Today@Dal

Let’s say you have a document you want to collaborate on with a colleague.

Do you email it with track changes? Store it on a shared drive? Deliver it in person, on paper, and make the edits from that?

These can all work, but none of them take advantage of the opportunities presented by real-time online collaboration — for example, being able to archive previous versions and what changes were made, or to quickly and easily determine who has access to a particular file and who’s made changes.

That’s where SharePoint comes in.

A screenshot of "DalShare," a site that's currently sharing content via SharePoint.

SharePoint is a software product that empowers people to collaborate in ways that are more efficient and effective.

SharePoint is already being implemented in a couple of different capacities, with a few units already making use of it, but next year Information Technology Services (ITS) will begin rolling out SharePoint more broadly to units, groups and teams in the form of “team sites.”

These team sites will allow departments, committees, or teams working across different units, to share, edit, and collaborate on documents and information. For project teams SharePoint makes it easy to send updates, assign tasks, and implement other similar project management elements. Think of it like a Novell drive (S: and G: drive) on steroids.

“It’s about providing an easier, more efficient way to collaborate at Dal — both within a particular office and also on projects that span multiple departments or faculties,” explains Anette Petersen, the project manager on SharePoint.

In the future, individuals at Dal will have two different online spaces to host/share documents and information and both accessible through myDal:

• An on-premise SharePoint with local (non-cloud) storage for sensitive or highly sensitive documents and for teams to collaborate internally on projects.
• SkyDrive for individual storage in the cloud.
  (Note: all names subject to change)

Get involved

Currently, the ITS project team is in the planning stages, working through governance and other issues before beginning the full roll-out second quarter next year. At that point, individuals and groups will be invited to apply for SharePoint sites as needed.

Until then, ITS invites individuals who are interested in being involved in the project and helping shape Document and Information Management at Dal to contact Anette Petersen at Anette.Petersen@dal.ca. If you have any specific questions about SharePoint please send a note to intranet@dal.ca. Over the coming weeks, there will be focus group meetings and opportunities for early adopters to learn more about how Dal will be using SharePoint.