Microsoft has stepped up its Web 2.0 social networking game. In this context, new content will be made available for integration with the Redmond company's Office SharePoint Server 2007. According to Microsoft, NewsGator and Atlassian will build on the enterprise social networking capabilities of Office SharePoint Server 2007, augmenting the Web 2.0 footprint of the productivity platform. Per the new partnerships inked between Microsoft and NewsGator and Atlassian, Office SharePoint Server 2007 will benefit from extended community-building capacity via wikis and RSS. The end purpose is of course to evolve the product's current social computing options associated with enterprise workplaces.

"Social computing and its inclusion in SharePoint Server 2007 are changing the way businesses work and enabling organizations to harness the power of their social networks," said Derek Burney, general manager of SharePoint at Microsoft Corp. "This has exponentially increased the communication and collaboration among employees, partners, clients and other key stakeholders. Microsoft's relationships with Atlassian and NewsGator represent dynamic new opportunities for integrating social computing technology into a company's business productivity infrastructure."

In the Redmond company's past fiscal year, SharePoint technologies reeked in at over $800 million, and it is clear that Microsoft aims to fuel the growth of the productivity solution's momentum. Office SharePoint Server 2007 is described as a platform delivering a plethora of capabilities from collaboration, to business intelligence, content management, search and social computing.

NewsGator made available an extensive collection of offerings designed to build on top of the social computing capabilities of Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. Via the NewsGator Social Sites, users will be able to access a suite of site templates, profiles, Web parts and middleware that will enhance information access and communications.

"Companies of all sizes are turning to SharePoint as the foundation for social computing and Enterprise 2.0," said Dave Keller, general manager for Enterprise at NewsGator. "NewsGator Social Sites builds on this foundation and delivers the essential components for driving portal usage and widespread collaboration."

In a similar manner, Atlassian has focused on building a bridge between its own collaboration platform and Office SharePoint Server 2007, through a collection of plug-ins. "Many of our customers have been asking us for months whether Confluence and SharePoint Server 2007 compete or if they can be used together", said Atlassian CEO and co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes. "We finally have an answer."