Well, this is disappointing:  Due to a lack of sufficient sales, Paul and I made the difficult decision earlier this morning to cancel the Toronto stop for his SharePoint Governance and Information Architecture Master Class. 

We thought and schemed about ways we could keep pushing this inevitable decision off, but in the end time played a factor and not having certainty that we’d have enough people to make the event worthwhile was going to play havoc with his itinerary and ability to secure reasonable travel and accommodation arrangements.

Boo.

What Went Wrong?

I’d love to know myself.  Paul and I worked our networks to drive traffic to register.  We tweeted, blogged, cajoled colleagues, pitched the local user group and talked to customers.  No dice.

According to my EventBrite site stats we garnered over 300 page views, and while a bit lower than I’d like even that number wasn’t a wide enough catchment to get interested parties to sign up.  And as I wrote yesterday, that really surprises me because I know how important the topic is:  Governance is *huge* for the enterprise as they are just *now* coming to grips with the reality of hundreds of failed SharePoint implementations.  Ditto for small and medium sized organizations.

They all know that they want to be in some happy future state where SharePoint enables them to be more productive collaborators and information hunter/gatherers but haven’t the foggiest how to achieve it.  Paul’s course provides this guidance – and while it does take some hard work, it’s not that difficult and can be a lot of fun.   It’s our loss to have missed out on the opportunity to have him come to Toronto.

Not All Bad News

Those that have registered for the event will have received a refund notice from the EventBrite site and you can contact me regarding any questions you may have.  Now, it’s not all entirely gloom & doom:  There is an outside chance that Paul may still want to make a trip up to do a guest appearance at a local SharePoint user group.  This is still in the envisioning/planning phase (HA!) – if it comes together, you’ll hear about it here and on Twitter.

Paul has said that it’s unlikely he’ll be back this way (Toronto) any time soon – but there is always an opportunity for the future.  I’ll be working with him over the coming months to see what we can do differently to try and get his Master Class here and in front of an audience of the willing!

For folks who follow me on Twitter, you already know that registration for the Toronto SPIA Master Class with Paul Culmsee is now open (see here:  http://spiatoronto.eventbrite.com).  Early Bird tickets are now available for $1395 CDN – there are only 10 seats available at this rate and only until March 31!

This is an exceptional value for two days’ deep-dive into Information Architecture.  Here’s what Paul Culmsee will be covering:

Module 1:  SharePoint Governance f-Laws 1–17

• Why users don’t know what they want
• The danger of platitudes
• Why IT doesn’t get it
• The adaptive challenge – how to govern SharePoint for the hidden organization
• The true forces of organizational chaos
• Wicked problems and how to spot them
• The myth of “best practices” and how to determine when a “practice” really is best

Module 2: The Shared Understanding Toolkit – Part 1

• Introduction of Seven Sigma Understanding Toolkit for addressing the SharePoint Governance blindspot 

Module 3: The Shared Understanding Toolkit – Part 2

• Extending the concepts introduced in Part I for creating a governance plan that will make sense and be read by people.

Module 4:  Information Architecture Trends, Lessons Learned and Key SharePoint Challenges

• The hidden costs of poor information management
• Lessons learned from other organizations in their attempts at structuring their IA
• Review of technical, strategic and organizational challenges for SharePoint

Module 5:  Information Organization and Facets of Collaboration

• Deep-dive into IA structure and organization
• Enterprise collaboration
• Common IA mistakes and avoidance strategies

Module 6:  Information Seeking, Search and Metadata

• Understanding how users seek information and how they manifest in patterns of use
• Strategies for improving SharePoint search and navigation
• Examining taxonomy and metadata and SharePoint 2010 managed metadata

Module 7:  Shared Understanding and Visual Presentation – Documenting Your Information Architecture

• How to communicate your Information Architecture in visual or written form

It’s true:  The John Cleese of SharePoint governance and architecture, Paul Culmsee, will be my guest this May 12–13 as he brings his SharePoint Information Architecture Master Class to Toronto!  The CleverWorkarounds blogger and Seven Sigma impresario recently reached out to me on Twitter to see if I’d be interested in having a Canadian leg of his spring tour stop by – of course I agreed!

I’ve known Paul for several years through blog exchanges, and if you don’t know who he is you really should read some of his classic blog posts on governance and architecture such as Why Do SharePoint Projects Fail? and Things Your Mother Never Told You About SharePoint (which featured the classic IKEA closet organizer metaphor for structuring SharePoint content).  Paul brings a really refreshing, common-sense (and often hilarious) approach to understanding why SharePoint is so great at letting us really mess things up quickly, and how we can wrestle control back into our hands with some good ideas around governance and architecture.

When I was working with MCS, this was a Numero Uno concern for every enterprise:  They all knew they needed to structure their SharePoint portals to take advantage of its content management and information architecture features, but often didn’t know where to start.  The internal guidance from Microsoft, while a good start, was quite dense, abstract and sterile and always needed to be hacked to fit the organization.  More often than not, I found myself relying on Paul’s blog posts to help shape the advice I would give customers – often to great effect.

This is why I am so thrilled to have Paul bring his talents in-person to Toronto – it’s an incredible opportunity for Consultants, BAs and Architects to benefit from his experience and interact with him in a small venue.  I’m hoping to restrict the class to no more than 30 attendees.

I’m working on confirming a venue, which I am working to keep in the downtown core so as to make it easily accessible by the widest range of folks.  A site is being set up to handle bookings (approx. $1600 CDN for two full days of classes, a manual and Paul’s undivided attention) and provide more info on the itinerary.  Stay tuned as I will be releasing these details very soon!  Here’s a sneak peak of what to expect!

SharePoint Governance and Information Architecture Master Class

A Golden Opportunity for Two Full Days of Real World Examples, Knowledge and Techniques

Are you a Business Analyst or SharePoint Architect who needs to deal with the hard question of "Will users use the system?"

Have you tried SharePoint and failed (thus experiencing the pain and need for which it is named) ?

Are you a Strategic Management Consultant or anyone who is looking for something where so far, the published material hasn't quite done it for you up till now?

Are you an IT Manager who genuinely wants to hear real techniques behind abstract concepts like "user engagement" and "buy-in" ?

Most people understand that deploying SharePoiont is much more than getting it installed.  Despite this, current SharePoint governance documentation abounds in service delivery aspects.

However, just becuase your system is rock-solid, stable, well-documented and governed through good process, there is absolutely no guarantee of success.  Similarly, if Information Architecture for SharePoint was as easy as putting together lists, libraries and metadata the right way, then why doesn't Microsoft publish the obvious best practices?

In fact, the secret to a successful SharePoint project is an area that the governance documentation barely touches.

This Master Class pinpoints the criticial success factors for SharePoint Governance and Information Architecture and rectifies this blind spot.  Paul Culmsee's style takes an ironic and subversive view on how SharePoint Governance really works within organizations while presenting a model and the tools necessary to get it right.

Drawing on inspiration from many diverse sources, disciplines and case studies, Paul Culmsee has distilled the "what" and "how" of governance down to a simple and accessible, yet rigorous and comprehensive set of tools and methods that organizations, large and small, can utilize to achieve the level of commitment required to see SharePoint become a successful part of your enterprise.

Registration Details Coming Soon!

I just got a ping from StackOverflow on a query I posted there when I was first wrasslin’ with SharePoint 2010’s really awful claims authentication scheme back in early May. Mike Vallotton responded with a link to his blog where he’s written up a three entry how-to guide for configuring claims and getting a custom login form stood up.

Well worth the read as he bears the scars of one who has been there – his first paragraph gives you the tenor (emphasis mine):

Setting up Claims Authentication in Sharepoint proved to be a difficult process. There are a huge variety of configuration options, and unless the planets align and you set everything properly, it simply won’t work.

I’ve covered this rather extensively here, including my frustration with three web apps behaving differently based on their URLs and getting a rather unsatisfying explanation after running it up to Premier Support and then on to an Escalation Engineer.  A really troubling issue is that Microsoft and the PG team, for whatever reason, decided to go opaque on providing clear, concise documentation on what was touted as a first-class feature for SharePoint 2010.  Almost all knowledge you will ever glean on FBA/CBA is going to be on a blog, some posts likely written when 2010 was in beta.

If you’re setting up Claims Based Auth, you’re in for a world of pain, son.  Best to strap on your helmet and just dive in.  Accept that you’re going to be banging your head against a wall for some time.  And take solace in that there are folks like Mike Vallotton who have written about their experiences so you don’t have to.

Yeah, I knew this would be the case:  I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop, and via the SharePoint PG’s Tweets, it was confirmed earlier today.  So here’s the juicy bit from the PG Blog:

Please note the important change from the 3:06PM update to this blog post.  We originally stated that SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 did not require the workaround to be applied, however, we have recently discovered through testing that a variant of the issue does affect SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and also requires extra steps in the workaround for SharePoint Server 2010 (Steps 5-9).  Customers with these versions should refer to the relevant workaround below.  We will continue to keep this post updated with the latest guidance.

The workaround involves changing your error page .aspx and your web.configs and for 2007 an httpHandler.  Pretty serious stuff – ultimately, it’s about configuring your sites and farms correctly.

For more information:

Microsoft Security Advisory (2416728) - Vulnerability in ASP.NET Could Allow Information Disclosure

Security Advisory 2416728 Released – Microsoft Security Response Center Blog

Understanding the ASP.NET Vulnerability – Microsoft Security Research & Defense Blog

Important: ASP.NET Security Vulnerability – Scott Guthrie’s Blog

Frequently Asked Questions about the ASP.NET Security Vulnerability – Scott Guthrie’s Blog