Sharepoint 2010, Windows Phone 7, and Taxonomy

As Microsoft prepares to launch it's latest initiative in the mobile space, Windows Phone 7, there is some interesting chatter and discussion about the tight integration between Sharepoint and the Windows Phone 7 OS. Microsoft will probably have the greatest chance at penetration in the business mobile market so a strong integration with its enterprise collaboration tool makes a ton of sense.

Here is a link to a techy/nerdy blog posting from Paul Stubbs ofMicrosoft about creating mobile applications on Windows Phone 7 using Sharepoint server. http://bit.ly/bC0yi8

As I read this blog post (actually skimmed it as much of it was over my non-programmer head), I tried to think of cool applications that could be developed by taking advantage of the managed metadata field in Sharepoint 2010. I could imagine that as documents get checked in, tagging them with managed metadata from an enterprise taxonomy could trigger alerts that are sent to phones. Or, on the search side, a corporate taxonomy that enables browse and filtering would be invaluable for search on a mobile device where it is more difficult to scroll through pages of keyword results. An employee out of the office could easily navigate through a general business taxonomy and find an expense report form or paid time off policy.

Overall, the better tagging and taxonomy that a company has in place will enable more sophisticated and useful applications.

Mobile business apps are definitely big drivers of mobile platform adoption. The ability to create custom apps connecting to Sharepoint 2010 is certainly worth keeping an eye on.