Sharepoint Experiences - What's old is new again

 It's hard to believe I haven't posted here since 2012.  

14 years ago.
wow...

In that time, I've seen the peak and ebb of corporate knowledge stores and portals. 
IBM/Lotus Domino.  Sharepoint.  OpenText.  Dropbox. Confluence.  Teams/OneDrive.  Sharepoint.

OneLake Catalog.  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/onelake/onelake-overview

I've watched the "modern" list of intranet tools and front-line portals grow.

Simpplr, Worvivo, MangoApps, Staffbase, Unily, FirstUp, Igloo, Interact, LumApps, Yoobic, Beekeeper, Blink, Pebb io, eXo Platform, Haystack, Simple, Oak Engage, Axero, Humand.

And now back to Sharepoint, with it's "classic" and "modern" experiences.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sharepoint-classic-and-modern-experiences-5725c103-505d-4a6e-9350-300d3ec7d73f

SharePoint recently introduced their 'new SharePoint experience (preview)'

Awhile back I learned never to name something "new" as time is relative.

Semantic versioning or code names are better.

Hey Copilot, give me a better name.

A. Conceptual / Vision‑Driven Codenames

These communicate intent, not versioning.

Theme	Codename	Why it works
Discovery & clarity	SharePoint Lumen	Signals illumination, clarity, content discovery.
Publishing & creation	SharePoint Forge	Implies building, crafting, and producing content.
Modern architecture	SharePoint Horizon	Suggests a new frontier without implying finality.
AI‑first workflows	SharePoint Atlas	Conveys intelligence, mapping, and navigation.
Simplicity & focus	SharePoint Nova	Clean, modern, and future‑proof.

Best fit: SharePoint Lumen — aligns with the new Discover/Publish/Build model and the simplified, AI‑supported architecture. It’s aspirational without being tied to a specific release.

A. Naming the Toggle

Avoid “new” (it ages instantly). Use mode‑based or experience‑based naming.

Recommended patterns:

• Classic Mode / Lumen Mode

• Legacy Experience / Modern Experience

• SharePoint Standard / SharePoint Lumen

• SharePoint (Classic) / SharePoint (Modern)

This avoids ambiguity and supports long‑term coexistence.

Copilot didn't take into account that Lumen is already in use.  Naming things is hard!

https://lumendatabase.org/blog_entries/lumen-year-in-review-2025

Speaking of experiences, in 2026 there's a lot more to consider.  From the Lumen traffic reported in the link above.

- Consider how a smart speaker or car browser will interact with your web site.
- Consider how a phablet or dual-screen display can be used.
- Consider glasses, augmented reality, virtual reality.
- Consider agent to agent experiences.

More on the new Sharepoint experience and a demo.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/spblog/introducing-new-agentic-building-in-sharepoint-and-more-updates/4497987

https://demos.microsoft.com/Microsoft/play/5873/sharepoint-at-25

My prediction is the next major web UX experience will be WASM and pixel-driven, targeted at any GPU hardware and using nanites, shaders, filters, immersive audio and generative AI experiences rather than HTML, CSS or JavaScript.

It might allow for styles and perspectives like Roblox, Fortnight, or Minecraft, Atari or Nintendo or Sega or Playstation.  True gamification (or AI slop, take your pick!).

It might include perspectives such as '80s Lotus or '90s Informix.

Lately I've been liking the Commodore / Teletype aesthetic.  Though UX wise that logo is pretty big.

Regardless of the UX, an intranet site of the near future will include safe sandboxes for Agents, Agent to Agent workflows and operators in the loop approvals.   It will morph as needs change, content and knowledge changes, tasks, agents or audience changes.

It could morph in style and features while you're looking at it.  There's no more moving cheese, agents are eating your cheese and spitting it out.

https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/sandboxing-agentic-ai-workflows-with-webassembly/

https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/practical-security-guidance-for-sandboxing-agentic-workflows-and-managing-execution-risk/

There's still some ways to go to get Silverlight and garbage-collected WASM .NET or Go apps into the browser.  I'm sure this will accelerate over the course of 2026.

https://platform.uno/blog/the-state-of-webassembly-2025-2026/

https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/G3FRDA-beyond_javascript_wasm_gc_present_and_future/

https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/issues/94420#issuecomment-3305321393

I love creating timelines.  Copilot and other AI tools have made generating timelines a great tool for picking up where things left off, discovering more about history and filling in the blanks on features and functionality, and people in the ecosystem.

A brief history of Sharepoint.

1984-1989	Lotus Notes, Iris Associates, released 1989.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HCL_Notes
1990s	Lotus, Domino Prevails, acquired by IBM MS project "Tahoe", enterprise search + doc management Documentum founded OpenText founded, early Enterprise Content Management (ECM) vendors
1992	Jeff Teper joins MS, leads team as father of SharePoint.
1993	Exchange Server developed, Exchange Public Folders + file shares
1996	Exchange Server released
1997	OpenText Livelink, Documentum , web-based document management, versioning, metadata, workflow
1999	Project "Tahoe", Exchange, SQL Server, Site Server
2000s	Sharepoint, WSS, MOSS
2001	Sharepoint Portal Server 2001 Sharepoint Team Services Lotus Domino/QuickPlace server-side object model, web parts, ASP/COM
2003	Sharepoint 2003 Windows SharePoint Services, Team Sites, improved lists/libs Domino teamrooms, IBM Quickplace Early SDKs, Server-side OM, web services, template-based site customization
2004	Google Search Appliance (wish I'd kept mine!) https://www.reddit.com/r/computer/comments/1lmr6d5/what_is_this_and_if_i_sell_it_is_it_worth_anything/
2006	Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Apps
2007	Sharepoint 2007 MOSS Content types, workflows (WF), Excel Services, InfoPath forms, My Sites, enterprise search Competes with IBM Lotus Quickr, Domino, Documentum, OpenText, emerging Web 2.0 portals, SDKs/toolkits, Server OM, feature framework Sharepoint Designer Web services, early solution packages (WSPs) Office integration, content types, workflows, Excel Services
2010	SP2010 Social features, sandbox solutions, improved search (FAST integration) revamped UI, ribbon, social features (Tags, notes) Jive, IBM Connections, Domino/Quickr Client Object Model (CSOM) JavaScript OM (JSOM) REST/Odata endpoints VS tooling for SharePoint solutions
2011	Office 365, SharePoint Online, Google Apps, Box, Dropbox, cloud ECM vendors
2013	SP2013 App model introduced, cloud first direction, early O365 Integration App Model, SharePoint addins, improved search, App model APIs, Oauth, remote event receivers, SharePoint-hosted / provider-hosted apps Google Sites/Drive, Box, Dropbox, IBM Connections
2014-2016	Cloud adoption, Box, Dropbox, Google Drive OneDrive for Business Co-authoring
2016	SharePoint Server 2016, hybrid capabilities Hybrid scenarios, search, OneDrive, sites, on-prem and O365 Sharepoint as mobile and intelligent intranet SDK REST APIs, CSOM, PnP (Patterns & Practices) community libraries Sharepoint Framework (SPFx), TypeScript, React, Gulp/Webpack customization SDK for modern pages and web parts
2017	SharePoint Online with Modern UI, pages, lists, libraries Power Platform M365 Slack, Atlassian Confluence Sharepoint Intranet, Content Services, Integration Hub Microsoft Teams launches SharePoint content and files behind Teams
2019	SharePoint Server 2019 Modern ui on-prem Hub sites, communication sites, better PowerApps/Flow (Power Automate) integration SPFx maturity PnP libraries Microsoft Graph preferred API surface
2020	Sharepoint 20 years retrospective https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/spblog/%E2%80%9Csharepoint-20-years-young%E2%80%9D-%F0%9F%8E%82%F0%9F%93%BA%F0%9F%8E%99/2238955 Azure Purview public preview
2021	Goals in PowerBI https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/introducing-goals-in-power-bi/ Syntex, Viva Connections integration, Lists app enhancements Azure Purview expands, data classification, sensitivity labels, DLP Syntex (content understanding, AI-based classification)
2022	M365 Security and Compliance rebranded as Purview, Azure Purview rebranded as Microsoft Purview Data classification, retention, records management, eDiscovery and insider risk Automation Kit for PP https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/blog/power-automate/introducing-the-automation-kit-for-power-platform/ Purview SDKs/APIs Graph-based compliance APIs Core developer toolkits
2023	M365 Copilot Graph data from SharePoint, OneDrive, Exchange, Teams Purview's governance and security controls control what Copilot can access Google Workspace with Duet/AI Box AI Notion Confluence with AI Business Connectivity Services retirement (external lists, columns, content types) Replace with PowerApps, connectors to Sharepoint, D365, SQL, on-prem data gateway
2024	Sharepoint Server Subscription Edition (SE) on prem Sharepoint Online Purview Purview/Compliance APIs
2025	Copilot Studio, Foundry Cloud evolution, retrospective articles Secure Store Service retirement, replace with Azure Key Vault - no direct migration
2026	https://adoption.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/birthday/ March 2, 2026 - 25 years of SharePoint Sharepoint Server SE 2026 build, M365 cloud updates https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/enable-new-sharepoint-experience https://aka.ms/spat25 https://demos.microsoft.com/Microsoft/play/5875/march-moment-agent-apps