All around the world, public sector organizations are developing applications using Microsoft technology, writing technical documentation, and collaborating on creative technology solutions for meeting the challenges facing their organizations. Meanwhile, other organizations are pursuing the same or similar goals. The Microsoft Solution Sharing Network (SSN) program seeks to bring these organizations together — whether they operate within the same government or different countries — by helping them to build a community for sharing information technology (IT) content. When public sector organizations share IT content effectively, everyone benefits. Government organizations save taxpayer's money when they find and reuse an application developed by another government organization instead of building their own application from scratch. IT staff members save time and resources when they find and reuse documentation that has already been developed for a similar project. Thought leaders discover new revelations and creative ideas when they share their thinking with others. Through all of this, the knowledge-base in an economy grows. On This PageKey benefitsSSN provides important benefits to public sector organizations, including: | • | Content. Through the SSN program, Microsoft supports the sharing of IT-related content between public sector technical personnel and policy-makers. This content can range from fully-developed applications to project plans, technical intellectual property (IP), source code, and fledgling ideas. Participants can find and share reusable or inspirational solutions instead of "reinventing the wheel." | | • | Community. Supporting a range of worldwide community events and interaction, the SSN program promotes collaboration between people, sparks innovation, and encourages the development of new solutions and best practices. This community-building is fostered in many ways, including informal gatherings, regional events, online discussion boards, and collaboration portals. Microsoft is there to help SSN program participants develop their community in the ways that make sense to them. | | • | Collaborative technology. Technology has tremendous potential to empower collaboration. For SSN program participants who want to harness Microsoft's collaborative technologies to facilitate their content sharing and community-building, Microsoft provides a no-cost portal solution based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, along with Web parts, templates, and deployment assistance onto your own environment. | | • | Research. Research helps increase understanding of the dynamics of sharing within public sector and how all of this combined knowledge fits together. Microsoft is actively conducting academic research on the most effective means of information sharing and will continue to use that research to evolve the SSN program and share it with participants. |
Eligibility and participationThe SSN program has been successfully used by people in a variety of public sector organizations, including national, regional, and local government agencies, as well as universities and research organizations. In support of the program, a general purpose solutions sharing community site, Solshare.net, is publicly available and includes a wide range of content. Organizations that choose to formally collaborate with Microsoft on the SSN program will receive additional benefits, such as closer engagement with Microsoft and other program members, help with getting their community started, potential funding assistance for projects and events, and the provision of a SharePoint portal solution. We encourage you to contact us to learn more. Downloadable resourcesSee how SSN is being used todayFor more information| • | Visit Solshare.net, our online solution sharing community. | | • | If you would like to receive more information about the SSN program, please contact us. |
| |
