Why I hate Sharepoint (reason #3)

I have given up on Sharepoint but school policy says I have to provide a link to my new resource. As it happens, there is no Webpart that allows me to quickly create a link. I can make an IFRAME and put the webpage inside it but I can't just put up a quick link!
I have to go to ALL SITE CONTENT and then create a Link List. And then in the Link List, I have to create a link entry.
I admit... I'm a self-admitted IT professional. I've been programming for more than 20 years. This process should be dead-obvious for the user. Look! An "add a link" button right on the main page's edit toolbar. But no, I have to dig, dig, dig to do anything.
Funny item: when I introduced our new wiki to the kids, one of them wistfully said "I miss Blackboard." Never thought I'd hear that but Sharepoint has had such a poor implementation that I can't blame them. They promised so much and the potential is certainly there... but someone needs to sit down with teachers. Watch how they use their computers. Watch how they organize information (and why they organize it this way). A course management system is not a business intranet. Or maybe business intranets are poorly organized, too?
As one of my bloglist mentioned about me the other day: Little bitter?

Comments

Ben Wilkoff said…

Thanks for your comments on not using sharepoint. I, like you, am in a position where I may not have a choice of what to go with. I get to enhance it as much as I can with an entryway using Moodle and our own Google Apps for education instance, but I think we may have to go with Sharepoint because that is where a lot of our content is being funneled (we purchase about 30-40 classes from the National Network of Digital Schools). I will use your "3 reasons" as some ammunition for not using Sharepoint, but I don't know how much it will help. If you get a chance to write up a formal reflection of how sharepoint works at the operational level (how teachers actually use it), I would definitely be interested, either in an email or on your blog (or both). You are now in my reader for sure.

March 6, 2009 at 10:15 AM

Blogzeeerra said…

Sharepoint is a classic example of a good idea gone wrong. It is primarily the result of the extreme hubris of Microsoft... and I like other MS products.

November 11, 2009 at 12:15 AM

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