Dinner with Steven Vore

Tonight I had the chance to finally meet up with fellow-Xboxer, Steven Vore. At first, I thought we'd end up talking about Xbox and maybe blogging, and was pleased when we had a great conversation about kids (his two boys are about 5 years older than my two boys), business culture (working for a big ole company like Microsoft or HP has its advantages and disadvantages), communicating with team members and building trust, and working with corporate IT to build LOB apps. But probably the most fun for me (believe it or not), was some a bit of SharePoint.

One of the reasons I've been slow blogging for the past six weeks is that I've been immersed completely in trying to figure out the intricacies of SharePoint. Steven explained that he's trying to do some of the same things I'm trying to do (set up better employee communications, collaboration, "KM"). It's amazing to find people out there who I meet because of one thing (in this case Xbox), and get to know really well because of another (similar jobs, same struggles, same passions).

I think people are more similar than they are different. And whether CMC (computer mediated communications--online) helps expose more about a person than they would face-to-face, or just allow people to more easily find others like them I don't know.

Anyway, after a day of prepping the room for hosting 200 Xbox and PC Retail sales folks in our two day session later in the week, we're ready for the fun to begin...

Comments

[Leo Nelson]

Congratulations on the million Xbox Live members - I'm sure the marketing group had a big part to reaching this goal

[Anne Stanton]

I am a huge fan of SharePoint. In fact Microsoft Midwest has a great site that you can play with a bit. Eric Ligman, Small Business Manager of Microsoft US Central Region has been wonderful. Did I mention I am co-moderator of an international group of leaders of Microsoft Small Business Server user groups? Our leaders group share tips and tricks for supporting and growing local Microsoft consultant and/or user groups.

I plan to roll out Sharepoint for The Norwich Group (not because of intranet issues) but because I work with A LOT of partners and I need to easily track and share information with them.

Tips appreciated, Anne

[paul]

John, here are some great SharePoint resources;
http://www.sharepointblogs.com/
http://msd2d.com/default_section.aspx?section=sharepoint

We're starting up a SharePoint User Group here in NJ this week, maybe we can hook-up via Live Meeting when we've got some good content.
Collaboration makes us all look good!

[a reader]

John, any comment from the XBox marketing group on the Jadakiss sponsorship?