SharePoint Conference 2006 – Day 4

OK, the final day of the "public" event.  Here’s my notes…

1. Knowledge Network is "People" Search on steroids.  Knowledge Network adds an entire new dimension to Enterprise Search and collaboration that is going to help people connect with the "right" people much faster in the future.  This one is going to be huge in enterprises and in my opinion represents some serious thought leadership in the field of search.
2. The Knowledge Network has both a client and a server component.  The client component is installed on the user’s PC and will then scan their email to generate a set of keywords.  The user is then presented with the keywords and they have the ability to decide which keywords, and even what level of availability of the keywords they wish to publish.  As an example, you can choose to publish the keyword to All, My Business Unit, My Team, My Manager, Only Me or None.  The great thing about the keywords is that KN unlike other people search solutions which rely on the user to add data to properties about themselves, does not require the user to do that.  By simply checking the the content of their correspondence, KN can determine what you are an expert in and what you work with most frequently.  The algorithms are pretty complex, but believe me, the functionality is simply awesome!
3. KN allows users to very quickly determine who knows what, who knows whom etc.
4. KN fully integrates with MOSS 2007 and My Sites.
5. KN results are ranked by social distance, expertise and relationship relevance such as frequency of communication with the person, the time since the last communication etc.
6. Exclusions are fully configurable on the server for KN.
7. SharePoint site memberships are also used in generating keywords in the profiles.
8. Active Directory properties and Distribution List memberships are also used in keyword generation.
9. KN also features On Demand Anonymous Brokering that allows users to make their knowledge available upon request.  A good example would be a sales guy who doesn’t want to publish all his connections.  He could then opt in for the Anonymous Brokering option.  If someone is looking for a contact that he has, he can be sent an email with the request.  He will have the ability to accept and help in which case he becomes known to the requester or deny in which case the requester is notified that the anonymous person declined the request.
10. In the KN AB you can even set your level of participation by selecting the number of requests you’re willing to receive in a week.
11. KN works with both Exchange 2003 and 2007.
12. Blog:  http://blogs.msdn.com/kn
13. Recycle Bin does not work for Sites, but works for all site content.  There is a Web Delete event that can be bound to and is fully extensible when a site is deleted.
14. SMIGRATE is no more.  We now use STSADM -o export and STSADM -o import.
15. Web UI based backup solution is now provided.  The option for both full land incremental backups is provided.
16. Search indexes can even be backed up.

Later
C