Microsoft SharePoint Services 3.0
Collaboration using Team Sites, Blogs, Wikis and Document Libraries
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is a set of collaboration and productivity tools such as team sites, document libraries, shared lists, blogs, wikis and discussion groups.
Collaboration is the process of working in a team on an activity such as customer service, projects, marketing or sales. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS) is set of collaboration and productivity tools from Microsoft that enable a team store and share information related to their activity. This is a web application that works well for any size business and provides a number of features often only available in content management software.
Many businesses will use WSS as an internet. There are a number of out of the box templates that come with WSS the will help you get a site up and running in no time at all. These include team sites, document libraries, wikis, blogs and meeting workspaces and more. One of the biggest benefits to WSS is that employees geographically dispersed can easily work together. Another benefit is the integration with MS Office software.
Team Workspace: A team workspace is a number of templates that together provide a standard team workspace. It includes lists for contacts, announcements, a calendar, a discussion group, and a shared documents folder. You can easily remove any of these components or add new ones, such as a blog, a wiki, more document libraries, and many other out of the box or custom build lists. Microsoft provides free another 40 standard workspace templates such as a project workspace on their website.
Document Library: A document library is a standard set of templates for storing and working on documents. It enables users to add documents, check in and check out documents and edit and delete documents. You can specify versioning of documents and can create workflow rules for documents. In addition, you can include all of the lists and components mentioned above.
Blogs and wikis: By now everyone knows what a blog is. WSS provides a blog template that enables a business to get a blog up and running quickly. Microsoft has just recently added the ability for people to submit anonymous comments to a blog entry. A wiki is a collaborative site that allows multiple users to create and manage information on a topic or series of topics.
Security: WSS Administrators can easily set up sites with access only allowed to certain individuals. They can grant an individual read-only access, edit access or administrator access. This enables a business create secure workspaces for confidential activities, or more open workspaces like marketing materials, social clubs, HR employee benefit information. Security can be setup through Active Directory or an internal WSS LDAP directory.
An extensible infrastructure: A business can easily set up a WSS environment on a single server to start and grow the site by adding additional servers to the infrastructure. Also, a development team can extend the WSS environment by customizing the views of current pages, libraries and lists and by adding new lists, pages through the development of web parts.
WSS can be used as is. But for many businesses it provides the foundation for creating web-based applications and sites like portals for internets and intranets. Bundled with Microsoft Windows Server 2003, there’s no added charge to for WSS – you simply install and use it. WSS 3.0 is a great improvement from its previous version providing many new collaboration features and functionality that a business can get up and running quickly. If you are a Microsoft user, this software is a must have.
