Pillars In Time

Released: 8/15/2017

Read through to see insights into the strong leaders within the SharePoint community that influenced this album!

Availability

Amazon MP3 – Apple iTunes/Music – Bandcamp – CDBaby – Google Play – iHeartRADIO – Napster (Rhapsody) – Pandora – Spotify – Tidal – YouTube

Synopsis

Community: A feeling of fellowship with others, sharing common attitudes, interests and goals.
Support: Giving assistance to, or holding up… Like a Pillar.

I have been asked many times if I was ever going to do an album that was specifically “SharePoint” themed, and I toyed around with it from time to time, but quite honestly it just wasn’t working out. Also, what would the songs be named?

Regardless, there is one thing about working with SharePoint after many, many, many years that you wind up gaining. Lots of friends, and an outstanding community.

A few months ago, I started working on some music that wasn’t the normal Ambient, or Soundtrackesque type of music I normally do, but was once again trying to target a “Synthwave” styled album. I had tried this previously with my album Skylines. But of course, as I get closer to completing songs, I find they really aren’t what many would really call Synthwave, nor do I really want to try to target a specific genre in what I’m working on.

So, after tinkering with a different kind of idea for a while, I decided to put together an album with these songs that I think are more for general consumption, but with the mindset for thanking a large portion of the SharePoint community for supporting me throughout the years not only with SharePoint but my music in big ways.

So, with that in mind… these songs were placed together on an album I’m calling “Pillars In Time”.

This album is be dedicated to The SharePoint Community and those who have supported me in big ways.

The songs were originally affectionately named in honor of specific folks in the SharePoint community who have supported me in the years past. Due to legal reasons, I couldn’t leave the names in each song, but follow along down below to find out who each song was dedicated to.

I first physically met Spence Harbar outside a local bar in Seattle in the early 2000’s while attending a SharePoint event.  We had been associates for a long time.

An enterprise architect widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost SharePoint authorities. With over twenty years of commercial experience in the architecture, development , deployment and operational service management of Web based applications and hosting platforms, his broad base of fundamental skills routinely enables the world’s largest organizations to succeed with Office 365 and SharePoint.

To me, he has always been on Phonky Muvva 🙂

If I ever ask you to take a dump and let me pick through it, Andrew Connell can easily describe to you that process :). We have been friends from the mid 2000s where I helped him and his companies through some of the more difficult issues faced with implementing SharePoint and it’s web content management features.

Andrew is a full stack web developer with a focus on Microsoft Azure & Office 365, specifically the Office 365 APIs, SharePoint Server, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft’s .NET Framework, Angular and Node.js.

He also runs Voitanos is where he publishes his on-demand technical training and educational resources for Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft’s Office 365, Microsoft Azure and cloud related technologies. Andrew is working on courses related to the SharePoint Framework, a new development & extensibility model for SharePoint.

World known as The SharePoint Cowboy, Eric Shupps is the founder and Chief Technology Officer of BinaryWave, a leading provider of Operational Analytics solutions for Microsoft SharePoint. Eric has worked with SharePoint Products and Technologies since 2001 as a consultant, administrator, architect, developer and trainer. He is an advisory committee member of the Dallas/Ft. Worth SharePoint Community group and participating member of user groups throughout the United Kingdom. Eric has authored numerous articles on SharePoint, speaks at user group meetings and conferences around the world.

To me, Eric is a very close and dear friend whom we have shared many pints and many stories together.  I even worked for him for awhile and I can honestly say he was one of the greatest bosses ever.

Neil Hodgkinson is a Senior Program Manager in the O365 CAT team. He is passionate about supportability, field readiness and ensuring our customers in O365 and on premises have the best possible experiences with SharePoint. Neil is a 16 year SharePoint veteran having spent 5 years with CSC as a SharePoint Product Specialist and is now in his 11th year with Microsoft where he has served as a PFE and Operations Engineer before joining the O365 CAT team. Neil is a certified master on SharePoint 2007, 2010 and 2013 plus taught Enterprise Search, Business Continuity Management and SQL Server on the MCM and MCSM programs,

A long time friend and lover of Gin 🙂

Whatever you may be thinking, no this is not Sean McDonough the american sportscaster. His is a close friend and doughnut lover.

Sean is the Chief Technology Officer for Bitstream Foundry LLC, a SharePoint solutions, services, and consulting company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. His professional development background goes back to the COM and pre-COM days – as well as SharePoint (since 2004) – and he has spent a tremendous amount of time both in the plumbing (as an IT Pro) and APIs (as a developer) associated with SharePoint and SharePoint Online. In addition, Microsoft awarded him an MVP (most valuable professional) award in 2016.

Sean and I share a deep love for ambient and electronic music and you’ll often find us sharing new music from new bands with one another.

Mike Fitzmaurice is responsible for technical diplomacy, evangelism, and technical business strategy at Nintex, the world leader in software and cloud services that automate everyday business processes quickly and easily. Prior to joining the company in 2008, he spent over a decade at Microsoft, working primarily on the SharePoint team in roles that included developer evangelism, competitive strategy, enterprise consulting, user education, product marketing, and technical event planning. Pre-Microsoft gigs included Director of Research and Development at a Washington, D.C.-based Microsoft Solution Provider Partner and IT Director at the National Association of Broadcasters.

Mike and I have known each other and met a few times physically during various events within Microsoft in the early days of SharePoint, and we have one thing widely in common.  We both wear Utilikilts.  In fact there have been numerous times where someone will take a photo with one of us, and accidentally tag the other in the picture.  I mean with Grey Beards and Utilikilts I guess it’s easy to confuse us.

Miguel Wood aka Honcho is a long time friend I’ve known from attending our local SharePoint User Group meetings over the years.

Miguel is the Director of the Central Region and Chief Enterprise Solutions Architect for Planet Technologies, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner National Systems Integrator. Miguel holds numerous Microsoft and industry certifications, including being one of the first to earn the prestigious Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) for SharePoint 2010, as well as the Charter Microsoft Certified Solutions Master (MCSM) in SharePoint, of which there are only a few in the world.

And he’s one hell of a singer!

Chris Johnson is an avid developer, speaker, author and is Co-Founder and CTO at Hyperfish, a startup building enterprise software that helps companies identify and collect missing information in directories quickly and easily.

Prior to Hyperfish Chris served as Group Product Manager on the Office 365 team at Microsoft in Redmond where he led the Developer Relations and ISV Ecosystem team.

To me however, he’ll always be a Groupie.  Chris and I met many many years ago when he and I were at Microsoft at a local bar where we caught up on all things SharePoint.  Chris also hosts the Microsoft Cloud Show along with Andrew Connell.  I appreciate his friendship and support through out all these years.

Bob Fox is a SR Supportability Program Manager for SharePoint at Microsoft. Bob and I have an interesting relationship that started many years ago where he to carry me up the hills of downtown Seattle.  He loves telling that story.  Bob has been a big supporter of me throughout the years, and I’m thankful to call him friend.

Probably the longest time I’ve known someone on this album.  Maurice and I were both good friends at Microsoft in the early days of SharePoint, and have managed to stay in contact throughout the last 18 years since.  Maurice is an Enterprise architect and developer with a strong background in Microsoft technologies. Currently certified as a Microsoft Certified Master for SharePoint 2007 and 2010 as well as a Charter Member of the Microsoft Certified Solutions Master for SharePoint 2013.

Maurice is a founder and President at Aptillon, Inc. He works with the Aptillon team to help companies of all sizes reach their objectives while ensuring their platforms are stable, secure and manageable.

And lastly but certainly not least, Jeff Teper.  Jeff is the Corporate Vice President of Office, OneDrive and SharePoint at Microsoft.  I remember meeting Jeff back in 2004 in his office in Redmond where an associate and myself spent a great deal of time discussing the supportability of SharePoint and it’s future.  I’m thankful for his passion on the product, and thankful for allowing me to include him on Pillars.  He is our El Capitan.

Of course, if your one of my long time SharePoint friends, and your name isn’t listed, PLEASE don’t think I consider you any less than those individuals who ARE listed. These were just some of the immediate names of those who have helped me in big ways throughout the years. In fact, I could do an entire series of albums honoring names of folks who have done just that. These are just a few.

Preview/Listen

Videos

A YouTube playlist of album art videos for the album

Reviews

Coming Soon…