E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez

About to Enter the World of Mobile 2.0 – Finally!

(Previously, on elsua – The Knowledge Management Blog at ITtoolbox I created the attached weblog entry and, as time goes by, I just cannot wait for the day when I can get my hands on one of these, specially now that it has become available and a lot cheaper than what I thought it would be!)

Tags: Mobile 2.0, Social Computing, Social Networking, Web 2.0, Social Media, Mobile Workforce, Twitter, Nokia, N95, YouTube, Gizmodo, Matt Miller

(Picture courtesy from Steve Garfield)

There is no doubt that as time goes by Mobile 2.0 is becoming more and more relevant to the mobile workforce in their social computing consumption and as such there is always a great chance that those same mobile knowledge workers would always be out there looking for that killer mobile device that would help them enjoy the Mobile 2.0 experience just as much as their regular Web social computing experience.

Well, it looks like I may be one of those, because for the last few weeks / months I have already been searching for such mobile device that would help me further with my social computing experience while I am on the road travelling to different places, specially with the recent trips I have been doing and those that are left for the remaining of the year.

And it seems that I may have found what I have been looking for all along. Just the other day, in Twitter, one of my good friends shared a hat-tip on the latest gadget coming from Nokia, the N95. That tip was this particular video from YouTube where you can watch a really good , and thorough, overview of what it has got to offer. And as you would be able to see, it is not that bad. Not bad at all!

Another friend of mine also shared with me the link to the review that Gizmodo did a few days back and over there you would be able to read as well not only some of the great things about it, but also some of the cons that the N95 may have, mainly, issues with the battery life.

Even here, in ITtoolbox, James shared a short weblog post where he mentioned how Matt Miller has posted an extensive review of the device itself that would be worth while checking, for those interested. And at this stage you may be wondering why I have written this particular weblog entry, right?

Well, like I mentioned at the beginning of the weblog post, for the last few months I have been searching for the killer app. mobile device that would help me with my own social computing experience while I am travelling, and whatever else, and after watching all of those different reviews that I have mentioned above, and a few others, I have finally decided that as soon as the device becomes available in Spain I am going to go for it. It does meet my needs for most of what I would want to do with it, and although there are some cons (i.e. that battery life), I still feel the pros outnumber the cons. And big time!

Only thing remaining though would be the price tag, which seems to be on the high range, but I guess you will all find out about that very shortly, as I have been advised it will become available before the end of this month. But so far it looks like a winner. At least, to me. I will leave it for a later time to detail what some of those needs are and how the new N95 Nokia gadget meets them all and quite nicely, if in the end I decide to purchase it…

IBM Lotus Quickr Demo Now Available, Too!

Tags: IBM, Lotus, Lotus Connections, Connections, Lotus Sametime 7.5.1, Sametime 7.5.1, Lotus Notes, Lotus Notes 8, Notes 8, Lotus Quickr, Quickr, Social Computing, Social Networking, Social Media, Social Software, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Content Management, Knowledge Management, KM, Knowledge Sharing, Collaboration, Communities, Personal Knowledge Management, PKM, Quickr Personal Edition, Quickr Standard Edition, Quickr Templates, Windows Explorer, Microsoft Office, Screencasts, Demos, Weblogs, Wikis, Syndication, Newsfeeds, Innovation

There have been a number of different weblog posts that I have been sharing over here and which have been dealing with some of IBM’s latest offerings in the space of social computing for the enterprise. So thus far I have been talking a few times about the upcoming Lotus Connections, Lotus Sametime 7.5.1 or even the upcoming Lotus Notes 8, which also introduces some more social software components that I may be able to detail some more as time goes by. However, it looks like lately I am actually sharing some further details based on different screencasts that are coming out and which I think are a whole lot more compelling than myself detailing how they actually work.

That was the case with the recent weblog entry I shared about the latest IBM Lotus Connections screencast a few days ago and which, to date, has been one of the most popular weblog entries in here in the last few weeks. So I guess there is an interest in finding out some more. Well, it gets better, folks. Because today I am actually going to talk about another screencast that has just been published, but this time around not about Connections any longer, but about one of the most powerful collaboration, knowledge sharing and content management tools that may be out there available to knowledge workers. Yes, I am talking about IBM Lotus Quickr.

Why am I am saying that this particular offering could well be the next killer app.? Well, because, amongst many other things, it is an offering that tries to combine both the best from traditional content management with some of the latest emerging technologies, like wikis, weblogs, content syndication, etc. etc. And all of that taking place from a single point of entry: your Quickr space.

Let’s have a look into it with this particular screencast I mentioned above and which has now become available for everyone to play directly from the Web or downloading it to your own machine for later viewing. There is also an additional script you can download if you wish to.

In that particular screencast, that lasts for a bit under five minutes, you would be able to check how Lotus Quickr is actually going to provide a Personal Edition for managing your own content, your own knowledge, in a seamless way and empowering you to share that same content (Or not), including rich media, with other knowledge workers through a wide range of options.

On top of that, and perhaps one of the most interesting features that Lotus Quickr is going to put together is actually what has been called Connectors. Connectors would allow you seamless access to content from other popular business applications:

• Windows Explorer: by right clicking on a file and selecting Check Out and / or Dogear options
• Microsoft Office applications: i.e. Excel, Word, PowerPoint, through the Actions Menu and where the Check Out option is also readily available.
• IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5.1: Through the usage of a plugin that connects with the Quickr content libraries and which you can interact with by collaborating with other knowledge workers in a real-time fashion discussing specific files that have been shared across along with the original invite to chat. Pretty impressive if you would want to discuss a document straight up front without having to go ahead and send it across.
• And, finally, IBM Lotus Notes 8: Through that popular sidebar we have seen in the past and with which you can drag and drop attachments in new e-mails or just send the links to keep your mail box under control, but still having access to the documents right when you need it. Oh, and here is another cool thing. Lotus Quickr would also allow you to detach attachments from your Notes mails into the Quickr content library space so you can keep your mail box under control as well with not so much clutter. A huge time saver if you are one of those who needs to keep things as tidy as possible within your e-mail.

In this particular screencast you would be able to see as well how the Standard Edition is actually going to provide an additional set of Templates that people can work with further. In this demo you would be able to listen to the customising of the Innovation Place template where it is showing some of the social computing elements that I mentioned earlier on, and which makes Quickr rather attractive as it puts together wikis under the Idea Development area or Team Blog that would help team members share information faster and much more effectively and, finally, the Innovation News to receive newsfeeds from other external resources related to whatever has been discussed in that particular space.

And that is just an example of one single template. There are many more, depending on the needs of the tasks at hand. So that is also going to make it a rather interesting option on its own, i.e. the fact that you can work with multiple different templates based on what you are trying to achieve. Yes, that is right, power to the knowledge worker, as they would be able to define how they would want to work and what kind of customisation you would be going ahead for your team or for your community. Not bad at all!

Thus, if you would want to have a quick look at what IBM is doing around the area of merging both traditional content management capabilities with a richer end-user experience putting together some other popular social software components I would strongly encourage you to watch this under five minute screencast, because there is a great chance that it may well be just what you were looking for. I, for sure, would be looking forward to the Personal Edition becoming available later on this year as I bet it will probably become my latest Personal Knowledge Management tool and perhaps the one I will be sticking around with for a while. But that would be the time for another series of weblog posts, I am sure, thus stay tuned!