MSN Groups used to be one of the Microsoft services I less enjoyed... they were bureaucratic to set up and e-mail messages exchanged between group members were either full of needless HTML content (lots of tables and links) or weird plain text messages with lots of tags. That led me to other options such as Yahoo Groups or Google Groups.

This week, however, Live Groups was just released. And they seem to be promising! Microsoft realized the potential that its broad Live Messenger community has to be the foundation of social apps (Guy Kawasaki said this to Ballmer before) and the Live Groups service is much more integrated to other apps and intuitive to use than MSN Groups.

Some features I was able to notice include:

• The group appears in Live Messenger (so that group conversations can be allowed)
• Calendars can be used to coordinate groups events (cool!)
• Integration with Live SkyDrive, Live Photos and Live Hotmail.

Let's keep an eye on it!

[]s,
-- AFurtado

The statements or testimonies I offer in this post represent my own personal views.
I am speaking for myself and not on behalf of my employer, Microsoft Corporation.

English - Portuguese

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MSN Groups era um dos serviços da Microsoft de que eu menos gostava... era burocrático de configurar e mensagens de email trocadas entre os membros do grupo eram ou cheias de conteúdo HTML desnecessário (várias tabelas e links) ou mensagens de texto estranho sem formatação com várias tags. Isso levava a outras opções como Yahoo Groups ou Google Groups.

Esta semana, no entanto, o Live Groups foi lançado. E parece ser promissor! A Microsoft percebeu o potencial que sua vasta comunidade do Live Messenger tem para ser uma base dos aplicativos sociais (Guy Kawasaki disse isto para Ballmer anteriormente) e o Live Groups é muito mais integrado a outros aplicativos e mais intuitivo de usar do que MSN Groups.

Alguns recursos pude notar incluem:

• O grupo aparece no Live Messenger (de modo a permitir conversas de grupo)
• Calendários podem ser usados para coordenar eventos do grupo (legal!)
• Integração com o Live SkyDrive, Live Photo e Live Hotmail.

Vamos ficar de olho no Live Groups!

[]s,
--AFurtado

As declarações ou testemunhos, oferecer esta postagem representam minhas opiniões pessoais.
ESTOU a falar por mim próprio e não em nome do meu empregador, a Microsoft Corporation.

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Way cool!

More here.

[]s
-- AFurtado

"For a long time, Apple have been slowly becoming the new establishment. With them acting in all those ways that they used to ridicule Microsoft about, it's super to see them pastiche the 1984 hammer ad."

BR,
-- AFurtado

The statements or testimonies I offer in this post represent my own personal views.
I am speaking for myself and not on behalf of my employer, Microsoft Corporation.

The Sandcastle Help File Builder is a great tool for creating .html and .chm help files from .NET XML comments without demanding the complexity of SandCastle. I believe this tool is a better option than DocProject, which requires itself to be added to the current VS solution and seems to be buggy with regard to documenting .exe assemblies

[]s
-- AFurtado

The statements or testimonies I offer in this post represent my own personal views.
I am speaking for myself and not on behalf of my employer, Microsoft Corporation.

English - Portuguese

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O Sandcastle Help File Builder é uma ótima ferramenta para criar arquivos de ajuda .html e .chm a partir de comentários XML do .NET sem exigir a complexidade do Sandcastle. Considero que esta ferramenta é uma opção melhor do que DocProject, que exige ser adicionada à solução corrente do VS e parece ter bugs em relação à documentação assemblies .exe

[]s
--AFurtado

Os relatos e opiniões deste post apresentam pontos de vista pessoais,
não refletindo necessariamente a opinião da Microsoft Corporation.

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