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Bjorn Furuknap Profile

http://furuknap.blogspot.com/. Image (or lack of) Provided by http://www.girafa.com.

Blog Title	Furuknap's SharePoint Corner
Blog Description	Bjørn Furuknap's SharePoint blog with articles, reviews, code samples, webparts, downloadable content.
Blog URL	http://furuknap.blogspot.com/
RSS Feed	http://feeds.feedburner.com/Furuknap
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Feed Last Checked	Feb 05, 2012 2:47:27 AM EST.
Realtime Update
Landed Here	Oct 15, 2009
Location	Oslo, Norway
Posts: # / 1st / Latest	37 - Nov 06, 2010 - Feb 02, 2012
Total Hits	4,248

Why I’m Blogging about SharePoint 2013 Despite What Joel Oleson Wants
Bjorn Furuknap
In a blog post today, Joel Oleson cautioned the community about writing anything on SharePoint 15, despite some SharePoint 2013 information now being public. I fully understand what he’s saying and I want to offer my contrarian opinion, if I may have a moment of your time. Oh, and while I have your attention, I just wanted to once again mention that Joel and I are good friends, despite the staged controversy last spring. If you haven’t read the story, please check out this post as a start an [read].
Posted: Thu, Feb 2nd '12

SharePoint 2013 SDK is Out!
Bjorn Furuknap
To all those who are looking to keep on top of the latest and greatest, well, here’s some good news for you. Microsoft just today released a preliminary SDK for SharePoint 15, called the SharePoint 15 Technical Preview Managed Object Model Software Development Kit. That’s right, campers, we’re ready to start consuming information about SharePoint vNext, SharePoint 2013, or whatever it ends up being called. I’ve already started to read the SDK and found some extremely interesting things t [read].
Posted: Mon, Jan 30th '12

What’s Wrong with the SharePoint Community?
Bjorn Furuknap
Over the previous months, I’ve been both reading and hearing multiple comments about how the SharePoint community is going down the drain. I have some thoughts on the subject I’d like to share with you. Now, if you drink the Kool-Aid, you know that for several years, the SharePoint community has been a great place to hang out, with tons of learning, constructive debate, and a social atmosphere where both newbies and seasoned professionals can mingle with friendly peers. In fact, in a rather [read].
Posted: Thu, Jan 26th '12

Formal and Informal Learning
Bjorn Furuknap
It may come as a surprise to you, but formal learning isn’t the way most people learn today. It never has, which is why it is so strange that so much of our evaluation of others depend on their formal learning background. Wait! Hang on, what is formal learning? Why is it not good, and, far more importantly, what is the alternative? Formal Learning It stands to reason that the opposite of formal learning would be informal learning. Now, if we ask Wikipedia, the source of all knowledge, about in [read].
Posted: Sat, Jan 14th '12

Our Holiday Gifts
Bjorn Furuknap
As some of you may know, my wife and I don’t like to spend money on gifts for friends and family, whether that is for Christmas or birthdays, and instead prefer to contribute what we would otherwise spend towards helping those that really need it. This year, we have finally had the chance to go on our honeymoon, almost four years after we got married. During our stay in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, we met a very nice gentleman, Sombath, who had a small shop where he spent all the profits of his busin [read].
Posted: Sat, Dec 24th '11

SharePoint Server 2010 Isn’t Really Ready for Enterprise Applications–And What Microsoft Should Do About It
Bjorn Furuknap
In 2008, I started on a project to discover the real story behind SharePoint’s inner workings from a developer perspective. The result is the book Building the SharePoint User Experience, and it details, in as much detail as I was able to put in my grossly under estimated 350 pages, how SharePoint works. Not what the documentation tells you, nor how it would be logical that a feature worked, but really what the bits and pieces do when you put them together. With SharePoint 2010, there’s a n [read].
Posted: Fri, Dec 9th '11

Solving ‘The Ribbon Tab with id: "Ribbon.Read" has not been made available for this page or does not exist. Use Ribbon.MakeTabAvailable()’
Bjorn Furuknap
I came across a problem a couple of days ago, which may be years in the past, or theoretically millennia in the past, if, for some reason, this blog survives and is discovered by future archeologists, in which case: Hi future creatures! I hope we kept the world more or less intact and I do hope that you can find a professor in ancient languages able to decipher this and other texts from our century. You see, I think we had a pretty interesting time, which I’m sure you do too, having advanced p [read].
Posted: Wed, Nov 23rd '11

#BoothBabes? Yeah, Why Not?
Bjorn Furuknap
Claire Willett posted a comment on the usage of Booth Babes during tech conferences. Her argument is false and based on the current populist beliefs, to which every politically correct company must adhere. I, however, am not politically correct, nor am I a company (or represent one in the context of my social comments), so I’ll call it the way I see it: Claire: You’re full of crap. Here’s my full response: All other things being equal, you’d want a pretty woman rather than an ugly o [read].
Posted: Tue, Oct 11th '11

SharePoint Designer 2013 Workflow Features: State Machines?
Bjorn Furuknap
As you’ve probably seen already, I’ve started releasing some bits and pieces of information related to SharePoint 2013 already. As a huge fan of SharePoint Designer workflows (I’ve written two books and recorded 20+ hours of USPJ Academy lectures on this topic alone), I’ve been paying extra attention to how SharePoint Designer 2013 will handle workflows. In a previous post, I wrote about how SharePoint Designer 2013 will finally support loops, a feature that so many people have implement [read].
Posted: Fri, Sep 30th '11

Could SharePoint 2013 be SharePoint 2012?
Bjorn Furuknap
If you were around back in 2009, and chances are you were, you know that I keep my ears close to the ground on what’s going on with new versions of SharePoint. However, I’ve also paid close attention to what’s going on with the beta and leaked information revolving around Office 15. It seems that the rumors indicate a 2012 release of Office 15, and that got me thinking: Perhaps that means the next version of SharePoint is in fact SharePoint 2012. I don’t think so now, however, and let [read].
Posted: Wed, Sep 28th '11

SharePoint Designer 2013 Workflow Features: Loops
Bjorn Furuknap
Oh no, it’s that time again. A new version of SharePoint is just so far away that rumors and leaks start appearing. Obviously, the teams in Redmond want to keep lids on this as long as possible (or do they?), but the community wants to know, so here it is. Looping has been on the request list since SharePoint Designer first came out. Weirdly enough, although competing products like Nintex Workflow has supported loops for the IT version of decades, Microsoft has only allowed you to create loop [read].
Posted: Tue, Sep 27th '11

Laura Rogers, You Are NOT a Developer–But Maybe You Should Be…
Bjorn Furuknap
OK, this isn’t really another @wonderlaura post, but since Kerri Abraham posted her article today, I thought I should follow up and post my opinion. And although this does apply to ‘people like Laura’ it isn’t specific to her. Frankly, I have no idea what she does, how she does it, or how it works for her. It may or may not work, and she may or may not be good at what she delivers; I don’t know. However, there is a key point here, in that Laura Rogers claims she is not a developer. W [read].
Posted: Mon, Sep 12th '11

@Wonderlaura, Here’s How I Do Business
Bjorn Furuknap
Laura Rogers (@wonderlaura on Twitter) responded to a comment I made the other day. Normally, I don’t name commenters, but because I’m sick and tired of being ‘polite’ and seeing clients and the community suffer from it, I’m going to be a bit more straight forward. If you don’t like it, you can kiss my abs. The comment Laura made exemplifies a huge problem that the community has and that SharePoint has, in its understanding of the capabilities of the platform. She said: “@furuknap [read].
Posted: Sun, Sep 11th '11

I’m Back! Prepare to Cringe!
Bjorn Furuknap
Did you miss me? All you retards with nothing better to do than comment on my attitude? Informing the world how much better it is to kiss ass than to make a stand? Prostitutes with so low intelligence that you don’t even realize you’re selling your integrity and your life for money, and it isn’t even your money afterwards. Sometime life needs a bit of a reboot. Stepping back to see where one is and where one is headed. Sometimes, that can be pleasant, sometimes it’s a pain. I’ve come [read].
Posted: Thu, Sep 8th '11

Are you a #SharePoint #jobs Recruiter? Contact Me, I Got an Idea for You!
Bjorn Furuknap
No, I don’t need a job, but hear me out, I may be able to help you recruit SharePoint developers. If you’re in the SharePoint recruiting business these days, you’re shit out of luck. Or actually, if you’ve been in the SharePoint recruitment business and are still here, you may be very lucky. With the amount of resources requested and the extreme scarcity of skilled SharePoint resources available, the fight for every single employee is hardening, and luck may be your best competitive adva [read].
Posted: Sun, Jul 10th '11

My Will
Bjorn Furuknap
If you feel weak, I will be strong for you. If you feel alone, I will be there for you. If you suffer, I will share your pain. If you worry, I will offer my best advice to you. I will be weak, and need your strength. I will feel alone, and need you there. I will suffer, and share with you my pain. I will worry, and look to you for council. But never will I waver in my promise, that this, my love, my will, is eternal. (To Lena, my perfect wife) .b [read].
Posted: Thu, Jun 16th '11

Leave Joel Alone!
Bjorn Furuknap
OK, so, the beans are now spilled. It was all a game. I love Joel, always have, and I don’t think there is a bad bone in the guy. So what’s with the bashing? Well, let me explain… I have always respected Joel both for his knowledge and for his contributions to the SharePoint community. When he announced that he would be ‘retiring’ everyone was a bit shocked, but it’s still Joel’s choice and a very reasonable one. In case there are still any doubts, the “Good riddance” post on [read].
Posted: Fri, Jun 3rd '11

Joel Oleson Sucks!
Bjorn Furuknap
OK, so I’ve had it with this guy. Just a couple of months ago, the ‘guru’ of SharePoint, Joel Oleson, decided we weren’t valuable enough for his precious time, so he decided to bail out and leave us hanging. If you haven’t read the previous post about it, here it is: Joel Oleson Has Left the Building–And Good Riddance… So, now I’m here at SPTechCon and we’re all trying to cope as best we can, hugging each other to try to understand how someone can be so cruel to the community [read].
Posted: Thu, Jun 2nd '11

Speaking at SPTechCon: Why is SharePoint Development So Damn Hard?
Bjorn Furuknap
I’ll be speaking at SPTechCon in June (June 3rd, at way too early in the morning, aka 8:15 AM). Now you know, so you have yet another reason to attend, or stay away, depending on your attitude What is probably going to be a bit more interesting is the topic, and I’d like to prepare everyone for what you’ll learn if you decide to join me there. And, after all, you’ll only miss Joel Oleson ranting about upgrading to SP2010, and who cares about that or even him, right? We’re developers! [read].
Posted: Tue, May 24th '11

Learning SharePoint at USPJA. Part 3: Our Philosophy
Bjorn Furuknap
I was going through the USPJA web pages and noticed that we hadn’t really focused enough on what our ideas are. As such, I wrote a new page containing an overview of our ideas, and thought it would make sense to post those ideas here as well. As I have mentioned previously in this series, I’m not saying that class room training is a bad idea, but I think the ideas we have solves some of the problems of traditional class room training. For some, class room training is the only thing that work [read].
Posted: Wed, May 11th '11

Learning at USPJA. Part 3: Our Philosophy
Bjorn Furuknap
I was going through the USPJA web pages and noticed that we hadn’t really focused enough on what our ideas are. As such, I wrote a new page containing an overview of our ideas, and thought it would make sense to post those ideas here as well. As I have mentioned previously in this series, I’m not saying that class room training is a bad idea, but I think the ideas we have solves some of the problems of traditional class room training. For some, class room training is the only thing that wor [read].
Posted: Wed, May 11th '11

SharePoint is Like Sex–The Top 11 Reasons
Bjorn Furuknap
Here’s why: You do it best with someone you trust and know intimately, but it can ruin a good friendship if the result is bad. The more experience you get, the better the result becomes. You can hire a professional do to it with you, but it’s usually very expensive and less than satisfactory. If you do it alone, you’re missing out on a huge part of the collaborative experience. The first time you do it, you want to go slow and don’t try anything too advanced. It’s a good idea to liste [read].
Posted: Thu, May 5th '11

Do You Hate Me? If Not, You Should. Oh, And You Suck!
Bjorn Furuknap
It has come to my attention that not everyone in the world finds me lovable and agreeable. Some people have suggested I may be rude and insensitive. Heck, some people even hate me outright. Good. Please go on. Please hate me more. In fact, here’s something to spur your hate on: your mother has a foul stench and likely lays with sheep. Are your feelings hurt yet? Well, I don’t really care. I care only for myself and what benefits me. “You’re a Cynical Bastard!” Why, thank you! I’m g [read].
Posted: Sat, Apr 23rd '11

Joel Oleson Has Left the Building–And Good Riddance…
Bjorn Furuknap
So the news is out, Joel Oleson, perhaps the most famous person in the SharePoint community, is leaving the scene where he’s been performing for the past three years. Although I’m sure everyone will post kind and gentle greetings, I’d like to say this: Joel, sod off, you selfish piece of horse manure. Here’s the story so far: Joel worked with Microsoft, switched companies to Quest, and became a SharePoint community superstar, not necessarily in that order. He traveled the world and talke [read].
Posted: Thu, Mar 24th '11

Are you an aspiring author? Want to get a scholarship to USPJ Academy? Read on…
Bjorn Furuknap
I thought I’d break the long silence here in my blog with a cool announcement. As you may know, I’ve taken on the role of lead editor at SharePoint Magazine. One of my first ideas was to run an aspiring authors competition to help authors who may not have the attention they deserve get into the spotlight and help promote their great content. The result of this idea is the first Aspiring Authors competition we’ll run. If this turns into a success, we’ll have more, but for the first one, [read].
Posted: Tue, Mar 15th '11

Why EDB ErgoGroup Is Going Down – Big Time! (Yeah, I Won)
Bjorn Furuknap
As you’ve all heard by now, I’ve been fighting ErgoGroup over missing salary payments from when I worked for them in 2009. Check the bottom of this article on the web for the full series of events. You may also recall that we’ve faced off in court and I’m here to present the results and plans for the future. First of all, and most importantly, ErgoGroup was slashed down in court. Yup, I won, I was right all along, and ErgoGroup now officially and as determined by law tried to screw me o [read].
Posted: Sun, Jan 2nd '11

Learning SharePoint at USPJA. Part 2: USPJA Versus Traditional SharePoint Training
Bjorn Furuknap
Today, I was talking to one author in the USPJA system, explaining why our teaching methods are different than what you’d find in traditional learning formats. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that class room training is better or worse than what we do, but we do have different approaches to building knowledge. First of all, USPJA is a university, meaning our approach to teaching is more like a traditional college than a normal computer class. What that also means is that we are more foc [read].
Posted: Thu, Dec 23rd '10

Brilliant SharePoint Administrator Wanted: USPJA Faculty Substitute
Bjorn Furuknap
Please help me spread the word. Laura Docherty is a USPJA Faculty member and highly pregnant, due to give birth in just a month or so. As such, she’s taken a maternity leave from her faculty duties at the academy, and I need to find her temporary replacement. Here’s the ad: Wanted: USPJA Administrator Faculty Member For temporary or permanent substitution, we are looking for a new USPJ Academy faculty member in the field of SharePoint administration. Job Description USPJ Academy facu [read].
Posted: Sun, Dec 19th '10

How We Did It: SharePoint Magazine Re-Launch
Bjorn Furuknap
So, you probably know we re-launched SharePoint Magazine today (if today is Tuesday December 7 2010, that is). If you don’t know, check out http://sharepointmagazine.net or, probably in a few weeks time, just Google SharePoint, and I’m sure we’ll be back on the first page again shortly. Regardless, as is customary when doing stuff like this, we should post a “How We Did It” post to explain the process of getting the magazine back on the air. Background I talked to Arno about making Sh [read].
Posted: Tue, Dec 7th '10

Attention Aspiring SharePoint Bloggers: Shut Up!
Bjorn Furuknap
Let me make this clear right from the start. If you are a SharePoint person looking to join the awesome SharePoint blogging community, chances are you’ll fall into every single pitfall there is. So, before you head over to WordPress.com and sign up for a new ‘Everything there is to know about SharePoint’ blog, shut up for a second and listen. In fact, you should probably shut up for a long time and, in some cases, perhaps it is better if you shut up forever. That said, if you heed the warn [read].
Posted: Sat, Nov 27th '10

How to Save Money by Replacing Your Toolbox With a Nail–In Support of WordPress as a CMS
Bjorn Furuknap
Joseff Betancourt posted an article the other day on how to save money by replacing SharePoint with WordPress. Sadly, the comment system at the CTOEdge site didn’t work at the time, so I couldn’t post a response there. So, here it is: Joseff, I’m sure you’re a great guy and everything, but apparently you know very little about SharePoint. That’s no necessarily unexpected, after all, even those of us who spend most of our waking hours with SharePoint find it difficult to keep up with e [read].
Posted: Mon, Nov 15th '10

Enabling Declarative Workflows for Anonymous Users in SP2010/2007
Bjorn Furuknap
Christophe asked a question about how to allow anonymous users to start workflows in SharePoint 2010. The question spread on both Twitter and SharePointOverflow before I had a chance to answer directly, so I’m posting the response here rather than trying to chase all the locations By default, anonymous access to run declarative workflows are disabled. This only affects anonymous users because a workflow started by an anonymous user would need to be assigned special credentials that would exce [read].
Posted: Fri, Nov 12th '10

Learning SharePoint at USPJA. Part 1: A Change in Learning Paradigms and Why Learning is Hard
Bjorn Furuknap
Since I began thinking seriously about USPJA back in December 2009, I’ve been struggling to convince people what the idea behind USPJA is. Well, it’s about teaching SharePoint, certainly, but what makes us different from what everyone else does? I saw a video today, and I’ll show you that in a moment, but before I do, I would just like to attempt to explain the ideas I had. First of all, I strongly believe that traditional learning methods used in schools and universities around the world [read].
Posted: Thu, Nov 11th '10

Court Update: ErgoGroup Admits I’m Right!
Bjorn Furuknap
So, I’ve been to court, and thought it would make sense to update everyone on what happened. I’m sure you’ll find the former articles adequate reading if you need to update yourself on the history. By the way, I really, really, really appreciate all the support I’ve gotten, both on Twitter, in emails, and in comments. Keep it coming! Our meeting today was in a settlement court, or conciliation board, in which the primary goal is to reach a settlement. As I predicted, the negotiations we [read].
Posted: Tue, Nov 9th '10

Court Today: Why ErgoGroup Will Lose, No Matter What
Bjorn Furuknap
As I have mentioned earlier in my constant nagging about why ErgoGroup sucks, today is the day when I meet ErgoGroup in court. In case you can’t be bothered to read the entire thing, the short story is that they screwed me for close to 60% of my salary and claimed that if I quit I wasn’t entitled to that money. Of course, they only told me that after I quit. So, today we face off in a legal battle, facilitated by my insanely skilled lawyer, to once and for all to determine whether they are r [read].
Posted: Tue, Nov 9th '10

SharePoint Governance and Information Architecture Master Class, Why You May be Stupid, and How to Fix That!
Bjorn Furuknap
If you are in the UK on November 22-23, 2010, or even if you are elsewhere, and you want to understand governance and information architecture in SharePoint, you may be about to be insulted. Chances are I am about to call you stupid, but the as the loving and gentle soul I am, I will also tell you how to rectify that situation. My buddy Paul Culmsee is holding an information architecture master class in the UK in a couple of weeks. Paul has asked me to help promote the event, and that’s what [read].
Posted: Mon, Nov 8th '10

If you learn only one thing about SharePoint…
Bjorn Furuknap
A few days ago… Frankly, that makes absolutely no sense because the majority of people will read this article at an arbitrary point in time, in which ‘a few days ago’ will likely be weeks, months, or years ago. Let me start again. I was talking to a non-SharePoint friend who was fascinated with SharePoint and its raving success. Being an IT person, he does understand tech stuff, but seeing SharePoint as it is most commonly presented, he never saw the huge killer-app that many SharePoint pr [read].
Posted: Mon, Nov 8th '10