There are people much better than me at following the blogs and internet traffic on SharePoint and Office 20-10 (to be pronounced, Twenty Ten) but whilst most of the detailed SharePoint information is due to be released at SharePoint Conference in October my reading of the office 2010 information is starting to strongly hint at some real collaboration functionality between these two 'joined at the hip' products.
Document collaboration
Co-Authoring is one of them which whilst being available on a network shared stand-alone office 20-10 file, co-authoring will show it's real worth when a document is shared on a SharePoint platform, just like Office 2003/2007.
Ownership of the document is going to be the key to successful collaboration in SharePoint 2010, which is very cool as taking FULL responsibility for a document on the network means better search, tracking and versioning for everyone else!
Previously we have the great SharePoint gift of locking a document for editing which provided control of content but now, 'in effect', you do not need to lock a document and restrict access. This is truly serious Electronic Document Management Software, and certainly not something that you'd find in some Free Document Management Software downloadable from the internet!
Simultaneous document editing
If the implications of the various blogs are right then a document shared on a SharePoint platform can be edited by ANY collaborators at ANY-TIME, even simultaneously. This will result in the owner having the need to assess the collaborated work and performing a final edit... providing real ownership of the work.
At the same time as they ensure that all edits are aligned to the document it is not a great stretch to ensure the metadata is up to date, keywords added, taxonomy labels are relevant which has always been an extra task after the final read and often not completed.
OK... why is this exciting?
Changing habits
For years since EasyWriter (IBM’s first word-processing software at the launch of the PC) or WordPerfect we have been writing a document and printing it or emailing it. Most of these sit in Folders on a network drive and could form key parts of the Corporate knowledge base, but often never get seen again. These are the habits that SharePoint implementers have been trying to change whenever the project hits the roll out stage.
Enabling this change is always the hardest part of successful SharePoint. But people will change if they see real value, to themselves. Locking out a document was a cool tool for those who see the value of team work, but it required following a process which in 20-10 should be easier and supportive of new document storage policies in the future.
Conclusion
If this is an example of the new functionality in SharePoint and Office 20-10 then the most difficult bit of the SharePoint project (the roll out and take-up) may have taken a step for the better... maybe there is hope for the world yet?
Steve is due to attend the SharePoint Conference in October, look out for his daily Blogs of the event as it unfolds.
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Next Steps:
If you would like help with your SharePoint implementation, or would just like to talk to a SharePoint expert then please contact me, I'll be glad to help:
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Many thanks - Steve
