Sharethepoint.com is a new community portal created by the team behind successful regional SharePoint conferences held in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore in recent years.

Debbie Ireland and her team have eaten large helpings of the proverbial “own dog food” by making use of as many of the new version’s features as possible. This makes it the perfect place for anyone with an interest in SharePoint to see these new features in action. 

Even as an anonymous viewer there is plenty to see and learn, and for those who want to get really hands-on, extranet capability has been built in to allow authenticated users access to a whole range of additional activities.

The first thing a new user will notice is sharethepoint.com’s sites use of Windows Azure Access Control Service, allowing users to login with FaceBook and Gmail accounts, and making it simple to return for future visits.

It is once you are logged in, you really get to experience the social features available in 2013. These include a MySite, complete with Newsfeed (think Facebook), where you can follow, like, post and review activities, see what everyone else is up to, and participate in conversations. The beauty of MySites is being able to see information relevant to you – connecting to people with shared interests, sites, documents and information that assist your role.

Another very appealing feature which takes the collaboration functionality to the next level, and is sure to have significant business value, is the Community Site Template (as featured on the community site here). Here members can join and actively contribute to discussions, gaining reputation points along the way! The new “Promoted Links app” (also available throughout 2013) has a visually appealing tile view, which can be customised with your own images, that report on the number of discussions and replies within each category.

One nice application of these community sites demonstrated by sharethepoint.com is their use for specific events. The site for the Southeast Asia Conference (Jan 16-17 2013) is a nice example of how people focused on that particular event can collaborate with other attendees, and ask speakers questions in the lead up to, during and after the event.  It is easy to imagine this replicated in a business environment, around interest groups, virtual teams, and specific projects.

There is also already evidence of such sites reducing support calls, as the informal nature of social in the enterprise is embraced. Microsoft’s strong performance in the “Social Enterprise” technology segment has been well documented in Gartner’s Magic Quadrants (latest version here) and features like Community Sites in SharePoint 2013 look set to consolidate that position.

For more on the social features of SharePoint 2013 you can take a look at the blog posts here, and to get your own preview of SharePoint 2013, live in a real-life application go to www.sharethepoint.com and sign up.

ShareThePoint’s upcoming schedule of regional SharePoint Conferences are as follows:

Hong Kong, China – Jan 14

Singapore, Southeast Asia – Jan 16-17

Sydney, Australia – April 10-11

Auckland, New Zealand – April 16-17

Melbourne, Australia – June 11-12

All details and registration is here.