IBM Social Software

Getting Started with IBM Connections

Erika Varga — Fri, 3 Feb 2012 09:49:44 -0400

IBM Connections 3.0.1 has a new getting started experience to interactively guide users through steps for setting up and using IBM Connections. Each step lets you Learn more, Watch video or Do it. Want to see how other people are using IBM Connections to do social business? The new getting started walks you through the same steps others have taken to network with colleagues, join a community, start an activity, and share files.

Two ways to use Getting Started with IBM Connections:

Try out Getting Started with IBM Connections that uses IBM Connections hosted in Lotus Greenhouse. You'll need your Lotus Greenhouse credentials to log in. http://infolib.lotus.com/resources/connections3/index.html
Already purchased IBM Connections? Administrators can download the IBM Getting Started sample for IBM Connections and customize it for their environment. http://tinyurl.com/connections-gettingstarted

Help us plan our session for SXSW Interactive

Heidi Ambler — Wed, 1 Feb 2012 09:55:53 -0400

Today's guest post is from

Heidi Ambler
Director of Social Software Product Management

Luis Benitez and I are excited to be presenting at SXSW 2012, and we want to tap into the collective knowledge of readers of our blogs, Twitter, and even internal to IBM to find out what your thoughts are on enterprise social software trends, which is the topic of our session.

How are you seeing social media being used by enterprises and what are some of your most favorite examples?

Let us know in the comments section below!

And by the way, if you are going to SXSW 2012, we hope to see you there:

Enterprise Social Media: 5 Emerging Trends
When: Sat March 10th @ 5pm
Where: Longhorn Ballroom @ Omni Downtown

If you want to respond in Twitter, we'll be monitoring the hashtag so sends us your comments/questions. We would love to hear from you! The hashtag for our session is #SXsocbiz5

Hope to see you there and hear from you!

Participate in activities going on in the User Experience Lab at Lotusphere 2012

Joseph Russo — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:00:00 -0400

Participate in activities going on in the User Experience Lab

View the latest product design concepts, experience mobile product designs, talk to our social solutions designers, and provide feedback to improve the information experience. Meet the designers, user researchers, and information architects responsible for the direction of our products. Participate in hands-on activities and tell us what you need.

Lab Hours:
Monday, January 16 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Tuesday, January 17 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM
Wednesday, January 18 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM
Thursday, January 19 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM

Visit these stations in the lab located in Asia 4:

Station 1: IBM User Research and Future Studies

See how we conduct research and sign up for an opportunity to participate in future studies. Discuss with us what you would like to see improved in the products that you use.

Station 2: Connections and LotusLive

To influence our future design directions, help us prioritize the most important scenarios in which you would use these products to complete daily tasks. Try out the next version of Connections and let us know how you like it. Give us feedback on our new features, including enhanced community functionality and integration of the social business toolkit.

Station 3: Editing in the Cloud with IBM Docs

Check out IBM's new web editors and tell us what is most important to you in a document editor, a presentation editor, or a spreadsheet editor.

Station 4: Design Your Information Experience

How do you use information either as a new or an experienced product user? How can the Lotus and WebSphere Portal product wikis be more effective in giving you the information that you need? Help influence the direction that we take with your product information experience.

Station 5: Sametime

Real-time collaboration is critical to your business. Come to the Sametime UX station to give us input on future designs and to discuss your requirements for online meetings, instant messaging, and using audio and video.

Station 6: Making Your Business Solutions Social

Learn about the core design principles that make a business solution into a social business. See the common set of patterns and artifacts that we're designing and help influence their design. Tell us about your favorite business solutions, and we can talk about how using social media can enhance the outcome of the solutions.

Station 7: Social Mail

View and interact with demos of the social mail beta in Connections 4 and help us shape the future user experience design. Provide your feedback and unique insights on how social mail might best be used by your company or organization.

Station 8: What's Next for Lotus iNotes and Lotus Notes

See a showcase of what we're considering for the next releases. Let us know what you think of these features and provide feedback on potential improvements.

Station 9: Lotus Domino Designer and XPages

Do you want influence the future direction of your application development tools? Stop by and give us feedback on Lotus Domino Designer, the XPages extension library, XPages templates, and more.

Station 10: Mobile Applications

Select a device, select a product, and get a first look at the latest mobile products from IBM. This station features Android and iOS phone and tablet apps for Sametime, Connections, and Traveler. Come by and give us your feedback on future designs and prototypes.

Station 11: WebSphere Portal, Social Portal with Connections, and IBM Web Content Manager

Provide your input on the new and future plans for integrating IBM Connections and IBM Web Content Manager into WebSphere Portal. Come by and give us your feedback on future designs and scenarios.

Station 12: Design Your Video Experience

Tell us how you find and use product videos, and what you expect from our videos in the future. Preview the videos that were submitted for VideoFest, and help select a new design for the wiki Video Gallery.

Special Events

Are you curious about product design? Do you want to get more involved? Join us for one or more of the following special sessions in the User Experience Lab (Asia 4).

	Special Events
Monday 1/16/12	Date: Monday, January 16, 2012 Time: 5:00pm - 6:00pm Topic: "IBM Collaboration Solutions Future Product Design Direction" Speakers: Chris Paul, Director, User Experience; Ethan Perry, STSM; Brian Utesch, STSM. Abstract: How is the user experience (UX) of IBM Collaboration Solutions products designed? What role does Lotusphere play in ongoing collaboration with customers? The ICS User Experience Director, Chris Paul, and UX Design and User Research Senior Technical Staff Members, Ethan Perry and Brian Utesch, will discuss how design direction is set, the importance of user adoption, and how you are engaged in the design process. Bring your questions to this interactive session.
Tuesday 1/17/12	Date: Tuesday, January 17, 2012 Time: 9:30am - 10:30am Topic: "Mobile User Experience Directions" Speakers: Tyler Walters, Chris Reckling Abstract: Social Business and mobile technology go hand in hand. See where we are going in designing mobile apps for tablets and smartphones in 2012. Provide feedback on the design directions and help prioritize features.
Wednesday 1/18/12	Date: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 Time: 9:30am - 10:30am Topic: "Meet the User Experience Designers" Speakers: Amy Travis, Margo Ezekiel, Ethan Perry, Eric Wilcox Abstract: Join our lead user experience designers and talk with us about our design challenges and future design directions in a fun and lively session. It's your chance to see how we design your favorite products.

Lotusphere 2012 - UX Lab Door Prizes

Joseph Russo — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:00:00 -0400

Throughout the Lotusphere 2012 conference we'll be giving out these lovely fashion accessories as door prizes in the User Experience Lab in Asia 4. Come by any day and answer the "Question of the Day" at one of our stations for a chance to win. Increase your chances by attending any one of our special sessions or by following our LotusTechInfo or LotusDesign twitter IDs. We're also giving out collectible User Experience Lab buttons!

(Photo used with permission.)

Participate in Online Feedback Activities for Lotusphere 2012 and Beyond!

Joseph Russo — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:55:40 -0400

Participate in Online Feedback Activities

Answer Our Online Question of the Day!	In the User Experience Lab, we'll be asking a "Question of the Day." Visit us in Asia 4 each day to answer the question and to sign up for a chance to win a prize at the end of the day. If you don't have time to stop by and see us, we'd still like to hear from you. Click here to fill out a short survey to give your answers. https://www.ibm.com/survey/oid/wsb.dll/s/ag41e
Wiki usage survey	We want your feedback. IBM is continuing to develop improvements and release updates to the wikis. We want to hear what is important to you so that we can prioritize improvements that help you most. The data we collect from all wiki usability and feedback activities is used to influence our priorities for future design enhancements and development. https://www.ibm.com/survey/oid/wsb.dll/s/ag419
Sametime Prioritization Ideation Blog	Help us come up with a list of future features in Sametime. Vote on the ones listed here and suggest your own by adding to the list! Click the following URL to access the Ideation blog in our Online UX Lab in Greenhouse. [You will need to register on Greenhouse in order to participate (using a business email address) but it only takes a minute!] https://greenhouse.lotus.com/communities/community/icsuxlab/SametimeLS12

Participate in any of these ongoing feedback opportunities - check in regularly to participate, follow or contact us

Online UX Lab:
Join our online UX community and participate in any of the on-going feedback opportunities in our online User Experience Lab:
www.tinyurl.com/onlineuxlab

Sign up to be a Usability participant!
Join our IBM Volunteer database and be contacted about future feedback opportunities!
https://www-01.ibm.com/software/ucd/register.html?wsb39=WPLCdeveloperWorks

Check out our blogs!

Notes Design	http://www.notesdesignblog.com/NotesDesignBlog/NDBlog.nsf/
Sametime	https://www-304.ibm.com/connections/blogs/SametimeBlog/?lang=en_us
Inside Lotus Design and User Experience	http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/insidelotusblog.nsf/

Stay Connected! Follow us during Lotusphere and beyond!
On Facebook
Lotus Design: facebook.com/lotusdesign
Lotus Tech Info: facebook.com/LotusTechInfo

On Twitter:
Lotus Design: twitter.com/LotusDesign
Lotus Tech Info: twitter.com/LotusTechInfo

A Sampling of IBM Connections sessions at Lotusphere 2012

Suzanne Livingston — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:47:25 -0400

There are many, many great sessions on IBM Connections this coming week. It is going be challenging to make time for all the sessions that you will want to attend!! Here are few that I will share:

I will be speaking at the following sessions:
ID221: What's New in IBM Connections Next (Tue 11:15, Wed 4:00) David Brooks and I will discuss what's coming in the next major release!
ID225: Setting up Communities to Solve Your Biggest Challenges (Wed 1:30) Mike Wanderski and I will share community use cases and how to use the various features.

Insights and Innovation (22 in all)
INV204: A view into the future of IBM Connections and Lotus Quickr (Tues 10:00)
INV301: IBM's Social Business Strategy (Tue 11:15)

Infrastructure and Deployment (15 in all)
ID224: What's Coming in IBM Lotus Quickr and Beyond (Wed 1:30)
ID229: Make Your Microsoft Stack Social with IBM Connections (Wed 3:00)
ID301 Inside IBM: Collaboration For The Next 100 years (Wed 10)

Cross-SWG Solutions Sessions (12 in all)
SPN206 Going Viral or Managing the Introduction of Social Content Management (Mon 2:15)
SPN210 The Social Enterprise: Social Analytics and your Workforce (Mon 3:45)
SPN214 Applying Social Business to Software Development Projects (Tue 1:30)

Application Development (6 in all)
AD204 Mastering the art of social application development (Wed 1:30)
AD203 Developing Custom Client Applications Using the IBM Connections APIs (Wed 11:15)

Other related sessions
ASK 101 Ask the Developers (Thurs 1:30pm)
ASK102 Ask the Product Managers (Thurs 11:15am)
FS216 Social App Throwdown (Wed 5:30pm)

Lotusphere 2012 #LS12 #IBMSocialBiz

Joseph Russo — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 09:51:10 -0400

Hi everyone, here's a heads up for where you can catch me at Lotusphere. I'll be in the UX Lab, come see me at the Social Business Solutions Design table. I'll be running a Hands on Design activity where we can take your favorite solution and see how to enhance the design with Social. I'll also be talking about Social Business Design Elements, please come, hear about them and influence the design with your feedback.

Also, you can come to my presentation, under the Insights & Innovations Track

INV314 Designing Social Business Solutions

Abstract: Learn about the core principles that make a business solution social. We'll take you through
the basic values that any social business solution design delivers and we'll cover core Design Patterns
that enable you to become a Social Business. Learn about how social design patterns provide direct
value to any business solution, and provide them in the context of the people using them as well as how
adding social design patterns to a solution enhances the overall value of both your social network and
every business solution that makes use of social design patterns.

Speakers: Matt Flaherty, IBM; Joe Russo, IBM

Tech level: *
Date: Thursday, January 19, 2012
Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Location: N. Hem E

and remember to follow me on twitter/russoDesigns, I'll be tweeting from Lotusphere.

I look forward to seeing you, meeting you for the first time or catching up with old friends...see you soon!

Kudos badges for IBM Connections annouced today

Suzanne Livingston — Wed, 4 Jan 2012 06:02:17 -0400

Adam Brown of ISW, an award-winning IBM Business Partner, posted some exciting news on his blog earlier today.

Kudos Badges for IBM Connections is a flexible gamification engine for IBM Connections. By providing achievements and rewards (Kudos Badges), rank and leaderboards (Kudos Rank), and missions (Kudos Missions), organisations can dramatically improve their user engagement and adoption of IBM Connections.

Congrats to the team on their launch! Check it out on their site http://www.kudosbadges.com/

Real businesses getting real results with Lotus Live

Suzanne Livingston — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 09:44:47 -0400

A few days ago, wiredFinance's Big Fat Finance Blog posted a few Lotus Live customer stories:

IBM, however, with its LotusLive Social Business Cloud has emerged as the leader with real businesses actually profiting through social cloud collaboration:

Newly Weds Foods, here, needed a way to connect geographically dispersed teams without the capital expense and staff required to run an in-house collaboration system. They also needed security to protect their proprietary information and safeguard client recipes. They turned to the LotusLive Social Business cloud. The benefits: cut response from days to hours, saves 4-5 days per month in travel time, and cut travel costs by 10%. And a no-cost guest account lets them invite clients to collaborate on recipes.

Panasonic turned to LotusLive cloud collaboration in its drive to become the electronics industry’s leading green innovation company. It also expects to improve its competitive advantage and boost business results by enabling multiple business units to work together more efficiently. The benefits: reduced cost and immediate accessibility to advanced collaboration tools across all regions of the global company, but especially for product research, development, and sales.

Russell’s Convenience, here, has emerged as IBM’s poster child for social business collaboration. The company, which operates stores in numerous western states and Hawaii, looked to social media to connect its far-flung franchises and people using the cloud. It turned to the LotusLive Social Business cloud for seamless communication between corporate management, franchisees, and project teams and to provide a central location for definitive information and project plans. The results: travel costs reduced by 33% and postage costs by 50% for $30,000 in annual savings. It also increased revenue as a result of more timely communication around inventory and purchase trends.

ISSL announces IBM Connections Quickstart for Lotus Notes/Domino

Suzanne Livingston — Thu, 8 Dec 2011 08:58:14 -0400

If you were excited about the entitlement to the IBM Connections Profiles and Files with Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.3 but aren't sure how to get started, check out this quickstart offering from our services organization:

IBM Connections QuickStart for Lotus Notes & Domino is a new offering from ISSL. The IBM® Connections QuickStart for Lotus Notes® and Domino® solution is a well-defined services process, delivered by IBM Software Services for Lotus (ISSL), which allows for deployment of a Connections Profiles and Files solution in three weeks.

Here is a direct link to the services brief as well.

How to Customize IBM Connections 3.0.1

Suzanne Livingston — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:21:15 -0400

I'm pleased to share a new Redbooks wiki on Customizing IBM Connections 3.0.1. It covers many topics customers ask about, with 12 chapters full of great information. Have you done any interesting customizations? Feel free to share - we'd love to hear.

12.2 Configuring IBM Connections plugin and Microsoft Outlook Social Connector
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 2:03:11 PM | Tags:

12.1 Adding and populating custom attribute in Profiles for OSC Dynamic FeedPrevious In this section, we go through the configuration steps of Microsoft Outlook Social Connector to make it work with IBM Connections. Before you begin Download and install IBM Connections 3.0.1 plugin for ...

12.1 Adding and populating custom attribute in Profiles for OSC Dynamic Feed
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 2:01:56 PM | Tags:Redbooks

12.0 Microsoft Outlook Connector Previous 12.2 Configuring IBM Connections Plugin and Microsoft Outlook Social Connector Next This section discusses the following: How to configure the extension attribute for storing hashed email in a Profiles service. How to populate this attribute ...

12.0 Microsoft Outlook Connector
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 2:01:13 PM | Tags:Redbooks

11.0 IBM Mashup Center Previous Microsoft Outlook Social Connector (OSC) allows you to get social data from various social services such as LinkedIn, Facebook, or IBM Connections. This data can be seen in Outlook via OSC managed contacts and activity entries in the People Pane. When you ...

11.0 IBM Mashup Center
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 1:49:11 PM | Tags:Redbooks

10.0 IBM Web Experience FactoryPrevious 12.0 Microsoft Outlook ConnectorNext IBM Mashup Center is an endtoend enterprise mashup platform, supporting rapid assembly of dynamic web applications with the management, security, and governance capabilities IT requires. IBM Mashup Center ...

10.6 The Office Supplies application sample code
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 1:48:26 PM | Tags:Redbooks

10.5 Deploying to the Portal ServerPrevious This topic contains the Office Supplies sample code and the sample installation instructions. The Office Supplies sample code is written for IBM Web Experience Factory 7.0.1 and is configured to run on either IBM WebSphere Application Server ...

10.5 Deploying to the Portal Server
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 1:47:49 PM | Tags:Redbooks

10.4 Office Supplies applicationPrevious 10.6 The Office Supplies application sample codeNext So far in previous topics in this section, we built a web application. If you are new to IBM Web Experience Factory, you will learn that with Web Experience Factory you can build once and ...

10.4 Office Supplies application
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 1:47:13 PM | Tags:Redbooks

10.3 Blogs service providerPrevious 10.5 Deploying to the Portal ServerNext Note: You need to complete 10.3 Blogs service provider10.3 Blogs service provider before you continue with this topic. The final model needed for the sample application is the OfficeSupplies model, which ...

10.3 Blogs service provider
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 1:46:38 PM | Tags:Redbooks

10.2 Office Supplies service providerPrevious 10.4 Office Supplies applicationNext After creating the Office Supplies Service Provider as described in 10.2 Office Supplies service provider10.2 Office Supplies service provider, you can move to the next step. This sample creates a ...

10.2 Office Supplies service provider
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 1:45:45 PM | Tags:Redbooks

10.1 Office supplies IBM Web Experience Factory projectPrevious 10.3 Blogs service providerNext After creating an IBM Web Experience Factory web application project as described in 10.1 Office supplies IBM Web Experience Factory project10.1 Office supplies IBM Web Experience ...

10.1 Office supplies IBM Web Experience Factory project
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 1:45:03 PM | Tags:Redbooks

10.0 IBM Web Experience FactoryPrevious 10.2 Office Supplies service providerNext The first step in creating the Office Supplies application is to create an IBM Web Experience Factory project. If you have never created a Web Experience Factory project before, run the tutorial that ...

10.0 IBM Web Experience Factory
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 1:44:21 PM | Tags:Redbooks

9.0 Using the APIPrevious 11.0 IBM Mashup CenterNext Introduction IBM Web Experience Factory Designer is a tool for developing Java 2 platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) web applications, and portlets. You can install it as a plugin to Eclipsebased integrated development ...

9.7 Using Profiles Administration APIs
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 1:14:46 PM | Tags:Redbooks

9.6 Using the Files CMIS APIsPrevious The Profiles Administration API was designed as an alternative to Tivoli Directory Integrator (TDI) for managing users in the IBM Connections database repository. The Profiles Administration API serves a different purpose than the regular Profiles API. The ...

9.6 Using the Files CMIS APIs
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 1:14:05 PM | Tags:Redbooks

9.5 Working with Blog postings and commentsPrevious 9.7 Using Profiles Administration APIsNext The Files CMIS API exposes the Files application data using the Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) standard. CMIS is a standard created with the goal of making application ...

9.5 Working with Blog postings and comments
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 1:08:50 PM | Tags:Redbooks

9.4 Using Communities as an ACL enginePrevious 9.6 Using the Files CMIS APIsNext Blogs have long since used Atom and RSS feeds for both the consuming and publishing of information. So the Atom feeds used for the Blogs API are a natural fit. Since there are a variety of tools and ...

9.4 Using Communities as an ACL engine
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 1:08:11 PM | Tags:Redbooks

9.3 Retrieving a person's profile: A sample applicationPrevious 9.5 Working with Blog postings and commentsNext The IBM Connections Communities application facilitates collaboration within groups of people with a common interest. The Communities applications support different types of ...

9.3 Retrieving a person's profile: A sample application
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 1:07:30 PM | Tags:Redbooks

9.2 Using IBM Connections API in different programming languagesPrevious 9.4 Using Communities as an ACL engineNext One of the most commonly used services that IBM Connections API provides is retrieving a person's profile. This topic describes a sample application that retrieves a ...

9.2 Using IBM Connections API in different programming languages
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 1:06:49 PM | Tags:Redbooks

9.1 Overview of the IBM Connections APIPrevious 9.3 Retrieving a person's profile: A sample applicationNext This section demonstrates how to use the IBM Connections APIs in different programming languages to perform the task of adding a bookmark. IBM Connections makes available all of ...

9.1 Overview of the IBM Connections API
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 1:06:15 PM | Tags:Redbooks

9.0 Using the APIPrevious 9.2 Using IBM Connections API in different programming languagesNext IBM Connections provides a rich application programming interface (API) for each feature in the product. Although each feature has a separate API, using the API works the same across the ...

9.0 Using the API
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 1:05:38 PM | Tags:Redbooks

8.0 Customizing CommunitiesPrevious 10.0 IBM WebSphere Portal Server Next This chapter discuss how to use API to customizing IBM Connections. This chapter includes the following topics: 9.1 Overview of the IBM Connections API9.1 Overview of the IBM Connections API 9.2 Using IBM ...

8.3 Adding a theme to the Communities configuration
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 1:05:02 PM | Tags:Redbooks

8.2 Defining a community themePrevious To add the new theme, use the following procedure: Using the wsadmin client to check out the Communities configuration file (communitiesconfig.xml) by using the following commands: execfile("communitiesAdmin.py") ...

8.2 Defining a community theme
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 1:00:40 PM | Tags:Redbooks

8.1 Removing community themesPrevious 8.3 Adding a theme to the Communities configurationNext Attention: Community themes overwrite the default IBM Connections themes, thereby, changing the overall look and feel for IBM Connections. If you want to avoid this when you apply a community ...

8.1 Removing community themes
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:58:06 PM | Tags:Redbooks

8.0 Customizing CommunitiesPrevious 8.2 Defining a community themeNext We first disable the current default theme which is replaced by Base as the new default. If you have already done this you can skip this step.To disable and remove the existing theme, make the appropriate changes ...

8.0 Customizing Communities
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:56:17 PM | Tags:Redbooks

7.0 Customizing BlogsPrevious 9.0 Using the APINext IBM Connections makes use of IBM OneUI. This enables the use of the same stylesheets across different IBM products. As an example, stylesheets designed with IBM Connections can be used in IBM WebSphere Portal and vice versa. You can ...

7.0 Customizing Blogs
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:53:36 PM | Tags:Redbooks

6.0 Customizing the Profiles and Communities Business cardPrevious 8.0 Customizing CommunitiesNext Blogging offline using an outside editor The IBM Connections blogging application supports both the Atom and MetaWeblog APIs for offline blogging. You must configure the blog ...

6.3 Customizing the Profiles business card
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:52:56 PM | Tags:Redbooks

6.2 Integrating the Profiles business cardPrevious The customization of IBM Connections Profiles business card helps in meeting organization requirements. You can alter Profiles business card using the following methods: Adding or removing the links that display at the top of the card. ...

6.2 Integrating the Profiles business card
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:51:42 PM | Tags:Redbooks

6.1 Integrating the Communities business cardPrevious 6.3 Customizing the Profiles business card Next The Profiles business card provides easily accessible information about a person inside a web application. There are two types of business card available that can be integrated with a ...

6.1 Integrating the Communities business card
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:50:55 PM | Tags:Redbooks

6.0 Customizing the Profiles and Communities Business cardPrevious 6.2 Integrating the Profiles business cardNext Integrating Communities business card in web application Integration of IBM Connections Communities business card in web application enable web application users to ...

6.0 Customizing the Profiles and Communities Business card
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:49:30 PM | Tags:Redbooks

5.0 Customizing ProfilesPrevious 7.0 Customizing BlogsNext IBM Connections offers two kind of business card service, one for Profiles and other for Communities. Similar to any other business card, IBM Connections business cards provide quick and short information about IBM ...

5.10 Sametime integration
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:47:23 PM | Tags:Redbooks

5.9 Customizing Profiles searchPrevious Sametime integration Connections v3.0.1 can be configured to show Sametime Presence Awareness on the Profiles Page, and on the Business Card. There are actions available to start Instant Messaging Chat with users showing an available status. ...

5.9 Customizing Profiles search
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:46:10 PM | Tags:Redbooks

5.8 Customizing login attributesPrevious 5.10 Sametime integration Next You can customize Profiles search to allow the extension attributes to be available on the search form. You can also remove attributes from the search for that are not relevant to your organization. Configuring ...

5.8 Customizing login attributes
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:45:32 PM | Tags:Redbooks

5.7 Adding widgetsPrevious 5.9 Customizing Profiles searchNext Customizing login attributes Customizing the login attributes for IBM Connections is broken into two parts: Configuring WebSphere Application Server (WAS) security to allow login Configuring Connections to map the ...

5.7 Adding widgets
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:44:51 PM | Tags:Redbooks

5.6 Adding profile typesPrevious 5.8 Customizing login attributesNext You can add custom widgets to Homepage, Communities, and Profiles to integrate key information, status, tasks or almost anything relevant to your organization in profiles, Widgets can be set as a ...

5.6 Adding profile types
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:43:16 PM | Tags:Redbooks

5.5 Profiles attributesPrevious 5.7 Adding widgetsNext In the Contract Agency example, an Extension Attribute (new field) has been added, and made available to all users. Whilst this is very useful, the new attribute is unnecessary for Permanent Staff. Profiles allows for different ...

5.5 Profiles attributes
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:40:02 PM | Tags:Redbooks

5.4 Populating custom fields with IBM Tivoli Directory IntegratorPrevious 5.6 Adding profile typesNext As a general rule, the Profiles attributes can be set as editable or readonly. However, there are a number of fundamental fields that cannot be edited. These fields are specified ...

5.4 Populating custom fields with IBM Tivoli Directory Integrator
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:39:14 PM | Tags:Redbooks

5.3 Populating custom extension attributesPrevious 5.5 Profiles attributesNext The process of populating outofthebox attributes is covered in chapter 4.0 Tivoli Directory Integrator. There are extra steps that you have to do when working with extension attributes through IBM ...

5.3 Populating custom extension attributes
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:36:28 PM | Tags:Redbooks

5.2 Specifying labels for attributesPrevious 5.4 Populating custom fields with IBM Tivoli Directory IntegratorNext IBM Connections provides several methods for populating the extension attributes. Populate through browser UI In the Contract Agency example, the attribute was set to ...

5.2 Specifying labels for attributes
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:35:29 PM | Tags:Redbooks

5.1 Adding an attribute field to ProfilesPrevious 5.3 Populating custom extension attributesNext Although you created a field in the procedure 5.1 Adding a field (custom extension attribute) to ProfilesPrevious, the field label does not appear correctly. Labels for these fields ...

5.1 Adding an attribute field to Profiles
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:34:23 PM | Tags:

5.0 Customizing ProfilesPrevious 5.2 Specifying labels for attributesNext Adding an attribute to profiles is often required by organizations deploying IBM Connections. In this example scenario, many of the staff in the organization are contract staff, and the attribute of Contract ...

5.0 Customizing Profiles
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:33:10 PM | Tags:Redbooks

6.0 Customizing the Profiles and Communities Business cardNext A default IBM Connections implementation offers a certain number of data fields (attributes) for People, and a default layout of those attributes. A customized implementation of IBM Connections can have additional attributes added, ...

4.7 Make a single command line script form an AssemblyLine
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:31:49 PM | Tags:Redbooks

4.6 Creating custom AssemblyLine to synchronize updates from external database to the Profiles databasePrevious In previous sections, we showed how to run AssemblyLines from Tivoli Directory Integrator Configuration Editor. Here we create a command line script from an AssemblyLine and schedule ...

4.6 Creating custom AssemblyLine to synchronize updates from external database to the Profiles database
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:30:40 PM | Tags:Redbooks

4.5 Creating custom assembly line for populating selected user attributes from external database to the Profiles databasePrevious 4.7 Make a single command line script form an AssemblyLineNext In the previous section, we created an AssemblyLine for copying data from the source system ...

4.5 Creating custom assembly line for populating selected user attributes from external database to the Profiles database
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:27:50 PM | Tags:Redbooks

4.4 Setting up the development environmentPrevious 4.6 Creating custom AssemblyLine to synchronize updates from external database to the Profiles databaseNext Now that we have configured the development environment, we are ready to create our first assembly line to populate the ...

4.4 Setting up the development environment
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:25:07 PM | Tags:Redbooks

4.3 Scenario descriptionPrevious 4.5 Creating custom assembly line for populating selected user attributes from external database to the Profiles databaseNext Before starting developing an assembly line, you have to configure the Tivoli Directory Integrator Configuration Editor. The ...

4.3 Scenario description
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:08:32 PM | Tags:Redbooks

4.2 Accessing IBM Connections from a custom Tivoli Directory Integrator assembly linePrevious 4.4 Setting up the development environmentNext In this example, we show how to get the data from the custom database and put it into the IBM Connections Profiles database that already was ...

4.2 Accessing IBM Connections from a custom Tivoli Directory Integrator assembly line
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:06:58 PM | Tags:Redbooks

4.1 Introduction to Tivoli Directory IntegratorPrevious 4.3 Scenario descriptionNext There are a number of Tivoli Directory Integrator Connectors available for different types of systems and protocols, such as: LDAP, JDBC, JMS, SMTP, HTTP (client), JMX, JNDI, IBM MQ, Notes, and so on. ...

4.1 Introduction to Tivoli Directory Integrator
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:06:02 PM | Tags:Redbooks

4.0 Tivoli Directory IntegratorPrevious 4.2 Accessing IBM Connections from a custom Tivoli Directory Integrator assembly lineNext The internal Tivoli Directory Integrator architecture is based on a kernel and component design, which is a type of design that there is a central part of ...

4.0 Tivoli Directory Integrator
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 12:05:07 PM | Tags:

3.0 Customizing the Home pagePrevious 5.0 Customizing ProfilesNext There are two supported options to populate data into IBM Connections Profiles database: Profiles Administration REST API and Tivoli Directory Integrator (TDI) with plugins, created specially for IBM Connections. The ...

3.6 Customizing e-mail notifications
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 11:12:58 AM | Tags:Redbooks

3.5 Using Google Gadgets inside IBM ConnectionsPrevious IBM Connections provides the capability to send out daily and weekly email digests to highlight newly added content. You can customize these email digests by modifying the default templates. The content of these digest email are formatted ...

3.5 Using Google Gadgets inside IBM Connections
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 11:12:08 AM | Tags:Redbooks

3.4 Developing widgets for the IBM Connections Home pagePrevious 3.6 Customizing email notificationsNext Google gadget overview Google gadgets are small, lightweight applications very similar to the iWidgets found in IBM Connections. Gadgets consist of XML, HTML, and Javascript ...

3.4 Developing widgets for the IBM Connections Home page
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 11:11:26 AM | Tags:

3.3 Adding and removing widgets in the IBM Connections Home pagePrevious 3.5 Using Google Gadgets inside IBM ConnectionsNext This section covers the development of a basic widget for deployment in the IBM Connections Home page. It discusses the file structure for a widget that is ...

3.3 Adding and removing widgets in the IBM Connections Home page
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 11:10:44 AM | Tags:

3.2 Adding a tab to the IBM Connections Home pagePrevious 3.4 Developing widgets for the IBM Connections Home pageNext The IBM Connections Home page consists of a number of widgets that provide summary information from one or more of the IBM Connections features such as Blogs and ...

3.2 Adding a tab to the IBM Connections Home page
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 11:09:34 AM | Tags:Redbooks

3.1 Customizing the Getting Started tabPrevious 3.3 Adding and removing widgets in the IBM Connections Home pageNext You can add tabs to the IBM Connections Home page to provide additional information and links. For example, if you use the IBM Connections Home page as the landing page ...

3.1 Customizing the Getting Started tab
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 11:08:56 AM | Tags:Redbooks

3.0 Customizing the Home pagePrevious 3.2 Adding a tab to the IBM Connections Home pageNext The Getting Started tab, which appears on the Home page starting with IBM Connections version 3.0, helps users learn and start using the product more quickly. You can customize the Getting ...

3.0 Customizing the Home page
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 11:08:21 AM | Tags:Redbooks

2.0 Customizing the user interfacePrevious 4.0 Tivoli Directory IntegratorNext The IBM Connections Home page is a central area where users can view summary data from the other IBM Connections features and can quickly navigate to points of interest. This section provides information ...

2.2 Customizing product strings
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 11:06:15 AM | Tags:Redbooks

2.1 Matching the user interface to your company brand and policiesPrevious In IBM Connections, many strings in the user interface are stored as separate resources in text files. There are two categories of string files in IBM Connections: keyvalue pairs defined in property files (also known ...

2.1 Matching the user interface to your company brand and policies
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 11:03:59 AM | Tags:Redbooks

2.0 Customizing the user interfacePrevious 2.2 Customizing product stringsNext You can modify IBM Connections to match the images and user interface (UI) guidelines associated with your brand. For example, you can change the navigation bar by changing the logo image. You can also add ...

2.0 Customizing the user interface
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 10:57:02 AM | Tags:Redbooks

1.0 Introduction to customizing IBM ConnectionsPrevious 2.1 Matching the user interface to your company brand and policiesNext With IBM Connections 3.0.1, you can modify more areas of the user interface than you could with previous versions. For example, you can modify the login page ...

1.5 General troubleshooting
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 10:56:07 AM | Tags:Redbooks

1.4 Publishing customizations with the wsadmin toolPrevious This solution information might help you to learn what to do to diagnose or resolve an issue with customizing IBM Connections 3.0.1. Problem: Scripts are not running correctly in the wsadmin tool. Solution: Make sure that you started ...

1.4 Publishing customizations with the wsadmin tool
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 10:55:13 AM | Tags:Redbooks

1.3 Source application filesPrevious 1.5 General troubleshootingNext Web pages in IBM Connections are usually cached by the browser to improve performance for users. After you make your customization, override the cache and force web browsers to download the new copies of the changed ...

1.3 Source application files
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 10:54:24 AM | Tags:Redbooks

1.2 IBM Connections customization variablesPrevious 1.4 Publishing customizations with the wsadmin toolNext To find the code that you want to change, you usually start by locating an installed source application file inside a web archive (WAR) file. The application WAR file ...

1.2 IBM Connections customization variables
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 10:46:19 AM | Tags:Redbooks

1.1 Overview of customizationPrevious 1.3 Source application filesNext Two WebSphere variables are applicable to customizing IBM Connections. You can view these variables from the WebSphere Application Server Integrated Solutions Console. Enabling customization debugging Unless ...

1.1 Overview of customization
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 10:43:44 AM | Tags:Redbooks

1.0 Introduction to customizing IBM ConnectionsPrevious 1.2 IBM Connections customization variablesNext IBM Connections 3.0.1 supports changing many aspects without altering the content of the installed web applications. You customize the user interface by overriding the installed ...

1.0 Introduction to customizing IBM Connections
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 10:42:23 AM | Tags:Redbooks

2.0 Customizing the user interfaceNext IBM Connections 3.0.1 is a social networking software that consists of several applications. You can customize IBM Connections by changing the user interface, adding features to applications such as the Home page and Profiles, integrating Profiles with ...

0.0 Preface
Amanda J Bauman | November 21, 2011 10:40:15 AM | Tags:Redbooks

Meet the Authors Allen Dean is an Information Architect for IBM, where he has worked for six years. Allen has over 15 years of experience with Internet software development and operations, including in application design, technical writing, cloudbased application delivery, systems ...

Demo Overview Video: Why Use IBM Connections?

Suzanne Livingston — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 09:53:19 -0400

The IBM Information Development group posted this new video a few days ago showing an overview of using IBM Connections.

New backup & restore tool for IBM Connections Communities

Suzanne Livingston — Tue, 8 Nov 2011 16:24:56 -0400

There is a new asset in the Greenhouse Catalog for IBM Connections users.

IBM Connections community backup and restore is an easy way to back up and restore Connections communities.

Features:

Back up a Connections community to a zip file. Backs up Members, Forums, Feeds, Bookmarks, Activities, Blog, Wiki, and Files in a community, interactively or via script.
Restore a Connections community from the backup zip file. Restores Members, Forums, Feeds, Bookmarks, Activities, and Blog to a community.
NOTE: Files and Wiki pages cannot be automatically restored.

How to deploy:
The web application deploys to any J2EE application server. You must edit the connections.url, connections.user, and connections.password values of the web application to fit your environment.

How to use:
Simply go to http://yourserver/LCBackup/ for instructions on backing up and restoring communities. Note that instructions are included for running backups from a shell script.

What’s old is new again

Joseph Russo — Fri, 4 Nov 2011 15:13:08 -0400

Being a little older than you may think, I remember the days when the United States embraced a long lost “son”, one who had taken his novel ideas around business, how to improve it dramatically, overseas to Japan, and revolutionized the entire business of manufacturing...his Japanese exploits took place in the 50's and then, only in the 80's did the USA business culture look to him for answers to it's stagnation. His name, W. Edwards Demming, his ideas, well, boiled into telling management they were the problem...and before you get your knickers in a bunch, his better idea? Was to do the very basic things of listening to the customer, listening to the manufacturing guy, on the floor who's putting the thing together, letting the people who use the systems of manufacturing, and have to interact with the processes tell them about how to improve it.

This all turned into the wide variety of “Employee Empowerment” initiatives of the 80's where people were given more freedom to control their work, improve it, etc and make culture changes in the business.

This is exactly what Social Business is all about. Using the Social Network (IBM Connections please!) people now have a very high response, high input, low cost way to control their own work, inform the processes and the management and most of all, communicate directly with one another ACROSS ORGANIZATIONAL BOUNDARIES to improve things. The kinds of results Deming was able to coax from manufacturing in the 50's Social Business can coax from every business now and build a culture, of self-driven, self-informed and no-barrier people connecting and working to leverage every bit of corporate knowledge.

The IBM Connections native iPad app is available TODAY!

Baan Slavens — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:18:06 -0400

The IBM Connections native iPad app is available today for download at the app store - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibm-connections/id450533489?mt=8. The app will allow users to access to all the Connections applications including adding photo's or videos to the media gallery and voting on ideation blogs. Also, users have the ability to upload documents to the IBM Connections server from other apps that support the "Open In..." feature of iOS. For example, now you can upload email attachments directly to the IBM Connections server. Users can also open documents that are supported on the iPad, make updates and repost to the Connections server. Update your app today to take advantage of these new features....

IBM Connections Enterprise Content Edition

Suzanne Livingston — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:51:13 -0400

IBM Connections Enterprise Content Edition is a single social content management system for general business users and also for information workers who require more advanced content, document management and workflow use cases. It provides out-of-the-box desktop, social, and traditional content management interfaces. Connections Enterprise Content Edition includes:

FileNet Content Manager provides the high performance, scalable, secure content repository and adds social features via integration.
Connections provides the social environment, connecting networks of content consumers and producers via corporate profiles and status. Connections users utilize social tools such as files, wikis, forums, blogs, and activities to share documents, exchange ideas, and create content which can be managed by FileNet Content Manager.
Lotus Quickr Connectors provide the ability to author and manage content via common desktop (Microsoft Office 2003-2010, Windows Explorer and Lotus Symphony), email (Microsoft Outlook and IBM Lotus Notes) and collaboration tools.

Learn more here: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/ecm/connections/enterprise-content/

Socially developing software

Suzanne Livingston — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 09:07:23 -0400

Software-blogger Bill Ives did a piece yesterday on how IBM Rational is improving collaboration within software teams and with key stakeholders to help drive innovation into the software development process:

New integrations between IBM Connections social networking software for business and IBM Rational Team Concert allow software developers to use social networking to find experts within an organization and help collaborate with stakeholders on software development projects.

If you are interested in learning more about how IBM Rational Jazz and IBM Connections integrates, this page has a lot of great information, including a demo which walks through the integration, such as:

Synchronizing IBM Connections profiles with Rational Team Concert profiles

Enhancing Jazz Projects with Connections Communities

and more.

New IBM Connections Extension Passport Advantage part numbers are now available

Robert Bojanek — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:30:28 -0400

Here is some background to the new part numbers
IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.3 (which were announced on October 4, 2011), provide entitlement to the Files and Profiles features of IBM Connections 3.0.1 to customers with these licenses :

IBM Lotus Domino Enterprise Client Access License
IBM Lotus Domino Messaging Client Access License
IBM Lotus Domino Collaboration Express License
IBM Lotus Domino Messaging Express License

Access to the Files feature allows users to easily share content with other people and remove the need to send large files through email. It also allows you to socialize content you create, allowing people to easily find it, make recommendations, and share with other people.

Profiles helps users find the people they need by searching across the organization's content using tags to identify expertise, current projects, and responsibilities. It socializes skills, interests, and organizational structure for others to discover and benefit from.

What the new IBM Connections part numbers permit
Customers with the above Notes and Domino 8.5.3 licenses, now have available newly announced IBM Connections part numbers that can be used to upgrade their existing Connections restricted use rights to the full capabilities of Connections.

Some of the benefits of expanding usage to the full capabilities of Connections include the ability to:

Collaborate with a community of professionals using activities, blogs, wikis, forums, and shared files, including rich media files.
Expand one's professional network through social analytics-based recommendations for people to connect with, and communities to join.
Access one's social data while on the go using mobile device support.

The new IBM Connections part numbers are available now. Your IBM representative or IBM business partner would be happy to provide you with more details on the new IBM Connections part numbers, and how they complement the entitlements provided by IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.3.

IBM Connections Mobile App is now available

Joseph Russo — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 10:36:15 -0400

Today, IBM officially announced the release of the IBM Connections mobile app (http://bit.ly/o5FMqT*) which is available in the App Store, Android Market and App World.

IBM Connections for mobile smartphones is now available! Supported platforms include Google Android, Apple iOS and RIM BlackBerry OS6. To date our mobile interface has been through smart phone browsers, but that changes now.

The IBM Connections mobile application extends access to company data to employees who are on the go. It enables you to build a network of colleagues and subject matter experts, and then leverage that network to further your business goals. With its integrated suite of tools, you can share and discuss ideas, work collaboratively on presentations or proposals, plan and track project tasks, and much more. IBM Connections is a web application that is deployed on a company intranet to promote collaboration within the company.

Social Business

Joseph Russo — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:06:33 -0400

Here's a very brief blog, one which the foundation of I've posted a few entries in the "way-back", just look for the good old "social-everywhere" tag here.

What I want to know is besides this idea of social everywhere, where we can inject some things from the social world into other things or give the user a convenient "navigational" pivot into a social space is what is that next level of social?

Here's what I think...it's composed of two essential parts.

First, in any business there are "workspaces" - I think for the vast majority of us, we have the common one, email inbox. Beyond that, there's usually at least one more "workspace" that where some part of your main job function takes place. For software developers this is the IDE (oh and of course the bug database system). For the many business roles out there, we often have one or more of these kinds of vertical, job specific workspaces...part of the core application or business process for that set of employees.

A social business needs to surface the "social network" of the business in these core workspaces as part of aiding directly in the tasks in those applications. By making social software come to the user in the place they live and provide them value to their main job functions, they will start to gain more and more value from that aspect of the business. This will give direct benefit now to users to more efficiently accomplish their work. Additionally, it will allow them to naturally participate in the overall social network of the business - building up the "social" collateral. The users won't have to go to a separate place to "do social" then come back to their "workspaces" and do work..they do both from that "workspace". This will help to increase use and contribution into the social network of your business by people who don't gravitate to that "social only" dashboard.

And this feeds into the second part. For a social network to really pay dividends you need to get critical mass in the people who are participating, contributing, connecting...the more you build up that reserve of social capital, the more value you'll get out of it in the long run. So if we provide for access to the social network through the interfaces of these various core business "workspaces" people will be adding to the overall capital...and this will create that critical mass and continue to feed it. The more specific, unique vertical "workspaces" you enhance with social, the more capital, (and more tuned, refined and specific) you will create...and this in turn leads to more implicit value in the forms of recommendations, focused search results, subject matter expert discovery and the big kahuna, data you can analyze to discover patterns, trends, etc. in every aspect of your business.

Make social part of the every day work interaction of your employees and they'll get direct value now

Make social part of the every day work interaction of your employees and they'll compound the interest on the social capital your business is creating.

What do you think?