine the challenges and limitations of relying too heavily on PHP frameworks in web development. We discuss the history of PHP and its frameworks to understand how this dependence has evolved. The focus will be on providing concrete tips and strategies to reduce reliance on these frameworks, based on real-world examples and practical considerations. The goal is to equip developers with the skills and knowledge to create more flexible and future-proof web applications. We'll explore the importance of maintaining autonomy in a rapidly changing tech landscape and how to make informed decisions in PHP development.
This talk is aimed at encouraging a more independent approach to using PHP frameworks, moving towards a more flexible and future-proof approach to PHP development.
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
Communications Mining Series - Zero to Hero - Session 1DianaGray10
This session provides introduction to UiPath Communication Mining, importance and platform overview. You will acquire a good understand of the phases in Communication Mining as we go over the platform with you. Topics covered:
• Communication Mining Overview
• Why is it important?
• How can it help today’s business and the benefits
• Phases in Communication Mining
• Demo on Platform overview
• Q/A
Encryption in Microsoft 365 - ExpertsLive Netherlands 2024Albert Hoitingh
In this session I delve into the encryption technology used in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Purview. Including the concepts of Customer Key and Double Key Encryption.
GraphSummit Singapore | The Future of Agility: Supercharging Digital Transfor...Neo4j
Leonard Jayamohan, Partner & Generative AI Lead, Deloitte
This keynote will reveal how Deloitte leverages Neo4j’s graph power for groundbreaking digital twin solutions, achieving a staggering 100x performance boost. Discover the essential role knowledge graphs play in successful generative AI implementations. Plus, get an exclusive look at an innovative Neo4j + Generative AI solution Deloitte is developing in-house.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Unlocking Productivity: Leveraging the Potential of Copilot in Microsoft 365, a presentation by Christoforos Vlachos, Senior Solutions Manager – Modern Workplace, Uni Systems
Essentials of Automations: The Art of Triggers and Actions in FMESafe Software
In this second installment of our Essentials of Automations webinar series, we’ll explore the landscape of triggers and actions, guiding you through the nuances of authoring and adapting workspaces for seamless automations. Gain an understanding of the full spectrum of triggers and actions available in FME, empowering you to enhance your workspaces for efficient automation.
We’ll kick things off by showcasing the most commonly used event-based triggers, introducing you to various automation workflows like manual triggers, schedules, directory watchers, and more. Plus, see how these elements play out in real scenarios.
Whether you’re tweaking your current setup or building from the ground up, this session will arm you with the tools and insights needed to transform your FME usage into a powerhouse of productivity. Join us to discover effective strategies that simplify complex processes, enhancing your productivity and transforming your data management practices with FME. Let’s turn complexity into clarity and make your workspaces work wonders!
Essentials of Automations: The Art of Triggers and Actions in FME
Driving Value with Search
1. Driving Value with Search: Working Smart, Not Hard
Michal Pisarek
SharePoint MVP
Founder Dynamic Owl Consulting Inc
2. Driving Value with Search
Why is search so difficult?
Common mistakes and finding value
Tips to improve your search
3. Who am I
SharePoint MVP
Based in Vancouver, Canada
Author of sharepointanalysthq.com
SharePoint Analyst:
Business
Technical
Founder of Dynamic Owl Consulting
michalpisarek@sharepointanalysthq.com
@michalpisarek
michalpisarek
5. The Google Effect
Fooled people into thinking search requires no effort
Users have a very low tolerance for failure
Enterprise search is fundamentally different in context
18. TECHNIQUES DELIVERABLE
Search Vision
OUTCOMES Statement
KPI List of
MEASURES
Workshop measures that
make sense
Backlog of
stories
TARGET STORIES
Functional
Spec and
SHAREPOINT SCOPE
Solution 20
21. Acronyms
Any TLAs
Department Names:
Accounting
Human Resources
Marketing
Common Business Terms
Engineering Organizations: Topics
Banking: Task Based
General Terms
Common Actions: Printing, Mail, Car Hire, Travel, Banking
Locations: Office locations, Project Locations
Leave: Leave forms, holiday forms, travel request
SharePoint Based: Intranet, Projects, Training
Intranet Based: Events, News, Stories
23
asd
22. Get diverse people in a room
Hand out cue cards with the Best Bet format
Write 10 each, then shuffle and swap
At the end review all Best Bets
24
23.
24. How does your organization think about
information?
Content Based:
Contracts, Policies, Procedures
Task Based: New Member
Account, Termination, New Loan
Application
Storage Based: C Drive, SharePoint
Sites, CRM
Time Based: Yearly Financial Cycles
Department Based: Accounting
25. Always have a Documents search scope
implemented
Users are more comfortable with the word ‘filter’
than ‘scope’
Too many scopes can be confusing
26. Card Sorting
Lets people group related information together
Powerful way to see how users think about information in
groups
Great to see how scopes should be structured
Two types:
Open: Users create categories
Closed: Pre-defined categories
27. Running a card sort
Create cue cards
Users sort into categories
Can be done online or in person
30. Custom Results Workshop
Select the content that you want to target (this is usually tied
to scopes)
Sit users in a room with a facilitator
Get users to choose which pieces of metadata are important
and how they should be displayed
FILE SIZE START DATE TITLE
CUSTOMER
FILE TYPE CUSTOMER EXCERPT
START DATE YEAR
EXECUTED BY YEAR LAST MODIFIED
OFFICE/BRANCH PROJECT NUMBER
PROJECT ID PROJECT NUMBER OFFICE/BRANCH
32
33. Finding the right person is usually more important than finding
the right content
Determine what users are looking for
Leverage User Profiles
Expose in search
34. Search Reporting
SharePoint offers great search
reporting capabilities to help you
35. How was your search web part
Great way to gather feedback about
search
Simple way for end users to
communicate their feedback
The information can be a goldmine
36. Conclusion
Plan and implement search like anything else on SharePoint
Seek true value and then drive your efforts towards it
It is possible to make a huge difference to your organization
This session has some search phililosphy as a backgroundSome stories from out in the fieldAnd some practical adviceHowever in the end I hope that after our 30 minutes you can say ‘Yes this session was useful, some of the stuff I can use straight away”
Canadian think I
Done more harm than good by fooling users that you don’t have to do anything for great searchUsers have amazing search experiences in the consumer space that is not replicated in the enterpriseThe serendipitous moment that occurs with google rarely occurs in the four walls of workReasons:Algorithm google uses doesn’t work inside enterpriseContent is not made to be foundInternet search is like looking for anything at all... whereas enterprise search is like looking for something specific:People don't want general information; they want the 100% definitive answer
People think that google does it all that no intervention is needed from usersHowever look how much effort is put into content on the internet with metadata, seoContent is made to be found on the internet, its lost in a pit of despair in the enterprise
Unclear expectations around what is being searched, how users should search leads to failureWith the great consumer search experiences users are spolied with search experiences
Internet search is like looking for anything at all... whereas enterprise search is like looking for something specific:People don't want general information; they want the 100% definitive answerThe algorithms that work in the internet don’t work in the enterprise: page links, The only way to get this context is by metadata, requirements, and configuring your search implementation to your organization
The lack of exactly what value search will bring is a common issueUsing platitudes or not breaking down search into tangible requirements that can be implemented causes search implementations to go round and round achieving nothingThere are many possible end results of search, a vision will help you target all activities to that goalHaving search working is like saying that your goal is to have SharePoint working, it really makes no senseSome possible visions:Consolidate disparate data sources for easy retrievalBe able to put a name to a face instantlyPromote innovation by not only returning back actualy results but other relevant results from alternate departments
Some examples of visions are above the we can go through and implementYou need a goal that you can go for and this can change over time
With all the possible areas of value what is your plan for search?A roadmap for search will allow you to invest your resources correctly
The ultimate double edge sword – easy to leave to last, hard to get rightIn order to drive value from search it should be considered iteratively during the project, looking at the value it will provideBy virtue of leaving it last the organization DOES deploy search, however it sometimes fails to achieve significant valueEasy to tick off a project plan, difficult to justify the value that it provides
Biggest mistake is not having use cases that can be implementedIt can be as simple as working to 10 solid user stories that are tangible enough to be implementedThese are actual examples that have been used to target search and provide value
People always ask ‘How does the search algorithm work’ like the think they would like to write their ownBest bets allow you to essentially write your own algorithm!Inject your own results into search by passing whatsharepoint doesThere should at least be 50 best bets for each and every organizationHuge Value, Low effort againTypical Examples:Department NamesVerbsBusiness TermsAcronyms
Partiton the content for a smaller and more targetted subset of resultsYou should always have more than the two default scopes that are providedAt least provide your users with a document only scope that they can useIf your organization works on a financial year basis then create an archived scopeSome suggestions for other scopes are:NewsDocumentsArchived Content
Scopes great way to segregate the index for more targetted search resultsBut you need to know how your organization thinks about information for this to be effectiveMultiple different scopes that can be implemented
A way to find out how people group and think about related information is cardsortingThis is an IA exercise taken from the UX community but can have great value in searchAllows you to see what types of content you should have in scopes, how you should organize taxonomy, and how users essentially view the information in the enterpriseFor instance to determine what content should be in what scopes you can use a card sort to allow people to place content into predefined categoriesSo would a contract be in the finanical scope or in the investor relations scope for example?
Create cue cards with various bits of information such as types of content or even metadataTake a variety of users and get them to sort the cards into groupsThe great thing is that you get your taxonomy or scope or whatever built for youBut its really the conversations that users between each other that allows you to much better understand the organizationIt can be done in person or even online through a cardsorting tool like optimalworkshop which I loveI have done online cardsorts to determine what should go in scopes up to 500 users which is cool
Severely Underused yet very easy to doGoogle has been doing this for years, different types of content has different results displayedAmazingly even public web sites have the same crappy SharePoint search displaySome really powerful ways to do some simple thingsLinking custom scopes to custom results pages is a super powerful way Link to FolderRatings and Additional Metdata
Invest as much time into people search as you do into content searchBecause the majority of knowledge isnt codified in organizations you are frequently looking for a person, not a documentFor many organizations simply having the ability to find peoples phone numbers is amazing People usually don't want to know the answer, people usually want to know who knows the answer
Reporting will provide you with hard data about how successful your search solution isFantastic way to verify your solution is functioning correctlyAlso a great way to uncover new requirementsSharePoint 2010 has a lot of great search reporting features
What can you do if the business simply won’t let you ask questions or take users time away in a workshop?The How was your search web part allows users to provide feedbackSuper simple to implement and a great way to get informationEngages a wide variety of end users to provide feedback
My refiner articles account for about 30% of traffic on my blogThe most visible and well received capability in SharePointExtremely powerful:In what you can doIn the value provide to end usersExtremely configurable:Used not for search but for a site directoryEssentially can do away with advanced searchAll metadata drivenHence my rant before about metadata
Avoid the empty bar syndrome by prepopulatingSP will add their own daily with a timer job fileGreat way to encourage adoption when rolling search outNeed to also keep this trimmed, can disable the timer jobSeachsuggestons appear when a user is typing in a search query
Less used now that we have refinements but still valuableLots of configuration available
Replacement SetsSubstitute search terms for other search termsIn the example: HR, Human Resources, Employee Services will all be changed to people servicesGreat for enforcing common nomecultureExpansion SetsSpecify synonyms that will also be searched forIn the example anytime some searches for Author the other two will also be searched forGreat for recall and synonyms in an organization
Metadata drives search that’s why there is a separate database for itYou need additional metadata so that all of the good stuff in search can workThat is just for search but for information architecture its even more important
Site ColumnsContent TypesLocation based attributesWorkflowsSocial Context
Counts without FAST?Yes up to 500 of the first items in the result setControl order?Yes you can by defining your own refinersControl which refiners appear?Yes you can specify your ownControl how many hits before a refinerappears?Yes the metadata threshold on each refiner can control this Use 1 to make it always appearView more refiners?Yes by default there is 6 but yon can have as many as you likeCreate customized ranges?
Consume external search resources without this being part of your indexIf you are a research organization this can greatly save timeThere are lots available FLD files that you can download and install easilyEasily create an area that encourages users to search both internal and external content in SharePoint
This is a simple flow in gathering search requirementsCurrent State Analysis Concerns itself with understanding the current organization context to make better requirements decisionsRequirements ellicitation is where you actually gather the requirementsExpert Judgement really involves taking your business/user requirements to functional requirementsVerification ensure that you understand the requirements you users are asking for
VisionWhat is the role of search within the organization beyond “finding stuff”?Examples: Innovation by exposing other content, access to experts, increased compliance through surfacing legal content, search driven applicationsContentWhat type of content exists in the org?The type of content, its value will inform requirements gathering activitiesCrap content, crap searchDo you even need to search content that is accessed once per year?StakeholdersWho will you ask? What do they do? How are they involved in the success of searchPersona’sWhat are the roles that use search?Helps you ensure that your search gets maximum coverage for benefitIf an executive demands that 100k be spent implementing something for 3 people, this is your answer
The vision will define how you approach your requirements gathering exercisesYou need a vision to guide you in your projectA workshop is a great way to get a shared understanding amongst stakeholders about what it trying to be achieved4 simply questions about will usually do thisAt the end there should be a shared understanding in the room, multiple sessions may be necessaryThen write this out and send it to the various stakeholders and project team
Crap content is crap searchBut you need to understand what content AND more important HOW your users think about contentThe first thing will to be a content auditA content audit determines the sources of content, their use, who owns it, when it was used and where it resides
You can do this via interview or the best thing is to send out a content analysis spreadsheet and get users to fill this outYou need executive support to make sure this is done as its usually not doneAfter this is filled in then you can get further informatio
Lots of different ways to gather search requirements, here are 4The main thing is you need a process the you will follow with proper techniquesYou need to have your requirements gathering planned before you engage usersYou really to know what information you are trying to ellicitI am going to expand on user stories and cardsorting
User stories are a great way to get requirements from users in a format that is easily digestibleUser stories comes from the agile world and allows end users to express their needs in an easily understandable formatI run user story workshopsPick a range of different users depending on the requirements goals and arm them with cue cardsGet them to write their stories facilitated by me, halfway through we gather up the cards, shuffle them, give them to other users and this frequently drives other storiesNot only is the person and some goal important the “So That” is THE most important part of the user story since it gives the story contextIn the example above: “All HR Policies” – will this be a search scope? Do we have a way to identify HR related policies? Content Types or Metadata?“When their date is due” – Will this appear on the search results pages? Will this be part of the scope?
A way to find out how people group and think about related information is cardsortingThis is an IA exercise taken from the UX community but can have great value in searchAllows you to see what types of content you should have in scopes, how you should organize taxonomy, and how users essentially view the information in the enterpriseFor instance to determine what content should be in what scopes you can use a card sort to allow people to place content into predefined categoriesSo would a contract be in the finanical scope or in the investor relations scope for example?
Create cue cards with various bits of information such as types of content or even metadataTake a variety of users and get them to sort the cards into groupsThe great thing is that you get your taxonomy or scope or whatever built for youBut its really the conversations that users between each other that allows you to much better understand the organizationIt can be done in person or even online through a cardsorting tool like optimalworkshop which I loveI have done online cardsorts to determine what should go in scopes up to 500 users which is cool
This is where your experience comes and your translate your business/user requirements into functional requirementsThis is where you can take your tangible requirements and transform them into SharePoint configuration and ultimately solutionsCan be split into four broad categoriesGroup:Grouping information by scope or metadataRanking:How do users rank information and how can you effect thisFilter:How would your users like to filter resultsView:How would users like to view information
As part of your requirements gathering you need to verffy that what you collected is correctVerification ensure that your requirements are correct and also helps you identify new requirementsThere are a number of ways to verify and uncover new requirements including:Impression Testing: