Tuesday 6 October 2009

Mashing up with SharePoint, the good, the bad and the ugly

Facebook | My Photos - TouchGraph Photos


Sadly the badges from Pipes failed all my tests on SharePoint, which is depressing because Yahoo Pipes is the best mashup tool I have ever used. The problem is that SharePoint does not like the JavaScript you use to server up pipes. So I have my pipe of Twitter posts containing the terms SharePoint and WSS but I can not put it on my WSS test machines.

Facebook | My Photos - TouchGraph Photos
Blogged with the Flock Browser

On the other hand SharePoint prefers iFrames and if you are planning on mashing up with SharePoint the best way is to create iFrames to material not blocked by your local firewalls. Firewall policy can be beyond idiotic. Blocking facebook is probably like taking Internet access away in the late 1990s or not giving staff phones.


So if you want to extend your SharePoint by linking it to the Web 2.0 collaborative revolution, thus unleashing its true potential, and you want it more than just links make sure you network allows access and RSS feeds. If they don't I suggest you ask the business why Security polices are often set in a vacum.

In a very large organisation Twitter and RSS twitter feeds surfaced via SharePoint could be a major tool in keeping the company in line with its consumer base. A shared Wikispace could link a community of experts at your firm with government staff who also form policy around your clients. SharePoint could provide a major hub for information from inside and outside your company, bringing it together with secure data on sales compared to RSS feeds of Twits or blog posts about your industry.

Come on everyone, think a little.......