Hi, today I would like to talk about a couple of web parts that are connected to the new and extended Social Computing capabilities of SharePoint 2010.

The use of Social Computing within SharePoint 2010 has been one of the biggest updates created by Microsoft. The My Site has been updated and really improved, the use of out-of-the-box tags/notes functionalities and the connection with SharePoint Search. I would like to show a couple of cool SharePoint 2010 Social Computing functionalities.

The note board

The note board web part makes it possible for users to leave messages on sites. The note board is also present in the new and improved My Site (I am going to address a special blog post about the new My Site). The web part has only a couple of options. The site administrator can decide how many messages are shown at the site. With the ‘Next’ and ‘Previous’ button all the other messages can be shown. The users can edit or delete their posts. This web part can be great if you want users to leave feedback on for example a news page.

The organizational browser

The organizational browser web part is, as the note board web part, from the My Site. It is great that Microsoft made it possible to use this web part outside the My Site environment. A lot of organizations ask for an organization chart web part. So it is really nice to see that it comes out-of-the-box with SharePoint 2010. The web part shows your colleagues and your manager. You can easily scroll through the whole organization by clicking on the name of your colleague. If you want to go to the My Site of a colleague, you have to click on the name (shown in light blue). The web part can also be used in a HTML view but why not use the Silverlight capabilities. It just gives it the extra finishing touch. This web part can be perfect for using on a HR site and developers can easily create adjustments because the web part is created in Silverlight.

Tag cloud

The tag cloud web part is one of the pillars of the Social Computing features. Every content in SharePoint 2010 can be provided with a tag. By using a tag you can help other colleagues finding content faster. The tags are being used as filter for search results and they have their own profile page. I want to discuss the search and profile page in a different post. The web part is a great addition for the home page of every Intranet Portal. You can immediately see all the tags used in the organization and quickly browse to the one you are looking for. By opening the profile page you can see all the colleagues that used the tag. A great way for finding the colleagues you want to collaborate with.

My next blog post will be about the new and greatly improved My Site.