helloitsliam

So recently I had the opportunity to speak at a SharePoint Conference in Baltimore. As with any session that you give there are generally a load of questions that arise at the end. This session was the same except I was quite surprised as to the amount of people that had not rolled out "My Sites" within their organization. This post is going to be a recap of some of things that were presented and also my thoughts on the whole "My Site" concept.

So what is a "My Site"?

The standard answers could be the following:

• A central location for you to view and manage all of your documents, tasks, links, calendar, colleagues, and other personal information.
• A way for other users to learn about you and your areas of expertise, current projects, and colleague relationships.
• A place for content providers to target information to you based on the information that you and your organization provide in your profile, such as your title, department, and interests.
• A place for administrators to present personalized Web sites.

I want to add the following:

• A place to securely store and create private content, such as documents
• Your own personal storage on the Intranet / Internet or Extranet site
• "Your internal marketing tool"
• "Your brand!"

Often people say that "My Sites" are similar to Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace or even Bebo site. To some extent this is kind of correct. Some examples could be the following:

For me the "My Site" is slightly more controlled than the standard social networking sites, and is not as flexible as these due to the limited functionality that comes out of the box for social networking. That is not to say it cannot be done or even tweaked tom work in a similar way.

So what are the core features?

A "My Site" is really a customised team site and as such as some of the standard features that you would expect from any SharePoint site. In addition there are some very specific controls and web parts that only function within the "My Site" framework.

These are just of the some key features that are available within the "My Site". This stills gives you great flexibility when rolling out the sites or modifying your own.

Can "My Sites" be branded?

Yes they can, they are not the easiest to change as they work slightly different to a normal team site. There are some great articles out there about this topic. To summarise the options:

• Themes
  • In built themes
• Master Pages
  • In built / custom pages
• Feature Stapling
  • Supported way of global branding on sites
• Content Editor Web Part
  • Consume External Content using technologies such as Facebook
  • Override CSS / JavaScript / jQuery
• Custom HTTP Handler

Here are some links for further information about either branding or My Site specific branding:

http://sharepointbergen.blogspot.com/2007/04/customizing-my-site.html

http://blogs.msdn.com/bgeoffro/archive/2007/11/12/branding-a-moss-corporate-intranet-portal-part-1b-branding-methods-by-scope-and-scenario.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/bgeoffro/archive/2007/11/12/branding-a-moss-corporate-intranet-portal-part-1a-high-level-overview-terminology-and-approach.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/bgeoffro/archive/2007/11/12/branding-a-moss-corporate-intranet-portal-introduction.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/bgeoffro/archive/2007/11/12/branding-a-moss-corporate-intranet-portal-part-2-site-system-pages.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/bgeoffro/archive/2007/11/12/branding-a-moss-corporate-intranet-portal-part-3-layouts-pages.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/03/22/customizing-moss-2007-my-sites-within-the-enterprise.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/sridhara/archive/2007/05/19/customizing-mysite-in-moss-2007.aspx

http://www.brandingsharepoint.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=40

How does the "My Site" work?

I suppose the first thing to learn here is what actually happens when you click the "My Site" link,

• User Browses to http://MySiteURL/
• Redirected to http://MySiteURL/personal/userid/default.aspx
• Authorization takes place within shared service provider, then either a HttpResponse.Redirect to either "/_layouts/MySite.aspx" or redirect to "/_layouts/AccessDenied.asp"
• The "/_layouts/MySite.aspx" will then decide whether to redirect you or create a new "My Site"

You then arrive at http://MySiteURL/personal/userid/default.aspx

So now we know how we get the right page what is the "My Site" made up of? Well the site itself as mentioned previously is a team site but slightly modified. The site has two pages that are in effect the presentation of the site; they are "Public.aspx" and "Private.apsx".

The private view is really only for you as the owner, it allows you to add web parts, consume content etc as with any other site. It is only visible to you as the owner.

The public site is where it all happens; this is where you get the chance to present yourself to the business. The key here is that this can be viewed by anyone.

What is the key to the "My Site"?

The key is "Findability"; the only way they will work is if the content is fresh and relevant. Some base guidelines are:

1. Add interesting details
   1. Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Blogs / Social Networking
2. Be Professional – this is not Facebook!!
3. Seek new colleagues – build your network
4. Populate it fully – the key to a great people search is the details you add
5. Keep it up to date – just as with any other web site keep if fresh with content
6. Become a "My Site" champion
7. Review your profile – get a trusted colleague / manager to check it
8. Consume other sources of data
1. BDC integration

So if it is that easy to do why have we not deployed them?

There are many reasons why, a few that I hear quite often are:

• Complex to Manage
• Confusion as to what they are for
• Too Much of a change
• No Administrative Control
• Not as "sexy" as popular social networking sites
• Not as "user friendly" as popular social networking sites

So last but not least, what are the best practice ways to deploy?

I am not saying that this is the complete list, but over the past few years, blog reading and general ideas the following seems to work:

• Understand your Business Objectives
• Automate Content in the My Site
• Let users decide what / how they wish to use it
• Let users decide if they want a picture and what it is
• Define profile attributes that you wish to expose
• Define what "skills" are acceptable – pre-populate
• Provide Guidelines for My Site Use
• Encourage Business (CEO, CIO, CTO, Directors, Thought Leaders) users to Blog
• Pilot the system (small group, cross business units)
• DON'T JUST PICK IT!!

Also remember the following:

• My Site, actually they are collaboration sites (treat then the same)
• Content Storage Database – define multiple content databases
• Storage Quotas – Define in the beginning
• Performance – Same procedures as any other site in SharePoint
• Policies – Create Templates / Policy for Branding
• Manageability – Ensure dedicated Web App / AAM and Host Headers
• Content Sources for Dedicated My Site Searching
• Depending on business Pre-Provision all the My Sites

This post is not meant to be the definitive set of rules and guidelines for "My Sites" but hopefully it may encourage those of you out there to roll them out and to use them. As mentioned in the beginning, "My Sites" are all about making a brand for you as a person. Remember this may be a tool that helps your career progress as the business now know who you are.