The latest feature for ConcourseConnect is Twitter integration. What we've done though, might not be what you would have expected. Here's what we did...
- We've assumed that there is already a popular web site out there, called twitter.com, and that users are either intimately familiar with it, or have at least heard of it.
- Next, we assumed that there are already exceptional front-ends for adding tweets to twitter.com... the twitter site itself, or any number of popular desktop and mobile clients -- or even just SMS messaging.
- Finally, all that we ask is that users enter their twitter id in their ConcourseConnect profile, and then when they tweet, they use a ConcourseConnect hashtag. That hashtag is configured per ConcourseConnect site. For Concursive, that tag would be #concursive once our own site is updated.
That's it... users can continue to use their favorite twitter clients and can post relevant information back into ConcourseConnect at the same time.
On the flip side, what you might have expected is for users to be able to post to twitter (or other social networks) from ConcourseConnect. Well, that will be a nice way to share information to other twitter users, but it's not what we have planned for Enterprise 2.0 customers. We think that users will be finding interesting bits of information on twitter through these clients and will want a way to share back into their ConcourseConnect community without having to visit the ConcourseConnect site at the time to post.
Concursive has started using this feature and you can also experiment with it on one of our sample websites. It's fun and supports what users are already doing! You can help us test this feature by creating an account at our Weekend Wanderings sample site, linking your Twitter Id, then going to twitter to post using the #social hashtag. The tweets will appear on the home page and other areas of the site.
Do you like this approach? Leave a comment!
The latest unstable version of ConcourseConnect can be compiled directly from the Google Code ConcourseConnect repository by following the Google Code instructions and using a subversion client. A stable build is not yet ready.
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connect 2.0, feature, twitter
Enterprise social computing, take notice -- there's a lot packed into this product and 2.0 delivers on being secure, flexible, inspiring and easy to get started with! ConcourseConnect is a solid platform for launching your next community. It's in use by global corporations and small businesses alike.
While some products jive more on marketing then actual substance, ConcourseConnect couldn't be more different and more flexible. We've actually taken notice that our competitors are trying to catch up to our core features and we're flattered! We're not done though, as we have lots of new features in the pipeline and some catching up to do ourselves.
Some history… ConcourseConnect 1.0 establishes several key components of collaboration -- every user has a space to build upon and enhance, users can jointly collaborate in shared spaces, and public spaces allow for creating directories of useful information with integrated collaboration throughout. We took a 3-pronged approach -- allow users to register, allow them to add content, and encourage them to participate.
Here' s a few highlights from ConcourseConnect 2.0:
- Dimdim web meetings can be scheduled right from the calendar events page
- YouTube videos can be placed in blogs and wikis (like these videos)
- ConcourseSuite integration allows for essential community management
- Each space can be extended with ConcourseSuite CRM tools for space-by-space management
- Improvements to several modules including: wikis, tags and customization
- Security configurations for completely private sites and semi-private sites
So, how do you want to start your next community?
You can choose the open-source version and install it yourself or choose Concursive and let us install and maintain the application for you, and work through all of the details in putting the finishing touches on your community before it launches. Be sure to insist on the add-on community management features and the integrated marketing and CRM tools.
ConcourseConnect 2.0 is currently used in production systems and will be finalized for general release soon.
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collaboration, connect 2.0, feature, security
In the Concourse Connect social networking suite, every individual profile, whether a registered user, a company, a group or a project has a wiki tab that allows users with the proper permissions to add content. Wiki's are useful in a number of ways, but there are two use cases that stand out. Let's call them the Smooth and the Knowledge.
The Smooth Wiki is used in a business to keep a process moving along. Suppose your loading dock is tracking shipments into your plant. All along the route, people are adding infprmation about the shipmemts location, size, distribution, etc. Anyone reading the wiki has an up to the minute view of the status of that specific order. Now imagine a company receiving hundreds of shipments a day and the Smooth Wiki becomes a useful tool.
The Knowledge Wiki may be even more important to an organization. Every person has knowledge about their own area that would be useful to share so that others could benefit from. Giving access to the Knowledge Wiki to a wide variety of users in various departments - sales, marketing, human resources - and encouraging short entries that are organized around specific topics creates a real time operations manual written by the people using those processes every day. Imagine a new hire being able to access a deep wiki category, updated regularly, to learn about his new responsibilites from the people he'll be working with, instead of an SOP manual that gets updated once a year.
Since they're not perceived as being mission critical, Knowledge Wiki's have a harder time getting established. But if management realizes the value and encourages their use, they can become every bit as important as the Smooth Wiki.
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This update is a maintenance release that fixes a bug with Google Maps not displaying on the profile listing pages. All sites are encouraged to update. If Google Maps is disabled, then the maps will no longer be displayed with a javascript message appearing.
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connect 1.0, maintenance release, release
Posted by Tom Manos on
June 29, 2009, 1:05 PM
EDT
Imagine you are a business owner who wants to host webinars in support of a new product. Or maybe you're managing a project with members distributed nationally, or even world-wide. Perhaps you are a member of a distributed users group who wants to make a presentation over the net.
Web conferencing, presentations, and webinars are a large part of most companies sales and marketing efforts these days. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to simply manage all your web meeting needs right from within your community?
ConcourseConnect now allows you to do all these things and more, simply and inexpensively - even free!
Read on for the rest of the story...
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A business decides to set up a social marketing presence where they can do a few things - communicate directly with customers and prospects through blogs, wikis and forums, provide a venue for customer support through company posts and customer comments, or introduce new products or services to a targeted audience. The site is membership based so users can participate and communicate, and they get a profile page themselves.
Now suppose the business has suppliers who would like to reach that same audience - how would they do that? Concourse Connect has built in a middle layer of access, think of them as storefronts, called business profiles. Any supplier, vendor or interested organization can create a business profile in our application. Each profile has a full suite of Web 2.0 tools so each business can set up their own community within the main one. Here's an example of a business profile inside our Gourmet Oasis demonstration site. Now these busineeses are addressing the members of that community directly and benefitting the owner of the Community by creating more traffic and awareness.
Would those suppliers pay for the privilege of having a presence in the community? We have a number of ideas on how directories can generate revenue for the owners.
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This update is a maintenance release that improves a few items discovered since the last release.
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connect 1.0, maintenance release, release
You are a company with 9 locations, many workers on the road or working from home, you read an article about a competitor rolling out a new process and you think your company can improve upon it and use it in your business. In this scenario, the emails fly, the conference calls start and everyone involved in the process has their own spreadsheets and notes.
ConcourseConnect, when configured as a collaboration tool for a company Intranet, as shown here, let's you set up a dedicated Group with features that include project management, document library, discussion forums, blogging and more. When a new idea evolves for a different process, employees will set up an Idea project with the same collaborative functionality to work collectively to flesh it out.
A company's intellectual resources can be spread out across the country, around the world or on the same floor of an office building. Those companies need a centralized location with easy to use tools to leverage their employees experience, imagination and desire to make the company a more efficient and competitive place to work. Read more here about how ConcourseConnect can enable your organization's intellectual capital.
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A community by definition is a "unified body of individuals". When it comes to building communities of people on the Internet, the more tools that a person has to display the public side of themselves or their company, the better. Blogs, wikis, forums, and review tools for the members of a community to use to promote themselves are as important as they are for the businesses and organizations in the community.
But companies may want their employees to work togehter in groups or projects that they don't want the public to view. This would be the private side of a public community. A user starts a project, invites others to join it and they collaborate to resolve an issue or complete a customer requirement. Only those users that have been invited can see the project and participate. To everyone else, it doesn't exist.
Concurse Connect has a robust project management capabitlity that allows a team to work together privately in an otherwise public directory. Users and businesses have their individual 2.0 tools to educate others about themselves and the community owner uses the power of emplyee collaboration to advance the interests of the business.
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Recently, Jet Blue tested a blog and wiki software package with 200 members of their internal training division. There was much discussion about whether to allow users to generate personal information or use the software strictly for business.
It was decided that if the JetBlue users were allowed to talk to one another, not just about innovation in learning and development programs, but also to share photos from family vacations, weddings and birthdays, they would get to know one another better as individuals, and would more easily share ideas and participate in virtual groups and projects.
As the JetBlue example illustrates, the process of getting to know one another better through the corporate community promotes adoption of the technology and generates the collaboration and innovation that companies are looking for.
Concourse Connect, a full featured collaboration package, is highly configuable and gives customers the flexibility to enable users to generate personal information from a menu of social tools. View a demo of our collaboration configuration here.
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