Longhorn
Longhorn
OpenCanal Corporation Announces Commercial Support, Training and Consulting Services for SharePoint Free Source Tools from Microsoft and Its Partners
OpenCanal Corporation announces the immediate availability of the OpenCanal Distribution™ for free download as well as a CD version for purchase from the OpenCanal Store. The OpenCanal Distribution includes the complete Microsoft .NET source code for a wide range of free source tools and solutions created by Microsoft and its partners for Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003. OpenCanal also announces formal support, training and consulting services for the SharePoint free source tools included in the OpenCanal Distribution.
TORONTO, ON and LAS VEGAS, NV - June 13, 2005 – At the SharePoint Advisor Live conference in Las Vegas, OpenCanal Corporation today announced the immediate availability of the OpenCanal Distribution™ Developer Edition as a free download as well as a CD version for purchase from the OpenCanal Store. The OpenCanal Distribution includes the complete Microsoft .NET source code for several categories of free source tools for SharePoint Products and Technologies including content import/export, usage reporting, search enhancements, Web parts, WSRP interoperability, RSS syndication and systems management.
In addition, OpenCanal announced new support, training and consulting services for the OpenCanal Distribution of SharePoint free source tools.
OpenCanal also launched a new corporate web site and a community-based Windows SharePoint site to foster partner and customer discussions with developers of SharePoint free source tools, as well as provide self-service assistance for the OpenCanal Distribution.
"In response to Microsoft partner and customer demand for support for the growing number of free source tools on Microsoft GotDotNet and other web sites, Parallelspace has founded OpenCanal Corporation to provide commercial support, training and consulting services for SharePoint free source tools created by Microsoft and its partners.” said Michael Herman, president and CTO of OpenCanal Corporation and Parallelspace Corporation. “In addition, the OpenCanal team is especially excited about providing Microsoft partners and customers with quarterly value-added updates of the OpenCanal Distribution. The initial OpenCanal Distribution will focus on free source tools for Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2003."
“We are pleased to see OpenCanal provide these new support offerings for free source tools to benefit SharePoint Products and Technologies customers and partners.” said Sanjay Manchanda, director, Microsoft Office SharePoint group.
“Prior to OpenCanal, Microsoft partners and customers who wanted to use SharePoint free source tools faced a fundamental problem: Where do I go for support, training or consulting when these free source tools break or don’t do the specific task I need them to do?" said Michael Herman. “OpenCanal is now providing them with the services they require.” For owners of SharePoint free source projects, free development support is available by registering with the OpenCanal Community web site.
What is Free Source Software?
Free source software (sometimes referred to as open source software) is software in which the source code for a software project is freely and easily identifiable, downloadable, buildable, redistributable and reusable. For more details, please refer to “What is Free Source Software” at http://www.opencanal.com/aboutus/whatisfreesource.htm.
About OpenCanal Corporation
OpenCanal Corporation is a leading provider of fee and subscription-based support, training and consulting services for Microsoft .NET free source solutions for Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies. OpenCanal Corporation is a subsidiary of Parallelspace Corporation.
About Parallelspace Corporation
Parallelspace Corporation, founded in 2001, is a leading provider of business collaboration solutions and services for information sharing and business process workflow for Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies, Office Live Communications Server and Groove Virtual Workspace.
More Information
More information on OpenCanal Corporation and the OpenCanal Distribution can be found at http://www.opencanal.com.
The OpenCanal Community web site can be found at http://www.opencanal.com/community. Free downloads of the OpenCanal Distribution can be found at http://www.opencanal.com/downloads. The OpenCanal Distribution on CD can be purchased from the OpenCanal Store at http://www.opencanal.com/store.
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For additional information, please contact:
Michael Herman
President and CTO
OpenCanal Corporation, a subsidiary of Parallelspace Corporation
(866) SOFTPASS (763-8727) toll-free
(905) 884-8285 x111
mwherman@opencanal.com
Ref: http://news.zdnet.com/Ex-Groove+exec+loses+initial+bid+to+nix+Microsoft+deal/2100-3513_22-5650797.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=zdnn
No need to read too deeply into this quotation...
"We look forward to adding Groove technologies to the line-up of Microsoft Office system servers, applications and services following the close of the acquisition."
From: http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2005/03/28/daily60.html
Microsoft's $120M Groove buyout challenged in suit
Boston Business Journal
Microsoft Corp.'s $120 million cash offer to buy Groove Networks Inc., owned by Lotus Notes creator Ray Ozzie, ignores some employees who hold preferred and common stock, a former Groove worker said in a lawsuit, Bloomberg Business News reported.
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) announced it would acquire Beverly-based Groove and hire Ozzie as chief technical officer, according to a March 1 statement. He would report to Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
Former Groove employee Michael Matthews claimed Microsoft and Ozzie, who together hold 59 percent of Groove's stock, "seek to eliminate the interest of junior preferred and common stockholders for no consideration" in the $120 million deal, according to a lawsuit filed March 25 in Delaware Chancery Court.
The lawsuit could temporarily block the deal. Microsoft, the world's largest maker of software, wants to use Groove products to supplement its Office business applications. The combination will help computer users in different locations work on documents together over the Internet, Microsoft said.
Matthews sued closely-held Groove and its directors, including Ozzie. He asked Judge William B. Chandler III to stop the buyout under the present terms and award damages and legal fees. Groove lawyers asked Chandler to keep details of the transaction confidential, but he denied the request.
The suit claims the buyout is also unfair because insiders will get $50 million in "golden parachute" payments and other benefits, including $27 million in stock grants for Ozzie.
Although a somewhat dated article (fall of 2003), the following eWeek article is an interesting read especially given the events of the last week: http://www.eweek.com/print_article2/0,2533,a=112092,00.asp.
Cheers,
Michael.
First, for many people, this is a huge suprise. Many people thought the infatuation between MS and Groove had come and past. So what happened?
I've been tracking the investment inflows and outflow into Groove since they first announced Groove 1.0 and have always felt their greatest challenge was to become cashflow positive while trying to market and sell a powerful but very inexpensive rich client software product.
Lets say it takes more than $30 million to sustain a software company of ~250 people. ...and $40 million to have a vibrant software product organization of this size from an overall development, marketing and sales perspective. To gross $40 million per year, close to 300K end-user licenses have be sold annually at Groove's price points. Pretty tough.
My guess is the clay at the bottom of the cookie jar was starting to show and MS was the logical choice given they already owned 25%.
This is pure (but calculated) speculation on my part but probably pretty close to the cup. I hope the average Groove employee was able to benefit after creating such a great product.
Cheers,
Michael.
1. A reasoning or inference engine fully integrated into the WinFS stack ...ideally shipped with WinFS so that ISVs would have easy access to it. MS Access would be an ideal application for providing an end-user experience for creating applications that can reason of the rich knowledge networks that can be represented in WinFS.
See http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/mwherman2000/archive/2003/11/11/3435.aspx.
2. Ability to search for PowerPoints with green backgrounds and pictures with shiny red metal and blonde hair.
See http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/mwherman2000/archive/2005/02/26/56783.aspx.
3. An easy-to-use and configure shared space experience for plain old Windows users.
See http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/mwherman2000/archive/2004/02/14/7232.aspx.
I've been thinking about all of the pictures I have and how I would really like to be able to search through them if they (image files) were stored in WinFS.
I'd like to be able to search the images to locate the ones that have blue sky or brown hair in them. How can I implement these capabilities in WinFS queries or MS Search (aka SharePoint Portal Server Search).
Is it something the SQL query processor would handle on the relational side?
...or is it something that MS Search could be extended to handle using a custom written iFilter. ...for example, a custom iFilter that can recognize blue sky or hair and knows how to save the appropriate properties in the MS Search “full text” index catalogs ...or with WinFS, will MS Search index catalogs become entities in the relational store ....all searchable in the usual way?
Another similar scenario being able to find all the PowerPpoint presentations with mostly black or mostly orange backgrounds.
Michael.
Of course, I had omitted the obvious differentation in my previous models: the ability to query/search objects and streams. :-) Here is my most complete rendition of the taxonomy of capabilities for WinFS (IMHO). There will likely be a sixth dimension ...perhaps something about the continoum of independent MS and ISV object models vs. a fully integrated and architected set of WinFS schemas. I have no idea how I'll draw the 6th dimension. “More news at 11...“
[Note: I have no official relationship with the MS WinFS team.]
Note the *K* in SRBK.
The previous SRB 2.1 version was achievable using any modern day Windows application that exposed a rich object model. How do I think WinFS will differ? It's the piece about relationships and WinFS's ability (as of the 2004 PDC) to represent arbitrary objects and arbitrary relationships and hence, arbitrary knowledge networks ...opening the door for new categories of every day applications that will use reasoning engines, etc.
Click here for this version of the diagram.
[Note: I have no official relationship with the MS WinFS team.]
Some day I'll have a specific preference for SRB or PSM ...but for now I'm floating both. In this version, I've replaced Accessibility with Storage ...as the concept of Accessibility overlapped significanty with the Structuredness/Properties axis. Storage is a better choice.
Click here for this version of the diagram.
People have asked for more detail about what the axis represent in my original diagram: http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/mwherman2000/archive/2005/02/08/52608.aspx. See below an updated version of the SRB trinity diagram.
An additional key thought is that there is a multi-dimensional continium between the simple through rich data formats/objects that live outside the WinFS store and the simple through fully supported structured data objects that live inside WinFS.
Cheers,
Michael.
Click here for this version of the diagram.
In reading http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2004/07/20.html (dereferenced from Jon Udell's Office DevCon report @ http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2005/02/04.html#a1168), I was intrigued by the synergy evident in the ROX trinity (relation/object/XML) that Quentin Clark, director WinFS program management, used to describe WinFS's support for WinFS objects (structured data), XML (semi-structured data) and unstructured data.
But what about other existing, every-day data/stream formats such as vCard contact infomation, LDIF (LDAP Data Interchange Format) schema and data files, CAD (computer-aided design) or seismic data? These are characterized by being non-Office (non-OLE structured storage) and non-XML but they are definitely structured and usually, streams. Where do they fit into the ROX trinity (and WinFS)?
Besides WinFS objects, XML and unstructured data, I believe there is a need for a fourth category in WinFS: “stream structures” and/or “stream datatypes“. These are needed to embrace existing, every-day data formats like vCards, LDIF and seismic data, etc.
The difference between a stream format being a stream structure and stream datatype is the extent to which its implementation (including property access and behaviors) is supported in WinFS.
If WinFS only supports property access/promotion/demotion features for a particular stream format, then I would suggest using the term stream structure for the format. If the WinFS/Yukon CLR support is used to add WinFS support for rich collections of behaviors and methods for a particular stream format, then a stream structure graduates into being a stream datatype.
To follow a consistent naming strategy, I'd rename unstructured data to simple streams: streams that WinFS does not provide a) any native or ISV support for property access (the pre-requisite to graduating to being a stream structure) nor b) any native or ISV support for a set of methods/behaviors (the pre-requisite to graduating to being a stream datatype).
Where does this leave the ROX trinity? What bothers me is that ROX doesn't map back to the "objects (structured data), XML (semi-structured data) and unstructured data" model very well.
If you consider the
- structured data (objects)
- stream datatypes (including XML with behaviors)
- stream structures (including XML without behaviors)
- simple streams
model I'm proposing, the trinity is really about SRB: Structuredness, Representation and Behaviors (or alternatively, PAM: Properties, Access and Methods) ...and the extent to which a particular data or stream format is supported in WinFS (native MS or ISV provided).
These 3 dimensions of the SRB (or PAM) trinity is illustrated in the following diagram:
Click here for this version of the diagram.
The SRB Trinity fully embraces traditional data and stream formats (regardless of their level of support in WinFS) as well as providing an effective framework for characterizing the different categories of data formats that have full WinFS support (structured data and stream datatypes) as well as partial WinFS support (stream structures with only property support) or no support (simple streams stored a blobs).
Cheers,
Michael Herman
Parallelspace Corporation - Developers of collaborative business solutions for Microsoft SharePoint Corporation - Developers of collaborative business solutions for Microsoft Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Corporation - Developers of collaborative business solutions for Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Products and Technologies Corporation.
Checkout this deck from the 2000 PDC: Preview Of The SQL Server™ .NET File System .
Cheers,
Michael Herman
Parallelspace Corporation - Developers of collaborative business solutions for Microsoft SharePoint Corporation - Developers of collaborative business solutions for Microsoft Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Corporation - Developers of collaborative business solutions for Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Products and Technologies Corporation
Enterprise Business Collaboration Solutions for Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Products and Technologies Products and Technologies, Microsoft Live Communications Server, Active Directory and Groove Workspace
Portal and Content Migration Specialists: http://www.parallelspace.net/sharepoint
Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Products and Technologies Products and Technologies Migration Knowledge Center: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sharepointmigration
WinFS's 5 Ses
- Schema
- Association
- Storage services
- Synchronization services
- Search services
> >> encourage you to not think of WinFS as a file system <<
>
> That's true, but you've gotta admit that (WinFS == "Windows File System")
> or
> (WinFS.IsA("Windows File System") == true)
> are hard equalities to ignore.
>
> Carl
At this point in time, a technology name is just name.
How about:
."Windows Future Storage"
...or "Windows with Fantastic Schema"
...or "Wicked Fact Store"
...or "Windows with Fun Synchronization"
...or "William Finds a Savior"
(Any presenter (from any team) who uses the last bullet in a PPT (14 pt or greater) in a BillG review gets a free dinner at the Metropolitan.)
Cheers,
Michael.
SteveB (yes, the real SteveB) was in Toronto for the last couple days and gave 2 back-to-back one-hour talks Wednesday evening - one for MCSPs and the second to an MSDN audience.
During Q&A, when one partner commented that “My client hasn't moved from Windows 2000 Workstation Pro to Windows XP but they don't like the interface, it's too “cute””.
Steve replied that customer feedback to Microsoft is that UI changes are one the the most expensive upgrade costs customers experience because of the amount of end-user re-training and re-familiarization required. He went on to say that Longhorn will support both the new Longhorn UI as well as the current Windows XP UI as options.
...and with his usual big smile, told the partner “That being said, unfortunately for your customer, Longhorn isn't going to support the Windows 2000 UI”.
This of course is interesting in terms of my recent comments about “Longhorn and Metadata: The answer is in the shell and how people will work (aka metacrap, meta-crap - two nice searchable metadata values)”.
p.s. “I wonder what else Steve had to say?”
- Security is number one and Microsoft is extremely focused on it [with real and believable evidence]. Hundreds of thousands of partners and customers are going to receive security training from Microsoft in addition to Microsoft's internal efforts.
- MS had a very deep understanding of where and how different server o/s's are being used in organizations. .NET (specifically ASP.NET) and security training are key to winning