SharePoint Joel's SharePoint Land

Product Review: MetaVis Information Manager – Simplify SharePoint Content Management

Joel Oleson — Fri, 25 May 2012 02:38:25 GMT

Overview

The promise of SharePoint is that document management is a major improvement over file shares and other content management platforms. It provides rich metadata for search, filtering, views, and much more. But the reality is that while SharePoint is an incredible platform for displaying data, doing that initial classification is a real chore. The burden is often on having the original author add the metadata. As a result, this process was often overlooked.

Most migrations (regardless of document source) perpetuate this problem. It's copy and paste (or run some copy process) and essentially dump the data into SharePoint document libraries without thought for adding whatever metadata might have existed in the source. Even from one library to another in SharePoint, care is often neglected to preserve the rich metadata.

MetaVis Technologies offers an answer to this problem with MetaVis Information Manager, a software solution that gives USERS versus SharePoint administrators more power to classify and manage content. Now users can bulk upload, bulk classify, add metadata or reclassify, add updated or new values across multiple fields, and approve/reject in bulk. With Information Manager you can enable authors to manage the hundreds or thousands of documents they are responsible for.

Information Manager is installed as a SharePoint site collection feature and shows up as a separate tab in the SharePoint ribbon:

Figure 1: MetaVis Information Manager Tab Integration into the Ribbon

After an administrator has installed the Information Manager feature on the server, any site collection administrator can activate it or have it activated as part of the provisioning process allowing content managers or site collection administrators to leverage a number of content management features right from the ribbon.

The Use Cases

There are a number of use cases for Information Manager:

Getting files into the system with the right metadata (bulk Upload).
Moving files around libraries, sites and site collection with the metadata in tact --or adjusted as necessary (Copy).
Re-classifying/ tagging files -- changing content types, tags, document properties, etc.. (Classify/ClassifyAll).
Bulk Approval of files or list items (Approve/Reject).

Bulk Upload

The out-of-the-box multi-file upload interface in SharePoint is limited to 50MB and 100 files, which can really add a lot of time to getting your data uploaded. By default, most of the critically important metadata on the files will fail to be captured into SharePoint, as new dates are added for core file attributes. To get files into SharePoint using Information Manager, you have the Bulk Upload feature. It allows you to bulk upload files from the file system, whether on a file share or from the desktop and map core properties to new or existing content types and columns. This feature enables to you to automatically add metadata, based on folder structures and hierarchies that you would otherwise have to manually add, risking errors.

Figure 2: MetaVis Information Manager - Bulk Upload

Bulk Copy

With Information Manager you can do a bulk copy and preserve metadata across sites. This requires that the feature be on across both site collections, but allows the content types and metadata to be preserved. Wow! What a pain that's been in the past. The bulk copy operation allows one to select the files they are interested in moving, then select the columns and map the content types across. Preserving metadata or adding additional metadata, based on one attribute and mapping it to another, enables scenarios that otherwise are very time consuming. Whether the need is consolidation or splitting up, moving or copying sites or content, this process can keep the data that's most important.

Figure 4: MetaVis Information Manager: Classify - Content Type Mapping Column Mapping

Classify/ClassifyAll

Now that you've got your data in the system, you likely have on-going tasks for document owners to add additional metadata or change it. Maybe you've added a new content type or need to move a number files to a new content type. Maybe you need to add new keywords to a number of files or add new properties altogether. In addition, it's important to note that any investment in creating these new mappings can be saved as classification templates for future use.

Figure 3: MetaVis Information Manager - Bulk Classify

Approve/Reject

Another feature of Information Manager is the ability to mass approve or reject documents. If you are someone who has to review a lot of documents, then this feature is for you. It's also meant to ease the process of reviewing documents with a number of related assets (like images and other related documents). Review everything, then select them all and approve or reject as a group.

My Thoughts on My Experience with Information

Personally, I have managed sites with a lot of documents and have felt the pain, wherein if I decided to use version control, I was worried about people not checking in documents. One of the features I know I'd use is the ability to check in documents in mass. Also, some of the biggest pains with SharePoint are what happens when you start consolidating sites. Migration is a big pain. Having these tools built right into the ribbon for copying and moving content including the bulk upload option enables users to focus on the tasks of managing documents and lists the way they need to do it. What they don't have to think about are complicated migration tools.

So what's the downside?

There's not much downside really. Information Manager provides functionality to users which is on top of the functionality they already have. My only note of caution is that Information Manager includes an ActiveX brower plugin for the bulk upload feature. The plugin is what enables Information Manager to capture to the file system's NTFS properties such as created and modified, security etc for the documents to be uploaded and since most organizations are already using Internet Explorer for SharePoint (and because SharePoint's own bulk upload function uses an ActiveX Control as well) this shouldn't be an issue. If this is a major concern for you, you can look at MetaVis's client tools for bulk uploading documents. I personally was hoping for something cross browser in this space.

Another potential concern is that users may not understand the power they have. Functions such as bulk uploading, re-classifying and moving documents have often been filled by roles in IT. But these are really functions best suited to content managers and information managers who deal with these types of activities on a day to day basis. What's important to point out here though is Information Manager is integrated with SharePoint's permissions model. So you can slowly introduce features of the tool to users to get them up to speed without over loading them. You can also restrict features from some users, ensuring that your best content managers have the functionality they need to do their job (and only the functionality they need).

Conclusion

MetaVis Information Manager can help simplify arduous tasks of information management and make life easier. Those tasked with managing SharePoint files and adding the filters to display SharePoint data will find that the ROI of discovery and search in SharePoint is based on good metadata in your SharePoint environment.

You can get a free trial of MetaVis Information Manager (Embedded SharePoint 2010 Ribbon Control for multi file upload, classify, and copy) and try it for yourself.

This product review is an unbiased review and a paid service by Joel Oleson. How did I do?

SharePoint Conference Registration Now Open – Get Early Bird $400 Off Discount!

Joel Oleson — Thu, 24 May 2012 17:04:25 GMT

Not sure everyone got this email, so I wanted to share it with all my readers. This is THE conference of the year. See you there! This is a direct copy and paste from the email, and I have not changed the links.

November 12-15, 2012 · Las Vegas, NV

Register now to give yourself a competitive edge and get the inside scoop about 'SharePoint 15' while learning how to better use SharePoint 2010. Get informed with the best in the field: Engineers who built the product, Microsoft Certified Masters, and MVPs. Gain invaluable knowledge to increase your productivity and stay ahead of the game through hundreds of focused breakout sessions, hands-on lab environments, and instructor-led lab scenarios.

With over 65,000 customer organizations, more companies have chosen SharePoint as their primary collaboration tool than all other vendors combined. Register now to learn from the best in the industry and be a part of the unique experience only available at SharePoint Conference 2012!

See you in Vegas.

© 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
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Anatomy of a Viral SharePoint Penguin Video

Joel Oleson — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:51:24 GMT

Back in January I travelled with Michael Noel, Paul Swider, Mark Miller, Dan Holme, Ricardo Munoz and John Anderson in a Sharing The Point Tour across South America and Antarctica. You may remember that trip sponsored by fpweb and AvePoint. I shared my experiences on my tech blog SharePoint trip to Antarctica. I blogged about my travel and include photos and videos in a travel post Antarctica the final frontier. I hadn't thought much about those videos, although I did feel like some of the experiences captured in video were pretty special.

Since 2006, I've uploaded 80 videos to Youtube. Up to this week I was feeling a little better than average with over 100,000 views to my collection of travel videos and assortment of a few tech videos. Check out my youtube channel. You'll find Steve Ballmer's keynote describing what SharePoint is at the SharePoint Conference as well as the SharePoint Perth User group saying hello, as well as my SharePoint Water Cooler video, one of my more popular SharePoint vids. My travel videos such as the Golden Triangle Long Neck Karen tribe, Talented Monkeys, Elephant Trekking, the reveal of Petra and the Taj Mahal are pretty awesome as well. My trip across South Africa big 5, and great white shark diving with Eric Harlan are some of my more popular travel videos. Today I'm at a quarter of a million, and trending upward fast! Here's my experience over the last couple of days.

Figuring out how something goes viral is the key to success as a blogger or in sharing things on the internet across social media. What makes it pop and what happens when it does?

On Saturday I noticed I was getting a bunch of comments on my Baby Penguin YouTube video

Pictured: SharePoint Joel with my baby penguin friend

I figured something had to have happened. I found a couple of clues that many of you might be interested in.

1. My video was listed on youtube.com/videos through a featured area called "Tastefully Offensive," this is where my search for answers began. From there I found it was proudly displayed along with a number of other videos. The number of likes at that time in the hundreds made me realize it was getting an unusual amount of traffic.

2. Next I turned to the newer analytics platform for answer

I can clearly see the number of views, but right next to the number I see a little stack diagram. Clicking on that… you can show video statistics.

3. In the statistics we can clearly see an incredible spike. On the 18th I had about 500 views on this video, and the 19th multiple activities stemming around sayomg.com, which then led to dailypicksandflicks.com picking it up, and then youtube /videos. While the numbers in the chart seem trivial, the answer is that's really where the spark came from. I am now getting at peak around 10,000 views per hour, and it's hard to tell if it's slowing down or if it's just an around the clock thing.

4. Many would think that's where it ends. It's not. These sites helped spark off some larger ones. The media feed off of users and the liking, and commenting. When a certain volume gets reached, the video is seen as more viral. I have google search alerts setup for when my name or username is used on any web page and sure enough, I was notified when CBSNews posted a blurb about my video.

5. Today some very interesting email from a variety sources started flowing in.

Viral Spiral

I am Head of Research at Viral Spiral, the world's leading management company for YouTube videos- including "Charlie Bit My Finger", the most viewed viral video of all time.
I have recently seen your "Baby Penguin meets human for the first time" video and we would be very interested in representing you, as we feel your Channel has real commercial potential.

I replied. Let's discuss.

Good Morning America & ABCNews

I'm writing on behalf of Good Morning America and ABC News. We absolutely love the video you posted on YouTube showing "Baby Penguin meets human for the first time," ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdmQ9nMkI-g]) and we'd like to share it with our viewers!

We would like to request permission to show this video on GMA (and across our ABC News shows and platforms, which is seen worldwide and on all media).

I replied in the affirmative and answered the follow up questions around ownership.

Yahoo! Video

Hi Joel,

I work with Yahoo! Video and we are interested in featuring your video where you meet the penguin.

We want to feature it on Yahoo!'s Network (Yahoo's owned, operated, and partner websites, applications, programs and services using Yahoo's embeddable video player). This email is our request to use your Video.

If you agree to grant Yahoo! an irrevocable, world-wide, non-exclusive license to exhibit your Video, by any means and in any media, on Yahoo!'s Network, please reply to this email with the term AGREE in caps.

Since this wasn't going to be exclusive, I didn't see why not.

Cheezburger

Hi,
I work for a network of websites, Cheezburger, and we are interested in purchasing the rights to your video "Baby Penguin meets human for the first time."

Purchasing the rights, sounded much more involved, and I was just beginning to enjoy the viral parts of this… why sell?

(Emails all trimmed to secure the privacy of those I was communicating with)

6. Clicking Youtube's watch page vs. Embed player. Click on the words embedded player for much more detailed referral statistics, but also note more than half of all views make it through the watch page.

7. Is a video viral if it's only on one website? Probably not. Well here we go…

Now we can clearly see the video was picked up on all sorts of sites, and while the numbers may still not add up to 116,000 it's a good start.

In the analytics we can see the referral information as well as it relates to Youtube itself. While the users may mostly be using the YouTube player, the vast majority of referrlas are coming from outside travel including mobile, and many many referrals outside of YouTube. We get an idea of who those people are by looking above.

As well I look at likes, favorites, and watch closely on percentage of likes to dislikes. You want to keep the ratio high.

Doing a search on google, I can see the stories are going live and the video is popping up in all sorts of interesting places…

Huffington Post UK

CBSNEWS

What's Next?

I've now got commentary on my video and the google juice is really starting to work. Search for "baby penguin" and I've got a couple of entries right on the results page.

ITN reached out and I gave them permission to use the video and they did a great job of adding music and commentary. Hillarious.