Recently in Enterprise Blogging Category

Adobe Systems Incorporated announced the immediate availability and free trial of its new Adobe Digital Enterprise Platform and first set of solutions for Customer Experience Management (CRM). The Adobe Digital Enterprise Platform, first unveiled in June, is an open, modular, standards-based offering for delivering engaging digital solutions across social, Web, mobile, and print channels. The platform includes integration with the Adobe Online Marketing Suite to optimize digital marketing campaigns and personalize digital experiences across all marketing, sales and service delivery channels. In addition, integration with Adobe Flash Builder(R) 4.5 and Flex 4.5 helps enterprise IT organizations build highly expressive mobile applications for Android devices, BlackBerry PlayBook, iPhone and iPad. Built on the Adobe Digital Enterprise Platform, an initial set of the company's Customer Experience Solutions are available now: Integrated Content Review; Web Experience Management; and Customer Communications. http://www.adobe.com/uk/solutions/customer-experience/enterprise-platform.html

WordPress 3.0, the thirteenth major release of WordPress and the culmination of half a year of work by 218 contributors, is now available for download (or upgrade within your dashboard). Major new features in this release include a new default theme called Twenty Ten. Theme developers have new APIs that allow them to implement custom backgrounds, headers, shortlinks, menus, post types, and taxonomies. Developers and network admins will appreciate the long-awaited merge of MU and WordPress, creating the new multi-site functionality which makes it possible to run one blog or ten million from the same installation. http://wordpress.org/

Kentico Software, a Web content management system vendor, announced the release of Kentico CMS for ASP.NET version 5.5. The new version provides full support of Visual Studio 2010 and the Microsoft .NET Framework 4, support for mobile websites, Facebook Connect and OpenID authentication, and other improvements. The main change in Kentico CMS 5.5 is added support for Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 which allows developers use the latest version of Microsoft .NET platform. Kentico CMS 5.5 also enables companies to create websites optimized for mobile devices while reusing their existing content. The new version comes with built-in Facebook Connect and OpenID authentication that extend the existing integration with Active Directory and Windows Live ID. Most of the website services require users to register, which makes it necessary to spend time filling numerous forms and remember different credentials. The newly added Facebook Connect and OpenID authentication provides users with an option on registering for a website using their existing account. Kentico CMS 5.5 comes with another two integrations. Integration with Microsoft Sharepoint Server allows users to manage content on their SharePoint site and publish it on their Kentico CMS website. The MetaWeblogAPI integration enables users to use editors like Windows Live Writer of MS Word to write and publish their blog posts. Other new features include enhanced reporting and performance, support of Bing and Yahoo! maps, creation of RSS feeds and improvements to the administration interface. http://www.kentico.com/

BlogWire has launched their new media PR suite of services, aimed at connecting marketing and PR professionals with the blogging community. BlogWire’s flagship wire, SheBlogs has established a community of more than 2000 bloggers, who reach more than 20 million monthly visitors. BlogWire uses a four-touch approach to outreach for the blogging community– utilizing a community Web site, weekly newsletter, Twitter and Facebook outreach for non-invasive press outreach. Key Features Include: Targeted press releases to bloggers; Being listed on the "Blog-Friendly Company Directory;" Announce contests and giveaways targeted at the blogging community; Participate in themed guides that range from holiday gift guides to spring cleaning and car buying guides. http://theblogwire.com/

Socialcast announced the availability of Socialcast Ease (enterprise activity stream engine), with an expanded technology platform designed to support enterprise collaboration through activity streams. Socialcast Ease can be deployed behind a firewall or in the cloud (with SaaS option) and can be integrated with Microsoft Outlook, so that it fits into existing workflows. Other features of Socialcast Ease Activity Stream Engine include a real-time interface aggregates information from existing business systems with employee-generated messages, including microblogging updates, into a live, searchable activity stream that provides employees with a unified view of data and activities flowing across the enterprise. An analytics suite quantifies visibility into employee trends, topics and conversations across microblogging and other social activities within an enterprise activity stream, offering live feedback and actionable insights that can generate real-time operational efficiencies. Socialcast Ease's integration with Microsoft Outlook 2007 and 2003 is the first of multiple planned integrations with business applications that the company plans to announce in 2010. http://www.socialcast.com/

WordPress announced the release of WordPress 2.9.1. This release addresses a handful of minor issues as well as a rather annoying problem where scheduled posts and pingbacks are not processed correctly due to incompatibilities with some hosts. Download 2.9.1 or upgrade automatically from the Tools->Upgrade menu in your blog’s admin area. http://wordpress.org/development/2010/01/wordpress-2-9-1/, http://wordpress.org/download/

Demand Media has announced availability of the company’s Pluck social media platform. Utilizing an extended architecture with full backwards compatibility, Demand Media brings to market the industry’s first application server specifically built for integrated social media. Pluck 4 now includes features such as: access to a templating engine, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, strings, images, allowing visual and feature customization while enabling search engine optimized deployments; programmable APIs provide an Extensible RESTful Interface, allowing browser, server and mobile device requests via a single framework; a new Content Access API for lower level development work against its Scripting Engine; the social data model leverages an accessible, 12 category and 150+ element schema tuned for rich social media experiences; management tools such as the Community Manager (for user, content and abuse management), the Analytics Manager (for activity reporting and ROI assessment) and the Application Manager (for visual development, controls, configs and more); the application container offers a system to create, deploy, host and deliver custom applications. http://www.pluck.com/

Sitecore announced Foundry 3.0, a solution for creating and managing distributed websites in a centralized solution.  Site editors will now immediately receive an email guiding them through a newly created website with setup and customization options such as multilingual support and in-context editing control. Social computing modules offer forums, extranets, newsletter and SMS distribution, activity calendars, and photo gallery and ad spot rotation. In addition to support for Sitecore’s CMS 6.1., Foundry 3.0 now offers improvements including full in-line editing support, new advanced security controls based on the .NET security provider framework and enhanced HTML newsletter capabilities. Enhancements to the out of the box modules include CAPTCHA validation support for the forum module, Silverlight photo gallery support and improved registration form management in the events calendar. http://www.sitecore.net/

Yammer launched a micro-blogging tool for enterprises. On Yammer, co-workers exchange short frequent answers to one simple question: "What are you working on?" As employees answer this question, a company feed is created in one central location, enabling co-workers to discuss ideas, post news, ask questions, and share links and other information. The company feed can be accessed in real-time via the web, IM, SMS text messaging, an iPhone application, a Blackberry application, a desktop application, or email. Yammer also serves as a company directory in which every employee has a profile and as a knowledge-base where past conversations are archived and easily searched. Unlike traditional enterprise tools which must be installed by the company's IT department, anyone in a company can start their Yammer network and begin inviting colleagues. This means that Yammer can spread virally through a company like a consumer social network. At the same time, Yammer ensures the privacy of each network by limiting access to those with a valid company email address. The model is similar to Facebook's beginnings as a college social network, when students had to validate a college email to join their college network. The basic Yammer service is free, but companies can pay to claim and administer their networks. The cost is $1 per employee per month, after a free three-month trial period. Companies who claim their network can configure their own security requirements by setting stricter password policies or restricting use to their office or VPN. These settings are also used on sites like Salesforce.com. Yammer was originally developed at internet company Geni.com as an internal productivity tool. Over time, the product evolved into a full-fledged company intranet / social network, adding features not available on consumer micro-blogging sites. Geni's 30 employees used the product internally for six months, creating over 15,000 messages. Eventually Geni decided to spin out the product into a new entity so other companies could use it too. http://www.yammer.com

Six Apart announced the availability of Movable Type 4.2 and with it the debut of Movable Type Pro (MT Pro), a product that combines Movable Type's advanced blogging tools and content management system with social networking features so any website or blog owner can create a social network by letting their readers and visitors become members of their sites, with profiles and the ability to rate content and follow each other. Movable Type Pro makes building a community possible for anyone, including publishers, individual bloggers, educational institutions, small and medium-sized businesses or large enterprises. Site owners can build community blogs, in which members create their own posts, or forums, in which members participate using the same profile and avatars used throughout the site. The release of Movable Type 4.2 introduces major improvements to the Movable Type platform, including: enhanced performance: common tasks are "up to 100 times faster" than on previous versions; simplified default templates that make it easy to get up and running quickly; and a built-in free open source antispam product, TypePad Antispam. In addition, improved search and threaded commenting are included in the release. Movable Type 4.2 is available under a free, open source license or as part of Movable Type Pro. Six Apart also offers Movable Type Enterprise, which adds support for Oracle and SQL Server databases and LDAP on top of Movable Type Pro features. Movable Type is available in English, Japanese, French, German, Dutch, and Spanish. It is free to bloggers and to K-12 schools, with an option to purchase support for $99. It is available to businesses in 5-author and 20-author licenses, for $395.95 and $1499.95, respectively. Discounts for non-profit institutions are available. The free, open source version of Movable Type can be downloaded from the Movable Type community site at http://www.movabletype.org. http://www.movabletype.com, http://www.sixapart.com/