New release of IBM Connections app for iOS and Android now available
Wed, May 15th 2013 2:19a Stuart McIntyre Version 4.1.0 of the IBM Connections app is now available from the Apple App Store and Google Play, including the following enhancements:
Support for Community Files, Forums, and Bookmarks on SmartCloud
@mentions for status updates (requires Connections server 4.5 and above)
Target status updates to individual profiles or a community
Support liking for status update comments (requires Connection server 4.0 CR2 and above)
Single tap to view a file
File usability enhancements for quick access to [read] Keywords: connections
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Go forth and…
Mon, Apr 15th 2013 10:00a Stuart McIntyre Love this!
Fantastic, simple, targeted, on-the-money and amusing advertising. ‘Nuff said. [read] Keywords:
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SugarCon 2013 Day 1 Review
Mon, Apr 8th 2013 11:00p Stuart McIntyre At 4pm on day one (partner day) of the SugarCon 2013 conference in New York, I sum up the event so far. [read] Keywords:
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SugarCon 2013 Preview
Mon, Apr 8th 2013 8:20p Stuart McIntyre Stuart records a very late night preview of the SugarCon (SugarCRM) conference in New York, starting today… [read] Keywords:
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A sweet combo – SugarCRM and IBM Connections
Mon, Apr 8th 2013 11:25a Stuart McIntyre You may have seen from the social networks that I am once again in New York City this week. As well as seeing a very important customer, I’m spending three days at SugarCon, the annual conference run by SugarCRM.
Today is the partner day – the equivalent of BP Development Day at IBM Connect for those that have attended that event. It’s been a fascinating morning so far, with keynotes from the CEO and CTO, as well as updates on partner programs and more. I’ve been tweeting [read] Keywords: collaboration
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LotusBeers / IBMSocialBeerz – NYC, Wednesday 10th April
Tue, Apr 2nd 2013 11:56p Stuart McIntyre Humans of New York, I am scheduled to be in town next week for SugarCon 2013 and for a visit to a long-term customer in Midtown.
Therefore, good friend Victor Toal and I thought it was high time for another NYC LotusBeers session. The plan is to meet at 8pm on Wednesday, 10th April at The Pig ‘n’ Whistle on 2nd. All are welcome!
Let us know if you can make it via email, DM or by leaving a comment. Hope to see you there!
P.S. Given the re-branding effort, I wonder if these ses [read] Keywords: email
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Installing IBM Connections 4.5 or CCM? You need these fixes
Mon, Apr 1st 2013 10:23p Stuart McIntyre Important details for fixes for the newly released IBM Connections 4.5:
iFix LO74499 is required for all IBM Connections 4.5 environments. Please download the iFix from Fix Central, then apply to the IBM Connections 4.5 server using the update installer.
Use this link to download iFix LO74499 from Fix Central
For details on how to apply interim fixes, please review the “Installing interim fixes” topic in the IBM Connections 4.5 documentation.
5.2.0.0-P8CPE-IF001 is a FileNet Conten [read] Keywords: connections
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An IBM webcast you must not miss!
Mon, Feb 25th 2013 11:21a Stuart McIntyre “From Liking to Leading”: Transforming Your Business with a Next Generation Platform for Social Business Event Date: 03/13/2013 11:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
A comprehensive platform for social business can deliver business value and help you beat the competition. Join us and see first-hand the latest collaboration technology advances and adoption techniques. You will learn:
how a complete social business platform can best position you to unleash creativity and create a more effect [read] Keywords: collaboration
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Overview
Wed, Feb 6th 2013 8:43a Stuart McIntyre On the 40th anniversary of the famous ‘Blue Marble’ photograph taken of Earth from space, Planetary Collective presents a short film documenting astronauts’ life-changing stories of seeing the Earth from the outside – a perspective-altering experience often described as the Overview Effect.
The Overview Effect, first described by author Frank White in 1987, is an experience that transforms astronauts’ perspective of the planet and mankind’s place upon it. Common features of the exper [read] Keywords:
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Enabling @mentions and in-line likes in IBM Connections 4.0 CR2
Tue, Feb 5th 2013 9:34a Stuart McIntyre Here’s how to enable @mentions and inline likes in IBM Connections 4 CR2 (the features were included in the release but no documentation was available for how to enable them):
1) add the following to LotusConnections-config.xml (under at the bottom)
enabled enabled enabled enabled
2) Perform a full synchronisation of your nodes, then restart servers running Homepage app.
Great discovery by Erik Sorensen. Thanks Erik! [read] Keywords: connections
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This Week in Lotus – yes it’s true…
Thu, Jan 31st 2013 8:40a Stuart McIntyre I’ve had lots of enquiries on Twitter and in person at IBM Connect this week, asking whether the news regarding This Week in Lotus is true.
Sadly, it definitely is.
The episode we are recording live at IBM Connect today (Dolphin Europe 8, 12:30-13:15) will be our last, so we intend to go out with a bang!
Be there if you can make it!! [read] Keywords: ibm
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Thrilled about this… Kudos Analytics!
Wed, Jan 23rd 2013 4:00a Stuart McIntyre As you should be aware by now, Collaboration Matters is a reseller of Kudos Badges. We’ve recommended it and implemented it at some very large (and very small) Connections customers over the past year, and it is a fantastic tool for enhancing user adoption within the Social Business platform.
When Adam Brown (of Kudos Badges developers, ISW) and I met during Autumn 2012, one of the concepts we discussed most passionately is the knowledge that developing Kudos Badges has given his organis [read] Keywords: collaboration
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McKinsey Quarterly: Making internal collaboration work – An interview with Don Tapscott
Wed, Jan 23rd 2013 3:20a Stuart McIntyre One of the best resources for those interested in Social Business has to be the McKinsey Quarterly.
As many of you will know, McKinsey & Co are one of the most respected management consultancies around, and are involved in a significant volume of work with organisations around the world on Social Business and internal productivity. The McKinsey Global Institute produces a regular annual report into the use of Social Business – a must read for sure.
However, the reason for this post is [read] Keywords: collaboration
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IBM ‘Social Business Online’ app now available
Mon, Jan 21st 2013 1:52a Stuart McIntyre IBM Connect is just around the corner (I travel on Friday, so better crack on with the packing!), and thoughts turn to sessions, schedules and social events.
After a few false starts this year, IBM has settled on the Social Business Online tool as the official means to view sessions, create a personal schedule and network with other attendees. A combination of IBM Connections, Sametime and Domino/XPages platforms, it can be reached via the web, mobile browser or using the recently released nat [read] Keywords: connections
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Sandy Carter: Social Business lessons for Education
Mon, Jan 21st 2013 1:06a Stuart McIntyre Many of you will have seen IBM’s Sandy Carter presenting her Social Business Coffee Break series of videos on YouTube. The series provides a good run through of Social Business concepts and case studies in the form of short sharp presentations that can be easily viewed whilst enjoying a beverage of your choice. If you haven’t now might be a good chance to catch up some of the recent ones in advance of IBM Connect.
I did want to pick one of the videos out. This one references So [read] Keywords: collaboration
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Get a fantastic deal for IBM Connect 2013 – $1,000 off a full pass, 2 day pass for $999!
Wed, Jan 9th 2013 2:50p Stuart McIntyre At Collaboration Matters we love to look after our customers, and so we are delighted to be able to share a fantastic deal with you.
The IBM Connect 2013 conference is coming up in just 2 weeks time. Many of you will know it as Lotusphere, but the near-20 year old conference has now been rebranded to IBM Connect, to reflect the new focus on Social Business and Smarter Workforce topics as well as the traditional messaging and collaboration areas. The conference this year takes place from 27-31 J [read] Keywords: collaboration
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Rebranding – to the faintly ridiculous…
Fri, Nov 16th 2012 5:03a Stuart McIntyre Today I received this email from IBM:
Early in 2012, IBM announced rebranding of our service, from LotusLive to IBM SmartCloud for Social Business. This quarter, we are announcing the next phase of the rebranding — changing the service domain itself. From: *.lotuslive.com To: *.collabserv.com
IBM will implement this change using an automated redirect from the old domain to the new domain for most Web-based access methods. So customers will still be able to access the service using www.lotu [read] Keywords: bluehouse
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Rebranding – from the sublime…
Fri, Nov 16th 2012 4:46a Stuart McIntyre IBM did something fantastically well this week.
They announced the rebranding of IBM Lotus Notes (and Domino/iNotes/Traveler) to… IBM Notes (and Domino/iNotes/Traveler). Simple? Yes. Right? Yes.
At the same time they shifted the upcoming Notes 8.5.4 Social Edition to be Notes 9.0 Social Edition as there are so many great new features and UI changes included in the release. Simple? Yes. Right? Yes.
After nearly 2 years of living in a nether world of partial name changes, talk of toxic [read] Keywords: collaboration
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Customizing IBM Connections 4.0 email digests
Thu, Nov 8th 2012 4:26a Stuart McIntyre IBM is still rolling out updates to the Connections 4.0 documentation, including this one that became available last week:
Customizing email digests
The content of the daily and weekly email digests is defined in templates that are processed by the FreeMarker engine. These templates are used for each recipient of the daily or weekly email digest. You can customize the content of the email digests by modifying the existing template files or by replacing the files with custom templates that you c [read] Keywords: connections
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Vsee ships integration with IBM Connections
Thu, Nov 8th 2012 1:03a Stuart McIntyre Love love love this!
VSee’s simplest one-click video conferencing and screen share is better than Skype, and you can use it right from your IBM Connections platform without any hoo-hah. Make your virtual teams more productive and social. Effortlessly put a live face to presentations, meetings, and work sessions and:
build durable relationships
resolve complex issues
convey trust
shorten the sales cycle
recruit the best-fit talent for your team
VSee integration with IBM Connections allows [read] Keywords: admin
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No
Wed, Nov 7th 2012 10:11a Stuart McIntyre “A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.”
Ghandi [read] Keywords:
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The planet does not need more ‘successful’ people
Wed, Nov 7th 2012 10:11a Stuart McIntyre The planet does not need more ‘successful’ people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every shape and form. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these needs have little to do with success as our culture has defined it.
- David Orr
(via Buildings On Fire) [read] Keywords:
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Make your mind up… (Community platforms)
Wed, Nov 7th 2012 10:11a Stuart McIntyre I appreciate the willingness of so many IBMers to be social and collaborate with those outside the organisation.
I love the way that they will go beyond the call of duty and step in to help with issues or discussions.
I adore that so many are willing to find information and share it privately or publicly via social tools and IBM cloud platforms.
But…
I just wish that there was one network that all IBMers (or at least all ICS staff) used rather than a combination of:
Greenhouse
Smart Clo [read] Keywords: connections
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The difference between the iPad and the Microsoft Surface
Tue, Nov 6th 2012 10:36a Stuart McIntyre But the Surface ends up proving the wisdom of Apple’s limitations. The iPad may not allow you to do everything, but Apple has made sure that it’s great at what it can do. The Surface, by contrast, will let you do everything you want. The problem is that you’ll have no fun doing it.
More > [read] Keywords: apple
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Just 30 days to go… Social Connections IV
Wed, Oct 31st 2012 3:32a Stuart McIntyre Yes that’s right, less than a month to go until the biggest and best IBM Connections event of the year. Social Connections IV in Amsterdam, 30th November 2012!
To whet your appetites, here’s some statistics about the event… Social Connections IV by the numbers:
30 days to go
160 registered attendees (still a few spaces, but be quick!)
31 business, technical and case study sessions
9 wonderful sponsors
35 exceptional speakers from IBM and the community
8 customers telling the [read] Keywords: connections
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Configuring and administering the IBM Connections 4.0 ReplyTo feature
Wed, Oct 17th 2012 12:20a Stuart McIntyre Really useful ‘Everyone Writes’ article on the IBM Connections wiki:
Among the new features in IBM Connections 4.0 is the Mail-in feature or, as we call it in this article, ReplyTo, which allows you to make new posts to Forums by replying to an email notification. There are a number of configuration steps that must be performed to enable this feature, both on the WebSphere Server and on the mail server being used. This article describes how the ReplyTo feature works and the steps req [read] Keywords: connections
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IBM Connection 2013 – Call for Abstracts now open!
Mon, Oct 15th 2012 12:27p Stuart McIntyre Call for abstracts
Swirling spotlights, hip walk-on music, the roar of the audience, the electricity that comes from a standing room only crowd—all for you as a speaker at IBM Connect 2013 and the Lotusphere Technical Program.
Last year over 350 top-notch speakers—clients, partners, and industry experts—shared their business stories and technical expertise with thousands of conference attendees, contributing to one of the most critically acclaimed session agendas in the industry. We’ [read] Keywords: collaboration
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Final reminder! User Adoption masterclass with Michael Sampson
Mon, Sep 24th 2012 11:07p Stuart McIntyre A quick reminder that we have the world-renown Collaboration Strategist, Michael Sampson, over in London next Monday (1st October) to host a full-day workshop on Building User Adoption Strategies:
Collaboration Matters have partnered with renowned collaboration and user adoption expert Michael Sampson (all the way from New Zealand) to deliver a one-day seminar on user adoption strategy for Social Business and Enterprise Collaboration environments.
Based on the newly released second edition of [read] Keywords: collaboration
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Do you train your users on how to use Windows?
Mon, Sep 24th 2012 12:00a Stuart McIntyre I asked this question at a customer workshop last week, where they were discussing the possible rollout of Windows 8 across their ~20,000 users…
Do you train your users on how to use Windows?
Why the question? For two reasons:
1. Windows 8 is going to be a significant new user experience for most employees. Remember, you cannot disable the ‘Metro’ UI (yes I know, Microsoft isn’t calling it that anymore, but the rest of the world is), and so (at a minimum) every time a [read] Keywords: applications
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Joining the team… Sharon Bellamy
Thu, Sep 13th 2012 5:16a Stuart McIntyre I am truly delighted to announce a new member of the Collaboration Matters team, Sharon Bellamy.
In many cases, Sharon will need no introduction, as you will already be familiar with her great work on IBM Connections at a number of organisations, regular blog posts, appearances on This Week in Lotus, speaking engagements at user groups and Lotusphere conferences, her efforts to co-found and organise the Social Connections user group and indeed, her status as an IBM Champion!
If you haven’t [read] Keywords: collaboration
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Reviewing IBM Connections 4.0
Tue, Sep 11th 2012 10:24a Stuart McIntyre Great new reviewer’s guide from IBM:
This Reviewer’s Guide provides an extensive overview of the latest version of IBM’s social software, IBM Connections 4.0, and its nine applications: Home, Profiles, Activities, Blogs, Bookmarks, Communities, Files, Forums, and Wikis. In addition, this guide explains how to extend the features and functions of IBM Connections to your existing applications.
A perfect start if you’re looking to find out the new features and enhancements in IB [read] Keywords: connections
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How to download IBM Connections 4.0
Fri, Sep 7th 2012 10:40a Stuart McIntyre IBM provides a useful technote explaining how to download IBM Connections 4.0:
This document describes how to download and assemble IBM Connections 4.0 from Passport Advantage.
Download Description
IBM Connections is social networking software designed for the workplace. Its applications help you to establish dynamic networks that connect people, information, and business goals.
More information
To access a wide variety of technical resources for the product, visit the IBM Connections w [read] Keywords: connections
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New help with User Adoption? Ask Michael Sampson to help.
Fri, Sep 7th 2012 7:40a Stuart McIntyre The big news today is that IBM Connections 4.0 is now available. However, whether you’re running Connections 3 or 4, MS Sharepoint, Jive SBS or any other collaboration or Social Business platform, the technology is only a small part of your project. If you put in a great tool but nobody uses it, then you’re arguably even worse off than you were before. Therefore, planning a strategic approach to user adoption is vital!
To help, Collaboration Matters have partnered with reno [read] Keywords: collaboration
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First fixes available for IBM Connections 4.0
Fri, Sep 7th 2012 6:50a Stuart McIntyre Abstract
iFixes LO71325 and LO71327 are required for IBM Connections 4.0.
Content
iFixes LO71325 and LO71327 are required for IBM Connections 4.0. Please download both iFixes from Fix Central, then apply to the IBM Connections 4.0 server using the update installer.
Use this link to download both fixes from Fix Central
More >
I believe that one of these came direct from a customer I’m working with. Make sure you install them [read] Keywords: connections
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Where’s Stuart?
Wed, Sep 5th 2012 12:11a Stuart McIntyre Apologies for the radio silence, but I’ve been traveling with the family the past two weeks:
2,300 miles, beautiful apartments rented through AirBnB (get their app – it’s fantastic), last minute hotels rented when emergency called (this one in the Alsace was a beaut), and four kids that now have a bit more understanding of what’s out there. Priceless [read] Keywords: apple
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Where’s Stuart?
Tue, Sep 4th 2012 10:51p Stuart McIntyre Apologies for the radio silence, but I’ve been traveling with the family the past two weeks:
2,300 miles, beautiful apartments rented through AirBnB (get their app – it’s fantastic), last minute hotels rented when emergency called (this one in the Alsace was a beaut), and four kids that now have a bit more understanding of what’s out there. Priceless [read] Keywords: apple
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IBM Connections 4.0 announced
Tue, Sep 4th 2012 4:00a Stuart McIntyre At a glance
IBM Connections V4.0 is designed to help you:
Track the activity of your network and respond more quickly using the embedded experience within the activity stream.
Bring external applications and content into the activity stream to respond in context, saving time and reducing context switching.
Track and respond to the activities of community members using the community-centric activity stream and embedded experience.
Quickly bring content from external sites and related communities [read] Keywords: connections
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Microsoft’s Lost Decade
Fri, Jul 27th 2012 3:53a Stuart McIntyre I’m sure many of you will have already seen and read this, but I keep coming back to it as it is such a great in-depth article, covering the history of Microsoft from its inception through to today.
Kurt Eichenwald in Vanity Fair’s August issue:
Amid a dynamic and ever changing marketplace, Microsoft—which declined to comment for this article—became a high-tech equivalent of a Detroit car-maker, bringing flashier models of the same old thing off of the assembly line even as its [read] Keywords: ibm
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Social Business: Collaboration comes of age
Fri, Jul 27th 2012 3:40a Stuart McIntyre Deloitte Consulting:
The application of social business systems and practices is facilitating discovery and creating connections across the enterprise. It is also radically changing the way we think about core business strategies and goals. It makes real-time collaboration on tasks and documents possible, and provides a systematic view of who knows who, who knows what, and how work actually gets done. In short, social business delivers on the promises made by collaboration systems decades ago.
M [read] Keywords: collaboration
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What are the chances…
Thu, Jul 26th 2012 1:33p Stuart McIntyre Fantastic new ‘Connected Social Business’ deck from IBM’s Louis Richardson:
What are the chances? from Louis Richardson
Also available as a video:
Love Louis’ work and this is one of the best. Nice work, Sir! [read] Keywords: ibm
Upgrading to Mountain Lion?
Thu, Jul 26th 2012 1:29a Stuart McIntyre If you’re thinking of upgrading your Mac to OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, here are a few tips:
Read Jon Siracusa’s incredible 24 page review of the new release
Check that your Mac is compatible
Check that your key apps are compatible
If you run VMWare Fusion, get the Tech Preview
If you run Skype, get the very latest version
Remember that none of the IBM products is yet supported on Mountain Lion! Lotus Notes 8.5.x has some issues, not least because the new OS X Notes application share [read] Keywords: ibm
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IBM Collaboration Solutions Community Webcast
Wed, Jul 25th 2012 6:22a Stuart McIntyre If you don’t take part in the monthly IBM Collaboration Solutions monthly community webcasts then you are really missing out. Run by the wonderful Joyce Davis, they’re great opportunities to catch up the latest news regarding ICS/Lotus products, to hear from those active in the community and to have an opportunity to feed back on your own opinions and views.
This month’s webcast featured IBM Champion Simon Vaughan from Cardiff University, Baan Slavens from IBM and Eric Otch [read] Keywords: collaboration
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Update strategy for IBM Connections 3.0.1.1
Wed, Jul 25th 2012 5:14a Stuart McIntyre This document describes the recommended strategy and steps for applying maintenance updates to IBM Connections 3.0.1.1.
More >
Says it all. If you manage an IBM Connections environment, make sure you understand the new regime for fixes and updates…
[And by the way, this is such an improvement on how it worked in the 2.5 and 3.0.0 days. Great job, IBM!] [read] Keywords: connections
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IBM Systems and Software come together… InterConnect 2012
Wed, Jul 25th 2012 4:34a Stuart McIntyre This is a announcement that I’m really pleased to see… Too often Systems and Software are seen as two completely different markets – this event brings the two together into one integrated conference:
InterConnect: Where business and IT leaders connect
InterConnect 2012 places your business interests at the center of its agenda. It is a unique opportunity to collaborate with IBM clients, the IBM partner network and industry experts who are implementing linked business and [read] Keywords: ibm
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IBM Connections 3.0.1.1 CR2 fixpack released
Wed, Jul 25th 2012 2:08a Stuart McIntyre I’ve been waiting for this one for a while:
Cumulative Refreshes (CRs) consists of a set of cumulative fixes for each of IBM Connections applications. For additional information on CRs, including instructions on how to download and install, please review the Update strategy for IBM Connections 3.0.1.1 document.
CR2 is composed of this set of 14 cumulative fixes, which update the whole application.
Details of the fixes included are available in this technote, download the fixes from FixCe [read] Keywords: connections
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Slideshare goes HTML5, and the push for simplicity
Mon, Jul 23rd 2012 11:04p Stuart McIntyre An announcement from Slideshare:
As part of our transition to HTML5, we are pleased to let you know that embedded presentations are now Flash-free. We have also made several other improvements to our embed code:
Embedded presentations can be viewed on iOS devices
New features in embedded presentations will be updated dynamically
The embed code is shorter and simpler
The embed has new Twitter and Facebook share buttons (we find that presentations with share buttons get shared 30% more)
Great [read] Keywords: apple
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Are you an IBM Connections expert?
Mon, Jul 23rd 2012 9:11a Stuart McIntyre If so, you may wish to help IBM create the next IBM Connections certfication exam:
Lotus Professional Certification Program Announcement
Exam Development Project Announcement
The Lotus Professional Certification Program is looking for subject matter experts in the administration of IBM Connections 4.0 to assist with upcoming exam development workshops.
**You are receiving this e-mail because of your expertise with this product OR because you may work with subject matter experts who may be qua [read] Keywords: administration
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Communardo AdContext Widgets for IBM Connections
Mon, Jul 23rd 2012 1:52a Stuart McIntyre I found some interesting widgets for IBM Connections today, by a German business partner called Communardo.
First the description (translated by Google):
The widgets are practical enhancements for IBM Connections and are characterized by the fact that they:
deal with communities featuring blogs and wikis
offer community users a structure based intranet
allow quick access to important content
The user can:
Filter your content by tags
to obtain an overview of your project communities
to see [read] Keywords: connections
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And another one bites the dust… Acqhires are not good for users.
Fri, Jul 20th 2012 10:53a Stuart McIntyre So many recent acquisitions (or so called acqhires) have lead to the effective death of great third party solutions.
Here’s the latest:
We’re excited to let you know that Sparrow has been acquired by Google!
You can view our public announcement here, but I wanted to reach out directly to make sure you were aware of the news.
We will continue to make available our existing products, and we will provide support and critical updates to our users. However, as we’ll be busy with new pro [read] Keywords: email
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IBM Connections 4.0. About to go public…
Fri, Jul 20th 2012 12:23a Stuart McIntyre News from the IBM Greenhouse:
We are targeting our upgrade to Connections 4.0 Beta for Thursday July 26th. Connections will be down for the entire day while we upgrade and test the new environment.
Less than a week away! As many of you will be aware, upgrading the Greenhouse install of Connections is one of the most significant public steps that takes place as an IBM Connections release nears GA. The NDA/beta wraps are thrown off and everyone gets to try the code themselves first-hand.
With [read] Keywords: collaboration
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Get Social. Build Apps. But first, Get Educated!
Thu, Jul 19th 2012 3:00p Stuart McIntyre Some super ‘on demand’ webcasts from IBM. Definitely worth watching if you want to transfer your development skills to the Social Business arena:
IBM Social Business Application Development Webcasts
Register now to view the webcasts, visit booths and ask questions to the Experts.
The Social Application Model- Charlie Hill, Social Business CTO at IBM Collaboration Solutions, describes how social tools integrate with enterprise applications in the social application model. [read] Keywords: collaboration
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The role of an IBM Champion
Thu, Jul 19th 2012 12:53a Stuart McIntyre To kick off, I have been truly honoured to be selected as an IBM Champion this past year, and I think Joyce and the team did a brilliant job in bringing the program to fruition. I sincerely hope that I am doing a good job of representing the program in all that I do.
However, there has been lots of discussion around the role of an IBM Champion. I know that the attributes of an IBM Champion were made clear when nominations were opened, but I wonder if the requirements of active IBM Champions are [read] Keywords: ibm
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The Social Business imperative – a time of radical corporate change
Tue, Jul 17th 2012 6:56a Stuart McIntyre Rooven Pakkiri, Head of Social Business at Collaboration Matters has recently had a paper published by the well-respected UKSG organisation. It is entitled ‘The social business imperative – a time of radical corporate change’ and is featured in their ‘Insights: the UKSG journal’ publication for July.
Here’s the excerpt:
‘Social business’ is about the inspired use of collaboration technology platforms inside the company firewall to solve business problems. It h [read] Keywords: collaboration
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Introducing Kudos Thanks – Peer to Peer Recognition for IBM Connections
Tue, Jul 17th 2012 3:37a Stuart McIntyre I’m a huge fan of ‘Reward & recognition systems‘ for Social Business platforms – tools that encourage positive behaviours, reward users for contribution and dramatically increase engagement and adoption.
[Some may call them 'gamification' but I really can't relate to that name, neither can many business executives I meet.]
There are many such solutions out there, with more coming to the IBM Connections and Jive platforms every month.
However, in my opinion, the fir [read] Keywords: collaboration
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Advertising Social Business
Mon, Jul 16th 2012 1:53p Stuart McIntyre Seen in New York City today:
And the ad itself?
Whatever you think of the idea of destroying your own office (I’m not too sure about the details of the ad myself), wouldn’t it have been encouraging to see IBM Connections (and IBM Social Business as a whole) being advertised in this very public and visible way?
[It is one of my dreams to say 'IBM Connections' to just one of my non-technical friends, acquaintances or family and them say 'yes, I've heard of that'...] [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
office
130
75 percent
Mon, Jul 16th 2012 10:03a Stuart McIntyre ZDnet in an article entitled ‘IBM’s social enterprise plan: Meld collaboration, processes with dash of Watson‘:
[Jeff] Schick said 75 percent of Connections customers are not Lotus Notes customers. [read] Keywords: collaboration
connections
ibm
lotus
notes
enterprise
116
‘Not as cool’
Mon, Jul 9th 2012 1:46p Stuart McIntyre Bloomberg reports:
Samsung Electronics Co. won a legal ruling after a U.K. judge said its Galaxy tablets aren’t “cool” enough to be confused with Apple Inc.’s iPad.
The design for three Galaxy tablets doesn’t infringe Apple’s registered design, Judge Colin Birss said today in London in a court fight between the world’s two biggest makers of smartphones. Consumers aren’t likely to get the tablet computers mixed up, he said.
Judge Colin Birss said, the Galaxy tablets “do not hav [read] Keywords: apple
105
Social Connections III. The movie!
Fri, Jul 6th 2012 6:50a Stuart McIntyre We had an awesome time at Social Connections III in Dublin back on 22nd June – you really should have been there!
Thanks to Jon and Huw for putting together such a great video.
We’ll be back in November for Social Connections IV, this time in Amsterdam. Look out for more details on the new Social Connections site soon. [read] Keywords: connections
Alistair Rennie on becoming a social business
Mon, Jul 2nd 2012 11:57p Stuart McIntyre IBM’s GM for Social Business, Alistair Rennie, explains what it takes to become a Social Business.
A couple of interesting points to note.
Alistair’s job title seems to have changed from being GM for IBM Collaboration Solutions to being GM for Social Business. This seems to be a common shift now, indicating that Social Business is becoming the external brand, whilst ICS is in the internal organisation. I think this is a good move.
It’s fascinating to see a 7 minute video on I [read] Keywords: collaboration
connections
ibm
100
Smarter Marketing: Know your customer
Thu, Jun 7th 2012 12:40a Stuart McIntyre Really liking this series, and IBM is definitely on-message here. It’s about knowing the customer as an individual, something that Amazon and others have really taken a lead on. [read] Keywords: ibm
application
The community now has a hashtag for IBM Connections
Mon, Jun 4th 2012 12:43p Stuart McIntyre Niklas Heidloff and the team at OpenNTF recently raised the question of which hashtag should be used for IBM Connections development-related posts and tweets. It's a very fair question, after all having an agreed common hashtag that is used on relevant posts makes it much easier for advocates and newcomers alike to find and follow Connections-related content. Given that IBM is pushing Connections as a development platform of the future, it is crucial that the community makes Connections a [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
community
development
linkedin
openntf
skype
twitter
Months to one million
Mon, May 21st 2012 3:22p Stuart McIntyre Seats sold or users accessing? Either way, it’s impressive (given all the other services are free to use). [read] Keywords:
IBM tidies Collaboration Solutions product line
Fri, May 18th 2012 12:03a Stuart McIntyre One in a while IBM takes a scalpel to the set of products it sells and adjusts the offerings that are marketed to new customers. That’s just part of the cycle of product management… The changes haven’t been communicated particularly broadly (though they are mentioned on the Greenhouse), so I thought it was worth a blog post.
This month we’ve seen an announcement of the demise of a couple of products, replaced by others in the line. First up, Mashup Center and Lotus Mash [read] Keywords: collaboration
domino
ibm
lotus
mashup
mashups
notes
quickr
server
websphere
websphere portal
188
IBM introduces the IBM Connections Suite
Tue, May 15th 2012 3:56a Stuart McIntyre At the Social Business event in the Netherlands today, IBM announced the new IBM Connections Suite (link to follow).
The Convergence of Social, Unified Communications, and Content Management
Including IBM Connections, IBM Connections Community document libraries, IBM Sametime Advanced and IBM Sametime Unified Telephony Lite, this new solution is designed to provide an organisation will all the tools to offer its users a cohesive suite of social collaboration tools. I’m sure that you [read] Keywords: collaboration
connections
ibm
sametime
community
instant messaging
microsoft
unified communications
121
The rise of the Community Manager and the Collaboration Garden: an IBM Social Business Briefing
Tue, May 1st 2012 5:29a Stuart McIntyre For our third IBM Social Business Briefing (aka Wicked Wednesdays) on 25th April at Royal Exchange in London, we felt the time was right to move the discourse from thought leadership and education to a more practical footing.
Of course, we still leveraged the superb network of independent thought leaders who we are lucky to have at our events BUT at this latest event we changed / evolved the format.
On this occasion I framed the discussion on the emerging role of the Community Manager (seen by s [read] Keywords: collaboration
ibm
community
enterprise
exchange
exchange
network
148
Collaboration Matters awarded IBM Platinum Achievement Award
Mon, Apr 30th 2012 4:51a Stuart McIntyre Collaboration Matters were delighted and incredibly honoured to be publicly recognised by IBM last week at the Software Partner Marketing College at IBM South Bank in London.
The ‘IBM Software Platinum Achievement Award – Outstanding Marketing Achievement’ recognised those business partners that have marketed IBM’s and their own solutions in innovative and ground-breaking ways over the past year. Finalists were Portal, Applicable, Barrachd and Collaboration Matters wit [read] Keywords: collaboration
ibm
90
Different technology, same values
Fri, Apr 27th 2012 4:11p Stuart McIntyre Lotus Notes ad from the R5 days, circa 1999:
‘I am ready’, ‘I am connected’, ‘I am not alone’, ‘The power to work the way you want’, ‘Share work and ideas’ and so on…
This was describing Collaboration, Messaging and Workflow software from 13 years ago, but could so easily be describing the impact of Social Media and Social Business tools (such as IBM Connections) today.
My goodness, Lotus Notes and Domino really was painting a v [read] Keywords: collaboration
connections
domino
ibm
lotus
notes
R5
Social Connections III – Registration is open, session abstracts invited!
Tue, Apr 17th 2012 3:31a Stuart McIntyre Social Connections (the IBM Connections user group) is back, returning for its third event.
Scheduled for Friday 22nd June 2012 at the IBM Labs in Dublin, this is the best chance you’ll have this year to hear directly from IBM Connections customers, consultants, partners, advocates and developers. Yes, developers too! By the kind invitation of IBM we are going direct to their European development base in Dublin, home to many members of the IBM Connections coding team. We’ll have ses [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
lotusphere
community
development
facebook
linkedin
twitter
widget
216
Connections Desktop Plug-ins for Microsoft Windows now available
Mon, Mar 19th 2012 1:10p Stuart McIntyre The IBM Connections Desktop Plug-ins Microsoft Windows is intended for Microsoft Windows users, adding social networking features and functionality from IBM Connections services, including Activities, Communities, Files, and Profiles.
The IBM Connections Desktop Plug-ins for Microsoft Windows provides the following features from Windows Explorer:
Upload files for personal use or to share with others
Upload files to a community or attach them to an Activity
Share existing Connections files with [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
lotus
community
desktop
mac
microsoft
network
networking
vista
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A fix for the Chrome header issue
Fri, Mar 16th 2012 5:01a Stuart McIntyre Stuart blogged back in January about a known issue with downloading files from the files application using Chrome. IBM do not officially support Chrome with Connections 3.0.1 - but our good friend & IBM Champion Sjaak Ursinus has devised a work around. Header edit Content-Disposition ^(.*)creation-date=(.*);\smodification-date=(.*);$ "$1creation-date=\"$2\"; modification-date=\"$3\";" ensure the mod_header module is uncommented httpd.conf save and cl [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
ldd
lotus
application
server
105
issue with custom themes and communities
Fri, Mar 16th 2012 4:01a Stuart McIntyre I have had a PMR open for some time relating to a bit of a known issue with Custom themes and Connections communties There was an issue where you would create a custom theme In my case I also customised the coloured community themes also When clicking on forums, blogs etc the theme was stripped out displaying It appears there was a step missing from the wiki!! http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/lcwiki.nsf/dx/Defining_a_community_theme_ic301 Step 1.d - d. Remove th [read] Keywords: connections
ldd
lotus
community
css
wiki
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Issue with Connections media widget timing out
Thu, Mar 15th 2012 4:00a Stuart McIntyre Whilst building a new Connections environment for a customer we noticed a strange issue when uploading large files to the media gallery. Initially I thought it was related to the size of the file, but the same file will upload to the Connections files application without issue. There is very little errors in the SystemOut.log for the Connections server, so I was baffled. A PMR was opened and the very helpful Mr Dave McCarthy was the PMR owner and we then started on our investigation [read] Keywords: connections
application
development
server
widget
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The Collaboration Diner – an Introduction
Fri, Mar 9th 2012 12:10p Stuart McIntyre Anyone that follows me on Twitter will have seen that this week has been rather dominated by a single topic, The Collaboration Diner, and was brought to you by the hashtag #cbdiner
So I hear you cry, what is The Collaboration Diner?
Many of you, especially those in North America, will be aware of a rather famous 1942 painting by Edward Hopper known as ‘Nighthawks‘:
Painted soon after the attack at Pearl Harbour, the painting is thought to detail the alienation felt by those in a s [read] Keywords: collaboration
connections
mobile
network
pearl
twitter
wifi
wiki
85
i
Fri, Mar 9th 2012 7:08a Stuart McIntyre Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper, writes on the correct way to deal with competition:
Reacting well to competition requires critical analysis of your own product and its shortcomings, and a complete, open-minded understanding of why people might choose your competitors.
They’re not fanboys. They’re not brainwashed by “marketing”. Your competitors’ customers aren’t passing on your product because they’re stupid or irrational.
They’re choosing your competitors for good reasons, [read] Keywords: collaboration
google
microsoft
Missed Lotusphere 2012? Some tips on catching up
Mon, Feb 20th 2012 9:19a Stuart McIntyre If you missed Lotusphere this year, you may be wondering how you can catch up on all the news? Well obviously there's plenty of blogs (not least EdBrill.com) that you can read. The presentations are also gradually being uploaded into the Lotusphere community on the Greenhouse. However, you could also listen to a series of podcasts that cover the topics. As usual, your best bets are IdoNotes, Taking Notes and This Week in Lotus. Here are some of the recent highlights: Taking Notes [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
inotes
lotus
lotusphere
notes
quickr
community
taking notes
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Michael Sampson: A Call to Organizations with IBM Connections - How Are You Approaching User Adoption?
Fri, Feb 10th 2012 2:47a Stuart McIntyre As many of you will be aware, Michael Sampson is one of the leading Collaboration and Social Business Strategists, with a number of fantastic books to aid those that are implementing such systems within their organisations. Michael and I have worked together on a number of customer engagements and I greatly value his work. Michael is currently running a fresh version of his survey on user adoption strategies. The output from the survey will be used for an update to his book on the topic an [read] Keywords: collaboration
connections
ibm
97
Well I never! Disabling widgets tab
Wed, Feb 8th 2012 12:30a Stuart McIntyre I've been making a point in recent meetings with IBM re: Connections that the Widgets page is a little out of place, particularly on new installs, and that it should possible to disable it for all users. Good idea? Well, it turns out that the option has been in Connections since at least 3.0! Just go to the Connections Homepage features Administration tab (you need the appropriate rights of course), and there it is: Just switch this to 'Disabled' and Save, and the tab goes away. [read] Keywords: administration
connections
ibm
widgets
124
Update strategy for IBM Connections 3.0.1
Mon, Feb 6th 2012 2:20p Stuart McIntyre A very important technote from IBM was released over the weekend - 'Update strategy for IBM Connections 3.0.1':This document describes the recommended strategy and steps for applying maintenance updates to IBM Connections 3.0.1.Detailing the process involved in deploying Component Refresh (CR) updates, it takes the reader through all the necessary steps - from backup through protecting customizations to the actual application of the fix. As an aside, the CR3 update that was released way bac [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
application
Don’t ever call Lotusphere a ’jolly’!
Sat, Jan 14th 2012 3:10a Stuart McIntyre Here's a snapshot of my schedule for this week. Admittedly some of the clashing appointments in Orange are where there are more than one session that I'd like to go to in that slot. However, there is no doubt that this is going to be one seriously intensive week! [read] Keywords: lotusphere
