On the otherhand, with some of the available plugins, if all you want to do is add some widgets to the UI, then you have the opportunity to include almost anything developed in ajax, flash, or html from another web property.

I could say more, but the point I really want to make is this…If you like what Jive does, and how it’s structured, you can change it’s style and add new functions within it’s structure (and have a great result), but you should be satisfied that it will be the container for your application. If you want to add community services to an existing application/ web property, you should look at other alternatives.

Based on a recent comparison of WebService functionality between Jive/Connections, it was my opinion that the external integration (REST Services) capabilities leaned in favor of Jive, based on our use-cases, based on criteria for dynamic content selection/filtration. I will reiterate the position that this is not your typical Lotus product, and that people really should set all predispositions aside when looking at the tool. It has a strong offering. My only point of contention was that the Web Service offerings was quite significant on the Jive side of the house, and wanted to make sure that was mentioned.

On a side note, the technology combinations of Enterprise Caching (Coherence), Spring (IOC), and Struts 2 in Jive…are quite the powerful combination, and speaking as a veteran IT Systems integrator, it’s hard not to fall in love with the elegance in which these technologies work together when developing solutions.

I haven’t read all the comments yet, as it is late, but I am definitely looking forward to the coming months as these vendors duke it out for #1…cheers!