Tags: IBM, SWG, IBM Software, Lotus Ventura, Ventura, Social Computing, Social Networking, Social Software, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, IBM 2.0, Knowledge Management, KM, Collaboration, Lotusphere2007, Lotusphere, Lotus Sametime 7.5, Sametime 7.5, James Snell, Elias Torres, Andy Piper, Cote, BluePages, Expertise Location, Dogear, Social Bookmarking, Activities, Communities, Roller Weblogger, Roller, Metablogging, Blog Central, Weblogs
If yesterday I mentioned how I was creating a new category here in this weblog to talk about all things happening inside IBM around the world of Knowledge Management, Collaboration, Communities and Social Computing, I think that folks are going to be pretty excited about this particular weblog post I am starting up right now. Lots of people have been wondering all along what is IBM’s take towards social software adoption within the enterprise. Quite a few still think that IBM’s software division is all about Lotus Notes and everything else related to Lotus products, and although certainly Lotus Notes is still going rather strong (Watch out for the Lotusphere event in 2007!) there is no denying that things are about to change and big time!
Not only with the already available Lotus Sametime 7.5, next generation of both IM and VoIP for the enterprise, but with something else that a few of my IBM colleagues have been mentioning already and something that I am really excited about: Lotus Ventura. Yes, indeed, yesterday it was uncovered over at Cote’s weblog post IBM SWG: Lotus "Ventura" and right away it has been picking up some more steam with James Snell, Elias Torres and Andy Piper.
Lotus Ventura is supposed to be IBM’s adventure (Pun intended ;-)) into the social computing world for the enterprise. Yes, once again, that IBM 2.0 thing. And as you may have been able to read already over at Cote’s weblog post Ventura would be an application that will integrate a number of different social software tools that, as James mentioned, some of us, inside of IBM, have been using for years now!:
1. IBM’s BluePages (a.k.a. IBM’s employee directory): So that expertise location within the enterprise can be easier than ever having access not only to knowledge workers but also to the information behind those same knowledge workers. That is, their information.
2. Dogear: IBM’s social bookmarking application: and which I have talked about over here a few times already.
3. Activities: Of which you would be able to read some more about on the presentation I shared yesterday over here from Mike Roche (Slides 6, 23, 46 and 49) and of which I will talk about some time later on.
4. Communities: Given my role as a community builder and knowledge manager, this is actually one of the components that I will be really looking forward to and that, as time goes by, I will be able to share some further details on it.
5. Roller: Or, as we all know, weblogging; yes, that is right. Ventura will have a component that would connect knowledge workers with the world of weblogs using the Roller weblogging engine, which is basically what we have been using as well inside IBM with Blog Central. I have been keeping my Intranet weblog over there for nearly three years and it would be an incredible experience to be able to see it integrate nicely into Ventura’s other components. Nifty!
6. Integration with other components: Like search or Lotus Sametime 7.5, amongst others. Actually with the inclusion of that integration with Sametime 7.5 we would be getting the best out of both worlds, synchronous and asynchronous collaboration. And all that available from a single point of entry. Can it get better than this ? Hummm. I don’t think so.
Anyway, there you go. A quick and brief description of how IBM will be entering the space of social computing within the enterprise and how IBM will try to make sense of the so-called Enterprise 2.0 with something as cool as Lotus Ventura (Yes, watch out for Lotusphere 2007!!). Exciting times ahead for all of us who feel strongly about social computing within the enterprise as the next big thing to help improve knowledge sharing and collaboration and try to bring some more sense into an unbalanced environment where explicit knowledge has been on top for far too long.
But more to come later on, I am sure.
Luis, it it inteteresting to report to you that your entry about Lotus Ventura has been ranked No.1 on my blog for these 3 consecutive days according to Goole Analytics. I can not tell why, since there are no specific comment so far.My blog is, as you may already know, a sort of IBM centric repository of articles, so most of the recurring visitors may be keeping track of what going on whithin IBM
Hi folks! Thanks a lot for stopping by and for the feedback comments ! Greatly appreciated, indeed!
Sawada-san, that is certainly some terrific piece of news and I am really glad that people are getting excited about what IBM is doing around the topic of social computing, even more now that a whole bunch of announcements have gone live at IBM’s Lotusphere 2007, which I am starting to share some insights about over here. Thus stay tuned because there will be many more updates coming up as we get along.
Tim, appreciated the trackback to your account on the different happenings at the Lotusphere 2007 event. It is certainly incredibly helpful to be able to read up what you guys have been up to and get all that positive feedback coming through. Keep up the good work and keep weblogging!