Re: [syndication] RSS aggregators for non-technical folk

["Bill Kearney" <ml_yahoo@ideaspace.net>]

> This is interesting.  Some people like and some dislike (I am in this
> camp) using sharepoint for threaded discussions.  For me, the drawback
> of sharepoint (for threaded discussions) is the lack of formatting and
> attachements and inline drawings.

Whoa now, Exchange is one thing, that SharePoint homunculus is another thing
entirely.  They took a nice product like Exchange and just did *wrong* things to
it.   (think Wallace and Grommit were the pants went wrong...)

> We do use exchange as a file store.  Hm.  It does work realy well for
> sending word documents around for editing. You can make changes and send
> it back very easily.  If we had to use the file system it would be
> harder, and I would have to decide what to do with my copy.

Right, the clever way to approach this would be to use the WebDAV aspects of the
Exchange store (it's supported) to edit the document 'live' within the store
itself.  This would benefit from the documents using the track changes features
(and remember to flatten them should the docs ever get sent outside).  The
Exchange store and it's folders can actually be directly accessed as a SMB
fileshare.  So instead of using /only/ the outlook interface it's possible to
wander through the file/save dialog boxes and get to the public folders
directly.  This does warrant a little bit of insight on setup/maintenance, but
not all that much.

> Now that
> you mention it, that is about as clever as storing web content in a
> database and serving it up dynamically (like everyone likes to do these
> days, at least until they get a mention on slashdot) when they could
> extract that content to a fixed page which is updated only when the data
> changes.

Quite right.  The ASP interfaces into the Exchange store will allow you to do
some really amazing things.

> To my knowledge, we haven't had any trouble with exchange reliability.
> We tend to notice when email goes down.

Right and if/when you do the recovery process of loading the store back from
tape is damn near bulletproof.  It just works.  This is, sadly, often not true
of other mail applicaitons masquerading as groupware.

-Bill Kearney