Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
1/29/2008
IBM has unveiled several new collaboration tools and Web 2.0 technologies, including IBM Lotus Mashups, a forthcoming commercial mashup maker designed to allow "non-technical users to easily create enterprise mashups." At the Lotusphere conference in Florida last Wednesday, the company also introduced new versions of Lotus Connections and Lotus Quickr, a rich collaboration tool.
IBM Lotus Mashups, which is expected to be released later this year (although no firm date has been set), provides a browser-based tool for assembling mashups blending enterprise and Web-based data. It includes a set of pre-defined widgets, a "catalog" for locating usable widgets and mashups, and a tool that allows users to build widgets that access enterprise data.
IBM also said it plans to release Lotus Connections 2.0 in the first half of this year. Lotus Connections 2.0 is the next version of IBM's social networking tool that includes several new features, including a new homepage that filters Lotus Connections services, aggregates content, and provides support for drag and drop widgets. The software's community component is also expected to receive an overhaul in the areas of discussion forums, unified communications via integration with Lotus Sametime, and linking to wiki services through Lotus Quickr, SocialText, and Atlassian.
Finally, IBM also announced a planned update to Lotus Quickr, a Web- and desktop-based collaboration environment. The next release, version 8.1, will include "content libraries, team discussion forums, blogs, wikis, and other connectors that make sharing information easier," according to IBM. The company said it also plans to add features to Quickr that will allow it to integrate with IBM FileNet P8 and IBM Content Manager. It will also launch a companion application, Lotus Quickr Entry, that will include personal file sharing capabilities.
Lotus Quickr 8.1 is expected to be released in March.
More Information:
About the author: Dave Nagel is the executive editor for 1105 Media's educational technology online publications and electronic newsletters. He can be reached at dnagel@1105media.com.
Have any additional questions? Want to share your story? Want to pass along a news tip? Contact Dave Nagel, executive editor, at dnagel@1105media.com.
copy text (above) for proper citation
According to a report released last Tuesday, more than 40 percent of Internet surfers don't use browsers with up-to-date security patches--and Internet Explorer users are the biggest culprits.
Microsoft's executives have been talking with investor and corporate raider Carl Icahn about renewed plans for Microsoft to acquire part or all of Yahoo, provided that Yahoo's board is replaced. The details were described in an open letter issued Monday by Icahn, which is addressed to Yahoo's shareholders.
Click above to see the solution for the July 2008 Campus Technology crossword puzzle.
Stanford University School of Education and Innovations for Learning, a Chicago-based nonprofit, have entered into a social entrepreneurship collaboration to bring the $50 Teachermate Handheld Computer to extremely underserved children in Latin America.
IT pros will come back from the holiday weekend to face a possible four patches in Microsoft's July patch rollout, according an advance announcement issued by the company. The patches, arriving Tuesday, won't contain "critical" or "moderate" items, but all four will be deemed "important."
Joliet Junior College will be deploying the MIR3 inCampusAlert emergency notification service for its main campus in Joliet, IL and its extended campuses and extension centers. inCampusAlert allows for dissemination of information to and from cell phones, e-mail, pagers, land lines, and SMS.