Editor's Note - April 16, 2001

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Revisions to the TechNet site have me viewing TechNet through the filter of the music I grew up with.

Because we're going through some changes. That was the theme, it seemed, of the era we call the 60s. Maybe TechNet should adopt a retro look. Tie-dye graphics. Fringes. (But no Nehru jackets–I promise.)

As Robin Williams quipped, "Anyone who claims to remember the 60s wasn't really there." But some of the good parts were captured on vinyl, at least. So walk down memory lane with me as I explain how we're taking TechNet back to the future.

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Ch-Ch-Changes, Says David Bowie

Rock and Roll's favorite chameleon invited us to "turn and face the strange." He loved to play now-you-see-me, now-you-don't games with his audience. I apologize for doing something similar with TechNet personalization.

If you never tried to personalize TechNet's main page, you're not alone. Few people did; it didn't work very well. But I know some folks put effort into this, fought to make it work–and now we've made it go away.

I think site personalization can be a good idea. However, it wasn't working. We had no system on our end to support and maintain it effectively, and there was little you could personalize effectively; if you tried to personalize the page you had at best an inconsistent experience.

So we're temporarily out of stock on personalization. The folks who build the technology on which the TechNet site relies are trying to come up with a re-release–not Personalization's Greatest Hits, but something that will work for you and that we can support and maintain effectively.

What should personalization look like for a site such as TechNet? What features would you find valuable? If personalization matters to you, please let me know; I'll pass suggestions on to our developers.

Changes, Said Phil Ochs

The late folksinger Phil Ochs invited us to "journey through the universe ablaze with changes." Knowing Phil, he'd probably be aghast, were he still alive, that we're quoting him in TechNet. Or maybe not; after all, at one point he donned a gold lamé suit and played straight-out rock and country at a Carnegie Hall gig to rattle his true-believing folk fans.

The most visible change is that we've cleaned out the junk closet that used to masquerade as our front door. Visually, it's simpler, with a cleaner interface. It should be easier to find things–or at least find the links that lead you to finding things.

The two key navigation tools are together on the left. ("Shortcuts" used to be called something misleading and better forgotten, and it hung out at the upper right.) Security bulletins get the prominence they deserve at the upper right. And we've cleaned up the middle of the page considerably. There used to be some good stuff amid the clutter, but frankly too often we were randomly trying to figure out what to highlight in each section.

However, the major change, we hope, isn't the appearance but the content. In recent feedback you've suggested we often talk at our users, telling you what we want you to know rather than trying to help you solve your problems. We don't do this consciously, of course; TechNet is full of articles, long and short, devoted to tasks and problems. But sometimes our front page didn't reflect our real purpose.

TechNet's strategy is to provide a comprehensive set of resources for IT professionals–you–across all phases of your intersections with Microsoft products. Our goals are to have the content you need to do your job every day; to support a community for you to exchange information and find answers; and to deliver this effectively to a broad group of IT professionals.

Our ongoing site redesign is an attempt to further this strategy. I hope that most everything we put on this page going forward will reflect that. Our front page of 16 April focuses on keeping your network secure while supporting mobile users; getting security bulletins and updates; upgrading Exchange successfully to provide more capabilities for your users; and finding action-oriented information on addressing common tasks and issues.

The most important of these, over time, will be the "HowTo..." lead. Here's my key goal for TechNet this next year (our "year" starts in July–and no "Microsoft marches to its own drummer" jokes, please!): Deliver action-/task-/solution-oriented content that helps users reach success with given tasks and scenarios.

Forever Changes

With this goal, we're just getting started.

(If you thought I'd quote the Carpenters here, raise your hand. Oh, please!)

We're building a spectrum of task-oriented content for you. We aim to keep improving this, forever changing, like the title of the quintessential album from Love, led by Arthur Lee. (Yes, Love was the name of the group–it was the 60s–and if you like rock and have never heard them, you need to check out this album.) Love sings that they "once knew a man [who] knew every trick in the book." We want that man–or woman–to be you.

Our task-based content starts with the Microsoft Knowledge Base, an astonishing compendium of info-nuggets about everything from registry tweaks to Microsoft Office's Mr. Clippy. It has its own vocabulary, which we know can make it hard to search effectively. One of our goals for the coming year is to make it more easily searchable, more amenable to a broader vocabulary.

Next up is proactive HowTo content, step-by-step instructions for completing a specific task. We have but a few of these today, but our plan is to begin adding these aggressively starting in June. We're trying to get the format and search vocabulary–taxonomy–right before we start; we don't want to build another shoebox of unsearchable goodies. What tasks should we tackle here? Please drop suggestions to me by clicking here. Think in terms of tasks that we can address in a few pages from start to finish, such that you have everything you need to complete the task successfully. HowTo Upgrade SQL Server from 7.0 to SQL Server 2000 is a good candidate. HowTo Secure the Network for a Multinational Enterprise may be a bit tougher.

The next step on the pyramid is task-oriented white papers. We publish a lot of strategic white papers. We're trying to increase the percentage of those devoted to solving problems and implementing solutions.

We also publish architectural-level instruction guides, such as how to deploy the Business Desktop (Microsoft Office on Windows 2000) or design a solid Active Directory/Exchange architecture for a large enterprise.

There's also product documentation on line; it took us awhile, but we now understand that if you are running servers in a no-M/K/M (monitor/keyboard/mouse) configuration, you might not have the doc installed on those machines. And if you need to find service packs or drivers, we're here to help.

Finally, if you're a subscriber to our offline version, you get a series of Microsoft Resource Kits for your problem-solving pleasure, in addition to a lovely plastic handle to help you carry your TechNet CDs/DVDs with you wherever you need them, even when you're not wired to the Web.

Changing All Those Changes

Like Buddy Holly said, we'll keep "changing all those changes." Or maybe a Dylan lyric is what we need around here–"he not busy being born is busy dying."

We're keeping busy. If you want to keep us busy reading your comments and suggestions, please click here to tell me how we can do more to help you. I can't respond directly to each e-mail, but I do read them and share them with the TechNet team. We succeed only when you succeed.

Steven B. Levy
Product Unit Manager
Microsoft TechNet

PS–I know how fanatical music fans can be about accuracy; I know I sure carp about this stuff. So, for the record, Phil Ochs was more than a folksinger. Bowie's "Changes" was released, I believe, in 1971, which technically is not the 60s. The Carpenters allusion is to "We've Only Just Begun," which actually started life as a bank commercial! And last I heard, Arthur Lee of Love–Love! was in jail for his "third strike," allegedly for brandishing a gun.