Category: soccnx

Posted on

Social connections round up

So a quick round up of #soccnx
Connections isn’t dead.. Long live Connections. And although the emphasis recently has been on the Domino 10 there is lots of work in the Connections space happening.

IBM are planning on releasing CRs instead of big releases. The plan is twice a year for on prem and up to quarterly, as most customers find it way easier to implement a fixpack change than a full migration/update to a new version. This is a great idea and I do agree that it’s the best way forward.

Connections customizer is the way to go for changing things – look and feel, functionality and it is possible to make huge changes without touching the underlying code – but its Linux only same as the component pack (type ahead, orient me and elastic search) – and an extra box (or 2) for windows customers will be required. It is very powerful and although I was sceptical to begin with I agree this is the way to go. It may involve some extra skills being required for Connections admins and a bit of sell to get the extra hardware, but worth it.

No news on docs, really but CR3 if3 of docs is the latest and it will be updated in the same way as connections.

Connections 6 CR3 has a bunch of cool changes for the look and feel including extra community file views and some cool visualisation features – this will be tested as soon as i get a chance.

Lots of emphasis on using the component pack (Linux only as above) but this has replaced the pink vision previously.

Other news – the awesome guys at ISW have a new version of boards coming – this quarter for cloud, next quarter for on prem – which includes new views for boards including a calander view. Can’t wait to see this.

Ephox is now Tiny not as in small as in the tiny editor. New versions of textbox.io and the tiny editor will be available soon for Connections and other Web apps – exciting times & the aussie party is back at Think 🙂

The guys at AppFusions have a great set of tools for integrating teams that work in. Connections and Office365 – I want to give this a try as I can see many customers that could benefit. Hogne gave a great presentation on this which I will share the slides from.

So all in all its been great.. The community is thriving.. Connections is alive and kicking and long may it continue

Posted on

Social Connections V – coming soon

The international and independent IBM Connections user group will be visiting beautiful Zurich, Switzerland on June 28th 2013!

IBM Switzerland has graciously offered us the use of their IBM Client Center and it already promises to be a busy day

To register for this event please visit our registration page here, or use the button below:

Posted on

Social Connections IV fun in Amsterdam

After months of planning, much panicking by certain members of the SOCCNX team and a small amount of winging it – the 4th Social Connections User Group for IBM Connections Users hit Amsterdam on the 30th of November 2012.

Considering this user group was an idea that Stuart and I had over a coffee in the Uni cafe a couple of years ago, we have gone from 60 attendees at Social Connections I to a massive 203 attendees from 16 countries representing 99 unique organisations at Social Connections IV.

A big thank you to all of our speakers and sponsors we couldn’t hold these events without you. We have had a huge amount of support and encouragement from the Community and the day was amazing. IBM Benelux were fantastic hosts and helped the team out no end.

I am proud to be a member of the organising committee of the only IBM Connections User group.

Our next event will hopefully be in June 2013 in the USA, we are already in the deep planning stage now. We are actively looking for sponsors and as soon as we have confirmed a date and location we will be opening up registration and abstract submission. For more information please check out

Thanks again to everyone who made it such a great day 🙂

Posted on

Social Connections III – 3 weeks to go

Only a few weeks until the 3rd Social Connections user group, held in the IBM Labs Dublin.

We have a few places left if you are interested in attending this unique user group. We have some fantastic sessions such as:

and many more … the full agenda can be found on the Social Connecitons site here

 

As well as a full agenda planned for the day with two tracks – one for business and one for technical and admin – we have some other plans for the day in store.

If you can join us after the event we have an evening dinner and reception planned for at the Guinness Store House

There will be a tour of the storehouse, information on the history of Guinness and the chance to pull your own pint – followed by dinner and drinks in the fantastic surroundings of Arthur’s Bar.

Arthur's Bar 1 Arthur's Bar 2

Arthur’s Bar: A new edition to GUINNESS STOREHOUSE but as old as Ireland itself. It’s a traditional Irish pub, a place of hospitality. This communal gathering space is somewhere to relax and experience the heart of the Irish community whilst enjoying the breathtaking views of St. James’s Gate Brewery and Dublin city

 

The spaces for this event are limited and will be on a first come first served basis. Please sign up and let us know as soon as you can if you would like to attend.

Looking forward to seeing you on the 22nd of June in Dublin.

Posted on

Social Connections III

Social Connections III will be upon us soon – I am very pleased to be part of the group that organises these events for IBM Connections users, administrators etc.

One thing I would personally like to see is more people that are thinking about using connections and existing domino admins (who are likely to get asked to look after a potential connections environment) to these events – we cater for potential users and admins as well as existing.

So my question to those potentials is what would you like to gain from comming to a social connections event?

Admins would you like some technical overview, training, etc?
Users would you like to hear more user stories and current customer case studies?
Community Managers – what would you like to see?

These events are all about our audience and what sessions they would like. For Social Connections 3 we are having two tracks the afternoon one business related one technical, it is also possible in the future to have a half day tecnical or development workshop – if this is the kind of information you would be interested we would love to hear from you.

As an installer, implementer and administrator I know what its like to get new technology thrust at you – we have a good network of community people who will be more than happy to share experiences, and assist where they can – we just need to know what you would like us to talk about.

Either leave me a comment or contact me via skype or twitter – I would love to hear from you

Registration for the Social Connections III event can be found here

Posted on

Social Connections II a grand day out

It’s taken me a while to post this – mainly becuase I am still recovering from the ‘Zombie Flu’ – aka the hideuos cold and chest infection which is now on week number 4!!

Social Connections II was in a not so sunny Cardiff Wales and my adventure started when I picked Ms Lisa Duke up at Gatwick airport very early the day before the conference.

To cut a long story short,  5 trains, a quick lunch, much social and work related brain storming, a very wet walk in some ‘angry rain’ and much cussing the googlemaps mobile app, we arrived in Cardiff.

We had a great afternoon / evening on thrusday – finalising a few things at the venue, finishing off the badges and then off out for a meal at a fish resturant in Cardiff centre.

 

Friday AM we were all go, reception desk to set up, badges to sort, signs etc … the catering appeared at the correct time and so did most of the speakers (Mr Paul Mason from my own company Applicable was coming at lunchtime), and virtually all the attendees appeared when they were supposed to – so all in all a good start.

We had a few minor issues with the streaming sorted out very quickly – and judging from the #soccnx has tag on twitter we had lots of people watching and interested.

All the session slides will be available shortly as well as the video’s – please watch the Social Connections site for details.

Highlights for me:

  • Finally getting to meet mr Louis Richardson – what a top man, he was engaged through the entire day and it will be fantastic to catch up with him again at lotusphere
  • John Scott and Joe Nicholls presentation on students and social – it was brilliant and I am looking forward to watching that back
  • Meeting many new people, the social interaction was fantastic – many questions at the end of sessions, good two way diaglog and conversations inbetween sessions, over coffee and lunch and at the after conference dinner.

I would personally like to thank Mark, Gary and the boys from the Salvation Army who did a fantastic job of the videoing again – they are superb. Thanks guys you are amazing 🙂

Claire from Cardiff Uni who assisted on the reception desk and generally helped throughout the day – thank you xx

and to Lisa Duke for not only being an awesome friend, pod casting queen and social media “finder-outer”, but she was my able bodied assistant for the day as I was completely disabled by the “zombie flu”

So thanks guys from me and Stuart and Simon .. and here is to the next one 🙂

 

 

 

Posted on

social connections 2 registration open

SOCIAL CONNECTIONS II NOW SCHEDULED!!

 

The second Social Connections event will take place on 9th December 2011 at Cardiff University in central Cardiff, Wales.

 

We are delighted that our next event is now in the diary and organising the details of the event continues apace.  Registration is open and we are seeking speakers from around the world.

 

For more details of the Social Connections II event, check out the details and then register.  We also have a number of FAQs already answered.  If you have more questions though, please don’t hesitate to ask!

 

If you want to check out how the Social Connections I event went, head over to our Lanyrd page – there’s some great content available!

Posted on

Social Connections 1 – the sessions

The majority of the presentations from Monday are in the Social Connections 1 event on Slideshare, including the following:

Stuart McIntyre’s opening session:

Social Connections 1 – Welcome

Daniel Siddle from Headshift/Dachis Group:

The Why, What, How of Social Business

Jon Mell from IBM:

Things I wish I'd known 5 years ago

Joseph D’Armi from Portal:

I’m too busy to collaborate

Michael Ahern from IBM:

Beyond the Basics: An Overview of User LifeCycle and Managing Users with TDI

Simon Vaughan and Chris Graves from Cardiff University:

Great expectations – students today, employees tomorrow

Claudio Procida from IBM:

IBM Connections – Customizing and Extending

Andy Piper from IBM:

Beyond the Portal: What is WebSphere?

Closing Thoughts:

Social Connections 1 – Closing Thoughts

The remaining sessions will be added ASAP

Posted on

Social Connections 1 – the session videos

Here are the recordings of the sessions from Social Connections 1.

Session 1
First morning session, featuring Stuart McIntyre of Collaboration Matters, Daniel Siddle of Headshift and Jon Mell of IBM.


Session 2
Second morning session, featuring Stuart McIntyre, Mike Roche of IBM, Joseph D’Armi of Portal and Michael Ahern of IBM.
(Apologies, this is a lower quality recording than that originally streamed – the higher quality version was corrupted.)


Session 3
First afternoon session, featuring Stuart McIntyre, Mark Calleran of The Salvation Army, Simon Vaughan and Chris Graves of Cardiff University.
(Apologies, Youtube seems incapable of displaying the last hour of this recording (featuring Rebecca Okoroji of Portal and Andy Piper of IBM) – we’re working on it!)


Session 4
Last session of the day, featuring Stuart McIntyre, Claudio Procida of IBM, Daniel Siddle, Jon Mell, Michael Roche, and Sharon Bellamy of City University.