Information Technology News

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM) (TSX: RIM) are delivering to mainstream business professionals the full line of Web 2.0-powered IBM Lotus collaboration software and information on demand on the BlackBerry platform. The joint initiative enables customers to securely manage their communications, contacts and schedules and collaborate and network through social software, all from within the interface of their BlackBerry smartphones. This includes the general availability of the new BlackBerry Client for IBM Lotus Connections, IBM's social software for business. IBM WebSphere Portal and IBM dashboard software lets businesses build Web sites and single screen dashboard views that deliver information, applications and processes personalized to the individual BlackBerry smartphone user. The BlackBerry Client for IBM Lotus Connections helps people tap into the collective knowledge of others and find the people and information they need for the task at hand while on the go. BlackBerry Enterprise Server for IBM Lotus Notes and Domino enables access to key email and calendaring functions as well as custom applications built with Lotus Domino. The BlackBerry Client for IBM Lotus Sametime lets people access their full buddy list, send and receive instant messages, view presence information and convert an IM session to a phone call. IBM Cognos 8 Go! Mobile business intelligence software is a business intelligence solution designed specifically for the BlackBerry platform. It provides personalized secure business information in the right context to allow people to view and interact with dashboard-style reports. The BlackBerry mobile solution for the Lotus collaboration software suite is available today and the BlackBerry client software for Lotus Sametime and Lotus Connections are both now available as a free download for Lotus customers at http://www.blackberry.com/go/ibmresources, http://www.ibm.com

Posted by NewsShark at 2:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: collaboration, IBM, mobile, RIM, social computing, Web 2.0
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Alfresco Software, Inc. announced the release of Alfresco Enterprise 2.2, which in particular is designed to power Web 2.0 properties and online communities. New feature enhancements support the creation, deployment and update of scalable Web 2.0 sites that can be developed using any web application language. These enhancements are a result of the company's work with interactive sites in the entertainment, online gaming, sports, telecommunications and publishing industries. With this new release, companies can move beyond the traditional marketing oriented Web site to provide users with a rich and interactive site that fosters community and customer relationships around a product or service. Other enhancements in Alfresco Enterprise 2.2 include: Web Farm Deployment Configuration - supports advanced deployment rules for web 2.0 scalable, 3-tier web application architectures; Web Application Preview and Test - provides the ability to preview in-context changes to any web application, including PHP, Ruby, Groovy, STRUTS, JSF, TILES and .NET; Site Templating and Branching - enables creation of new sites from existing templates and ability to baseline major site updates by branching existing site, and; Asset Reuse - allows content to be updated and shared across web projects. Alfresco Enterprise is the certified build of Alfresco, designed for production environments in corporations and government organizations that are looking for a stable, supported application. It is certified against commercial as well as open source stacks and offers commercial Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Alfresco Community is designed to be the research "Community Lab" for new features enabling developers to access a nightly build with the latest bleeding-edge functionality. It is unsupported by Alfresco and does not include the certification, QA (quality assurance) and services for production deployment. Alfresco Enterprise 2.2 is immediately available for enterprise customers. http://www.alfresco.com/

Posted by NewsShark at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: Alfresco, content management, ECM, social computing, Web 2.0
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MindTouch announced the release of MindTouch Deki Wiki "Jay Cooke" v8.05, the latest version of its open source enterprise collaboration and integration platform. MindTouch Deki Wiki v8.05 includes finctions for internationalization/localization, search, user management, integrated scripting, automation, mash-ups, user experience and more. Specifically, this new release enhances multilingual content management. Deki Wiki v8.05 introduces a new polyglot feature that allows customers to host all languages as a single site. Now language can be specified by sections and pages automatically adapting the user interface of Deki Wiki to the appropriate language. Also, users may search across all languages and search results are prioritized by the user's default language. Lastly, Deki Wiki v8.05 supports OpenSearch. http://mindtouch.com

Posted by NewsShark at 9:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: collaboration, Globalization, MindTouch, social computing, wiki
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Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) announced a new version of Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro, the company's Web conferencing and eLearning solution. Acrobat Connect Pro includes new features for Web conferencing such as options for archiving and editing recorded online meetings; new presence capabilities that can allow federation with instant messaging (IM) clients; and compliance and usage reporting tools. eLearning enhancements include break-out rooms to let students in virtual classes initiate separate conversations online; rapid authoring of video-based content; integration with Learning Management Systems (LMS) from Blackboard and SumTotal; and tools that track and organize online classes. Users also can easily tailor training sessions or meetings that help capture participants' attention and increase knowledge retention, resulting in an online learning experience remarkably similar to an in-person class. Combined with the new version of Adobe Presenter, also introduced, Acrobat Connect Pro can enable users to hold online meetings that incorporate Adobe Flash Player compatible presentations. Adobe Presenter can give you the ability to turn Microsoft PowerPoint presentations into multimedia experiences that include video, narration, animations, interactivity and advanced quizzes. New capabilities in this release include question pooling and randomization, easy-to-work-with video, and the ability to publish presentations to mobile devices or within PDF files. Acrobat Connect Pro is expected to be available by the end of May 2008, on a hosted or on-premise basis. It will be available in English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and simplified Chinese. http://www.adobe.com/

Posted by NewsShark at 7:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: Adobe, collaboration, e-learning, LCMS, office software
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Vignette (NASDAQ: VIGN) announced significant enhancements to its Web Experience Platform foundation. Vignette's integrated Web Experience Platform foundation is meant to help organizations quickly manage and deliver targeted content and facilitate user interaction and collaboration with the high performance and scalability required to support large-scale deployments. Vignette Content Management lets users to streamline the creation and management of Web content and reduce bottlenecks associated with the delivery and publishing of that information. Enhanced features include friendly URLs to increase search engine site rankings, skip level upgrades to reduce the steps necessary to upgrade from older environments and integration with Vignette High Performance Delivery (HPD). Vignette Portal allows business users to elevate their brand identity and engage in more personalized Web interactions with key audiences. New capabilities include integration with HPD and Vignette's recently announced Community product line. Vignette Collaboration helps organizations drive productivity, improve knowledge management and more efficiently direct business processes that require interaction across disparate geographic and organizational boundaries. The latest release features new social computing capabilities including ratings, reviews, tagging and usage analysis. Additional enhancements include improved usability and performance and enhanced support for blogs, wikis and discussion forums. Collaboration also supports auditing and retention policies which enable organizations to more actively manage knowledge relative to compliance.

Posted by NewsShark at 8:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: collaboration, portals, social computing, Vignette, WCM, wiki
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The Gilbane Group and Lighthouse Seminars announced that Udi Manber, a Google Vice President of Engineering, will kick-off the annual Gilbane San Francisco conference on June 18th at 8:30am with a discussion on Google's search quality and continued innovation. Now in its fourth year, the conference has rapidly gained a reputation as a forum for bringing together vendor-neutral industry experts that share and debate the latest information technology experiences, research, trends and insights. The conference takes place June 18-20 at the Westin Market Hotel in San Francisco. Gilbane San Francisco helps attendees move beyond the mainstream content technologies they are familiar with, to enhanced "2.0" versions, which can open up new business opportunities, keep customers engaged, and improve internal communication and collaboration. The 2008 event will have its usual collection of information and content technology experts, including practitioners, technologists, business strategists, consultants, and the leading analysts from a variety of market and technology research firms. Topics to be covered in-depth at Gilbane San Francisco include: Web Content Management (WCM); Enterprise Search, Text Analytics, Semantic Technologies; Collaboration, Enterprise Wikis & Blogs; "Enterprise 2.0" Technologies & Social Media; Content Globalization & Localization; XML Content Strategies; Enterprise Content Management (ECM); Enterprise Rights Management (ERM); and Publishing Technology & Best Practices. Details on the Google keynote session as well as other keynotes and conference breakout sessions can be found at http://gilbanesf.com/conference-grid.html

Posted by NewsShark at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: content management, gilbansf08, Google, Manber, search, social computing
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Trampoline Systems, social intelligence for business, announced SONAR Dashboard, an "intelligent social network" for enterprises. SONAR Dashboard is Trampoline's response to market demand for a "Facebook for the enterprise". It empowers employees of large enterprises to connect and collaborate and strengthens informal employee networks across departments and geographies. SONAR Dashboard is an intelligent social network designed to increase cohesion, collaboration and innovation in large organisations. Interactive network visualisations and expertise search enable users to find and connect with the people they need at work and see the social networks and information flows operating across the enterprise ecosystem. It provides employees with individual profiles, a news feed of network activity and a contacts list. SONAR Dashboard is automatically updated through integration with employees' everyday work such as email, via Trampoline's SONAR Server. SONAR Server analyses the social networks, information flows and expertise hidden within corporate information. SONAR Dashboard is an addition to SONAR Suite, Trampoline's 360° enterprise social computing platform. SONAR Flightdeck provides organisational diagnostics for managers. SONAR Flightdeck and Dashboard are powered by SONAR Server, which analyses the relationships and expertise hidden in corporate data using proprietary social network analysis and natural language processing technology. SONAR Suite provides enterprise-class security, privacy and integration. http://www.trampolinesystems.com

Posted by NewsShark at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: social computing, Trampoline Systems, Web 2.0
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Axceler announced the availability of ControlPoint, a comprehensive administration tool to manage Microsoft SharePoint environments. Administrators can visualize all the components of their SharePoint environment so they can navigate easily, and ControlPoint can establish control through permissions management, making sure that only the right eyes see the right content. ControlPoint also gives administrators the ability to analyze and enforce governance policies they've put in place, enabling administrators to identify non-compliant sites within their SharePoint environment and correct them. ControlPoint also provides the ability to search across the entire environment to identify potential problems with particular sites, like those close to quota or those with unique permissions. Finally, ControlPoint's security trimmed architecture allows administrators to manage, navigate, and search while only seeing what SharePoint permissions allow. ControlPoint honors SharePoint permissions, so all analysis, navigation, search and reports are security trimmed. ControlPoint provides parametric site search for SharePoint. ControlPoint leverages native SharePoint administration functions whenever possible and appropriate. http://www.axceler.com/

Posted by NewsShark at 7:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: Axceler, collaboration, content management, search, SharePoint
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Awareness, Inc. announced that the company is providing its customers with Facebook integration that allows members of Awareness-powered Web 2.0 communities to interact with their communities via white-label applications in their Facebook profiles. Awareness uses the Awareness Facebook Application Framework to create branded Facebook applications customized for its customers, giving them a new way to engage with their online community members by extending the reach of their communities directly into Facebook and leveraging Facebook's viral promotion features. The Awareness Facebook Application Framework is included as part of the Awareness Enterprise Social Media platform and leverages all of the enterprise social media benefits in an existing Awareness-powered community. The application also respects any security or permissioning restrictions built into the community, so it can be used for private and closed communities as well as public and open ones. The application, which will appear in the Facebook directory when registered with Facebook, is installable by any Facebook user and can be shared using standard Facebook application sharing functionality. http://www.awarenessnetworks.com/

Posted by NewsShark at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: Awareness, collaboration, Facebook, social software, Web 2.0
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IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced that its new portal software with Web 2.0 support will ship this quarter. IBM WebSphere Portal 6.1 is designed to securely combine information from both the enterprise and the Web. The expanded Web 2.0 features of IBM WebSphere Portal 6.1 software is intended to help people be more productive and find information faster. Its new live text tagging feature allows a user to click on text, in context of the business process being used, and see supporting information right there related to the job at hand. IBM's new software also has the ability to instantly update any aspect of a web page without the need to do an entire page refresh, for example, when a person makes an update while placing an on-line order. IBM also announced that three of its accelerators and the beta version of a new entry-level forms product will ship this quarter. The first two accelerators are designed to help users respond more quickly to new business opportunities. IBM Dashboard Accelerator 6.1 for WebSphere Portal will integrate business intelligence software from IBM-Cognos and several other companies. IBM Dashboard Accelerator is used for rapidly building a dashboard. The second, IBM Content Accelerator 6.1 for WebSphere Portal, includes simplified authoring templates used for creating quick content like blogs. It also will have richer in-line editing to enable users to easily create folders, sites or site areas. The third, IBM Business Process Accelerator, which has just started shipping, is designed to simplify and improve the adoption of business processes by using the role-based, personalized user interface of WebSphere Portal to improve both implementation and user response time for a range of processes. Lastly, IBM announced today that the company's current forms product, IBM Lotus Forms 3.0.1, now includes out-of-the-box integration with IBM Filenet F8 software. http://www.ibm.com/software/lotus

Posted by NewsShark at 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: enterprise 2.0, IBM, Lotus, portal, Web 2.0, web technology
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BEA Systems announced the release of its BEA AquaLogic User Interaction suite of products, including new versions of BEA AquaLogic Interaction, BEA AquaLogic Interaction Collaboration and BEA AquaLogic Analytics. These new releases are designed to help companies deliver new workplace strategies via BEA's cross-platform web suite. With the new BEA AquaLogic User Interaction release, customers can create richer, more interactive profile pages, deliver customizable user experiences and multi-channel interfaces, leverage full RSS capabilities, and enable human networks to create social applications that enhance worker productivity, group collaboration and community innovation. The new release of BEA AquaLogic Interaction 6.5 delivers a social computing platform with a variety of new features that can help users harness the implicit interactions of day-to-day business - project updates, new documents, process steps, key relationships, expertise, data changes in underlying systems - that are often shared inefficiently through email. The release also introduces improved usability designed to help knowledge workers more easily share community information, find specific expertise and communicate more flexibly, by providing tools that are user-driven and community-centric, and by immersing users in a flexible collaborative experience bolstered by desktop, RSS and Web-based tools. BEA AquaLogic Interaction Collaboration 4.5 extends existing capabilities with enhanced notification options, deeper Microsoft Office integration, enhanced metadata support and general infrastructure enhancements. http://www.bea.com/

Posted by NewsShark at 7:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: BEA, collaboration, portal, social computing
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Kentico Software and Applied Innovations a Microsoft Gold Certified provider of Windows-based Hosting solutions, announced the two companies have partnered to offer a free Web site solution for .NET User Groups. The solution, available through Kentico's partnership with Applied Innovations, allows local .NET developer communities to collaborate between community members. Users will receive a free license of Kentico CMS Enterprise Edition (valued at $1,499) and a ready-to-use Web site template that helps .NET User Groups to share information with group members; inform members about group meetings; publish articles and presentations from the meetings; communicate in discussion forums; distribute e-mail newsletters; create blogs; share files and photos; and create member-only areas. The custom Web site template was created to meet the specific needs of .NET user groups. The template allows groups to focus on their community activities, rather than exhaust resources building a Web site. Applied Innovations will provide a free hosting account for .NET user groups to host their Kentico CMS installation. .NET User Groups can sign up for a free license and hosting at http://www.kentico.com/, http://www.appliedi.net

Posted by NewsShark at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: Applied Innovations, collaboration, developers, Kentico, WCM
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Vignette (NASDAQ: VIGN) announced the immediate availability of Vignette Community Services and the upcoming availability of Vignette Community Applications. The new community products enable organizations to add social computing capabilities to their Web sites. Additionally, the suite of products integrates with Vignette's Web experience foundation, making it easier for customers to quickly add engaging social elements and Web 2.0 capabilities to their sites. Vignette Community Applications enables organizations to add features like blogs, wikis and forums to any Web property to better engage their target audiences. Additionally, these organizations can leverage user-generated content and peer influence to create valuable online communities. For example, a software company may leverage forums or blogs to solicit feedback from customers throughout each phase of a product lifecycle. http://www.vignette.com/

Posted by NewsShark at 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: collaboration, enterprise, social computing, Vignette, WCM, wiki
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Zimbra, a Yahoo! (Nasdaq:YHOO) company, announced the availability of its ZimbraME (Java Mobile Edition) client and source code for businesses. Users of any Java-enabled mobile phone will have access to a complete collaboration solution. The ZimbraME client provides Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) Open Source and Network Edition users worldwide with free access to the Zimbra experience with e-mail and calendar on mass-market Java-enabled mobile phones. This extends Zimbra's reach of services to a broade range of devices available. ZimbraME is an over the air downloadable Java-based application for mobile devices that allows ZCS users to access their mail, contacts and calendars. It retains the search capability found in the Zimbra AJAX client. ZimbraME source code is available to the Zimbra community for feedback and enhancement, as well as to implement ZimbraME on the devices of their choice. Mobile devices supporting ZimbraME include the BlackBerry 8800 and 8820 series; the Motorola RAZR2; Nokia E61 and N73 handsets; the Sony-Ericsson W950i handset; and the Samsung SGH-E900 handset, adding to Zimbra's support for wireless platforms that includes Symbian, Windows Mobile, Palm and iPhone. Additionally, Zimbra supports native sync to BlackBerry handsets via the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The ZCS 5.0 Open Source Edition is free. The commercially supported ZCS 5.0 Network Edition is available for a 60-day free trial on the Zimbra website. http://www.zimbra.com/

Posted by NewsShark at 9:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: collaboration, mobile, office software, Zimbra
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DocsCorp announced it has significantly expanded its integration capability to include NetDocuments, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider. NetDocuments, a vendor of SaaS document, email and collaborative document services, provides legal, real estate, financial and health service professionals with instant access to their "work" (documents, emails, projects etc) no matter where they are. Documents are stored in a repository that users access through their browser. Integration with pdfDocs Desktop means that NetDocuments users will be able to "pull down" documents to their local system, convert them to PDF and "push" them back as new or related documents. Alternatively, users can save documents into NetDocuments as PDFs direct from MS Word. DocsCorp plans to extend its integration within the next couple of months to help NetDocuments provide a feature-rich, efficient and secure document service to its clients. Some of the features earmarked to be included in the next release will be the ability to save a document back into NetDocuments as the current or new version of an existing document. http://www.netdocuments.com, http://www.docscorp.com/

Posted by NewsShark at 9:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: DocsCorp, document management, NetDocuments, PDF
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IBM announced that the Lotus Expeditor software platform is extending desktop computing and Web 2.0 capabilities to mobile phones. Mobile phone users will be able to run several desktop-style applications like social networking, mashups and other consumer or business applications simultaneously on a variety of mobile phones. The new version of IBM Lotus Expeditor 6.1.2 software enables mobile application developers to create new applications and services that combine information from different sources. Key to Lotus Expeditor technology is the use of the Eclipse embedded Rich Client Platform (eRCP) application model, which allows applications to be created to span desktop and mobile devices. Lotus Expeditor software also allows people to receive software updates to their mobile phones without disruption. For example, they can receive an update to a business application while continuing to do instant messaging. Lotus Expeditor software is the underlying platform for IBM's collaboration products including IBM Lotus Notes e-mail, Lotus Sametime instant messaging and Lotus Symphony, a no-charge suite of open standards based office productivity software programs. http://www.ibm.com/software/lotus

Posted by NewsShark at 7:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: collaboration, IBM, mobile, social computing, Web 2.0
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BrightSide Software launched its beta version of Nuospace, a business wiki for everyone. Nuospace is a Web-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) collaboration tool for small-midsize companies enabling team members to publish and share all forms of business content in a secure community environment. Nuospace is designed with technology beginners in mind as a simple alternative to corporate intranets and shared hard drives. Nuospace support not only only documents and comments, but also includes social content such as blogs and e-newsletters as individual wiki pages. Nuospace will launch in June 2008, and will be free up to 200 megabytes with an unlimited number of users. For added memory, Nuospace will cost $50 per month. Nuospace is a Web-based, software-as-a-service application with an installed server version coming this fall. The Nuospace beta is offered for free at http://go.nuospace.com

Posted by NewsShark at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: BrightSide Software, collaboration, enterprise, social computing, wiki
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Near-Time announced the availability of Near-Time Connection, an extension of Near-Time's collaboration and publishing capabilities for mobile devices and other Web platforms. Near-Time Connection packages the functionality of Near-Time into a Widget, providing a flexible way to access content and interact with users associated with Near-Time spaces from smart phones, blogs or personalized homepage portals like iGoogle. Near-Time Connection is free to Near-Time users. Near-Time Connection gives users an interactive platform that lets them stay plugged into their Near-Time community no matter how they choose to view their content. The authoring environment, similar to that of Near-Time's desktop offerings, enables users to remain active in their Near-Time communities when on the road or using a homepage portal. Users can embed other Near-Time Widgets, tag content for better search capabilities, and follow comment summaries, threads and Near-Time picks. http://www.near-time.com/

Posted by NewsShark at 6:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: authoring, collaboration, enterprise 2.0, mobile, Near-Time
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IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced new services to help organizations use collaboration and social networking to maximize employee talent and performance. The Enterprise Adaptability services include a methodology to determine the return on investment of social networking, use of large scale communications programs to jumpstart adoption, automatic identification of key talent, and social network analysis. With Enterprise Adaptability companies can learn how to embed Web 2.0 technologies into the fabric of business operations, allowing employees, partners and customers to communicate, establish new business relationships and make real-time decisions within the context of their everyday work. Enterprise Adaptability combines software from IBM Lotus Software and FileNet with consulting from IBM Global Business Services' Human Capital Management practice. http://www.ibm.com

Posted by NewsShark at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: collaboration, consulting, IBM, social computing
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