Blog repost from: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mvpawardprogram/archive/2010/07/15/live-chats-to-learn-more-about-sharepoint-with-the-mvp-experts.aspx

“Do you have questions about SharePoint? Want to learn more about the recently launched SharePoint 2010?  By popular request, SharePoint MVPs from around the world are participating in a live chat event about SharePoint. These Q&A events are a great opportunity to tap into the vast knowledge of these industry professionals who are regarded as the best in their field.

Please join us on Wednesday July 21st at 9am PDT to chat with MVPs from around the world.”

These videos have been posted today on the SharePoint-Videos.com site.

• Utilize Content Types to define and organize your content

  Organizations create multiple types of content. For example, in any business, you have expense reports and status reports that need to be filled out by employees. In other organizations, you might have legal contracts, marketing proposals and more. You can get a handle on all this type of content and organize and manage it throughout your organization, utilizing content types in SharePoint.

• Utilizing Site Columns

  Site columns are reusable column definitions. They are template of columns which are defined at the site level as opposed to list columns which are created one at a time to be used in a list or library. Watch this video to learn why you would want to use site columns and how exactly to utilize them.

• Enforce Column Relationship in Lookup Columns

  Lookup columns offer the capability to enforce column relationships and referential integrity. Two types of relationship behavior can be set: Restrict Delete or Cascade Delete. Both of these settings and their impacts are demonstrated in this video.

• Configuring Lookup Columns

  Lookup column is a very powerful type of column that can be used in any list or library to get information from another list or library on the site. This functionality can be used to centralize and protect your information (for example list of your Customers) and then do a lookup to it from various lists and libraries. This video goes more in depth to show how you can allow multiple values to be selected or enforce unique values in the lookup column.

• Working with List and Library Columns

  When working with a list or library, you want to first make sure that you have the columns configured properly. There are many types of columns that you can create. This video shows how you can create new list/library columns and use that information to filter the data in a list or library.

If you have not seen our YouTube channel, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/user/asifrehmani

We try to post up at least one video per month over there. All free of course and your feedback on the videos is most welcomed. Subscribe to it if you would like to get alerted on the new videos we post up there. Here is the latest video posted there:

Exporting a reusable workflow to a different site collection.

The SharePoint 2010 Fundamentals DVD was released today. It’s packed with the core knowledge needed to start out successfully with SharePoint 2010.

The target audience for this DVD: Site Administrators Site Designers Site Members

SharePoint topics covered include:

• Creating SharePoint sites
• Customizing site structure
• Customizing navigation components
• Setting up site security
• Making use of the built in Lists
• Creating custom lists
• Understanding the document management options
• Understanding Site Columns and Content Types
• and more..

There is also now a complete DVD bundle available for SharePoint 2010, SharePoint Designer 2010 and InfoPath 2010.

There are several good reasons for setting up SharePoint 2010 virtual machine:

• Proof of Concept
• Development environment
• Demo machine (for presenters)

Whatever your reasons are, if you need to get this done, my recommendation would be to check out the Critical Path Training channel on YouTube for the exact steps to make it happen. Each step is depicted in an easy to follow along video.

If you are new to SharePoint 2010, the v-Article on introducing SharePoint 2010 will help you get started.

What is a v-Article? Check out the explanation here.

Are you ready? Well, I hope so… because the downloads are ready now. Download them, install them and Enjoy! Not much else to say about this

SharePoint Designer 2010:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=d88a1505-849b-4587-b854-a7054ee28d66

SharePoint Foundation:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=49c79a8a-4612-4e7d-a0b4-3bb429b46595

Want to see for yourself how the install process works for SharePoint 2007 and now the new SharePoint 2010? Now you can! Both of these videos are available to be watched for free for a limited time:

SharePoint 2007 Install – http://www.sharepoint-videos.com/installing-sharepoint/

SharePoint 2010 Install – http://www.sharepoint-videos.com/sp10installing-sharepoint-server-2010/

Enjoy!

We have decided to auction off one copy each of our SharePoint DVDs to help raise funds for relief and development in Haiti. There is no set price (reserve) for the listings. The total amount of the raised funds will go directly to the American Red Cross’ efforts for Haiti. You will find the listings on eBay here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270522078930&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270522084967&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

Please help spread the word. Thanks.

In my line of work, I’m constantly demonstrating SharePoint functionality to people. Having a good working virtual machine is critical to make that happen (and I have several ). However, if you don’t want to create one from scratch, you can go ahead and download the virtual machine (vhd) that Microsoft put on their site right here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=751fa0d1-356c-4002-9c60-d539896c66ce&displaylang=en

This machine is kind of hard to search for on the net. The page that it resides on is labeled “2010 Information Worker Demonstration and Evaluation Virtual Machine (RTM)”. You can search for that or click on the link above. Your choice.

Don’t forget the fact that you need a 64-bit platform to run this machine. Also, this machine Has to be run in a Hyper-v environment. I had blogged about the requirements earlier so check that post out first (http://blog.sharepointelearning.com/want-to-get-your-hands-on-sharepoint-2010/) before getting started. Good Luck!