Six Ways to Improve the Content Contributor Experience in SharePoint

Content drives websites, so making content contributors comfortable in the editing environment is essential to the successful adoption of a SharePoint WCM experience.

Here are just a few ideas for simple improvements that can make a world of difference in adoptability. 

1. Design for Both Contributors and Visitors from the Start

For any Web CMS project, there are two end user audiences to consider: regular site visitors and content contributors. Approach the project with those two audiences in mind — not as an afterthought. While designers typically focus on the visitor experience, designers and developers need to work together closely to construct usable experiences for content contributors.

2. Customize Contribution Experiences

SharePoint allows a lot of flexibility in customizing the editing experience. Not every experience requires extensive customization, but many key experiences do.

Sometimes this means normalizing the experience so that the content contributor doesn’t have to worry about what piece of content goes where or how to format it consistently. Sometimes it means using form-based editing instead of in-context editing. Sometimes it means automating some sequence of native SharePoint capabilities. And sometimes it means creating custom editing controls, custom site actions or specialized web parts. Successful customizations will save time and simplify decisions for content contributors.

3. Remove Extraneous Options Where Possible

When creating a page in SharePoint within a site’s “News” section, it’s unlikely that you’ll need to choose a “Product Description” layout. So why is it even an option?

Removing contextually irrelevant page layouts, ribbon options, site actions and other such options will help contributors to create the right content using the right tools in the right place, not to mention that it’ll help keep the branding police off your back. These simple configuration changes in SharePoint can dramatically simplify and improve the page creation experience.

4. Plan a Clear Content Reuse Strategy

Content can be reused in SharePoint in a variety of ways (CQWP, metadata, custom lists, etc.) and can make small contributions go a long way. Automatically surface teaser content on landing pages, blog entries on your home page and “related” content on any page. 

Content contributors will be grateful if portions of the site effectively maintain themselves. Just remember to be clear about where the content originates (don’t make them hunt for the place to make a change!). With a thoughtful content reuse strategy, content contributors can feel like they’re making a real impact on the overall site.

5. Provide On-Page Guidance

Adding content to a SharePoint page experience should never be a guessing game for content editors. Clearly labeled fields with brief descriptive and/or instructive text can help the editor know what content is expected, how to use metadata tagging or why certain fields are required.

6. Use Homegrown Training Materials

All content editors should receive some basic level of SharePoint training, but generic training materials have real limitations. If you have customized the look and feel of your SharePoint site or have followed any of the above contribution customizations, the editing experience will differ from that reflected in the generic training materials.

 

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Source : cmswire[dot]com

Jive Software to Drive Engagement with Badgeville Game Mechanics

Jive Software has announced the integration of Badgeville game mechanics into its social collaboration platform, an effort to increase engagement and adoption among those using the system on a daily basis.

It's not that Jive isn't so appealing to people, but by offering rewards for sharing information, for example, companies have another tool to make new workflows a bit less painful to introduce.

Rewards and Reputations

Simple psychology tells us people like to be acknowledged for the work they do. They like knowing the work they do matters. Game mechanics or gaming principles give people instant feedback and rewards for performing desired behaviors. With Badgeville's system of leader boards, levels, achievements and of course badges, Jive Software customers have an inventive way to make collaborating a bit more interesting.

Rewards for filling out a personal profile are a popular gamification technique.

Jive Integrates Box File Sharing

Jive also announced a new Box file sharing feature called Box Embed. It gives access in Jive to Box features via an API. Box files can be up and downloaded from Jive, documents can sync across both systems and there is also a cross system search feature. Social collaboration always becomes much more productive with document sharing abilities, and with Box, a powerful ally is added to an already impressive Jive system.

Gartner researchers again pointed to Jive as a leader in Social Software for the Workplace in early October. Jive ecosystem and vision for social were cited as strengths.

Two of the newest social tools Jive showed off before this week were its intelligent activity streams and Jive Anywhere integration. Both of these features kicked off during the summer, and they are no doubt part of why Gartner continues to rate Jive so high. 

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

EU Issues Cloud Strategy, Aims to Add 2.5 Million New Jobs

The European Commission (EC) has its collective heads in the clouds — and sees millions of new jobs there — thanks to a new strategy designed to help increase the adoption of cloud computing across the continent.

The strategy,  "Unleashing the Potential of Cloud Computing in Europe" aims to create 2.5 million new jobs for the European Union (EU) member nations — through greater adoption of cloud computing technologies. The agency says that the increase could lead to an annual boost of EUR 10 billion, or about 1 percent of the EU GDP, by 2020.

Cloud Partnership

In order to reach that promised land in the sky, the strategy recommends several actions. These include the identification of technical standards that help cut through the current mishmash related to interoperability, data portability and reversibility.

It also calls for EU-wide certification for “trustworthy” cloud providers, development of model “safe and fair” cloud computing contracts with Service Level Agreements and the creation of what it calls a European Cloud Partnership.

The Cloud Partnership would be between EU member countries and leading companies in the industry, and it would use the public sector’s buying power to boost the European cloud market. The strategy notes that 20 percent of all IT spending in the EU runs through the public sector, and recommends that focusing this market power could “boost the chances for European cloud providers to grow to achieve a competitive scale, and deliver cheaper and better eGovernment.”

Cyber Security Next

In a statement accompanying the strategy, EU Vice President Neelie Kroes described cloud computing  as “a game changer for our economy.” Without a concerted action by the EU, she said, “we will stay stuck in national fortresses and miss out on billions in economic gains.”

The cloud strategy is part of a series of efforts by the EU to stimulate the digital economy and create a digital single market for member nations. In January, the EU proposed a comprehensive reform of the 1995 data protection rules, in order to strengthen online privacy rights and decrease the administrative costs of different privacy implementations among the 27 member states.

In the next few months, the EU is expected to propose a European Strategy for Cyber Security. In 2010, the U.S. federal government, in a move to promote cloud computing in the government, issued a “cloud-first” policy that directed its agencies to use cloud-based solutions whenever feasible.

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

OpenCms 8.5 Released: Adds CMIS Standards, Solr Integration

Alkacon Software's OpenCms released version 8.5, a major update that includes inline editing, Solr integration and adoption of CMIS standards.

It's been a year since OpenCms version 8.0.2 came out, and that was only an incremental update. For those eager to view the latest version, there are free demos available and because it is open source, the entire system is ready for download now.

Major Update

One of the main hightlights of OpenCms 8.5 is the inline editor, an edit in place option that speeds up quick page edits with a simplified, non-technical interface. Additionally, the form based content editor, the more formal tool, has been rebuilt to be faster to use. When content is saved into a page, there is no longer a confirmation required as the info is saved directly.

Inline editing allows for quick edits without going through the dashboard.

There's a new undo option for all changes done on a page that hasn't been published, and an option to edit content directly from the clipboard favorites. Even the text editor itself is new (based on CodeMirror). Version 8.5 is backward compatible to all prior 8.x and 7.x versions. For those using OpenCms Enterprise Extensions, to use OpenCms 8.5, OCEE v3.5 is required. OCEE must be updated first to run the new OpenCms version.

CMIS Standard + Solr Integration

Solr integration is good news for enterprises who are going the open source route and want to include a solid search infrastructure. As for the included CMIS standard, it shows the OpenCms community is serious about adopting accepted practices regarding document management using Web protocols. 

CMIS is a valuable tool for creating interoperability between data repositories, and its adoption here is important. It's all the more relevant becuase there is already talks underway to adopt a new standard called the Web Experience Management Initiative. 

This new OASIS initiative kicked off discussions in April, and as it moves forward, more vendors will no doubt take notice. The OpenCms community is an active one, so if they aren't already following along, they likely will be as WEMI gets closer to adoption. 

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com