Some 215 SharePoint experts and users took part Monday in the first Microsoft-hosted “Ask the Experts” online question-and-answer session. About nine or 10 SharePoint MVP’s were on hand to officially respond to inquiries from users; more were in the chat room to jump in with their own comments to expound on the thoughts of others.
While those who got answers to their specific questions were undoubtedly pleased, I found it to be a lot like those telephone party lines we tried to jump on as kids: just a lot of people shouting over each other, trying to be heard, without any kind of cohesive thread. I think it’s a great idea to offer up this kind of help to SharePoint users, and I again commend the experts for doing this on their own time for the betterment of the whole, but perhaps next time their can be a more formal process that would allow me to learn something useful while waiting for my question to be answered, rather than reading a random string of questions and answers that don’t necessarily follow each other.
You can follow along on Twitter (#SPMVPCHAT) to learn of upcoming chats and see what folks said about the inaugural gathering.
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Well, it’s official: Microsoft has said it will launch SharePoint 2010 (and Office 2010) on May 12. A typical Microsoft launch is planned, with informational sessions, keynotes and the whole shebang. You can find out more here.
