Intranet Books

With this book, Mr. Fetterman has provided an excellent resource for companies looking to leverage technology to improve the bottom line. In my own efforts as an IT manager for a Fortune 50 company, I was looking for a resource that would help justify new technology projects, especially in the use of training. What I found in this book was a new approach that explains how to turn technology projects "inside out" to focus on the business results, and use technology as a supporting tool. Certainly this sounds like common sense, but I've seen many technology projects, especially in the world of multimedia, that don't "get it."

The book explains how "learning by doing" approaches can be much more successful and provide measurable results and high positive ROI over traditional or web-based training. The book provides several excellent examples of business projects that have made good use of multimedia tools. Mr. Fetterman clearly explains the ROI for these efforts.

I beleive that anyone in a position to effect employee productivity and/or justify expenditures on technology projects would benefit form this book. The case studies Mr. Fetterman provides use real-world projects and results that are re-usable in any environment.

This book is definitely not for Webmasters or anyone familiar with interactive media development except so far as it can serve as an introduction to suit-talk (how to persuade your boss to go all the way).

The first two chapters were interesting but in both case studies the task at hand was fairly obvious and didn't present any real breakthroughs in networking the work environment.

Sorry for the poor review. I was expecting more.

Mr. Fetterman has identified a topic - The Interactive Corporation -- that is of paramount importance to all businesses today. His approach of emphasizing the understanding of "business processes" rather than focusing on the available hardware and software, is one that every business person should seriously consider. (Quote from the book p.256) "Technology is never the beginning.......Begin by understanding where and when technology should be applied to enhance the outcomes of the process and to satisfy corporate goals and objectives." The book includes numerous examples that further illustrate Mr. Fetterman's points using very specific case studies. A good book for CEOs that don't want to wade through techno-babble, but are interested in how they can begin to think about applying the present and developing interactive computer technologies to their own business.

Mr. Fetterman has identified a topic - The Interactive Corporation -- that is of paramount importance to all businesses today. His approach of emphasizing the understanding of "business processes" rather than focusing on the available hardware and software, is one that every business person should seriously consider. (Quote from the book p.256) "Technology is never the beginning.......Begin by understanding where and when technology should be applied to enhance the outcomes of the process and to satisfy corporate goals and objectives." The book includes numerous examples that further illustrate Mr. Fetterman's points using very specific case studies. A good book for CEOs that don't want to wade through techno-babble, but are interested in how they can begin to think about applying the present and developing interactive computer technologies to their own business.

I received a copy of Andrew Connell's new Professional SharePoint 2007 Web Content Management Development: Building Publishing Sites with Office SharePoint Server 2007 book this week. As expected, Andrew's new book is excellent - well written with a ton of substantial content.

What I like about this book:

Chapter 5 dissects SharePoint's out-of-the-box MOSS 2007 Publishing Portal site definition. This chapter then covers how to create a Minimal Publishing Portal site definition which does not include the extraneous artifacts included in the somewhat bloated out-of-the-box version.

I particularly like Chapter 10 on Field Types and Field Controls. Unfortunately, there is little documentation and online resources available about creating custom field types. Andrew's book offers a complete chapter on the subject, with clear explanations and good examples.

Chapter 15 on Authentication and Authorization provides the reader with instructions to configure forms-based authentication for an extranet/internet-facing SharePoint site. Users often have trouble setting up FBA, but this book gives the needed instruction and guidance.

Professional SharePoint 2007 Web Content Management Development: Building Publishing Sites with Office SharePoint Server 2007 is a must have for any serious SharePoint developer. I have been developing on the SharePoint platform for almost a decade, and this book will stay within arm's reach of my keyboard. Seriously, buy this book today.

-Tony Bierman [MVP WSS]

I received Andrew's book at TechEd 2008 in Orlando (I guess Microsoft purchased a bunch before they were available for order on Amazon). I've read through most of the book, and it is definitely something everyone working with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) will want to have on their bookshelf. Andrew is certainly known for being one of the experts in the SharePoint WCM community, and his knowledge of the product shows throughout the book. The book is filled with best practices and advice covering a wide range of topics that would be particularly important to folks working with MOSS.

Some of the highlights for me were: Creating a Minimal Site Def, Site Columns, Master Pages and Page Layouts, Field Types and Controls, and Web Parts. I also found the section on Features and Solutions to be particularly useful as it gave me an excellent step by step guide to packaging my MOSS branding files.

If you are working with MOSS publishing, you need this book.

WCM (Web Content Management) is becoming a "hot" item in many MOSS deployments. I should also clarify that this book is focused on WCM as opposed to ECM (Enterprise Content Management), as this seems to be a confusing topic for some. So it is mainly for those looking for working with the publishing infrastructure within MOSS (replacing MCMS - Microsoft Content Management Server), not with the Document Management features (Archiving, Records, etc...). This book is a great reference for those of us who develop against MOSS but who haven't had a chance to work with the WCM features.

I was especially pleased on the sections covering custom fields, field controls and control templates for truly customizing the authoring experience for your content authors. It is hard to find good information on extending the authoring environment and this book gave me enough info to really customize the publishing features of MOSS for my end users and content authors.

While not covering every single possible scenario, this reference provides more than adequate instruction and guidance on using the built in API's to accomplish most tasks. I do not expect a book to spoon feed me everything I need to know about a topic especially if it is to be useful as a general reference. The book does a great job of covering enough of each subject to give you a jump off point to build from on your own projects. As the title states it is in the professional line of WROX books so it expects that you have a good deal of familiarity with MOSS and .Net development. It did a great job of giving instruction without the heavy handed hand holding that some entry level or beginning books tend to lean toward. For those who are not as familiar with SharePoint or .Net I would definitely recommend looking into some introductory training or books first before jumping in. While I would welcome more coverage on some of the topics, they can always go into additional books or in AC's already extensive list of topics covered in his Blog or workshops.

I give this book 5 stars for giving me more tools as a developer to work with the WCM aspects of MOSS. All of the examples in the book so far that I have used have been fully functional despite the fact that this book was probably written prior to the release of some of the fixes that have been released for MOSS like SP1, etc...

I definitely recommend this to anyone who is a SharePoint developer looking to get into the WCM aspects of the product.

NOTE: This is an updated version of a previous review I had made. Most details have been kept as is. I have bumped the review from 2 starts to 3 (couldn't edit starts and hence had to re-post).

I have been a regular visitor of AC's blogs which contains a number of tidbits about SharePoint (most of which are not in the MOSS documentation, which is sad). I was eagerly expecting his book on WCM as I am currently working on a WCM project.

However, the book itself is very disappointing in its content. True that it contains a good introduction to WCM component of SharePoint, but I was expecting more beyond what I can find by simple Google blog searches.

Here's my rationale for the 3 stars.

1 star for compiling relevant info on WCM. ASAIK, this is the only book on the WCM aspect of SharePoint to date.
2 stars for covering all the basics of SharePoint, including references to 3rd party tools like Telerik and AKS.
3 stars for covering the field controls, master pages, and layouts with good detail.

That said, here's why I removed the other 2 stars.

1 star for not covering enough on Content Deployment. One of the most important aspects of WCM is content deployment (more so than other aspects of SharePoint). First, there is only one chapter on this. Second, the first 10 pages are about how to get the OOTB job up and running (with screenshots). The remaining 2 pages talk about the API. I was definitely expecting a lot more in this area such as gotchas, tips and tricks, planning, etc. in this section, given that this is a WCM book. Moreover, given the numerous issues that MOSS has with Content Deployment (of which a number of hot fixes have been posted by MS), there is not a single mention on what to watch out for.

1 star for not pointing out the limitations of SharePoint. This a Wrox book not a MS Press book. I expected AC to be a little more even-minded than just be a mouthpiece for MS. There isn't a single mention of where MOSS is limited and what to do about the same. Good examples are in the "Authoring Extensibility" section and in "Accessibility" section.

The default HTML Editor has a strong limitation that it does not allow you to embed flash, multimedia, JavaScript, etc. (due to the overly cautious nature of MS - you can't even disable this behavior). Telerik has a limitation of not allowing you to place "reusable content" - one of the biggest components of reuse in SharePoint - and not a single mention in the book - just a quick 2 paragraph introduction...

I wish the book had covered more details in these areas, along with providing details on how to setup a farm for WCM purposes (the concepts of Authoring, Staging, Public, etc.). This would have helped those who want to setup SharePoint explicitly for WCM. The need is there as most other SharePoint books talk about setting up the farm for an Intranet scenario than a WCM scenario.

Overall, it's a good attempt by the author to describe WCM in SharePoint, but it would have been better if it were unbiased and more informative.

Disclaimer: I also appreciate the author for quickly responding to my earlier post explaining his stand. While I don't agree with some of the statements, I can understand his rationale (hence the bump-up by 1 star). Hope the author comes up with a bigger-better book on WCM in future!

The perfect guide for the technically clueless on how everything Internet works from the macro to the micro levels in easy to understand discriptions and pictures. As a career counselor, I suggest this book for every client looking to work in the Internet or for a dot com company as the appropriate introduction to high tech for low tech types. It gives you the big and small pictures, literally, with accompanying technical jargon explained. I have not found a comparable book to use in this catagory that works as well.

This was a very helpful book for refamiliarizing myself with the concepts behind LANs and WANs. If you are truly just getting started with understanding intranets, you would be better served if you also got a copy of "How Networks Work" and read that book first.

It's easy to understand a LAN ... when there's an administrator to explain. It's easy to understand a WAN ... when there's a network support desk to fix problems for you. It's easy to get onto the Internet ... when your ISP has a tech support line with plenty of patience. But how does it all happen? What's TCP/IP mean? How come I get a "Forbidden!" message when I browse certain pages? This book is an excellent primer for the computer neophyte, or someone who's boning up on networking in the 90s. Simple text and easy to follow illustrations take you by the hand and gently explain things like "how a web page gets back to you?" and "what's the OSI Network Model?" Think networking is only for geeky techie types? Think again. Preston Gralla makes it all as clear as mom's chicken broth. David Spalding

I brought this, when I started at a new site that was mainly 4.11 intranetware. I found this book great for coming up to speed on the NDS network.

Wayne

This book is alot better than the other stuff that I have read. There is alot less fluff and no zen quotes at all! It is a bit wordy but the details are all there. If you need a great IntranetWare reference book this is it. If you just want to pass the test and not learn anything go somewhere else.

New Ryders Publishers are one of the best publishers of technical books I've ever found. The information is easy to read and understand, the directions are step by step in many cases and there isn't a lot of guess work required. They use actual screen graphics that make it easy to follow along. I'm a CNA instructor and use this book all the time and recommend it to my students.

IPv6 Network Administration is an absolutely first-rate technical guide. It is refreshing to read a book that doesn't waste time by assuming the reader has no networking background. IPv6 Network Administration achieves just the right balance between history, theory, and practical application to serve the needs of administrators and interested readers. If you've been waiting for the right resource from which to learn IPv6, this book is it.

The preface, a less than useful part of many books, offers an interesting history of IPv6 development. Rather than assume IPv4 is worthless, ch 1 and 2 debate IPv4's merits; ch 1 is anti-IPv4 and ch 2 is pro-IPv4. In ch 3 we learn IPv6 details, and here the authors' writing style and judgement shines. They avoid describing every detail of IPv6, and instead summarize or present just the important parts of the protocol. This technique could have earned the book the title "Practical IPv6".

Another smart choice made by the authors involves relating IPv6 concepts in IPv4 terms, where possible and appropriate. For example, ch 3 shows how neighbor solicitation fulfills a role similar to ARP. It will be many years before any student of networking will have to ignore learning IPv4, so I appreciate authors who speak in familiar terms.

Beginning in ch 5 and elsewhere, the authors make a third excellent decision. Rather than just present a Linux command reference and a Windows command reference, they present syntax for many operating systems and networking devices. This must have taken a decent amount of research, but such level of detail makes the work accessible to a wide audience. I found the use of FreeBSD in repeated examples to be particularly appealing.

The authors are not shy about saying what works and what doesn't when IPv6 is involved. In ch 7 they present some novel ways to work around certain issues, e.g., using netcat6 for port forwarding IPv6 traffic. They even show programming examples and outline new aspects of the sockets API to handle IPv6 addressing in ch 8.

Finally, IPv6 Network Administration presents workable ways for admins to give IPv6 a try, such as 6to4 and other tunnel methods. Almost anyone with a public IP address should be able to experiment with IPv6 thanks to the book's directions. Given that I operate multiple IPv6-capable systems in my lab, I was able to test some of the book's commands using link-local addressing (described in the text).

In brief, this is a must-have book for all network administrators. Even if you never intend to deploy IPv6, you should understand it as a professional technician. As a personal observation, I see many opportunities for intruders to exploit misconfigurations, poor coding, and various complexities in IPv6 (such as the huge variety of addresses assigned to single machines). IPv6 Network Administration will help get an IPv6 network running, at least to the point where administrators can begin becoming familiar with this new network protocol.

The first book I read on IPv6 was in 97. It posited that due to the immminent exhaustion of IPv4 addresses, IPv6 was just around the corner. Well it still is. IPv4 refuses to roll over and quietly die. So what happened?

There's a slight defensive tone to this book, in explaining the delay. The Preface and the first 3 chapters give a nicely nontechnical and readable assessment of developments in the intervening years. A good synopsis of the current status of the Internet usage and how we got to this point. It discusses various limitations of IPv4 and current routing methods based on it.

The remainder of the book is far more technical. Here, the readership is clearly someone like a network programmer or developer. Yes, you can deploy IPv6 on your network. But right now, globally, we have islands of IPv6 in a sea of IPv4.

Perhaps one good thing about the delayed rollout is that the elapsed years have led to far more stringent and comprehensive planning of various facets of IPv6. My favourite is the Mobile IPv6. Around 97, mobile computing in any form was miniscule. But its massive subsequent growth, with the promise of far more to come, gave rise to Mobile IPv6. Nice. So what are we waiting for?

I'm reading both this book and _IPv6 Essentials, 2nd Ed._
Both of these books are good. but those interested in
IPv6 for OpenBSD will probably find IPv6 Essentials more
useful since this book does not mention OpenBSD at all, whereas the Essentials book
describes details of enabling optional ip6 features in OpenBSD (OpenBSD comes with
both ip4 and ip6 enabled by default) and even mentions OpenBSD
in the index.

Proofreading at OReilly is slipping. I have encountered
grammatical errors in the text that make me wonder if
English is the native language of the proofreader(s).

Also, note that O'Reilly appears to have severed
all email links to the rest of the world. The email addresses given in OReilly books no longer work,
(I tried to send this info to O'Reilly using the email address given in the book but the email bounced.)

I am an IT Administrator and we have installed SharePoint Services. The first hurdle is always training the users. I found this book to be very informative and easy to follow and therefore a good training tool. I recommend it to the our users for learning the ins and outs of Sharepoint. It leads the reader through the steps of using SharePoint. It has lots of good information for a new user in a concise format.

What can you say about SharePoint in 72 pages? Quite a lot. This tiny tome won't fit in your pocket unless you wear bigger jeans than me, but it does fit in my purse. I suppose Purse-Guide doesn't have the same ring, though.

On to business: this guide is just the core stuff you need to know if you use SharePoint Service sites from Microsoft Outlook, Excel, and Word. It teaches you how to:

Choose the type of site to create.
Create sites and workspaces.
Add members.
Change pages by adding/changing web parts.
Create PDF Libraries (!!!).
Link desktop documents to workspace copies.
Reconcile changes among users.
Review change history.
Create lists.
Build look-up tables.
Creae highly customized list data entry forms.
And a lot more.

It even has an index and an appendix for online resources. I've seen quite a few bigger user guides with less info. It doesn't cover installation and admin stuff that most users don't care about. (Warning to system administrators: you'll need a bigger book!)

I'll stop now before this review gets longer than the Purse, um...Pocket, Guide.

-- Tara

Microsoft is banking on SharePoint being a major selling point of the new version of Office. But you might be struggling to get your mind around what exactly SharePoint Office is. Jeff Webb has written a pocket guide that helps give a structure to that task... SharePoint Office Pocket Guide.

Contents: Why Use SharePoint?; Start with SharePoint; Share Meetings with Outlook; Workplaces with Excel; Document Libraries with Word; Gather Data with Lists or InfoPath; Office Version Compatibility; Online Resources; Index

A little disclosure up front... I make my living doing software development on the IBM Lotus Notes/Domino platform. This is the same ground that SharePoint is trying to stake out for their own... collaboration software. As such, I just *may* be a bit biased about the software itself. But from a book perspective, Webb does a pretty good job highlighting what SharePoint can offer. After going through the book, I at least have a mental framework as to how SharePoint works and what it takes to modify the software. I don't know how useful the book would be as a regular reference point once you've started to use the software. Some of the material seems to be high-level coverage (like the InfoPath information) that wouldn't be used once you've gone beyond the basics. And after seeing all the additional software you need to span the entire spectrum of SharePoint (FrontPage 2003, Office 2003, InfoPath 2003, Office Reader, Visual Studio.NET), it seems like you'd quickly outgrow this book. But giving it to an end-user as initial training could definitely fulfill a need...

As a quick way to figure out what it is you don't know, this book works well...

The margin notes make finding topics of interest much easier. Most middle managers like to skim read books of this nature looking for the topic they are interested in. This is a book that should be on the desk of management available for constant referral.

I have searched and searched for a good book on intranets. It explains everything and has wonderful diagrams. A must buy!

Aimed at students, managers and consultants who want a thorough overview of what an Intranet is about, `Understanding Intranets' covers in well presented chapters:

Intranet basics (definitions, applications, business case), from mainframe culture to Internet technologies (network topologies & management), the extranet option (security issues, applications), risks and mitigation strategies (security), using an intranet for quick publishing, using an intranet for information management, knowledge working, distance learning on an intranet, planning, launching a pilot project, building a business case, implementing your intranet, maintenance and evaluation, and looking further ahead.

Strengths are: the effective use of side-notes, side-bars, bulleted lists and illustrations; the broad consistent coverage of timely content; the attractive readable style; and enough guidance to actually implement useful intranets. Improvements could include reducing pagecount for the content; coverage of more advanced applications (e.g. business intelligence); a greater indication of global & sector business context; and more pointers to supporting material and further reading.

Overall I liked this book a lot, but suspect a new companion `advanced' text could bring things up to date, and offer readers more tools and insight to improve their corporate information systems.

Check out the companion website. A place to find out more about the book, read a sample chapter, and keep up-to-date on a rapidly moving field.

The book is focussed on commercial business applications for software agents - not so much technical research. Ideal for CTO's and CEO's considering agent learning functions in their corporate Intranets or applications.

This is a great book! It is a super introduction to agent technology. There is so much hype about agents around -- this book provides a coherent taxonomy of agent technologies and really explains what agents can and cannot do.

Other books I've read on agent technology are either too technical and full of mumbo-jumbo, or are marketingese and filled with content copied straight from company web sites. This book is a great mixture of technology and business that allows you to see the impact agents will make in business.

These guys have really put a lot of thought into this book!

Learning HTML is easy; appling it correctly is hard. Fortunately, this book eases the way considerably. IEEE, the pioneer in computer, network, and internet standards, have succeeded in creating the definitive web style guide. Focusing on intelligent design and ease of use rather than HTML glitz and bleeding-edge technology, the techniques in this book are essential for users who are interested in designing web pages that are based on solid standards. The writing is clear, objective and lucid. Keep it close at hand and refer to it often, for this book is meant to last.

This standard provides essential guidance to those developing web sites or creating tools for developing web sites. It deals with the entire life cycle process from requirements and design though maintenance. And it touches on issues that will improve customer satisfaction, reduce maintainers costs, and reduce legal risks.

Topics covered include: Date inclusion for maintaining, indexing (date of next update, expiration date, etc.) Including the need for 4+ year digits.

Accessibility for those with disabilities, a legal requirement for some web applications, and an improvement for most.

Design for target customer environments, and ease of use. Indexing with metadata, reducing download times, and simplifying the user experience.

International considerations in a context where the WORLD in WWW is too often forgotten. This also has legal implications.

This book is an essential reference for webmasters, web development organizations, and CIO's who are planning on using the web for significant internal or external applications. The standard defines 'conformance' for web sites and for web page generation tools. It applies to static, or dynamic pages.

From a web user's perspective, the more sites that incorporate these guidelines the easier it will be to navigate the web to locate the right information at the right time.

The author presents a pretty good sampling of how-to material (it would be difficult to get full coverage of MOSS without a multi-volume issue) but falls a bit short of what I might expect from an "Inside..." title. I would have liked to see more detail on some of the deeper architectural workings of MOSS. The author no doubt knows product extension with .NET well and provides an abundance of attention - especially to search customization development. To the author and publishers' credit, the book is targetted to a developer audience. All in all a solid effort.

Patrick does a great job giving you a firehose approach to MOSS 2007 development. I love the chapter on customizing search using the API... fantastic!