dgsmith Posted June 18, 2009 Posted June 18, 2009 It sounds like a daft question, but I guess we're a few years behind everyone else. I figure it is used for web sites/intranets etc, the latter of which I am pondering replacing our's with. Is this software going to do the job for us if we are just looking to replace our Windows 2000 intranet server (literally just a few html/php web pages) with this? We use moodle for the teaching and VLE side of things, and I was thinking our intranet could be better utilised to serve our vast repository of photo media and growing video media. Is this the right route to be investigating? I see that sharepoint services is free; what exactly would we need to pay for to get this running? Is SPS3 sufficient for what we would want to do as described above? I may seem a bit naive but I see this being mentioned quite often and never really caught on to what it actually does and whether we could get use from it. We have a schools agreement which I notice has CALs for sharepoint.
localzuk Posted June 18, 2009 Posted June 18, 2009 Sharepoint is pretty much a portal server - kinda like a framework for hosting modules on. You can do pretty much anything with it - Blog Webparts, CMS, document management, link management etc... I'm currently creating a webpart which will allow our parents to book parents evening appointments via the soon to be launched sharepoint website. It can be whatever you want really. And SPS3 is sufficient for most people to be honest - but a comparison is available here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/FX101758881033.aspx 1
wesleyw Posted June 18, 2009 Posted June 18, 2009 (edited) A lot of the web parts will work with SPS and sharing video or streaming can be accomplished with windows media services (also free) other options could be joomla with a few free extensions, Dolphin is a social networking package which is free if you don't mind the branding needed to keep it free (it's not much to remove this) you can also look at drupal (also free) Having used both Drupal and Joomla I use Joomla now as the website is now flashy enough (with hardly any effort thanks to edugeeks template) to make the SLG an Governors happy. Drupal is "cleaner" but getting things to look the way you want is more difficult. Sharepoint is a nice system and the free version is more than adequate but for what you need I'm not sure if it's not worth looking at these other options, vShare ($10), Vidiscript (Free), Clip-Bucket (Free with branding) are good if you want video and audio streaming type systems and can be modified to allow for some normal webpage front ends but would need some work (surprise, surprise) There are a lot of CMS systems out there to be honest and most are very good depending on what you want I still think of Sharepoint as a CMS albeit a very avanced one which we use for SIMS Webparts and latter we are looking at using it for many things now some of which are good for the pupils and staff others are good for us I'll be writing a threads up on some ideas at a later date which several people have touched on over the last few months. Wes Edited June 19, 2009 by wesleyw Typo 2
witch Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 Sorry - stupid question from here - if he already has Moodle, why would he need sharepoint?
localzuk Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 Sorry - stupid question from here - if he already has Moodle, why would he need sharepoint? Depends on what he wants to do. Sharepoint will allow for document management, and the ability to search documents on a windows network, taking into account permissions etc... (Like Google Desktop search, but for an intranet). It has a lot of other features too - have a look at the link I posted earlier. I'd feel loathed to shoehorn Moodle into being an intranet site myself. 2
KarlGoddard Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 Sharepoint is an excellent choice for an intranet app. I rolled one out here about 4 years ago and its been great - definitely improved comms teacher > student. Integrates well with AD, relatively easy to set up - its overall a good tool to use. I have to agree with localzuk - moodle *should* be kept as part of your learning platform portfolio and sharepoint *should* be kept as the intranet side. You can, of course, use both for each task but there is some degree of compromise on each app. You've also got to think of if you ever went with another learning platform and ditched moodle, you'd (probably) have to roll out another intranet app too. My opinion is keep 'em separate, but use SharePoint if you can - it's excellent. 1
Domino Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 I totally Agree with Karl, Very easy to get going and once your school starts using it you'll wonder what you did before...and also Localzuk probably has the same outlook as me as to what a intranet and vle should be (although its worth mentiong only MOSS indexes windows share, WSS doesn't ) - the link posted was between sps2003 and moss 2007, but theres a more detailed comparison between SPS2003, MOSS, and WSS here SharePoint Products Comparison - Michael Gannotti on SharePoint + at my last school we had it setup as two distinct sites 1 for Staff all staff could post bulletins/students no access. Admin update calendar. caretaking, IT,etc all have a seperate site with sections for helpdesk, knowledgebase, etc 1 for Students all staff could post bulitins/students read only (except for School council who had a section) - also split into subjects to allow document sharing, calendars, etc Basically it was so extendable that staff started asking what we could do with it and it got more and more use. With it being AD integrated it meant no seperate logins and getting permissions set was easy. 1
localzuk Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 I totally Agree with Karl, Very easy to get going and once your school starts using it you'll wonder what you did before...and also Localzuk probably has the same outlook as me as to what a intranet and vle should be (although its worth mentiong only MOSS indexes windows share, WSS doesn't ) - the link posted was between sps2003 and moss 2007, but theres a more detailed comparison between SPS2003, MOSS, and WSS here SharePoint Products Comparison - Michael Gannotti on SharePoint + Not strictly true on the search front. You can install Windows Enterprise Search Express for free which integrates with pretty much everything, and requires WSS3. Enterprise Search: Search Server Express 1
JJonas Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 Where do I download it from? and is there a guide to setting it up? and most importantly will it do a good job or breaking my server if I get it wrong?
localzuk Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 Where do I download it from? and is there a guide to setting it up? and most importantly will it do a good job or breaking my server if I get it wrong? Download details: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Service Pack 2 (SP2) I'd recommend installing it in a VM. Requirements are listed on the page linked above. It is very simple to set up, and it shouldn't break anything. 1
Domino Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 Not strictly true on the search front. You can install Windows Enterprise Search Express for free which integrates with pretty much everything, and requires WSS3. Enterprise Search: Search Server Express Nice! ....damn too short message limit
apearce Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 (edited) Not strictly true on the search front. You can install Windows Enterprise Search Express for free which integrates with pretty much everything, and requires WSS3. Enterprise Search: Search Server Express Search Server is built on SharePoint! If you install the infrastructure update in MOSS you get improved search as well. http://learninggatewayconference.salamandersoft.co.uk/ Edited June 19, 2009 by apearce
localzuk Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 Search Server is built on SharePoint! Well, yeah, it requires WSS to run as a prerequisite, as I said
dgsmith Posted June 19, 2009 Author Posted June 19, 2009 Sorry - stupid question from here - if he already has Moodle, why would he need sharepoint? We use moodle for teaching and learning, however we want to replace our intranet with something else, mainly to host pictures and videos on (I don't like moodle for this, and our moodle is hosted externally so less control). Alot of replies which is good, and nice to know the free version of sharepoint should suffice for our needs, however I guess it wont work under Windows 2000? Would it work under Windows Vista? Any modules specifically for what we want to achieve? Not interested at all in using sharepoint as a learning platform or a VLE, so that side of things wont make any difference, I just thought it would be nice to use something other than frontpage and notepad to manually edit htm and php files!
localzuk Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 Sharepoint requires Windows Server 2003 or 2008 (it is a license requirement).
NewOrder Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 Sorry - stupid question from here - if he already has Moodle, why would he need sharepoint? A lot of people are using SharePoint as a foundation and on top moodle as the learning environment.
NewOrder Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 With SharePoint think 64 bit for the future, make sure you have a proper back up and remember its not cheap. Some technical training is also worth the investment and even getting somebody to build for you is another consideration. I know schools where the teckie has spent weeks on a problem and half a day from somebody would have sorted it out. From some of the questions on the forum its obvious some people should have gone on training courses. The time you waste on getting the setup wrong and doing things incorrectly would have been repaid by investment in training. There are lots of good free apps but there are also others that cost. Another area often overlooked is staff training and change management. How it works with the curriculum and management of the school. Have a look at this 'VLEs make assessment for learning safely social' you can change uniservity and use SharePoint in the sameway for AfL 1
witch Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 A lot of people are using SharePoint as a foundation and on top moodle as the learning environment. How are they linked together? I think that is what we will want to do in the future (just getting into Moodle ATM)
KarlGoddard Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 How are they linked together? I think that is what we will want to do in the future (just getting into Moodle ATM) You can use webparts: SharePoint Web Parts for Moodle - Home 1
apearce Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 Moodle webparts are shown in this blog post as well SharePoint Moodle Web Parts - Alex Pearce: SharePoint Blog - SharePoint Blogs / SharePoint University
Domino Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 Some technical training is also worth the investment and even getting somebody to build for you is another consideration. I know schools where the teckie has spent weeks on a problem and half a day from somebody would have sorted it out. From some of the questions on the forum its obvious some people should have gone on training courses. The time you waste on getting the setup wrong and doing things incorrectly would have been repaid by investment in training. I don't really agree. Unless you have a real need in rolling it out quickly, it'd be far more beneficial to read up on, install, configure and test the system yourself - and be able to work at your own pace. You'll have a deeper understanding of the systems config - and personally I don't think its that difficult a product to work with, as long as you have the time/drive to spend some time with it. Personally I had a test system - then made a full system, rolled out to admin staff - then all teachers - then the whole school. It worked fine then, and still is now. 1
NewOrder Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 I don't really agree. Unless you have a real need in rolling it out quickly, it'd be far more beneficial to read up on, install, configure and test the system yourself - and be able to work at your own pace. You'll have a deeper understanding of the systems config - and personally I don't think its that difficult a product to work with, as long as you have the time/drive to spend some time with it. Personally I had a test system - then made a full system, rolled out to admin staff - then all teachers - then the whole school. It worked fine then, and still is now. Normally a school wants a Learning Platform PDQ. I've seen too many poor SharePoint installs. Yes we can all get the book and configure it but will it be the foundation for the future, is it the best use of time.
wesleyw Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 I've installed it before now and after a few interesting bugs it ran well however I then went on a course for sharepoint an one for SQL now over the summer I'm rebuilding our entire system as there are a few extra things to setup an we'll have an unbelievably versatile system. I think Sharepoint is very good but never as a VLE intergrating it with Moodle and some video streaming server as I've mentioned above would be a very good system. Wes
jayjayem Posted June 19, 2009 Posted June 19, 2009 It sounds like a daft question, but I guess we're a few years behind everyone else. I figure it is used for web sites/intranets etc, the latter of which I am pondering replacing our's with. Is this software going to do the job for us if we are just looking to replace our Windows 2000 intranet server (literally just a few html/php web pages) with this? We use moodle for the teaching and VLE side of things, and I was thinking our intranet could be better utilised to serve our vast repository of photo media and growing video media. Is this the right route to be investigating? I see that sharepoint services is free; what exactly would we need to pay for to get this running? Is SPS3 sufficient for what we would want to do as described above? I may seem a bit naive but I see this being mentioned quite often and never really caught on to what it actually does and whether we could get use from it. We have a schools agreement which I notice has CALs for sharepoint. It's actually a great question people are still getting to grips with as the web continues to develop at lightning pace... what do I want my intranet to do and why? I understand advertising is frowned upon here so I won't mention my product but will declare an interest (and say that it's not free). Our focus is on editing web pages easily - exactly where you are coming from mentioning html etc because we think that web pages are a great way of people sharing content and a school wiki can grow incredibly quickly IF it is easy enough to use with your eyes closed. Unlike many CMSs out there (but like Sharepoint) we do integrate fully with the AD so you don't have to manage separate users/groups. I realise there are a lot of people on here who have got a lot out of Sharepoint installations, I would just like to raise a few things you should be aware of with it which I think are reasonably uncontroversial - it is free for many schools under Schools Agreement but be aware of the hidden costs - extra training, possible use of consultants to make the most of it and also it is not always the easiest product for end users so extra support for you on the IT side. Sharepoint is also really built as a portal/document workflow manager out of the box rather than a collaborative web tool (I realise there are various addons etc but these aren't really the core of Sharepoint, and the good solutions many people have to these on here may well add cost and/or complexity). 2
NewOrder Posted June 20, 2009 Posted June 20, 2009 It's actually a great question people are still getting to grips with as the web continues to develop at lightning pace... what do I want my intranet to do and why? I understand advertising is frowned upon here so I won't mention my product but will declare an interest (and say that it's not free). Our focus is on editing web pages easily - exactly where you are coming from mentioning html etc because we think that web pages are a great way of people sharing content and a school wiki can grow incredibly quickly IF it is easy enough to use with your eyes closed. Unlike many CMSs out there (but like Sharepoint) we do integrate fully with the AD so you don't have to manage separate users/groups. I realise there are a lot of people on here who have got a lot out of Sharepoint installations, I would just like to raise a few things you should be aware of with it which I think are reasonably uncontroversial - it is free for many schools under Schools Agreement but be aware of the hidden costs - extra training, possible use of consultants to make the most of it and also it is not always the easiest product for end users so extra support for you on the IT side. Sharepoint is also really built as a portal/document workflow manager out of the box rather than a collaborative web tool (I realise there are various addons etc but these aren't really the core of Sharepoint, and the good solutions many people have to these on here may well add cost and/or complexity). Good point. A lot of us had hoped that Microsoft would have developed SLK and course manager more than they have. When 2003 with Class Server first arrived it was a good start. Then 2007 not bad but SLK was not the improved Class Server replacement that we wanted.
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