Add Web 2.0 features to existing applications

Jon Mell — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 13:11:00 +0000

Really interesting post from Stuart over at the Quickr blog – initially about migrating his blog to a new platform. The interesting sideline is about living inside his email client (which happens to be IBM Lotus Notes). Part of the problem for enterprises adopting Web 2.0 communication/collaboration platforms is that there are new applications to learn, which can create barriers. Social networking, blogging, wiki contribution, instant messaging, not to mention email, are all to often separate self-contained applications. When organisations try to roll them out there is often a negative reactin towads “yet another application”, and users have to manage switching between them, sometimes with different usernames and passwords!

Whilst I often encourage clients to move away from email as a form of communication, this doesn’t necessarily mean moving away from their email applications. Instant messaging can now be plugged into both IBM and Microsoft platforms – so you can reply to an email with an instant message, or a pc-to-pc phone call right from within your email client. This significantly increases the chances of your users to actually try the new communcation features rather than simply reverting to habit and relying on email. Stuart’s post shows that blog and twitter posts can now be managed alongside email and instant messaging from a single application. If Web 2.0 collaboration features can be provided within existing applications, the chances of people actually using them is likely to increase.

Tips and tricks for Lotus Quickr (WebSphere Portal version)

Jon Mell — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 16:51:00 +0000

Aside from the Lotus Connections install guide I don’t usually put much technical stuff up here – but we’ve been using Lotus Quickr (WebSphere Portal version) for a few months and there have been a few little things that were driving me crazy with no documentation available from IBM but that we’ve now managed to fix, so I’d thought I’d share.

Some have already been posted on the Quickr blog, so apologies for repetition, but thought I’d would include them all here for completeness.

UK date format

This one really bugged me. The default install has everything MM/DD/YY which is surprisingly annoying. To fix use the attached CreateLanguage.xml file and log in to Quickr as an Administrator. Go to Site Administration -> Advanced Administration -> Import XML and use the attached CreateLanguage.xml file. If your server and browser are set to UK English the date and time settings should be DD/MM/YY. If not, you may need to set the user profile to English UK. Thanks to Dave Hay for pointing me in the right direction.

CreateLanguage.xml

Hide signup page

You may not want any and everyone to be able to sign up to your Quickr site. This is not documented by IBM but there is an XML file which will do this.

Choose Quickr \ PortalServer \ QPG \ Teamspace \ Teamspace \ teamspace \ config \ xmlaccess \ HideSignUpPage.xml

Once this has been run the link to the sign up page should be removed

Prevent all users from being able to create a place

If you open up your Quickr site to people outside you organisation you probably won’t want everyone to be able to create a place. To set this go to Site Administration -> Advanced Administration -> Manage Pages -> Content Root -> Home -> Click the Permissions icon next to Create New.

Edit the user role

Remove “all authenticated portal users”

Click Add and add the users (or more likely groups) of people who are allowed to create places

Hope these are useful.

Jon Mell - Social Collaboration» Quickr

Add Web 2.0 features to existing applications

Tips and tricks for Lotus Quickr (WebSphere Portal version)