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Cracking Open the SharePoint Fortress

Posted by timothy on from the file-formats-rule-the-world dept.

dreemteem writes with this excerpt from ComputerWorld UK:"SharePoint is a brilliant success, for a couple of reasons. In a way, it's Microsoft's answer to GNU/Linux: cheap and simple enough for departments to install without needing to ask permission, it has proliferated almost unnoticed through enterprises to such an extent that last year SharePoint Sales were $1.3 billion. But as well as being one of Microsoft's few new billion-dollar hits, it has one other key characteristic, hinted at in the Wikipedia entry above: it offers an effortless way for people to put content into the system, but makes it very hard to get it out because of its proprietary lock-in. This makes it a very real threat to open source. For example, all of the gains made in the field of open document standards — notably with ODF — are nullified if a company's content is trapped inside SharePoint." The article offers a slice of hope for getting around that, though, in the form of a new API for Google Sites which can slurp the data back out.

7 of 275 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Just wondering... by Akido37 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can't you read? SharePoint is a FORTRESS.

  2. Re:bah, sharepoint. by nkh · · Score: 4, Funny

    I've never used a worse CMS system

    Me neither, but I kinda like the way SharePoint spits random pages in Italian sometimes, it's like I'm a member of the Cosa Nostra or something :D

  3. Re:This is great news if by alinuxguruofyore · · Score: 1, Funny

    Isn't the Data Liberation group the same group that kidnapped Patty Hearst?

  4. Re:This is great news if by xouumalperxe · · Score: 2, Funny

    Isn't the Data Liberation group the same group that kidnapped Patty Hearst?

    Data wants to be free! People? Not so much.

  5. Re:bah, sharepoint. by Inda · · Score: 2, Funny

    We had the same searching problems at our company with Shitpoint.

    So we spent more money on an excellent 3rd Party search engine.

    They'll be sending us all on expensive FrontPage courses next... On wait, they did that already. I got a certificate btw. I can now program web sites. I can even write forms :p

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    This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
  6. Re:Micro Google Lockin? by Jesus_666 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't worry. Your sensitive data is stricty a secret between you and Google's marketing division. And their shareholders and strategic partners.

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    USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
  7. Re:bah, sharepoint. by gbjbaanb · · Score: 2, Funny

    it's my job to interface the pile of mess with other COTS products by building convoluted ETL processes

    Oh man, I feel for you, I really do.