Bamboo Solutions Joins Shared Source Community Initiative that Simplifies the Creation of Community Oriented SharePoint-based Websites

Orlando, Florida (PRWEB) June 4, 2007 -- From Microsoft Tech Ed 2007, Bamboo Solutions Corporation today announced their participation in the Community Kit for SharePoint® (CKS), a shared source initiative with the objective of delivering a set of best practices, templates, Web Parts, tools, and source code that enables practically anyone to easily create a functional community oriented website on Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Bamboo Solutions will be participating in the project by contributing development resources and Bamboo Web Parts for SharePoint, resulting in added functionality and value to CKS based websites.

An open and collaborative development project led by Microsoft, the CKS is a starting point for groups looking to quickly build loosely collaborative websites. The initial CKS: User Group Edition can be used to create a website for practically any user group, regardless of product or technology affinity. Future CKS editions will provide community oriented features and enhancements for Internet facing sites, corporate intranet sites, and blogs as well as wikis. True to its name, the CKS project is being developed primarily by volunteers in the SharePoint community. It is hosted on CodePlex, an online software development environment for shared source developers to create and manage projects throughout an entire software development lifecycle.

Bamboo Solutions' CKS product contributions begin with the release of the World Clock and Weather Web Part this summer. This free Web Part will enable the display of time zones in select cities worldwide, as well as the local weather on a SharePoint site. This can be extremely useful to international organizations or travel-related groups. Additionally, Bamboo Solutions will contribute a community edition of their Virtual Map View Web Part in the late summer. The Virtual Map View Web Part provides a set of maps that can be integrated with SharePoint lists to display data geographically through the regions in a map. A full library of maps covering continents, countries, U.S. states, and major cities is provided, allowing users to create powerful geographical charts in just minutes. As new Web Parts become available, Bamboo Solutions will consider additional contributions and support to the CKS project.

"The CKS editions that are planned or currently under development will provide anyone with the ability to easily and quickly set up a complete community oriented site within a matter of hours. As CKS community members create and share their own customizations, a virtual library of turnkey solutions for different types of groups will be readily available." says Mr. Wes Bryan, Sr. Product Manager, Bamboo Solutions Corporation, and a CKS volunteer coordinator. "Our involvement with the CKS project, in addition to working on enhancements to Microsoft's Fantastic 40 templates, is part of our effort to improve the understanding of SharePoint capabilities and help communities get ahead of the implementation curve."

"Today, SharePoint is synonymous with websites for team-based collaboration in which the members have a tight connection with each other. Ultimately, the goal of the CKS is to make SharePoint synonymous with community oriented websites in which the members have a loose connection with each other." says Mr. Lawrence Liu, Community Lead for SharePoint Products and Technologies, Microsoft, and the founder and volunteer group program manager for the CKS.

More information about the Community Kit for SharePoint is available at http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/sharepoint/cks. The CKS project site is at http://www.codeplex.com/CKS.

Bamboo's CKS Web Parts will be included in upcoming CKS editions, including the Corporate Intranet Edition and the Internet/Extranet Edition. Bamboo Solutions' entire suite of Web Parts, as well as other products for SharePoint, are available for immediate download, free trial and purchase via Bamboo's online store http://www.bamboosolutions.com.

About Microsoft:
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

About Bamboo Solutions:
Bamboo Solutions Corporation provides software and services that help solve the most demanding collaboration problems of its customers. Bamboo Solutions' products are based upon the Microsoft SharePoint platform and include a comprehensive portfolio of Web Parts, Solution Accelerators, customized solutions and services. For over 12 years, Bamboo Solutions has been helping customers with needs that include information integration and reporting, document management, project and task management, self-service portals, management reporting, grants management, and more. Bamboo Solutions is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, USA, with offices in Gothenburg, Sweden and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. For more information, visit: http://www.bamboosolutions.com.

Copyright © 2007 Bamboo Solutions Corporation. All rights reserved worldwide.

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