SharePoint 2010: Brand your SharePoint sites

SharePoint 2010 comes with sufficient branding features to help you apply your corporate branding standards to any type of SharePoint site.

Steve Wright and Corey Erkes

Adapted from “Pro SharePoint 2010 Governance” (Apress, 2012)

Before starting a branding initiative with a new SharePoint environment, it’s important to understand the needs of the business and its requirements around branding. As with any other project, gathering and analyzing requirements is essential.

It’s important to involve stakeholders up front in the process, especially those who could potentially influence the project in the later stages. This will decrease the chance for those painful, costly changes late in the game that can cause larger issues.

Most companies have branding standards. These typically consist of guidelines on the colors, fonts and logos the company uses. Obtain these guidelines as early in the process as possible. Not following them from the start could require some rework down the road.

A common approach to determining branding needs is to create a wireframe of the homepage, and any supporting page within the environment that doesn’t follow a typical SharePoint layout page. The goal of these exercises is to determine what level of SharePoint branding is needed. Determining these needs up front might save lots of unneeded customizations to master pages or CSS files later on.

Multilingual support

In today’s global world, sites within your farm may have to support the local language at the farm’s location. SharePoint 2010 uses language packs for both SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010.

Every Web front end in your farm will need the appropriate language packs installed. Installing language packs lets you create new sites in a local language, as well as translate the existing site’s interface based on the language the user chooses as the default. After installing the language packs, the Multilingual User Interface appears with a language settings option in the site settings menu of each site.

If multilingual support is a requirement within the environment, it’s important to plan for it accordingly. Ask the following questions:

• What languages need to be supported?
• What variations will you need?
• What elements will require language pack support?

Supporting multiple languages in SharePoint 2010 isn’t complicated, but proper planning and determining the level of language pack integration are necessary for successful implementation.

Publishing and branding

When you’re considering your organization’s branding needs, it’s important to know which version of SharePoint with which you’re working. SharePoint Server 2010 includes the Publishing feature, which is helpful for branding projects for the following reasons:

• Publishing lets you create templates for page content known as page layouts. Content authors and designers can edit page layouts.
• Publishing gives you better control over the navigational structures, especially if you wish to change them from the SharePoint UI.
• Publishing lets you easily change the master page.
• Publishing give you more flexibility with themes, even letting you apply the theme to a site and all sub-sites at the same time.

Even if you don’t wish to use the Publishing feature throughout the entire site, it’s a good idea to create the top-level site collection using the publishing site template. This allows for easier manipulation of the master page and supporting CSS.

Publishing also lets you delegate work. For instance, if you have a SharePoint developer working on the master page while an interface developer works on the CSS, they can do this work independently and later have it pulled together and published through an approval workflow. The workflow could include key members from the marketing team and those necessary to ensure you’re meeting company brand standards.

Types of SharePoint sites

You typically deploy SharePoint in one of three types of Web sites: public-facing Internet sites, internal-facing intranet sites or a combination of the two (an extranet). The use of each site varies, and therefore the branding of each type of site will also differ.

• Internet sites: These sites are typically driven by marketing and often tightly controlled. Very few users are allowed to publish content. Because they’re public-facing, they display a strong company brand and follow strict publishing guidelines. Site administrators can’t control the type of browser or the screen resolution that will be used to visit the site.
• Intranet sites: These are typically geared toward internal employees to help them collaborate and work more efficiently. Intranet sites typically have less corporate branding but more content publishers. Because these sites are internal, the company controls the browser and sometimes the screen resolution of the users accessing the site.
• Extranet sites: These sites are hybrids of Internet and intranet sites. They typically have a separate area into which an external user will need to authenticate. Depending on the need, the extranet may be branded to cater to the company with which your company is doing business. However, these types of sites are typically used more for collaboration, so extensive branding might not be needed.

Types of browsers

Another important decision you’ll need to make is to determine which browsers will be hitting your SharePoint site. While this might be easy if you’re administering an intranet site, it’s obviously more difficult for an Internet or extranet site. The popularity of browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari changes monthly, so before undertaking a branding effort, we recommend that you visit asite that publishes browser statistics.

SharePoint 2010 doesn’t support older browsers such as Internet Explorer 6. If you’re supporting an internal SharePoint site and determine that users are still hitting your site with Internet Explorer 6, it might be helpful to display a message stating that their browser isn’t supported and it’s time to upgrade.

Work with your internal infrastructure team to ensure that browsers supporting SharePoint 2010 are standard, or will be available to those users that interact with SharePoint 2010. For a complete list of features supported within each version of Internet Explorer, visit the Microsoft article on planning browser support.

Branding trends

While developing the brand and layout of a new site, it’s important to be aware of trends with other popular public-facing sites. While your brand might be unique, the layout and structure of the page should be familiar to users that visit other popular sites. These companies have spent time to understand branding trends and to research how the users view the different sections of a page when it first appears.

For instance, take Facebook.com or Bing.com. Notice how the user sign-in information is in the upper-right corner. Notice how the logo appears in the upper-left corner. These are common trends across public-facing Web sites, and your users will expect the same from internal sites as well.

Review the sites you visit often and see if this holds true for those sites as well. To get a better idea of how some trends are being utilized in SharePoint sites, check out these examples of SharePoint 2010 public-facing sites. You’ll notice that these Web sites follow the common layout patterns as described earlier.

Branding breakdown

Given the different elements involved in a SharePoint effort, it’s important to understand all the options for creating a branded SharePoint site. Typically, you can break down SharePoint branding into three major approaches, ranging from simple to complex. As the branding scope increases, so do the skill sets needed to complete the branding effort. Let’s take a look at a breakdown of the three branding approaches:

• Low effort: This approach uses out-of-the-box SharePoint master pages, CSS files and themes to create a simple SharePoint branded site. SharePoint 2010 provides 20 out-of-the-box themes and two master pages to provide limited branding. This approach won’t require any additional skill sets or resources outside of the SharePoint administrator to apply the theme or master page. This approach is typically used within intranet deployments where collaboration is the main focus and you don’t need to spend time enhancing the look and feel.
• Medium effort: This approach utilizes the out-of-the-box SharePoint master pages, but also custom or alternative CSS files to provide a more customized brand. This effort might also include custom theme development, which is much easier to create in SharePoint 2010 than it was in SharePoint 2007. This approach is common for intranet sites that require a more customized look and feel. For those larger deployments that focus on content publishing, this level of branding effort might be considered high. It will require a person with Web design experience, or at least experience with CSS files, to create the custom CSS files needed.
• High effort: This approach includes custom master pages, custom CSS files and potentially custom page layouts. This approach is common for public-facing sites or those internal sites that require a more polished and directed look and feel. This effort will require someone with traditional Web design skills or knowledge of how master pages work in ASP.NET.

Using themes

Now that we’ve talked about the different levels of effort depending on the branding need, we’ll discuss each of these topics in more detail to get a better feel for the needed branding approach. SharePoint themes are by far the easiest option for creating light branding on a SharePoint site. Themes let you apply 12 colors and two fonts to any SharePoint site. Microsoft completely revamped how themes work in SharePoint 2010, making theme creation much easier than it was in SharePoint 2007.

Unlike in SharePoint 2007, where theme-related CSS files would be added after the core CSS, SharePoint 2010 actually looks for a special type of CSS comment. Then it injects the CSS into the core CSS, so the browser only has to load one file. SharePoint 2010 themes don’t have the ability to define an image, in contrast with SharePoint 2007 themes.

SharePoint 2010 simplifies the theme-creation process by letting you create themes directly within SharePoint. You can use Word 2007, Word 2010, PowerPoint 2007 or PowerPoint 2010 to generate a Microsoft Office THMX file. These applications provide the 12 colors and two fonts as well, which are then packaged up in the THMX file, uploaded into SharePoint and applied to any site.

After you’ve created the theme, simply navigate to the Theme Gallery at the site-collection level and upload the newly created theme. After uploading and saving the theme, it will appear in the Site Theme menu as an available theme you can apply to any site.

SharePoint 2010 gives you a number of themes out of the box. While you might find one that exactly fits your needs, it’s more likely that one or more of these will come close without being an exact fit. It’s possible to take an existing theme and change any of the 12 colors or two predefined fonts.

Similar to how master pages work, if you create a site with a publishing template, you can apply the theme at the site level. You can also reset all sub-sites with this new theme as well. Themes within SharePoint 2010 are self-service, meaning someone with the appropriate permissions could apply a new theme or make changes to the current theme. While this may seem like a good idea, letting users modify themes can cause a branding disconnect between sites and raise issues in terms of not following corporate standards.

Themes are clearly an effective and straightforward way to apply branding to your SharePoint sites. Determine the corporate standards and work within those standards, and the SharePoint branding features can help you give your sites a clean and consistent brand.

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Windows 7: Take control of system security

The Control Panel in Windows 7 provides a number of options for securing your system, configuring backups, adjusting firewall settings and so on.

Jorge Orchilles

Adapted from “Microsoft Windows 7 Administrator’s Reference” (Syngress, an imprint of Elsevier)

Windows 7 comes with a variety of security and system management tools. There are tools for managing the local system, managing hardware and devices, and managing disks and file systems. The Control Panel is one of the most commonly used ones. The Control Panel has long been a central place to go to configure your Windows system. The look has changed over the years, but the tools have remained similar. We’ll take a closer look at the system and security aspects and functions of the Control Panel.

The System and Security category contains applets to help you secure, fine-tune and optimize your system. The subcategories under the System and Security category are Action Center, Windows Firewall, System, Windows Update, Power Options, Backup and Restore, BitLocker Drive Encryption and Administrative Tools. Here’s a brief overview.

Action Center

The Action Center helps you resolve basic system issues. It can help troubleshoot security, maintenance and performance issues. In the Action Center, you have four options: Review your computer’s status and solve issues, Change User Account Control (UAC) settings, Troubleshoot common computer problems, and Restore your computer to an earlier time.

If you choose Review your computer’s status and solve issues, the Action Center will display any issues that your system has detected. These could be issues with security, Windows Update, Windows Backup or a host of other issues.

If you choose Change User Account Control settings, the UAC Settings window will open. UAC is used to control whether programs can make changes to your system. This is important because you don’t want malicious programs to be able to make system changes.

The UAC Settings window includes four options:

• Always notify: The user will always be notified when either the user or a program attempts to make changes to the system.
• Notify me only when programs attempt to make changes to my desktop: The desktop will be dimmed when these attempts are made. This is the default option.
• Notify me only when programs attempt to make changes to my desktop (do not dim my desktop): The desktop will not be dimmed when these attempts are made.
• Never notify: The user is never notified when either the user or programs attempt to make changes to the system.

If you choose Troubleshoot common computer problems, the troubleshooting applet will open. The troubleshooting applet helps you troubleshoot issues with programs, hardware, Internet connections, appearance, personalization and security.

Choosing Restore your computer to an earlier time will open the Recovery window. In the Recovery window, you can open the System Restore wizard. System Restore lets you restore system files and settings without losing your personal files and data. You can select a restore point, and Windows 7 will restore your system to the state it was when the restore point was created.

The Recovery window also has an option for Advanced Recovery Methods. These will restore your system, but everything will be replaced, including your personal files and data. You can restore your system using a previously created image. You can also choose to reinstall Windows 7 using the original installation media. If you choose either of these methods, you’ll be able to back up your important files and data.

Windows Firewall

The Windows Firewall protects your Windows system from network-based threats. You can control who has access to your system and what level of access they have. The Windows Firewall applet lets you configure these firewall settings.

You have two options in the Windows Firewall section of the Control Panel: Check firewall status and Allow a program through Windows Firewall. Check firewall status will bring up the Windows Firewall window. This option lets you see if the Windows Firewall is enabled or disabled on your system. You can also see Windows Firewall settings for incoming connections and notifications.

Allow a program through Windows Firewall will bring up the Allowed Programs window. Here you can see what programs the Windows Firewall allows. If you want to change these settings, you must choose the Change settings option. Then you can select a program to allow and specify the networks with which the program is allowed to communicate.

The Details option will show you the path to the executable for the allowed application. If you want to allow a program not listed, you can choose the Allow another program option. You can then specify the location of another program you want to allow through the firewall.

System

The System section of the Control Panel lets you view and configure basic system settings. This section has five options: View amount of RAM and processor speed, Check the Windows Experience Index, Allow remote access, See the name of the computer and Device Manager. View amount of RAM and processor speed will launch the System window. Here you can view basic system information. You can see the processor speed, the amount of RAM in the system, the system type, computer name and other important information.

Check the Windows Experience Index will launch the Performance Information and Tools window. You can see your system’s Windows Experience Index. The Windows Experience Index is a number between 1.0 and 7.9 that represents the overall performance of your system.

Your index is based on five components: processor, memory, graphics, gaming graphics and primary hard disk. Each of these components is given a rating. Your index is based on the lowest individual score for the components. You can rerun the assessment any time you wish. This will help you determine if changes made to the system increased or decreased overall performance.

The Allow Remote Access option brings up the Remote tab of the System Properties window. You can use this tab to enable or disable Remote Assistance. You can also use it to enable or disable Remote Desktop.

Selecting See the name of this computer will launch the System window. You can view the name and description of the computer. In addition, you can view the workgroup or domain in which the computer resides. You can also use this window to change the name of the computer or change the system’s workgroup or domain.

You can use the Device Manager to manage the hardware devices in your system. You can install, disable and uninstall devices. You can update drivers. You can also use Device Manager to determine when there’s a problem with one of your hardware devices and when one of your devices isn’t functioning properly.

Windows Update

Windows Update keeps your system up-to-date with the latest updates and patches. Windows Update can automatically download and install device drivers, OS patches and application patches. There are three options in this section: Turn automatic updating on or off, Check for updates and View installed updates. The option named Turn Automatic Updating on or off will bring up the Windows Update Change Settings window.

You can enable or disable Windows Update on your system. You can also control how updates are handled. You can set whether updates are automatically downloaded and installed, or whether user intervention is necessary.

The Check for updates option brings up the Windows Update window. Windows Update will check and see what updates are available for your system. It will also let you know when your system was last updated. Selecting View installed updates will bring up the Installed Updates window.

The Installed Updates window will list all the updates installed on your system. You can see OS updates, application updates and security updates. The Installed Updates window also lets you uninstall updates from your system.

Power Options

The Power Options section includes the following options: Change battery settings, Require a password when the computer wakes, Change what the power buttons do and Change when the computer sleeps.

The Change battery settings option brings up the Power Options window. This is where you choose a power plan. Power plans determine how your system will manage energy consumption, especially when running on battery power. A good power plan will help extend the amount of time your system can run on battery power.

Choosing Require a password when the computer wakes brings up the Power Options System Settings window. This lets you configure whether a user has to enter a password when the system comes out of sleep mode. Take note that in order to make changes to this setting, you have to first select the Change settings that are currently unavailable option. Choosing Change what the power buttons do also brings up the Power Options System Settings window. You can configure what your system does when you press the power or sleep buttons. You can also configure what happens when you close the lid on your laptop.

Change when the computer sleeps launches the Edit Plan Setting window. This lets you change the settings for your current power plan. You can control when the display will dim or turn off. You can configure when the system will enter sleep mode. You can also adjust the screen brightness.

Backup and Restore

The Backup and Restore section of the Control Panel includes two options: Back up your computer and Restore files from a backup. The Back up your computer option will launch the Backup and Restore window. You can use the Backup and Restore window to create a system image, create a system repair or perform a backup of your system.

Back up now starts a new system backup. The backup will use your current backup device and location. Turn on schedule lets you set up periodic backups of your system. You should schedule these backups for a time when the system will be online, but not in use. The Change settings option will allow you to change the default settings for your backups. For example, you can use this to change the default backup location.

The Restore files from a backup option will bring up the Backup and Restore window. At the bottom of the window, there’s a Restore section. The Select another backup to restore files from option will bring up the Restore Files wizard. The Restore Files wizard will walk you through the process of doing a restore. You’ll have to specify the location of the backup to restore from, the files you want to restore and what you want to do with the restored files.

Administrative Tools

The Administrative Tools section includes the following options: Free up disk space, Defragment your hard drive, Create and format hard disk partitions, View event logs and Schedule tasks. Choosing Free up disk space launches the Disk Cleanup applet. This will scan your system and determine what can be done to free up space on your disks. You can delete Downloaded Program Files, Temporary Internet Files, Offline Web pages, files in the Recycle Bin, Setup Log Files, Temporary Files, Thumbnails, Per-user archived Windows Error Reports and System-archived Windows Error Reports.

The Disk Cleanup applet also includes an option to Clean up system files. This opens the Disk Cleanup applet with a tab called More Options. On the More Options tab, you have the option to remove programs you don’t use. You also have to option to remove older system restore points.

Choosing Free up disk space will bring up the Disk Defragmenter. This can help improve performance of your drives. Fragmentation occurs when files split all over your disks. When this happens, your disk has to do more work to access files. The Disk Defragmenter will move your files to a contiguous location. This will speed disk-access performance.

Create and format hard disk partitions will bring up the Disk Management console. You can use the Disk Management console to manage your hard disks and disk partitions. You can create partitions and format partitions. You can also configure fault tolerance for your disks.

Choose View event logs to open the Windows Event Viewer. You can view the Windows logs Application, Security, Setup and System. You can also view individual logs for certain Windows applications and Windows services. You can use Event Viewer to view logs on the local system or a remote system.

Schedule tasks launches Task Scheduler. Use this to schedule tasks to run at specified times. This is great for administrative and maintenance tasks that must be run on a regular basis. Task Scheduler offers great flexibility. You can use the Create Basic Task wizard or manually create a task.

You can schedule tasks to run once, daily, weekly, monthly, when the computer starts, when a user logs on or when a specific event is logged. The task can be to run a program or script, send an e-mail or display a message. Task Scheduler also lets you import and export tasks. This is useful if you want to run the same task on multiple systems.

I’ll cover other aspects of the Control Panel features and functions—such as the myriad options for network and hardware settings, personalization, establishing credentials and so on—in future articles.

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Microsoft Exchange Server 2010: High availability strategies

The strategies Microsoft offers for creating highly available Microsoft Exchange mailboxes have evolved over the years.

Jaap Wesselius

Ever since Exchange Server 5.5, Microsoft has offered Windows Clustering as an option for creating a highly available Exchange mailbox environment. There are two server nodes available in a typical shared-storage cluster environment. Both are running Exchange Server and both servers are connected to a shared storage solution.

In the early days, this shared storage was built on a shared SCSI bus. Later on, it typically used storage-area networks (SANs) with a Fibre Channel or iSCSI network connection. The important part was the shared storage where the Exchange Server databases were located.

Only one server node is the “owner” of this shared data. This node provides the client services. It’s also known as the active node. The other node isn’t able to access this data, and is therefore the passive node. A private network between the two server nodes is used for intra-cluster communications, such as a heartbeat signal. This lets both nodes determine the cluster state and ensure the other nodes are still alive.

Besides the two nodes, it creates an “Exchange Virtual Server” as a cluster resource. This has nothing to do with virtual machines. This is the resource to which Outlook clients connect in order to access their mailboxes. When the active node fails, the passive node takes over the Exchange Virtual Server, which then continues to run. Although users will notice a short downtime during the failover, it’s an otherwise seamless experience. No action is required from the user.

Although this solution offers redundancy, there’s still a single point of failure—the shared database of the Exchange server. In a typical environment, this database is stored on a SAN. By its very nature, a SAN is a highly available environment. When something does happen to the database, though, such as a logical failure, the database is unavailable for both nodes. This results in total unavailability.

Exchange database replication

With Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft offered a new solution for creating highly available Exchange environments: database replication. Database replication creates a copy of a database, resulting in database redundancy. This technology was available in three flavors:

• Local Continuous Replication (LCR): This approach creates a copy of the database on the same server.
• Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR): This creates a copy of the database on another node in a Windows failover cluster (there can only be two nodes in a CCR cluster).
• Standby Continuous Replication (SCR): This came with Exchange Server 2007 SP1. It creates a copy of a database on any other Exchange Server (not necessarily in the cluster). This isn’t meant for high availability (HA); it’s more for disaster recovery.

This is how database replication works in a CCR clustered environment. Exchange Server 2007 is installed on a Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 failover cluster. There’s no shared storage in use within the cluster. Each node has its own storage. This can be either on a SAN (Fibre Channel or iSCSI) or direct-attached storage (DAS)—local physical disks.

The active node in the cluster services client requests, and Exchange Server uses the standard database technology with a database, log files and a checkpoint file. When Exchange Server is finished with a log file, it’s immediately sent to the cluster’s passive node. This can either be via a normal network connection or via a dedicated replication network.

The passive node receives the log file and checks it for errors. If it finds none, the data in the log file is relayed to the passive copy of the database. This is an asynchronous process, meaning the passive copy is always a couple of log files behind the active copy, so information is “missing” in the passive copy.

In this environment, all messages—even internal messages—are sent via a Hub Transport server. The Hub Transport server keeps track of these messages in a CCR environment. It can therefore send missing information (that the passive node actually requests) to the passive copy of the cluster in case of a cluster failover. This is called the “Transport Dumpster” in a Hub Transport server.

This kind of replication works very well. CCR replication is quite reliable, but there are a couple of potential drawbacks:

• An Exchange Server 2007 CCR environment runs on Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 clustering. For many, this adds too much complexity to the environment.
• Windows Server 2003 clustering in a multi-subnet environment is nearly impossible, although this has improved (but still isn’t perfect) in Windows Server 2008 failover clustering.
• Site resilience isn’t seamless.
• CCR clustering is only possible in a two-node environment.
• All three kinds of replication (LCR, CCR and SCR) are managed differently.

To overcome these issues, Microsoft dramatically improved the replication technology. It also reduced the administrative overhead. It achieved this by completely hiding the cluster components behind the implementation of Exchange Server 2010. The cluster components are still there, but the administration is done entirely with the Exchange Management Console (EMC) or the Exchange Management Shell (EMS).

DAG continuous replication

In Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft introduced the concept of a database availability group (DAG). This is a logical unit of Exchange Server 2010 Mailbox Servers. All Mailbox Servers within a DAG can replicate databases to each other. A single DAG can hold up to 16 Mailbox Servers and up to 16 copies of a database.

The idea of multiple database copies in one Exchange organization is called Exchange Mobility. There is one database on multiple servers, each instance of which is 100 percent identical and thus has the same GUID.

With a DAG in place, clients connect to an active database. This is the database where all data was stored initially. New SMTP messages, either from outside or inside the organization, are stored in this database first.

When the Exchange Server has finished processing information in the database’s log file, it replicates the file to other servers. You can assign the servers that receive a copy of the database. The log file is inspected upon receipt and if everything is all right, the information in the log file is dropped into the local copy of the database.

In Exchange Server 2010, all clients connect to the Client Access Server, including all Messaging Application Programming Interface, or MAPI, clients such as Microsoft Outlook. Supported Outlook clients in Exchange Server 2010 include Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010.

So the Outlook client connects to the Client Access Server, which then connects to the mailbox in the active copy of the database. Unfortunately, this is only true for mailbox databases. When an Outlook client needs to access a public folder database, the client still accesses the mailbox server directly.

When the active copy of a database or its server fails, one of the passive copies of the database becomes active. You can configure the failover order during the database copy configuration process. The Client Access Server automatically notices the failover and starts using the new active database. Because the Outlook client is connected to the Client Access Server and not directly to the database, a database failover is fully transparent. Messages such as, “The connection to the server was lost,” and, “The connection to the server is restored,” simply don’t appear anymore.

When building a highly available mailbox server environment in a DAG, there’s no need to build a failover cluster in advance. You can add additional mailbox servers to the DAG on the fly. However, for the DAG to function properly, you’re still using some failover clustering components. These are installed during the DAG configuration. You do all DAG and database copy management via the EMC or the EMS. You no longer have to use the Windows Cluster Manager.

The DAG with database copies is the only HA technology Exchange Server 2010 uses. Older technologies such as SCR, CCR and SCR are no longer available. The traditional single-copy cluster with shared storage is no longer supported, either.

Configuring a DAG is no longer limited to a server holding just the mailbox server role. It’s possible to create a two-server situation with the Hub Transport, Client Access and Mailbox Server roles on both servers, and then create a DAG and configure database copies.

However, it isn’t an HA configuration for the Client Access or Hub Transport servers unless you’ve put load balancers in front of them. You can’t use the default Windows Network Load Balancing in combination with the failover clustering components. Nevertheless, this is a great improvement for smaller deployments of Exchange Server 2010 where HA is still required.

Jaap Wesselius is the founder of DM Consultants, a company with a strong focus on messaging and collaboration solutions. After working at Microsoft for eight years, Wesselius decided to commit more of his time to the Exchange community in the Netherlands, resulting in an Exchange Server MVP award in 2007. He’s also a regular contributor at the Dutch Unified Communications User Group and a regular author for Simple-Talk.

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Education a focus on International Day of the Girl Child

The United Nations has designated October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child. 

The mission of the day is “to help galvanize worldwide enthusiasm for goals to better girls’ lives, providing an opportunity for them to show leadership and reach their full potential.”

One ingredient crucial to affording girls the opportunity to reach their full potential is education.

International Day of the Girl Child comes as the world reacts to the shooting of a 14-year-old Pakistani girl, Malala Yousufzai, who attends school and wrote online about the value of educating girls. The Taliban took responsibility for the attack, which also injured two other classmates. The shooting has been called despicable and cowardly, and has drawn tremendous international interest.

"And why are they so afraid of Malala?" columnist Frida Ghitis wrote on CNN.com. "Mostly, because she is not afraid of them."

But many girls don't have the support Malala does.

The reality

In more than 100 countries, school is not free, and parents of limited resources choose to invest in their sons’ education, not their daughters’.  The high rate of child marriage in some cultures means that many girls in developing countries never even have the opportunity to go to school. Worldwide, only 30% of girls are enrolled in secondary school.

And when it comes to overall literacy, there is a gap between males and females worldwide.  Though there has been progress over the past decade, there is a5.1% gap between male and female youth literacy, meaning that fewer young females are literate.

According to UNESCO, “Despite progress, girls and women continue to be disproportionately excluded from education, especially at secondary education level and in the area of adult literacy.”

Benefits of educating girls

Educating girls has far-reaching positive effects for the individual, her community and her world. According to DayoftheGirl.org, educating girls...

Reduces the rate of child marriage: A girl who has 7 years of education will typically marry four years later and have fewer children.

Reduces disease: A girl who has basic education is three times less likely to contract HIV.

Strengthens the economy: Only a year of extra school can increase a girl’s future earnings by 10% to 20%.

Promotes health: Children born to educated moms are twice as likely to survive beyond the age of 5.

Solves problems: Because education promotes critical thinking skills, girls learn to solve problems, a vital skill for the next generation of world leaders.

What you can do, today and beyond

CNN is partnering with 10×10, a global action campaign to promote girls’ education, to spread the message that educating girls in developing nations can change the world. A film, "Girl Rising," will air in spring 2013 that tells 10 girls' stories from around the globe. The organization has kicked off a photo campaign to invite people to raise awareness on why educating girls is #basicmath, and we hope you’ll take part. You can help. This CNN iReport assignment can show you how!

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British Nobel winner once written off by teacher

London, Oct 9 (IANS) A British researcher who won the 2012 Nobel Prize for Medicine was once dismissed by his school teacher about his ambition to become a scientist as "quite ridiculous", the Guardian reported Tuesday.

Sir John Gurdon, 79, of Cambridge University, Monday shared the prize in physiology or medicine - and 744,000-pound cash - withJapanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka, 50.

Their ground-breaking work has given scientists fresh insights into how cells and organisms develop.

The research may pave the way for radical advances in medicine that allow damaged or diseased tissues to be regenerated in the lab, or even inside patients' bodies.

According to his Eton schoolmaster, Gurdon, at an age of 15, did not stand out as a potential scientist.

Writing in 2006, Gurdon quoted a school report as saying: "I believe Gurdon has ideas about becoming a scientist; on his present showing this is quite ridiculous.

"If he can't learn simple biological facts, he would have no chance of doing the work of a specialist, and it would be a sheer waste of time, both on his part and of those who would have to teach him."

His fellow researcher Yamanaka holds academic posts at Kyoto and San Francisco Universities.

Speaking to reporters in London, Gurdon said it was "very gratifying" to be recognised for what has been his life's work.

Prior to the duo's research, scientists believed adult cells were committed irreversibly to their specialist role, for example, as skin, brain or beating heart cells.

Gurdon showed that essentially all cells contained the same genes, and so held all the information needed to make any tissue.

Building on Gurdon's work, Yamanaka developed a chemical cocktail to reprogramme adult cells into more youthful states, from which they could grow into many other tissue types.

In a statement, the Nobel Assembly at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute in Sweden, said the scientists had "revolutionised our understanding of how cells and organisms develop".

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