Jan 2024 | Kanban, mobile, and Web improvements

Traction® TeamPage Release 6.2.70 contains Kanban and web styling improvements along with calendaring, Kanban, and Setup bug fixes, including one significant bug fix that addressed Admin problems that can occur when Server level groups are deleted. All Kanban columns and swimlanes can now be shown or hidden. New Kanban 'start fullscreen' and 'cancel fullscreen' icons make it easier to enter and exit Kanban fullscreen mode. This release also includes mobile and web styling improvements and developer support for asynchronous Proteus skin listeners. See TeamPage Change Log for a description of this release and the point releases it consolidates since Aug 2023 | Kerberos Authentication; Drag-and-Drop Permalinks; Configurable Content Security Policies; Security fixes. Please read on for a consolidated summary.

Aug 2023 | Kerberos Authentication; Drag-and-Drop Permalinks; Configurable Content Security Policies; Security fixes

Traction® TeamPage Release 6.2.66 includes support for Kerberos authentication with Microsoft Active Directory, new drag-and-drop support for creating TeamPage Permalink and User name references, and TeamPage administrator configurable policies relating to content security and shared resources. The release also includes FullCalendar improvements, a security fix for TeamPage, and integration of an updated Solr search engine which fully resolves its reported security vulnerabilities. The release includes over 135 bug fixes and improvements. See TeamPage Change Log for a description of this release and the point releases it consolidates since Mar 2023 | Improved Kanban, Social Media Sharing, Mobile Device Layout; New Supervised Signatures. Please read on for a consolidated summary.

Mar 2023 | Improved Kanban, Social Media Sharing, Mobile Device Layout; New Supervised Signatures

Traction® TeamPage Release 6.2.62 includes improved full-screen mode for sharing Kanban tables during meetings, improved presentation of content teaser when sharing TeamPage articles in social media, and improved mobile device layout for feeds, sections, task lists, status and similar views. The Signatures management page now includes a table of supervised signatures to help supervisors track the status of employee signatures due on requirements that the supervisor is responsible for. Supervised signature status also appears in the email digest customized for each TeamPage member. The release includes over 35 bug fixes and improvements, see TeamPage Change Log for a description. Please read on for a summary.

The Parable of the Talking Dog - Terrence Sejnowski

Terrence Sejnowski writes: "One of my favorite stories is about a chance encounter on the backroads of rural America when a curious driver came upon a sign: “TALKING DOG FOR SALE.” The owner took him to the backyard and left him with an old Border Collie.

Jan 2023 | Improved Microsoft AD and Azure directory lookup; Support for Azure AD profile pictures; Security update

Traction® TeamPage Releases 6.2.59 - 6.2.61 deliver improved Microsoft AD and Microsoft Azure AD external directory performance. TeamPage now supports retrieving, storing and using profile pictures associated with external users and/or groups and roles. Improved Document view security. The releases include over 44 bug fixes and improvements, see TeamPage Change Log for a description of each update. Please read on for a summary.

Sep 2022 | Introducing Kanban; External User Directory Integration; Document view improvements; Security updates

Traction® TeamPage Releases 6.2.53 - 6.2.57 introduce Kanban for TeamPage. Other highlights include external user directory integration fixes, document view improvements, security updates, and Developer SDK additions. The releases include over 89 bug fixes and improvements, see TeamPage Change Log for a description of each update. Please read on for a summary.

Sep 2022 | Introducing Kanban for TeamPage, by Takashi Okutsu

Traction Software is happy to announce release of Kanban for TeamPage. This makes it simple to create a Kanban board as a TeamPage entry, and use colorful Kanban cards to plan activities and share progress by dragging and dropping cards in your browser window. The Kanban board automatically updates for you and for any other person looking at the same Kanban board. Kanban for TeamPage is a free plug-in that is automatically installed starting with the TeamPage 6.2.57 release. Takashi Okutsu of Traction Software's Japanese Business Office led the definition and development of Kanban for TeamPage, and announced it in his TractionSoftware.jp blog post. Please see the Google English translation of his post below. We'll post more about Kanban for TeamPage here, as well as on TractionSoftware.jp. If you'd like a personal introduction to Kanban for TeamPage, please contact us.

Dec 2021 | Improved External User Directory Integration; Developer improvements for Ordered Lists, Forms, and Widgets

Traction® TeamPage Release 6.2.52 is focused on improvements to external user directory integration, bug fixes, and Developer SDK improvements including support for implementation of upcoming Kanban plug-in capabilities. The release also includes over 60 bug fixes and improvements for TeamPage customers and developers. Please read on for the full list of changes.

Mar 2021 | Microsoft Azure AD Cloud support for cloud and on-premises authentication and user management; Impi! Coaching and Mentoring support

Traction® TeamPage release 6.2.49 introduces support for Microsoft Azure AD cloud-based identity and access management services. This new generation of Microsoft AD technology provides TeamPage single sign-on (SSO) that works along with other Azure AD compatible cloud and on premises resources. This release also includes: New coaching and mentoring use case support for Impi! Improvement Projects; Improvements to TeamPages' rich text editor, and many other improvements and bug fixes. Pleased read on for the full list of changes.

Clash of the Titans 2020 - Peter O'Kelly

Revisiting Communication/Collaboration/Content Competition, ‘Co-opetition,’ and Culture: Opportunities for Traction Software and its Customer Community, my 2010 Traction User Group (TUG) presentation, it’s fascinating to realize how deeply the product strategies of the leading enterprise communication, collaboration, and content (3C) vendors were disrupted over the last decade. It’s also frankly a bit discouraging to realize how much 3C potential has yet to be realized by most mainstream enterprise end users, although that’s somewhat offset by the knowledge that Traction customers have been benefitting from the ongoing refinement of TeamPage’s pioneering collaborative hypertext journaling system the entire time. In this post, I’ll share perspectives on what has changed in the 3C product families of the vendors identified as enterprise 3C titans in the 2010 presentation along with some highlights of vendors that weren’t part of the 2010 discussion but are important 3C competitors today. I’ll close with some thoughts about where Traction fits into the current enterprise 3C landscape.

Clash of the Titans - Peter O'Kelly at TUG 2010

I'm happy to present a transcript and quotes from Peter O'Kelly's TUG 2010 talk Communication / Collaboration / Content Competition, "Co-opetition," and Culture: Opportunities for Traction Software and its Customer Community. Or, as I'll call it here Clash of the Titans. Peter draws on his career as Lotus Notes product manager at Lotus Development Corporation and IBM, IBM Director of Business Development, Groove Networks product manager, MacroMedia vice president of strategy, Microsoft Solutions Architect, and senior analyst or director with the Patricia Seybold Group, the Burton Group, and O'Kelly Associates - see Peter's LinkedIn page and personal blog. I asked Peter to write a 'Where are they now' follow up post, and he cheerfully agreed! Look for it here next week.

Aug 2020 | Core Project Management, email digest generation, and incoming email processing improvements

Traction® TeamPage Summer 2020 Release improves performance of queries that power TeamPage's core Project Management views and feeds. This also speeds up Data Tables used to embed project, task, milestone, and other interactive tables in TeamPage articles. The release improves rules for automatic cleanup of incoming email posted to TeamPage directly or as a reply to an outgoing TeamPage email notification. The release also makes outgoing TeamPage email digest generation more efficient, and improves external search engine synchronization used to automatically reindex modified articles or attachments. SDK improvements focus on changes related to sending and receiving email.

More Observable Work - Transcribing Jim McGee's TUG 2010 Keynote

Working from home like much of the world, I thought it would be a good time to try out a new tool to transcribe Jim McGee's Doing and Managing Knowledge Work TUG 2010 keynote. The 2010 Traction User Group theme was Observable Work, with Jim's opening keynote, a closing keynote by Jon Udell, and a four hour Observable Workshop moderated by Jon on the last morning of the meeting, see 12-15 Oct 2010 | Fifth Annual Traction User Group Meeting, TUG 2010 Newport

Jun 2020 | TeamPage uses Solr for faceted navigation and search

Traction® Software is an early believer in the value of scalable, permission aware, faceted navigation and search spanning all Traction® TeamPage content. Traction Software partnered with FAST Search starting in 2006, transitioning to Attivio in 2009, adding new search and navigation capabilities along the way. Traction Software now includes Apache Solr faceted navigation and search as a free capability for Cloud hosted and on premises TeamPage subscriptions. Learn how Solr supports TeamPage's unique work graph model for indexing, visualizing, and using work that crosses boundaries, linking customers, suppliers, partners and internal teams with different permissions to more public or more private business activities on the same TeamPage server.

Ineffective meetings - Here's an answer

Are you are a business owner, executive or senior manager? Then you’ve experienced the good, the bad and the ugly of management meetings.

Management meetings are the heartbeat of any business and are in place to keep teams productive, accountable and focused. Meetings are the primary channel for communication and goal alignment throughout the business.

If you and your teams are dissatisfied with the quality of your meetings, then you are fortunate enough to have a giant improvement opportunity in your business, with low implementation cost and high reward.

When you think about it, the actions that come out of your meetings are the smallest unit of improvement of your business. The rate at which you and your teams close tasks is the real rate of improvement of your business. It is a measure of engagement and agility. Tasks matter.

Mar 2020 | Amazon Corretto Java VM, TeamPage Quality Management, Developer SDK, and general improvements

Traction® TeamPage Winter 2020 Release TeamPage installers now optionally install and configure the Amazon Corretto OpenJDK implementation of Java SE as the bundled Java Virtual Machine. This release also includes improved support for ISO 9001:2015 quality management and business process improvement solutions; improved requirement sign-off tracking; improved work in progress tracking performance; improved SDK support for Client forms, Client Actions, Database API's, and Queries; improved SDK for image and file resource management; new SDL tag support for Conditionals and Conditionals requiring resource management.

The parable of the four unfit friends

In this article we tell the parable of four friends and some of their life choices.

Jun 2019 | Pluggable Mailbox Protocols, Search performance improvements, new TeamPage plug-ins

Traction® TeamPage Summer 2019 Release includes support for pluggable mailbox protocols, refinements to TeamPage's handling of configuration or environmental problems, performance improvements for built-in search filtering, improved protection from cross-site forgery attempts, improvements to TeamPage's SDK, and many other bug fixes and improvements. This release also packages several TeamPage plug-ins for general use.

impi! and TeamPage Reduce Administration of Document Control

In this article we build a case for using TeamPage and impi! wiki templates to save administrative time for document control and support the intent of ISO9001:2015 to distribute the responsibility of the Quality Management System to the leadership of the organisation.

Mar 2019 | TeamPage release focuses on Performance, Quality Management, and Interactive Tables

Traction® TeamPage Winter 2019 Release focuses on TeamPage performance. It incorporates major improvements in query optimization, handling of search expressions, and caching. These improvements will be particularly significant for customers with large journals and for those who use TeamPage solutions and reporting views that make extensive use of search expressions in queries and interactive tables. Other changes include: additions and improvements to the Impi! Quality Management ISO 9001:2015 TeamPage solution; new ability to show Google calendar events in TeamPage Calendar pages; new PDF, Excel, CSV, and print export of for Data Tables; new Data Table filtering per column; improvements to PDF generation; improved temporary file management; improved background process task management; and improved statistics gathering.

How to create a simplified custom front page for TeamPage

The other day, I helped a Japanese IT Support company build a client support site with TeamPage.

Their main request was to make the top page ("front page") of TeamPage simple as possible to be more welcoming and prevent clients from being confused. So, I (1) put the large icons and buttons on the top page and (2) removed tabs and sidebar etc.

In this blog post, I will briefly introduce how I did the customizations using a TeamPage plug-in developed and delivered to the company.

Aug 2018 | TeamPage ISO 9001:2015 Solution adds integrated Risk and Improvement Project Management

Traction® TeamPage 2018 Summer Release. Traction® TeamPage's 9001:2015 Quality Management solution - developed in partnership with impi! Solutions - adds integrated Risk and Improvement Project management, tracking, and reporting capabilities. This release also adds: Advanced Japanese language search; improved type-ahead search; improved built-in search; many product and developer SDK bug fixes and improvements.

Mar 2018 | Question and Answer plug-in and other TeamPage improvements

Traction® TeamPage 2018 Spring Release includes a new Question and Answer plug-in that make it simple to add Q&A capabilities to any Traction® TeamPage solution. You can also introduce a dedicated Q&A space to support a forum connecting any combination of external customers, partners and internal team members.

Dec 2017 | FullCalendar adds list and schedule views, ability to show calendar events for selected groups

Traction® TeamPage 2017 Winter Release includes Traction® TeamPage integration with FullCalendar to add new calendar views and capabilities including: list and agenda views; the ability to display events from Google Calendars; the ability to show individual calendars for people who belong to a selected group. FullCalendar is a customizable and open-source JavaScript event calendar with many extensible capabilities and a popular API.

Nov 2017 | TeamPage 6.2 Major Release

Traction® TeamPage 6.2 is a major release which packages TeamPage changes and improvements that have been incrementally delivered to cloud-hosted and on-premises customers. In addition to bug fixes and improvements, highlights of this release are updates to API's used by developers to extend TeamPage, and substantial internal refactoring to improve the structure of the TeamPage code base.

Why, How and What of the impi Standard Meeting Plug-in for TeamPage

The new impi! Standard Meeting Plug-in for TeamPage enables easier, faster and more accurate minute taking for recurring meetings which agenda is standardized. It augments the impi! solution: Goal Alignment - Mini Business Units Deployment. To learn more about this plug-in and impi's Business Management System solutions built using TeamPage, please contact Traction Software.

Dec 2016 | Business Process Improvement with impi!, Plug-in extensions, TeamPage improvements

Traction® TeamPage Winter 2016 Release consolidates TeamPage point releases shipped since May 2016, adding numerous improvements to support business process, quality management, daily report, and other plug-in extensions. This release also includes new user experience and performance improvements, bug fixes, extensions of the TeamPage SDK, and architectural enhancements to extend the capabilities of the TeamPage platform.

Jul 2016 | TeamPage Real Time Daily Report 日報 (Japan)

Traction® Software's Japanese Business office launched a dedicated DailyReports.biz site and solution for the Japanese Daily Report 日報 practice. In some Japanese companies, at the end of each day employees are expected to write a summary of what they did and submit it to their boss. This is called a "日報" (daily report or daily journal) and is traditionally used to share information between employees and bosses. Rather than adding a chore at the end of each day, the new Daily Report solution makes it easy to share a short note after a talk with a customer, when a task is completed, or after some other noteworthy event. The note is easy to post using a phone, tablet, or desktop computer and is shared in with others in real time. The note is also automatically included in a summary email digest at the end of the day.

impi! What's in the name? What's in the logo?

Impi is a Zulu word for any armed body of men. It also bears in English a connotation to the art of warfare. In the early part of the 19th century the Zulu nation, then a relatively small tribe rose to a prominent nation. Under the leadership of King Shaka its influence span across Southern Africa. Shaka deeply transformed the art of warfare in the sub continent drawing from traditions and innovating. Aspects of warfare covered army structure and deployment, leadership, training, agility, logistic, weaponry, etc. Shaka's organisational development and leading of his impis were characterised by discipline (standardisation) and creative improvement.

A Fabric, not a Platform

Apple and Google are competing to build a fabric that connects everything you own and use, working outward from the globally meshed supercomputer you carry in your pocket. Both apply deep learning technology to AI assistants, and are opening up their AIs and bots to other apps, bots, and cloud services. This richly connected fabric makes bots useful and AI assistants valuable by teaching them how to identify objects you're talking about as well as understand what you want done. The same applies at work. Making this happen requires a shift from the traditional definition of a platform to a fabric which makes it possible to connect people and the actionable objects they use, in context.

Jun 2016 | ISO 9001:2015 Requirements Met By impi! Solutions

Impi! founder Pierre Bienvenüe shares his analysis of ISO 9001:2015 requirements based on lessons learned working with one of his clients since July 2015 under the guidance of one of the contributors to the new version of the standard. He uses the impi! model to document mappings from sub-clauses of the impi! solution model to ISO 9001:2015 requirements, and from ISO clauses and sub-clauses to solution capabilities.

Introducing impi! - Pierre Bienvenüe

I'm happy to introduce Pierre Bienvenüe, founder of impi Business Improvement Solutions Pty, a South African business improvement firm and TeamPage solution partner since 2012. Pierre has great experience in helping mid-size companies organize and run effective quality improvement programmes. impi! works with clients as partners from concept definition, initial rollout, through improvement of the quality program itself. Pierre has worked with Traction Software and clients to develop templates, plug-in extensions, and a methodology for using TeamPage to support the impi! business improvement model, with solid results to report. This post is an introduction. You'll hear more from Pierre as an expert guest blogger on this page, in Traction Software's TeamPage customer forums (free registration), and across the web.

Chris Nuzum Hyperkult XXV Video | Tripping Up Memory Lane

Watch this video of Chris Nuzum's Tripping Up Memory Lane talk at Hyperkult 2015, University of Lüneburg, 10 July 2015. Traction Software CTO and co-founder Chris Nuzum reviews hypertext history, his experience as a hypertext practitioner, and the core principles of Traction TeamPage.

Introducing the TeamPage iOS App

I was delighted to find that our TeamPage iOS companion app was published on the App Store this morning. We've been enjoying the app for the past few months, and are excited finally to be able to share it with you.

May 2016 | TeamPage Mobile App, Improved Document Management

Traction® TeamPage Spring 2016 Release introduces: the first release of a new Traction TeamPage Mobile App for iPhone and iPad; a new TeamPage Document Management user interface; the first release of a new JSON API for mobile devices, bots, and other external clients; improved external search engine integration; bug fixes, improvements, and other changes.

Daily Report 日報 = Observable Work: Takashi Okutsu

Takashi Okutsu of Traction Software's Japanese Business Office recently posted an update to his Daily Report TeamPage plugin. Takashi writes: "In some Japanese companies, it is common to look back what an employee did in the day, write a summary, and submit it to his/her boss. This is called "日報" (daily report or daily journal) and it's a way of sharing information between employees and bosses in the hierarchy. If you are interested in the ways of business in Japanese companies, you may find this blog post interesting." This example of Observable Work is very simple to understand and use. Quality Management and other TeamPage solutions follow the same pattern.

TeamPage iOS Application

The Traction® TeamPage App connects to a TeamPage server and makes it easy to stay up-to-date with the latest activity in your Traction® TeamPage server. You can download the free TeamPage App from Apple's iOS App Store.

Dec 2015 | Quality Management, Signature Requirements

Traction® TeamPage Winter 2015 Release introduces a new TeamPage Quality Management option. The Quality Management module adds Feedback, Non-Conformance, and Corrective Action forms and dashboards to TeamPage's standard support for authoring, delivery, and tracking of quality and compliance documentation. The new Quality forms and dashboards make it simple to manage the full life cycle for manufacturing, operations, and other procedures based on ISO 9001 or other compliance standards. Signature Requirements is a new capability which lets you require people to sign TeamPage articles either once or on a recurring basis. Signature Requirements can be used to collect approvals for publication, confirm that a document has been reviewed or a process followed, or for any other situation where a set of users and groups must explicitly acknowledge that they have reviewed an article. Signature Requirements is included with the Quality Management option, and is also available as separately priced independent option, please contact us for details.

Nov 2015 | Traction continues to punch above its weight - Real Story Group

Real Story Group released the latest version of their Enterprise Collaboration and Social Software Evaluations Report with updated reviews of Google, Igloo, Jive, Liferay Social Office, Telligent/Verint, and Traction® TeamPage on Oct 26, 2015. Real Story Group analyst Kashyap Kompella writes:

Nov 2015 | Teampage Plug-ins from Traction Software Japan

Takashi Okutsu, Director of Traction® Software's Japanese Business Office has been on a roll. His new Traction® TeamPage plug-ins include: a new Bootstrap3 skin; a new JQuery Mobile skin; Customer Support Request and Customer Quick Reference plug-ins. Takashi is also the author of Gantt Chart, Traction Poll, Mind Map, Pop-up Annotation, and other plug-ins, free to Japanese and International Traction customers.

Shaka, When the Walls Fell

"Pooh?" said Piglet. "Yes, Piglet?" said Pooh. "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra," said Piglet. "Shaka, when the walls fell," said Pooh.

— Michael G. Munz (@TheWriteMunz) November 17, 2015

Oct 2015 | Personal Worklists, Quick Forms

Traction® TeamPage Fall 2015 Release introduces Personal Worklists: Track and share what you plan to work on. It's easy to add, rearrange, organize, checkoff and share items on your personal worklist. New Quick Forms make common actions simpler using a right click action or keystroke. Traction TeamPage now automatically checks for updates and notifies your administrator.

Original Traction Product Proposal

I hope you'll enjoy reading the original Traction Product Proposal, dated October 1997. Many early Traction concepts carried over directly to the Traction® TeamPage product first commercially released in July 2002, but we've also learned a lot since then - as you might hope! The Proposal and its Annotated References may be helpful to students interested in the history and evolution of hypertext.

Teampage hypertext journal: Design concepts, by Takashi Okutsu

Takashi Okutsu of Traction Software's Japanese Business Office wrote a blog post, Teampage hypertext journal: Design concepts. Starting from Chris Nuzum's Tripping Up Memory Lane presentation, Takashi explains how TeamPage's append-only journal models editable content, links, and relationships − while maintaining a full audit trail. See this Google English translation.

July 2015 | TeamPage Live Task Lists

Traction® TeamPage Summer 2015 Release update introduces TeamPage live task lists: drag and drop to reorder tasks for a project or milestone, everyone sees the live update. Use shared task lists to keep everyone in synch on order of execution for tasks as well as planned start and end dates. A live Presence bar shows who else is watching the same page.

Tripping Up Memory Lane

Last week I gave a talk at the Hyperkult 2015 conference. It was an honor to present there, especially since it was the 25th and final time the conference was held. This was my proposal for the talk:

Eat your spinach: Email is good for you, but it could taste a lot better

Takashi Okutsu of Traction Software's Japanese Business Office says that email is like spinach. It may be necessary for a healthy business, but not everyone likes spinach. He says that it's not reasonable to think that Social Network Software replaces email. It's better to look at how SNS extends and complements email. Takashi's July 3, 2015 TractionSoftware.jp blog post explains how, see this rough Google English translation.

My Part Wor ks

About 50 years ago, Andy van Dam joined the Brown University faculty with the world's second PhD in Computer Science (earned at the University of Pennsylvania). Today many of Andy’s friends, faculty, students and former students are celebrating his 50 years at Brown with Stone Age, Iron Age and Machine Age panels. [ June 9, 2015 update: See event video: Celebrate with Andy: 50 Years of Computer Science at Brown University ]

May 2015 | TeamPage Bookmarks, interactive filters, and Japanese search improvement

Traction® TeamPage Summer 2015 Release introduces a new TeamPage Bookmarks sidebar and interactive filtering. Interactive filtering makes it easy to focus on what interests you; bookmarks make it simple to return to any filtered or standard view with one click. The release also: improves searching and hit highlighting of Japanese text using the TeamPage native search interface; adds new classes to the TeamPage SDK; includes bug fixes, updated internationalization, and performance improvements.

March 2015 | TeamPage 6.1 Burn-up charts, interactive tables, SDK extensions

Traction® TeamPage 6.1 Spring 2015 Release focuses on improvements to the TeamPage Project Management suite, including a new "Burn-up Chart" for tracking progress; user-defined interactive tables to dynamically summarize activity; and better tools for understanding the big picture of a project or milestone. This release also includes major under-the-hood improvements to TeamPage's forms SDK to make it easier for developers to create custom forms, or customized variations of standard forms.

Dec 2014 | TeamPage @ Mentions

Traction® TeamPage Fall 2014 Release Introduces inline @ mentions. An @ mention makes it it easy to bring any TeamPage item to someone’s attention just by typing their name. Automatic inline completion makes @ name lookup easy. When a person is mentioned, TeamPage will automatically notify them of follow on comments. Reply to the inline or email notification to add a quick response from your smart phone, tablet, or a Web browser. This is a great way to bring someone into a conversation without sending a hand authored email, text message or other message. @ mentions extend TeamPage's Work Graph model using notation that's familiar from Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other Web services.

Enterprise 2.0 - Are we there yet?

Andrew McAfee writes Nov 20, 2014: "Facebook’s recent announcement that it’s readying a version of its social software for workplaces got me thinking about Enterprise 2.0, a topic I used to think a great deal about. Five years ago I published a book with that title, arguing that enterprise social software platforms would be valuable tools for businesses...

Why did it take so long? I can think of a few reasons. It’s hard to get the tools right — useful and simple software is viciously hard to make. Old habits die hard, and old managers die (or at least leave the workforce) slowly. The influx of ever-more Millennials has almost certainly helped, since they consider email antediluvian and traditional collaboration software a bad joke.

Whatever the causes, I’m happy to see evidence that appropriate digital technologies are finally appearing to help with the less structured, less formal work of the enterprise. It’s about time.

What do you think? Is Enterprise 2.0 finally here? If so, why now? Leave a comment, please, and let us know."

Ada Lovelace Day | Emmy Noether, Mathematician

Ada Lovelace Day celebrates the contributions of women in science and technology, follow @FindingAda for news and events. This year I've chosen to write about mathematician Amalie "Emmy" Noether. At the time of her death in April 1935, she was described by Pavel Alexandrov, Albert Einstein, Herman Weyl, Norbert Weiner and others as the most important woman in the history of mathematics. Noether’s First Theorem is a fundamental tool of modern physics and the calculus of variations: every symmetry corresponds to a conservation law. "It was her work in the theory of invariants which led to formulations for several concepts of Einstein's general theory of relativity." [J J O'Connor and E F Robertson, 1997]. Of her later work, Nathan Jacobson said: "The development of abstract algebra, which is one of the most distinctive innovations of twentieth century mathematics, is largely due to her – in published papers, in lectures, and in personal influence on her contemporaries." Einstein wrote Noether's obituary in the New York Times, May 5, 1935:

Named Data Networking - Boffin Alert

On Sep 4, 2014 the Named Data Networking project announced a new consortium to carry the concepts of Named Data Networking (NDN) forward in the commercial world. If this doesn't sound exciting, try The Register's take: DEATH TO TCP/IP cry Cisco, Intel, US gov and boffins galore. What if you could use the internet to access content securely and efficiently, where anything you want is identified by name rather than by its internet address? The NDN concept is technically sweet, gaining traction, and is wonderfully explained and motivated in a video by its principle inventor and instigator Van Jacobson. Read on for the video, a few quotes, reference links, and a few thoughts on what NDN could mean for the Internet of Things, Apple, Google and work on the Web. Short version: Bring popcorn.

Sept 2014 | KMWorld names TeamPage a Trend-Setting Product of 2014

On Sept 1, 2014 KMWorld recognized Traction® Software's TeamPage as a Trend-Setting Product of 2014. KMWorld editor Hugh McKellar writes: "This year, we looked at more than 600 products. Traction® TeamPage was selected by the panel because it demonstrates thoughtful, well-reasoned innovation and execution for the most important constituency of them all: the customer.” Traction Software is honored that KMWorld has again selected TeamPage as a Trend-Setting Product. TeamPage customers such as Alcoa and Athens Group show the value of integrated action tracking and collaboration in support of knowedge management, quality management, project management, and similar business activities. Read KMWorld Trend-Setting Products of 2014

Linked, Open, Heterogeneous

Art, Data, and Business Duane Degler of Design For Context posted slides from his 5 April 2014 Museums and the Web talk, Design Meets Data (Linked, Open, Heterogeneous). Degler addresses what he calls the LAM (Libraries, Archives, Museums) Digital Information Ecosystem. I believe the same principles apply when businesses connect internal teams, external customers, external suppliers, and partners of all sorts as part of their Business Information Ecosystem. Read Degler's summary and slides, below:

Aug 2014 | Providence Business News - Social tools being adapted for Web-based QC tool

Writing in the 8 Aug 2014 Providence Business News, Staff Writer Patrick Anderson interviewed Traction® Software VP of Sales Jordan Frank and Thomas Cogdell, DTA quality manager for Houston-based firm The Athens Group. The oil-rig consulting firm purchased Traction® TeamPage to support its push for ISO 9001 certified rig inspection, verification and technology assurance services. Anderson quotes Cogdell: “The reason we chose it is because it is Web based with a good security audit and trail feature,” said Thomas Cogdell, DTA quality manager for Athens Group. “Every change to every document is tracked and reported on, and nothing gets lost. It gives us the flexibility to encourage employees to add to the knowledge base freely and the quality control we need.” » Read the full story

July 2014 | TeamPage Notifications

Traction® Traction Software Summer 2014 Release New features include inline-page push Notifications, extending TeamPage's email notifications. Notifications make it simple to focus on activity that's important to you. Get more details, or send a quick reply whether in your office or using your smartphone or tablet. Change what you watch when your priorities and interests change. Available now, contact us for more information or a free trial.

Hello! Greetings from Takashi Okutsu

Hi everyone. I am delighted to introduce myself to you as a member of the Traction Software Team. As some of you know, my name is Takashi Okutsu, and I am the director of Traction Software's Japan Business Office, located in Yokohama.

Thought Vectors - Ted Nelson: Art not Technology

The technoid vision, as expressed by various pundits of electronic media, seems to be this: tomorrow's world will be terribly complex, but we won't have to understand it. Fluttering though halestorms of granular information, ignorant like butterflies, we will be guided by smell, or Agents, or leprechauns, to this or that pretty picture, or media object, or factoid. If we have a Question, it will be possible to ask it in English. Little men and bunny rabbits will talk to us from the computer screen, making us feel more comfortable about our delirious ignorance as we flutter through this completely trustworthy technological paradise about which we know less and less.

Meet Takashi Okutsu: Director, Traction Software Japanese Business Office

Takashi has been a TeamPage wizard since 2007, and now directs Traction Software's Japanese Business Office. Takashi provides exceptional sales, consulting, and support to TeamPage customers in Japan. He is a valued member of the Traction Software global team, and a frequent contributor to the TeamPage Customer Support Forum including development and discussion of TeamPage SDK plug-ins and examples. We invite Japanese visitors to explore TractionSoftware.jp for TeamPage information and a free trial. You are also welcome to join the TeamPage Japan Customer Support Forum to talk with Takashi and Japanese TeamPage customers.

June 2014 | Traction TeamPage 6.0

Traction® Software is proud to announce Traction® TeamPage 6.0, a major release incorporating important new features, improvements, and internal updates, as well as consolidated capabilities from updates shipped over the TeamPage 5.2 baseline. Sign up for a free trial, or download a free TeamPage license for free access to Traction Software's Customer Support and Customer Forum TeamPage server, including installer links and detailed change log information.

Thought Vectors - What Motivated Doug Engelbart

By "augmenting human intellect" we mean increasing the capability of a man to approach a complex problem situation, to gain comprehension to suit his particular needs, and to derive solutions to problems. Increased capability in this respect is taken to mean a mixture of the following: more-rapid comprehension, better comprehension, the possibility of gaining a useful degree of comprehension in a situation that previously was too complex, speedier solutions, better solutions, and the possibility of finding solutions to problems that before seemed insoluble. And by "complex situations" we include the professional problems of diplomats, executives, social scientists, life scientists, physical scientists, attorneys, designers--whether the problem situation exists for twenty minutes or twenty years. We do not speak of isolated clever tricks that help in particular situations. We refer to a way of life in an integrated domain where hunches, cut-and-try, intangibles, and the human "feel for a situation" usefully co-exist with powerful concepts, streamlined terminology and notation, sophisticated methods, and high-powered electronic aids. 1a1

Reinventing the Web II

Updated 19 Jun 2016 Why isn't the Web a reliable and useful long term store for the links and content people independently create? What can we do to fix that? Who benefits from creating spaces with stable, permanently addressable content? Who pays? What incentives can make Web scale permanent, stable content with reliable bidirectional links and other goodies as common and useful as Web search over the entire flakey, decentralized and wildly successful Web? Here's a good Twitter conversation to read:

60% of my fav links from 10 yrs ago are 404. I wonder if Library of Congress expects 60% of their collection to go up in smoke every decade.

— Bret Victor (@worrydream) June 15, 2014

Thought Vectors - Vannevar Bush and Dark Matter

On Jun 9 2014 Virginia Commonwealth University launched a new course, UNIV 200: Inquiry and the Craft of Argument with the tagline Thought Vectors in Concept Space. The eight week course includes readings from Vannevar Bush, J.C.R. Licklider, Doug Engelbart, Ted Nelson, Alan Kay, and Adele Goldberg. Assignments include blog posts and an invitation to participate on Twitter using the #thoughtvectors hashtag. The course has six sections taught at VCU, and an open section for the rest of the internet, which happily includes me! This week's assignment is a blog post based on a nugget that participants select from Vannevar Bush's 1945 essay As We May Think. Here's mine:

Continuity and Intertwingled Work

At Apple's WWDC 2014 on 2 Jun 2014, Apple demonstrated how to build a great user experience spanning a your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Apple calls this OS level capability Continuity. It enables you to continue what you're doing across devices and applications by securely encapsulating your identity and the context of your action as an object. From picking up a draft email message started on an iPhone and continuing work with that draft on your Mac, to answering an incoming iPhone call on your Mac, I believe this opens the door for a level of seamless experience that everyone will want for personal use, their family, and at work.

A new TeamPage logo, and a new look at Traction Software.com

You'll be seeing the new TeamPage logo here, on Twitter, Facebook, across the Web, and next to TeamPage sites shown in your browser's tabs; I hope you like the it! I also hope you like the the new look at TractionSoftware.com. Our customers believe TeamPage is ideal for work that combines collaboration and action tracking, including quality management, human resources, project work, intelligence analysis, knowledge management, and compliance. We want TractionSoftware.com to tell this story simply and clearly, and we'll continue to improve this site just as we continually improve TeamPage. Please contact us for insights into how customers use TeamPage to get work done, along with a free trial.

Alcoa Tackles IT Projects and Compliance

The IT division of Alcoa Fastening Systems used Traction® TeamPage to reduce time spent on compliance activities by 61% and reduce time to deploy IT systems from sixteen months to seven.

Where Collaboration Meets Chess

In 12 Habits of Highly Collaborative Organizations, @Jacob Morgan draws awesome parallels between collaboration strategy and chess strategy:

March 2014 | Traction Software Named to KMWorld's 100 Companies That Matter in Knowledge Management

For the tenth consecutive year, KMWorld recognized Traction® Software, naming the company to their annual KMWorld 100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management. "Traction Software has proven to define the spirit of practical innovation by blending sparkling technology with a deep, fundamental commitment to customer success," says Hugh McKellar, KMWorld editor-in-Chief. The list is compiled by analysts, system integrators, and a select group of users along with KMWorld colleagues over a one year period.

Dec 2013 | The Wiki Way - Jordan Frank at Gilbane 2013 Boston

What makes the public Social Web work so well? How is social software in the enterprise similar? How is it different? What does a path to success for enterprise social tools look like? Traction Software's Jordan Frank answers these questions in The Wiki Way - Towards Quality, Change and Risk Management as a Path to Enterprise Social Software Adoption (slides below). Jordan's model uses critical core content, critical record / exception management, and critical conversation to establish a base for enterprise social media success. His model shows how social tools can be put into the grain of work, take culture issues off the table, and drive creativity using specific examples. Jordan spoke on the Gilbane Boston 2013 panel, Driving Self Service and Support Through Social Collaboration moderated by Lynda Moulton, Principal, LWM Technology Services.

An Infinite Number of Cats on Keyboards: Ted Nelson & Computer Lib at Homebrew Computer Club Reunion

Order a perfect reprint of the original version of Computer Lib / Dream Machines directly from Ted Nelson, autographed if you wish. Highly recommended.

Ada Lovelace Day | Marissa Ann Mayer, Software Engineer, Product Manager, and Executive

Ada Lovelace Day celebrates the contributions of women in science and technology, follow @FindingAda for news and events. This year I've chosen to write about Marissa Ann Mayer Software Engineer, Product Manager, and Executive, currently President and CEO of Yahoo! Over her career Ms Mayer earned exceptional recognition for Computer Science teaching (while working for her Stanford degrees), software engineering, design, product management, and her executive skills. Ms Mayer joined Google as employee number twenty in 2009 and played an instrumental role leading Google Search for over 10 years.

The Work Graph Model: TeamPage style

Justin Rosenstein wrote an excellent option piece for Wired, The Way We Work Is Soul-Sucking, But Social Networks Are Not the Fix. Justin begins: "With Twitter’s recent IPO filing, the most popular graph dominating conversation is the “interest graph.” Before that, it was the “social graph,” courtesy of Facebook. But we’re now seeing the emergence of a third important graph: the work graph." The work graph term is new - and useful - but I believe the model dates back to Lotus Notes and even Doug Engelbart. In this blog post I'll review Justin's definition and use it to describe Traction® TeamPage's work graph model. I'll also show how TeamPage leverages its work graph model to meet challenges of information overload, work with external as well as internal teams, and work that needs to span siloed systems of record.

Sept 2013 | KMWorld names TeamPage a Trend-Setting Product of 2013

On Sept 1, 2013 KMWorld recognized Traction® Software's TeamPage as a Trend-Setting Product of 2013. KMWorld editor Hugh McKellar writes: "The common thread running through all the products listed here is the unique value—and potential value—they offer the organization, its workers and their various constituencies." Traction Software is honored that KMWorld has again selected Traction® TeamPage as a Trend-Setting Product. TeamPage customers such as Athens Group show the value of an integrated Quality Management system, industry knowledge base, and training curriculum. TeamPage enables Athens Group to train and support a rapidly growing cadre of expert consultants helping customers design, construct, and operate safe, reliable drilling rigs and platforms around the world. Read KMWorld Trend-Setting Products of 2013

How to make your ISO Auditor Smile; And Make Your Professional Life Much Easier

Jordan had a conversation with a TeamPage customer in Sweden who agreed to document and publish a TeamPage case study, but the ISO auditor story is too good to wait. The customer is small precision machined products manufacturer. They initially supplied prototypes to the Swedish defense industry, but now focus on precision products for heavy vehicle manufacturers.

Remembering Doug Engelbart, 30 January 1925 - 2 July 2013

I was very sad to learn that Doug Engelbart passed away at his home on 2 July 2013. Doug had a long life as a visionary engineer, inventor, and pioneer of technology we use every day - and technology where we're just starting to catch up to Doug and his SRI team in 1968. Doug had a quiet, friendly, and unassuming nature combined with deep knowledge, iron will, and a determination to pursue his vision. His vision was to aid humanity in solving complex, difficult and supremely important problems; Doug's goals were noble and selfless. The sense of dealing with an Old Testament prophet - a kindly Moses - is perhaps the greatest loss I and countless others who have met and been inspired by Doug feel today. I've written frequently about Doug in the past, and I'll continue to do so. Here are a few remembrances and resources that seem appropriate. I'll update this list over the next several days. Farewell Doug and my sincere condolences to his family and many friends.

Decagon Devices: Plans, Products, Projects, Procedures and ISO 9001 Quality Management

Decagon Devices (Decagon.com) designs, manufactures and markets scientific instruments used to measure water, light and heat in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. Decagon devices are used by 80% of the top one hundred food companies to measure water activity in food; by farms to measure soil for water and nutrient use; and by NASA where Decagon devices were sent to Mars to measure humidity and wind. Decagon deployed Traction® TeamPage for project management, ISO certification of their procedure management, internal corporate communications and knowledge management.

Pharma and Biotech Risk Management

Risks are the leading cause of costly delays in the process of bringing a biotech product to market. Risk management in the product development process all too often means one person juggling a list of risks in a spreadsheet. It's hard to edit, but even harder to open a discussion on an existing risk when someone has a question, sees a problem, or wants to add a new risk. Traction® Software partner Rosemary Vu used Traction® TeamPage's Section Table widget and extended TeamPage's Article to create a Risk form. For more on TeamPage Section Tables, see Q: How do I link to an Excel file? A: Why Would you Do That?

Working Across Boundaries

In his Jun 2, 2013 blog post, Chess Media analyst and author Jacob Morgan asks: How Open is Too Open? He asks "Would you be comfortable working in an all glass building where people can see everything you do and every move you make?" Jacob outlines the benefits of transparency: "Keep everyone on the same page; Build trust and fostering better relationships; Allow employees (and customers) to contribute ideas and value when they see the opportunity to do so." Jacob recognizes that a balance needs to be struck, but not being transparent enough may do more harm than good. He ask: "How open is too open?" I agree with the benefits Jacob outlines, and believe the answer to Jacob's question depends on the answer to a critical question: "Transparency for what purpose?" I'll start the ball rolling in with this post, including some real-life customer examples.

June 2013 | Enterprise Collaboration & Social Software Industry Report, Redwood Capital

A new Redwood Capital Group industry report released the first week of June 2013 focuses on Enterprise Collaboration and Social Software. The thirty-two page report includes Market Trends, Competitive Landscape, M&A Activity, Private Financing, Valuation Trends, and Emerging Private Companies, including Traction® Software. You can download a free copy of this and related industry reports from the Redwood Capital Sector Focus page.

18-19 Jun 2013 | Traction Software E2 Boston 2013 Social and Collaboration Track Sponsor

Traction Software is happy to be a Social and Collaboration Track sponsor at this year's E2 Boston Conference. Please visit Traction Software at Demo Pavilion 38 to see how customers build better products and work better together using Traction TeamPage. Traction Software is a leader in social task management and a consistent innovator in delivering business value to demanding customers around the world. Learn how John Hagel of Deloitte documented and analyzed a TeamPage customer's 61% reduction in time required for compliance activity using TeamPage.

Open Cafe: E2.0 Implementation and Adoption

@JeffMerrell posed a series of questions for his Master's Program in Learning & Organizational Change. I'll offer my own experience as it pertains to each of his question areas.

Contextual Computing At Work

In Co.Design May 24, 2013 Peter Morrison of Jump Associates writes The Future of Technology isn't Mobile, it's Contextual. He says that the way we respond to the world around is based on situational awareness. "The way we respond to the world around us is so seamless that it’s almost unconscious. Our senses pull in a multitude of information, contrast it to past experience and personality traits, and present us with a set of options for how to act or react. Then, it selects and acts upon the preferred path. This process--our fundamental ability to interpret and act on the situations in which we find ourselves--has barely evolved since we were sublingual primates living on the Veldt.

Join us at E2 Boston 2013 - Traction Software is Social and Collaboration Track Sponsor

How well you work with your colleagues, online and off, will make the difference when trying to win the next deal, design the next product or craft the next winning strategy. Consider how important people are to process and how social collaboration (versus some pre-ordained workflow) is the barrier to or the enabler of successful outcomes. We see immense value when people document their knowledge, streamline their communication and track actions to completion in TeamPage. We hope you can join us to see TeamPage and learn from the leading analysts and practitioners at E2 Boston June 17 through 19.

May 2013 | TeamPage listed as key product in Technavio's Global Enterprise Social Networking Market Report

Traction® Software Inc (along with its Traction® TeamPage product) has been recognized as a key player in TechNavio's upcoming report on the Global Enterprise Social Networking market 2012-2016. TechNavio analysts forecast "the Global Enterprise Social Networking Software market to grow at a CAGR of 51.94 percent over the period 2012-2016." They continue: "one of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the increased requirement of intranet interactivity among multiple teams in an organization. The market has also been witnessing an increased use of mobile enterprise social networking for sales activities. However, the risk of confidential information leakage could pose a challenge to the growth of this market."

May 2013 | Getting Work Done with Social Task Management

Alan Lepofsky @alanlepo of Constellation Research coined Social Task Management last summer to describe a trend he saw in December 2011 as task management started to enter Enterprise 2.0 systems. Lepofsky's presentation at E2.0 Boston 2012 highlighted Traction® TeamPage as a social business platform with a native (versus integrated) task management (slide 34). Luis Suarez @elsua does a fantastic job of summarizing key points in Social Task Management - When Social Business Got Down to Work. Later in the year (October 2012), Constellation Research published Lepofsky's research as Getting Work Done with Social Task Management. The research speaks to problems with traditional standalone task management systems which create top down choke points, lose context, limit collaboration and create information silos. Lepofsky argues that collaboration is at the core of social task management while describing the many benefits.

7 May 2013 | Real Story Group's Updated Traction TeamPage Evaluation in Enterprise Collaboration and Social Software Report

The Real Story Group's Kashyap Kompella @kashyapkompella posted an update describing RSG's new version of their Enterprise Collaboration and Social Software Evaluations research covering twenty-five key software vendors. The new version includes a major update for the Traction® TeamPage section, including TeamPage project management, action tracking, TeamPage's ability to span and connect systems of record, and the ability to embed TeamPage discussions in other Web applications.

Lost Roots of Project Management: Think Agile that Scales

The Manhattan Project, Atlas, and Polaris projects are cited as roots for traditional phased stage-gate Project Management, but didn't use that model. New high innovation projects shouldn't either; think agile that scales. Read this fascinating 2009 paper by Sylvain Lenfle and Christoph Loch of INSEAD, cited on Twitter by Glen B. Alleman who calls it "breathtaking".

Big Data, Meet Long Data, Meet Blog Data

Big Data Meet Long Data by Jeff Bertolucci - @jbertolucci - column appears this week in InformationWeek to reminds us that "Long Data" or historical data is vital for analysis and comprehension of trends that span years.

1 March 2013 | Traction Software Named to KMWorld's 100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management

For the ninth consecutive year, KMWorld recognized Traction® Software by naming the company to their annual KMWorld 100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management. KMWorld’s list is compiled by KM practitioners, theorists, analysts, vendors, their customers and colleagues. This is the 13th year of the list. "Criteria for inclusion varies, but all companies have things in common. Each has either helped to create a market, redefine one or enhance one, and they all share two things—the velocity of innovation and the agility to serve their customers" says Hugh McKellar, KMWorld Editor-in-Chief.

Greg Lloyd, Traction Software President and co-founder said: "We're honored that KMWorld consistently ranks Traction Software as a company that matters in Knowledge Management. Traction Software employees work closely with customers to build a stronger and more useful Traction® TeamPage platform." Lloyd continued, "Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter 2012 TeamPage releases introduced many user interface, performance, and Developer SDK additions and improvements to make it easier for customers to get work done. I thank Traction Software's employees and customers for earning this recognition." See the 2013 KMWorld 100 list.

Problem and Process rather than Incentives for E2.0 Tools

Over on Quora, Ben Lopatin @bennylope has a best-answer to a question on the best ways to incentivize people to use E2.0 knowledge management and collaboration. He starts by shunning external incentives (as I do in Need for Incentives, and other Innovation Myths) and works through a few key principles which I've seen work time and time again:

PLM Gets Social, Untangles Ball of Confusion

Stan Przybylinski - @smprezbo - of CIM Data advised an audience at Social PLM 2012 on inevitable social side of product lifecycle management. In the talk (video on YouTube here), he identifies companies including Traction Software (Minute 9:06) whose platforms are being used by product teams for everything from building requirements, to managing risks and simply discussing product issues.

25 Oct 2012 | ZDNET Japan on the TeamPage Cloud

A column in ZDNet Japan covered the release by Applied Knowledge Co, Ltd, Yokohama of the TeamPage Cloud in Japan. They wrote "The greatest advantage of TeamPage is that it provides the virtual space to aggregate any information concerning the business and progress in the work space." The column discusses how companies in Japan can take advantage of collaboration tools like Traction® TeamPage to produce business value. Japanese companies can get started with Cloud and Download options as of the first of October 2012.

E-Mail: an On-Ramp for Enterprise Social Media

Bill Ives, @billives, points to Nathan Eddy's eWeek column titled Businesses Still Reliant on Email as Social Media Use Grows. The column reminds us that Email is still the dominant go-to application of choice and that's not changing any time soon. Rather than run away from email habits, social software in the enterprise has to embrace it. Back in 2004, I gave a presentation at the INBOX conference advocating for the use of Email as an on-ramp for collaboration and an off-ramp for notification.

TeamPage SAAS / Cloud Hosting Helps Bring Customers Closer, Improves Support

As we've put more attention to our cloud hosting (see Traction Software and Traction Software Japan) with free trials and an increasing hosted customer base, I'm seeing first hand how the customer relationship can become much closer, more interactive and more informed. In the last 24 hours, I was able to quickly help:

Carving a Path to Productive Knowledge Management: How?

I gave the following presentation at the first ever meeting of the Boston Chapter of the Knowledge Management Association today. As this was a first meeting, I thought I'd raise the issue that "managing knowledge" is about as daunting a task as "herding cats."

JSB on Capturing Context not Just Content

In John Seeley Brown's KMWorld Keynote (live streamed 17 Oct 2012 at kmworld.com), he makes an important point about how knowledge has no boundaries. @johnseelybrown #KM12

Ada Lovelace Day | Sunita Williams, Astronaut and Captain U.S. Navy

Ada Lovelace Day celebrates the contributions of women in science and technology. This year I've chosen to write about Suni Williams, NASA Astronaut and US Navy Captain currently commanding Expedition 33 on the International Space Station. I hope young women reading about Ada Lovelace Day now are encouraged by her example to pursue their dreams where ever they may lead - here on Earth or as the first Earthling to set foot on Mars.

1 Oct 2012 | Applied Knowledge Company Ltd Brings Cloud-hosted TeamPage to Japan

Traction® Software partner Applied Knowledge Co, Ltd of Yokohama Japan today announced availability of cloud hosted Traction® TeamPage for the Japanese market. AKJ President Masayuki Kojima said: "TeamPage provides a new communication infrastructure for projects and multi-team organizations within your company - now available as a cloud service." TeamPage cloud pricing starts at 7,908 yen per month for ten spaces and twenty-five named accounts, see www.TractionSoftware.jp for price, ordering, and product details. TeamPage cloud options include Attivio Advanced Search and Social Enterprise Web. Traction Software offers cloud hosted TeamPage to customers outside the Japanese market, see TeamPage Pricing and Licenses.

Creating GWT Date / Time Pickers That Work in Any Time Zone

We're working on new features for the next release of TeamPage that allow people to create events on a calendar. For the edit event dialog, we needed date and time pickers that allow people across different time zones to edit the dates and times of events. We ended up creating new GWT controls and adding them to our open source gwt-traction library .

1 Sept 2012 | KMWorld names TeamPage A Trend-Setting Product of 2012

KMWorld recognized Traction® Software's TeamPage as a 2012 Trend-Setting Product of 2012, citing Traction® TeamPage for "action tracking, Twitter-style status, threaded discussion, collaboration, social networking and deep search." KMWorld editor Hugh McKellar writes: "This year more than 700 products/product families were whittled down to the 89 listed in these pages. Each company whose products are listed below helped to define and enhance a market critically important to our readership by listening to and working with customers. They all represent a commitment to innovation and their customers." Traction Software is honored that KMWorld has selected TeamPage as a Trend-Setting Product for the fifth consecutive year. » Read KMWorld Trend-Setting Products of 2012

Remembering Neil Armstrong...

"I am, and ever will be, a white-socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer -- born under the second law of thermodynamics, steeped in the steam tables, in love with free-body diagrams, transformed by Laplace, and propelled by compressible flow." - Neil Armstrong, The Engineered Century. I was sad to hear about the death of Neil Armstrong on 25 August 2012. I'll always remember meeting Armstrong at an event for high school science students in the spring of 1966. He'll be remembered forever as the first person to set foot on the Moon on 29 July 1969. He coolly navigated the lunar lander to the surface despite computer alarms, avoiding rocks at the planned site, and landing with gauges showing about 20 seconds of fuel left. But that wasn't his only close call as an astronaut. In March 1966 Armstrong and David Scott successfully returned Gemini VIII to earth after a runaway thruster spun the Gemini and attached Agena target vehicle to a roll rate of about 300 degrees per second, making chances of recovery "very remote".

Monitoring and Leveraging Social Media Chatter, on the Internet and in the Enterprise

In the Pharma Chatter session at the SLA 2012 (Special Librarians Association) conference, I had the opportunity to talk about gathering and managing intelligence from social media. I was joined by Craig McHenry (Pfizer), Lisa Orgren (Septagon Research Group), and Heather Bjella (Aurora WDC)

Anti-Social Software

It's common to read about corporate culture as a big barrier to successful adoption and use of social software in business. It's easy to understand people's reluctance to change and adopt a new way of working. There are many good reasons to be wary of the promised benefits of change if you don't have relevant direct experience ("I've used this and it works"), clear examples, trust in your organization, and trust in your leadership. Books like Jacob Morgan's new The Collaborative Organization offer great practical guidance, examples, and answers to important questions. However, most social business advice makes a common and good-natured assumption that your organization is healthy - or at least has good intentions - but is just hard to convince. That's not always true.

15-17 Jul 2012 | SLA 2012 Annual Conference and INFO-EXPO

Traction Software's Jordan Frank will be speaking on Pharma Competitive Intelligence at this year's SLA 2012 Annual Conference in Chicago, Noon 16 July (see session summary below - and slides in Monitoring and Leveraging Social Media Chatter, on the Internet and in the Enterprise). You can also meet Jordan at the SLA 2012 McCormick Place INFO-EXPO Booth #4, Sunday through Tuesday. Follow @TractionTeam and @JordanFrank on Twitter, conference code #SLAChicago!

"All of this has led me to believe that something is terribly wrong with e-mail. What’s more, I don’t believe it can be fixed."

"All of this has led me to believe that something is terribly wrong with e-mail. What’s more, I don’t believe it can be fixed," writes New York Times columnist Nick Bilton - not pictured on right - in his July 8, 2012 Bits column, Disruptions: Life's Too Short for So Much Email. He's cranky just because he received 6,000 emails this month, not including spam and daily deals. Nick says: "With all those messages, I have no desire to respond to even a fraction of them. I can just picture my tombstone: Here lies Nick Bilton, who responded to thousands of e-mails a month. May he rest in peace."

Why links matter - for your business as well as the public Web

Mathew Ingram recently wrote Why links matter: Linking is the lifeblood of the web. He makes a strong case for the value of open linking - giving credit to original sources - as an ethical imperative. He also points out the collective benefit, quoting Om Malik:

Why we're here. TeamPage at Enterprise 2.0 Boston 2012

If you're attending E20 Boston 2012, please drop by Traction Software's booth 418 to say hi and learn what Traction TeamPage can do. If you're interested in social task management, integrating systems of record and systems of engagement - or just using social software in the context of work, talk the folk at Traction Software who know how to help you succeed. That's where we started and that's our enduring goal.

The Collaborative Organization - Free signed copy, Traction Software Booth 418 E2.0 Boston 2012

I've read an advance copy of Jacob Morgan's upcoming book, The Collaborative Organization: A Strategic Guide to Solving Your Internal Business Challenges Using Emerging Social and Collaborative Tools. I'm very happy that we decided to give Enterprise 2.0 Boston folk a chance to meet Jacob and get their own free, signed copy at Traction Software Booth 418 next week. Jacob says: "The purpose of this book is to act as a guide for executives, decision makers, and those involved with collaborative initiatives at their organizations". I believe he hits the mark with a book of lasting value, as do reviewers including Vivek Kundra, former Chief Information Officer of the United States; Erik Brynjolf, MIT Center for Digital Business Director, and others.

NHS Part 3: NHS Orkney Board gets TeamPage and £28,000 Annual ROI

The Board of Directors at National Health Service's Orkney hospital use Traction® TeamPage and iPads to eliminate paper at board meetings. The move saves £28,000 per year in printing and related costs, and was covered by both The Guardian and BBC News. This use case follows a history of NHS Orkney innovation with TeamPage. They first used the platform to address a failing grade in a communications audit (See National Health Service Orkney (NHS Orkney) and expanded its reach to integrate their legacy directory with TeamPage profiles (see NHS integrates Intranet 1.0 with Enterprise 2.0 to get Social with TeamPage 4.0).

19-20 Jun 2012 | Traction Software Enterprise 2.0 Boston

Traction TeamPage makes it easy for people to communicate, work together, and stay on top of what's happening anywhere in their business, including line of business systems and the public Web. Learn more about TeamPage, now with new Cloud pricing options. The first 30 days are free and you can start with a monthly plan at less than $2.50 per user per month for 25 user accounts. Traction Software will be at Enterprise 2.0 Boston Booth #418 on 19-20 June. Line up early for a free, signed pre-release copy of Jacob Morgan's new book, The Collaborative Organization.

Laser focused E2.0, without the risk? Get Traction!

I really like how Kashya Kompella from the Real Story Group offered a great dose of context for his E2.0 Marketplace Analysis Q2 2012: "Slightly modifying what the ancient Greeks said, you cannot dip your finger twice in the same (activity) stream." Simply said, there is not a lot of room for risk when an enterprise makes an attempt at an E2.0 effort, whether they are trying to build knowledge in a wiki, approach project management from a perspective managers actually like, or wrap up the whole effort with blogs, discussion, and a social networking layer on top.

23 Apr 2012 | Traction Software Named Finalist for MIT Sloan CIO Symposium 2012 Innovation Showcase

Cambridge, MA – April 23, 2012 – The 9th Annual MIT Sloan CIO Symposium has announced Traction® Software as one of ten finalists for the 2012 Innovation Showcase as its Traction® TeamPage product represents a cutting edge B2B solution that combines the strong value and innovation to enterprise IT. Traction Software will receive key exposure to many of the world’s most creative and influential IT executives at the Symposium on May 22, 2012.

"Probably the coolest vendor pricing page I've seen for any collaboration vendor" ~ Jacob Morgan

Thanks to Jacob Morgan, Chess Media Group for his Tweet this afternoon while we were chatting on the phone. Last October Jacob reviewed Traction TeamPage in his Emergent Collaboration Vendor series, and liked what he saw, including TeamPage pricing. He said: "I had the pricing explained to me so I understand it but I think it would be helpful if they made it easier to understand for all site visitors because it really does make sense." We agree on both points! In updating the Buy page, Chris Nuzum used Apple Store product configuration pages as benchmarks for clarity and ease of use.

A Focus on Individual Users

With Dartmouth President Jim Kim's recent nomination to the World Bank, I pulled out my copy of Mountains beyond Mountains to find the Kim quote that I found most inspiring for my day to day work.

7 March 2012 | Forbes - Social Business Is A More Moral Form of Business: Discuss

Forbes.com contributor Haydn Shaughnessey says: "Traction, for my money, is the best conceived collaboration suite for company’s that have a technical development requirement." He cites Traction® Software as an example of a business that successfully competes with large companies like IBM by retaining: "... close attention to client needs, a personal desire to explore changes in the work environment, and a desire to see those reflected in the platform." Thank you! Shaughnessy is co-author of a new ebook, The Elastic Enterprise an account of how some stellar companies are reinventing business. » Read the article.

1 March 2012 | Traction Software Named to KMWorld's 100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management

For the eighth consecutive year, KMWorld recognized Traction® Software by naming the company to their KMWorld 100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management. The list is compiled by a team of judges including KMWorld editors, analysts, system integrators, theorists, practitioners and a few select users. "We're honored that KMWorld continues to rank Traction Software as a company that matters in Knowledge Management," said Greg Lloyd, Traction Software President and co-founder, "In 2011 Traction Software released Traction® TeamPage 5.2 introducing capabilities make live content in external documents, public or intranet Web pages, and even database records social objects seamlessly integrated with Traction TeamPage's action tracking, search, collaboration and communication. I thank Traction Software's employees and customers for earning this recognition, as well as KMWorld for awarding it." » See the 2012 KMWorld 100 list

What's the Point ?

From Nora Ephron speaking at Brown University, President's Lecture series, "Adventures in Screenwriting" April 24, 1997. Paraphrased notes by Greg Lloyd: I took my first journalism course in high school. The fellow who taught it left after two years and opened a hardware store in LA. I think I was the only person he taught who went on to work as a journalist.

8 Feb 2012 | CTOLabs - Traction Software: Connected Work

CTOLabs adds Traction® Software to its companies of note list, "firms we believe enterprise technologists should track": The future of work: 
collaboration, conversation, identity, work product, action tracking and activity streams in context, coupled by permission-aware deep search, spanning systems of record and transactional business systems. Traction® TeamPage connects people, actions, what you create or find in TeamPage, the public Web, your company’s intranet and your line of business systems, simply and securely. » Read the full quote

Happy Birthday Doug Engelbart!

Happy Birthday Doug! A perfect gentle knight of technology as well as a pioneer and great inventor. Doug Engelbart's 87th birthday - today - is a fine day to watch the video of Doug's talk "The Strategic Pursuit of Collective IQ" embedded below. And a great day to (re) read Doug's "Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework" 1962, see DougEngelbart.org. My favorite Doug quotes and links, see Doug Engelbart | 85th Birthday Jan 30, 2010 from two years ago.

11 Jan 2012 | Forbes - In Social Business, How to Prioritise a Successful Outcome

Forbes.com contributor Hayden Shaughnessy writes: "By moving social media practices into the enterprise we will change the way senior managers communicate, the way employees communicate with customers, and possibly people’s experience of work." He asked three platform vendors, including Traction® Software President and co-founder Greg Lloyd, to respond to three questions on how a company can make social a success, starting from Day 1 requirements, benefits to the employee and enterprise outcomes . Greg's advice includes: "“Social” use can informally open up a timeline of activity to make it easier for people working on the same activity – including people who may be from different parts of the organization or even customers, partners, suppliers. Jon Udell and Jim McGee call this “Observable Work” (on a personal basis “narrating your work” hits many of the same points). It’s very easy to do, and generally well accepted – people learn by example." » Read the article

21 Dec 2011 | エンタープライズソーシャル＋サーチで「知識管理」の課題解決

ITPro Active has published a white paper by Traction® Software Partner Applied Knowledge Co, Ltd on Social Enterprise Knowledge Management and Search. A Google English translation of the article begins: "Knowledge management is an eternal challenge for companies. Traditional knowledge management approaches are not quite accumulated knowledge and fresh content to help you develop your business even if the substrate is stressed not utilize excessive accumulation have also been organized, and there is a problem."

7 Dec 2011 | Tech Expert Offers Advice to British Company That Plans to Ban E-mail for 80,000 Workers

PRNewswire Dec 7, 2011: Leading unified information access company, Attivio, suggests alternate approach to all-out ban. "Visionary companies must find ways to change the way e-mail is used; not banish it," commented Sid Probstein, Chief Technical Officer at Attivio in response to widely reported news that a 'zero email' policy is underway at one of the world's largest IT companies. Thierry Breton, CEO of British-based Atos, wants to phase out e-mails over the next 18 months.

Professional Services

Traction Software professional services including business process consulting, training, TeamPage configuration, interface (skin) design, integration, and custom feature development.

Don't take my word for it - Byrne and Koplowitz on SharePoint

At the Enterprise 2.0conference two weeks ago, Tony Byrne (President, the Real Story Group) and Rob Koplowitz (VP and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research) were joined for the SharePoint Analyst Panel. David Carr's Information Week column Does SharePoint Have Future As A Social Platform frames the debate as lopsided with a simple conclusion: No.

Traction Software Products

Traction® TeamPage is the heart of Traction® Software's product family. TeamPage makes it easy to communicate, work together, find what you need, and stay on top of what's happening in your business. TeamPage integrates action tracking, Twitter-style status, threaded discussion, collaboration, social networking, and deep search. TeamPage connects people, actions, what you create or find in TeamPage, the public Web, your company's intranet and your line of business systems. See TeamPage examples.

Deep Search

"Using TeamPage Attivio Search Plus and TeamPage's Social Enterprise Web, external documents, pages and transactions are now able to become social objects seamlessly integrated with Traction® TeamPage's action tracking, search, collaboration and communication." Marrying deep search and collaboration, KMWorld Jun 22, 2011.

Collaboration

[outline teampage features for creation / profiles / status / permissions ]

Configurable and Extensible

Traction® TeamPage provides built-in forms to install, configure and manage the initial setup including permissioned access rules and connection to external email, Active Directory, LDAP, and Jabber services.

Accessories Pricing

TeamPage Feedreader: Adds the capability to read and publish RSS or Atom Feeds from external source for $2,500 per year, or $5,000 for a permanent license.

TeamPage Attivio Plus Pricing

Attivio Plus uses Attivio's Active Intelligence Engine™ (AIE) to index and analyze content stored in external business systems including file servers, Microsoft SharePoint, Documentum, Lotus Notes - even records in SQL Databases.

A TeamPage Attivio Plus license makes Attivio's advanced capability affordable for small to mid size businesses by offering a la cart packaging and pricing of capabilities, starting at $25,000 per year for one source (for example File server data). You choose the external sources you want index and an upper bound on the number of documents or records indexed.

Cloud Hosted Pricing

Traction Software offers Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) hosted TeamPage servers, including Amazon backup of Journal data, Traction Software management and installation of TeamPage updates, and hosting for the Attivio Advanced Search option.

Standard TeamPage Pricing

A standard Traction TeamPage configuration includes unlimited TeamPage Spaces. Unlimited Spaces allow you to use independent Spaces for many different clients, customers, suppliers, partners or internal business activities. TeamPage Spaces make it simple to give internal and external groups access to the same TeamPage server, while making it easy to keep work for different clients or business activities separate and more private when that's important.

TeamPage Workgroup Pricing

A Traction TeamPage Workgroup configuration supports up to ten TeamPage Spaces. TeamPage Spaces make it simple to give internal and external groups access to the same TeamPage server, while making it easy to keep work for different clients or business activities separate and more private when that's important.

About TeamPage Licenses

Software updates, support and maintenance

TeamPage Attivio® Plus - Enterprise Search

Extend TeamPage Premium Search to the rest of your content with the TeamPage Attivio Plus Module. TeamPage Attivio Plus is built on Attivio's Active Intelligence Engine (AIE) platform.

TeamPage Social Enterprise Web

Extending Traction® TeamPage discussion, tagging, and tasking to the rest of your enterprise content and the public Web is a snap with Social Enterprise Web features. Comments, tags, tasks are recorded in TeamPage, linked to source pages on the public Web or your private intranet.

TeamPage Accessories

TeamPage Feed Reader

TeamPage Attivio Content Analysis, Search, Navigation

TeamPage Attivio® option adds world-class content analysis, search and navigation. Attivio’s Active Intelligence Engine™ (AIE) indexes TeamPage content and metadata, performs advanced linguistic and context analysis, delivers permission-aware, relevance-ranked search and content navigation.
 All TeamPage content is indexed and analyzed: articles, comments, status, links, relationships, space, tags, actions, authors, profiles, as well as attached documents and shared files - over 370 formats.

Traction TeamPage

Traction TeamPage integrates collaboration, communication, activity and profiles

Traction TeamPage: Connected Work

The future of work: 
collaboration, conversation, identity, work product, action tracking and activity streams in context, coupled by permission-aware deep search, spanning systems of record and transactional business systems. Traction TeamPage connects people, actions, what you create or find in TeamPage, the public Web, your company's intranet and your line of business systems, simply and securely.

Seamless integration can work like the Web | W3C Social Business Jam

I just joined the Nov 2011 W3C Social Business Jam and added a discussion topic: Seamless integration can work like the Web. I'm on deadline for Enterprise 2.0 next week in Santa Clara [ see you there ! ] but will try to steal time to jump in to a live IBM Jam while it's open (through Nov 10, 2011 8pm EST).

15-16 Nov 2011 | Traction Software Enterprise 2.0 Santa Clara

Traction Software's Greg Lloyd and Jordan Frank will be at Enterprise 2.0 Santa Clara Booth #208 15-16 Nov 2011. We hope to see you there! Traction Software will announce pricing and general availability of new Social Enterprise Web and Attivio Plus options, see Jacob Morgan's Chess Media Group review and Traction Software on Connected Work.

29 Oct 2011 | KMWorld - Rich options expand the collaborative horizon

Writing in KMWorld Magazine Judith Lamont quotes Forrester Analyst Rob Koplowitz: "Many companies are placing a big bet on collaboration to support their business activities. In particular, the workplace is moving toward one in which many business applications are integrated through collaboration and exposed through the social layer." Lamont chooses Traction® Teampage customer the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) as her first example. BGRI is an international research project funded by the Gates Foundation and others to organize and conduct research aimed at stopping the spread of crop disease that threatens a third of the world's wheat supply. "The organization selected TeamPage from Traction Software as the collaboration solution and the Attivio Active Intelligence Engine (AIE) to aggregate the many types of content on the website. TeamPage includes wiki, blog and social networking capabilities. "We chose TeamPage because it could be deployed very quickly and was simple to use," says John Bakum, webmaster for the site, which is hosted by Cornell. The site was up and running in just a few weeks, and has grown rapidly over the past several years."

Ada Lovelace Day | Betts Wald, US Naval Research Lab

Ada Lovelace Day celebrates the contributions of women in science and technology. I've chosen to write about Betts Wald who was a branch chief in the Communications Science division of the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) when I first met her. I joined NRL in 1974 as my first real job - after serving in the US Army when I was drafted as a graduate student at Brown. It was a great experience. NRL was full of wildly talented, energetic and brilliant managers who knew how to get impossible things done in engineering and government, and taught that skill to their teams. Betts was one of the best: leading and inspiring her team, running interference, providing just enough technical guidance (i.e. to avoid permanent damage) while constantly encouraging and developing her team's talents. Women in science and technology should be encouraged to consider career paths as leaders as well as individual contributors: Betts is a great role model. Although I never heard Betts shout: "To the difference engine!", except for the pipe it would be in character. And I'm not certain about the pipe.

7 Oct 2011 | Jacob Morgan - Emergent Collaboration Vendor Review: Traction Software

"I’ve seen the Traction product a few times now I have to say that I really like it and not just for small and medium size businesses. Traction offers an amazing search integration feature which many large vendors can’t even come close to replicating." Chess Media Group Principal and author Jacob Morgan just started a weekly series of concise, consistent, and even-handed public reviews of vendors in the emergent collaboration / Enterprise 2.0 space. Traction® Software is honored to chosen for the second review in Jacob's series. Jacob asks wide-ranging questions on overall direction, along with practical questions on integration, support, pricing, maintenance, time to go live, technology, focus, capabilities, customers, key differentiating factors from competition, along with Jacob's candid take.

Are Enterprise 2.0 & Web 2.0 Different? | KMWorld 2011 Panel, Thur Nov 3, 2011 Washington DC

KMWorld 2011 Panel C303 2pm-2:45pm Thur Nov 3, 2011. Join Traction® Software's Jordan Frank and a stellar panel from the FDA, Attivio, and Deloitte to discuss and debate the future of social software in the enterprise, how it relates to what you see and use on the public Web, and how it differs. Expect a lively discussion based on practical experience, research, and analysis. “We want Facebook for the enterprise!” That’s a call to action, but what does it mean, and why will it fail? There is a gulf of difference in the use case for 2.0 in the Enterprise vs. the Web. Deloitte research indicates the best starting point for E2.0 is exception management, not making friends. Permissions issues, incentives, and infrastructure differ enormously when you consider the enterprise vs. the web. Enterprise architects and decision makers need to look at the web to gather ideas but not to look in the mirror.

Athens Group - Traction® TeamPage for Quality Management, Training and Knowledge Base

Athens Group is an independent consulting firm based in Houston, Texas. In 2009, the company migrated their Athens Group Quality Management System (AGQMS), industry knowledge base, and training curriculum to Traction® TeamPage where the information is easily accessed, collectively edited, and the content can be moderated where necessary. TeamPage became their integrated Intranet. In 2011, the TeamPage Attivio Search Module was added to further improve information access with automatic page ranking and faceted drill down navigation.

1 Sept 2011 | KMWorld names TeamPage A Trend-Setting Product of 2011

KMWorld recognized Traction® Software's TeamPage as a Trend-Setting Product for 2011. Traction® TeamPage: "enables searching both external sources and TeamPage's Social Enterprise Web to discuss, tag, task, share and badge internal or external content." KMWorld's judging panel of editorial colleagues, analysts, system integrators and users evaluated over 800 products in reaching their decision for KMWorld's ninth annual list. Traction Software is honored that KMWorld has selected TeamPage as a Trend-Setting Product for the fourth time. » Read KMWorld Trend-Setting Products of 2011

What's the 2.0 of Enterprise 2.0? Or, How to Be Emergent?

Hat tip to Professor +Andrew McAfee for pointing out Do Happier People Work Harder? my nomination for Required Reading of the Day (#RRD). Teresa Amabile, a professor at Harvard Business School, and Steven Kramer an independent researcher wrote a great New York Times Labor Day opinion column. They cite sobering results from a Gallup-Healthways poll of 1,000 adults every day since Jan 2008: "People of all ages, and across income levels, are unhappy with their supervisors, apathetic about their organizations and detached from what they do." They also suggest that the problem is manageable - by what I would define as great enterprises.

23 Aug 2011 | Financial Times - Tapping the Full Power of Social Software as a Strategic Tool

Writing in the 23 Aug 2011 Financial Times, John Hagel and John Seely Brown of the Deloitte Center for the Edge advise CIO's how to improve performance, usually without increasing spending. They recommend that CIO's identify their biggest pain points, and adopt a Performance Improvement Funnel approach to leverage the unique, full value of social software. Hagel and Brown cite two examples from their Feb 2011 Social Software for Business study including: "Alcoa Fastening Systems reduced time spent on compliance activities by 61 percent using an internal collaborative platform provided by Traction® Software. Both companies targeted specific pain points and were able to deliver tangible improvement in performance that mattered to the senior executives of the firm." » Read the full story

Extending the fabric of work, or How to Be Emergent

I enjoyed reading Dion Hincliffe's Putting Social Business to Work and G+ discussion led by Luis Suarez on Laurie Buczek's The Big Failure of Enterprise 2.0 Social Business. I agree that top down - and isolated - Social Business parallels the faults of top down - and isolated - Knowledge Management. I like Laurie's analysis and recommendations, including her top level: "Make social tools part of the collaborative workflow." This is good for both social business and knowledge management. The question is: how to extend the fabric of work?

Lipstick on a Pig

On Aug 5, 2011, Andrew McAfee opened a public discussion on Google+ by sharing How Apple (unintentionally) revolutionized corporate IT by Aaron Levie. McAfee commented "Story from CNNMoney about how Apple is unintentionally revolutionizing corporate IT. About time, too." and asked "Does anyone doubt that the Cloud + mobile + social + new devices is going to have a huge impact on corporate technology infrastructures and costs within the next 5-10 years?" Off to the races...

3 Aug 2011 | Alcoa Fastening Systems: What were you doing at 7:15AM Saturday July 2, 2011? Joe Crumpler was working.

What were you doing at 7:15AM Saturday July 2, 2011? Sleeping? Getting ready for a Fourth of July weekend picnic or a trip to the beach? Joe Crumpler of Alcoa Fastening Systems (AFS) was reaching for his iPad to review status for the world wide roll-out of an Oracle upgrade scheduled for the holiday weekend. The story starts the night before. Joe writes in the Next Think Next blog that he co-authors with Brian Tullis:

A Circle is not a Space

Like many people in the tech industry, I've been happily exploring and enjoying Google+ for the past week or so (thank you Susan Scrupski for the early invitation). I like the Google+ bar, polished integration with Google Profiles, Photos, and Video, as well as the new Huddle and Hangout capabilities. And I'm looking forward to Google+ integrated Search. Nov 20, 2015 update: Google's updated Community and Collection model finally gives Google+ something like a shared Spaces as well as email-like Circles. Keep reading for thoughts on why Circles never caught on. - grl

Introducing Online Workplaces - Greg's notes on Larry Cannell's July 2011 Webinar

Larry Cannell, Research Director, Gartner Group presented great slides and hosted an excellent webinar on July 7, 2011 based on his research and experience. Free registration gives public access to a recording of the Webinar and a copy of Larry's slides - at least for a few days (after than please check Gartner Webinar Archives). Please register and learn! Larry will also be leading sessions at Gartner Catalyst Conference 2011 San Diego, July 26-29. Larry's framework is very crisply stated, general and useful. The 65 slides include very helpful diagrams, examples, scorecard decision aids, and more. These are just top level points from my notes.

29 June 2011 | AppGap Review - Traction Introduces TeamPage Attivio Plus and Social Enterprise Web

Bill Ives AppGap Review analyzes Traction® Software's E2.0 Boston 2011 Traction® TeamPage Attivio Plus and Social Enterprise Web announcement. Ives says: "Using search as a lever to span silos and system of record makes their native content addressable and actionable in place without import or conversion. This is similar to the way search loosely couples content across many sources on the public Web, but focused on a business intranet." Ives also reviews project dashboard and activity stream capabilities introduced with Traction TeamPage Release 5.2, saying: "I also like what they are doing with Activity Streams as I think this is one of the most important features of an Enterprise 2.0 platform." » Read the Full Story

27 June 2011 | Forbes - Reevaluating Performance Management

Forbes Connected Business blogger Rawn Shaw writes on the value of keeping a record of your work. This observable work practice documents your accomplishments, helps you understand your own performance, preserves knowledge, and provides context when you and others work on the same project, talk to the same customer, or you transfer to a new job. Shaw says: "The subtler psychological point is that it is easier to document and track a project or activity if you can do it in the flow of what you are doing, rather than returning after the activity is complete... In talking to Larry Hawes, analyst and consultant at Dow Brook Advisory Services, vendors like Traction® Software and IBM provide the tools to support managing a practice of observable work." » Read the full story

24 June 2011 | Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check - Marrying deep search and collaboration

Analyst Peter O'Kelly comments on KMWorld's Marrying deep search and navigation saying "...While it may not (yet…) be trendy to be the market-leading collaborative hypertext journaling platform, I believe that’s what the Traction team has created, and that TeamPages’s underlying architecture and flexibility, especially when used in conjunction with Attivio for faceted search and navigation, make it especially powerful for the various types of tools and services (workspaces, blogs, wikis, activity streams, tagging, tasks, etc.) now commonly associated with “social” software/services." » Read the full post

22 June 2011 | KMWorld - Marrying deep search and collaboration

Traction and Attivio team up for the enterprise Traction® Software has released TeamPage Attivio Search Plus to index and search external sources and Traction® TeamPage's Social Enterprise Web to discuss, tag, task, share and badge internal or external content. These TeamPage options connect TeamPage with structured data or unstructured content in sources including Microsoft SharePoint, EMC Documentum, Microsoft Exchange, file servers, SQL databases, intranets, and the public Web. » Read the full story

21 June 2011 | Asahi.com「TeamPage 5.2」を販売開始 ～タスクリスト機能を強化、プロジェクト全体の俯瞰的な状況把握を可能に～

Yokohama Japan, 21 Jun 2011 Applied Knowledge Company, Inc President Masayuki Kojima announces availability of Traction® TeamPage 5.2 in Japan. The newest release of TeamPage includes an enhanced task list, providing enhanced situational awareness and a birds-eye view of entire projects. TeamPage includes a fully localized Japanese user interface selectable as a default or personal preference as well as Japanese language search. » Read the Japanese language release or Google English translation.

21 June 2011 | Traction Software Introduces Social Enterprise Web

Discover, Discuss, Tag, Task, and Share Content stored in SharePoint, Documentum, File servers, Exchange, SQL Databases, and the Web Boston, Mass / Enterprise 2.0 Conference Booth #418 — June 21, 2011 — Traction® Software Inc, the leader in social software for work, today announced Traction® TeamPage Attivio Search Plus to index and search external sources, and Traction® TeamPage Social Enterprise Web to discuss, tag, task, share and badge internal or external content. These TeamPage options connect TeamPage with structured data or unstructured content in sources including Microsoft SharePoint, EMC Documentum, Microsoft Exchange, file servers, SQL databases, intranets, and the public Web. Read » Full Release Download Traction TeamPage Social Web Handout (.pdf)

21 June 2011 | Traction Software Introduces Social Enterprise Web

Discover, Discuss, Tag, Task, and Share Content stored in SharePoint, Documentum, File servers, Exchange, SQL Databases, and the Web Boston, Mass / Enterprise 2.0 Conference Booth #418 — June 21, 2011 — Traction® Software Inc, the leader in social software for work, today announced Traction® TeamPage Attivio Search Plus to index and search external sources, and Traction® TeamPage Social Enterprise Web to discuss, tag, task, share and badge internal or external content. These TeamPage options connect TeamPage with structured data or unstructured content in sources including Microsoft SharePoint, EMC Documentum, Microsoft Exchange, file servers, SQL databases, intranets, and the public Web. [ Download Traction TeamPage Social Web handout (.pdf) ]

15 June 2011 | The App Gap - Software Announcements at the Boston Enterprise 2.0 Conference

Bill Ives writes in The App Gap: The Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston this coming week is often a place for related new product announcements. That is certainly the case this year. Here is the list of companies making announcements leading up to or at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference that I received this week. I have also spoken to three of the firms this week, Adobe, NewsGator, and Traction, and more in-depth coverage of their new moves will follow on this blog. I am also scheduled to speak to a few others in the coming weeks. » Read the full story

14 June 2011 | Fierce Content Management - One on One with Greg Lloyd of Traction Software

Fierce Content Management editor Ron Miller interviews Traction® Software President and co-founder Greg Lloyd. Topics include: Enterprise 2.0 evolution, business benefits and barriers to wide-spread adoption; relationship between content management, enterprise collaboration tools, search and knowledge management; why Traction Software decided to introduce a project-driven metaphor for Traction® TeamPage collaboration: "GL: I believe the ability to link plans, actions, discussion and work product (in any system of record) in context is the key to unlocking the value of social software for businesses of any size." » Read the full story

21-22 Jun 2011 | Traction Software Enterprise 2.0 Boston

Traction Software will be exhibiting at Enterprise 2.0 Boston Booth #418 on 21-22 June, and we hope to see you there! Learn about Traction's new TeamPage 5.2 release that combines the freedom of social software with action tracking for follow through. Traction Software customers in Deloitte's independent Social Software for Business Performance study show dramatic, measurable results. Learn more and position your organization for growth in 2011. We'll also be making a product and partnership announcements that you won't want to miss - stay tuned here, see us a E2.0 Boston, or follow @TractionTeam on Twitter. To pre-schedule a meeting with Jordan Frank or Greg Lloyd at E2.0 Boston, please email e20boston@tractionsoftware.com, use Traction's contact form or use Twitter. Update: see 21 June 2011 | Traction Software Introduces Social Enterprise Web

25 May 2011 | Attivio and Traction Software Help Power Borlaug Global Rust Initiative to a 2011 Computerworld Honors Program Nomination

Newton MA — May 25, 2011 — Attivio, Inc. announced that IDG's Computerworld Honors Program has acknowledged its work with the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) and Traction® Software to create a community portal developed to help fight the spread of wheat rust. As part of the award program, the BGRI has been named as a 2011 Laureate. The annual award program honors visionary applications of information technology promoting positive social, economic and educational change. The BGRI project organizers, led by Cornell University, selected Traction® TeamPage, a social software solution that combines wiki, blog, tagging, activity streams, discussion and social networking capabilities in a secure, scalable Enterprise 2.0 social software platform, as a basis for the portal. Additionally, Attivio's Active Intelligence Engine (AIE), was chosen to power search and information access, which are considered to be vital functions for the website. The Computerworld Honors awards will be presented at the Annual Laureates Medal Ceremony & Gala Awards on June 20, 2011 at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C. Read » Full Release See also BGRI UG-99 Video

20 May 2011 | CMS Wire - Traction Updates TeamPage to v5.2, Adds HTML 5

CMS Wire reporter Geoff Spick on Traction® TeamPage 5.2: "Having made a big play of tracking and collaboration in last year's 5.1 TeamPage release of its social enterprise tool, Traction makes reading what's going on easier with the introduction of slick-looking, context-based dashboards and activity feeds in the new 5.2 release." He says: "Able to view projects by tasks, people working on them, conversation threads, Traction TeamPage can be used by all parties, including teams, clients and other users with permission-based access to appropriate parts of a project and encourage collaboration and rapid solution of speed bumps or problems" » Read the Full Story

16 May 2011 | Fierce Content Management - TeamPage 5.2 adds dashboard and project tracking

Fierce Content Management editor Ron Miller describes Traction® TeamPage 5.2 as providing new tools to track different levels of project activity. The project dashboard tracks detailed actions, while also allowing you to step back to see the bigger picture. Miller says: "When you see something you like you can tag it or comment on it and help raise the visibility of the post for others who might be interested in it. Using the project metaphor as the basis for understanding information in the corporate social stream, the idea is to give you a hook on which to hang the information. » Read the Full Story

The Debate Zone: Has the US passed peak productivity growth? | McKinsey & Company

See the lively McKinsey & Company What Matters debate, Tyler Cowen: "Yes. The big gains in the 20th century resulted from transformative innovations that are much rarer today." versus Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson: "No. We’ve only just begun to reap the productivity benefits of digital technology." Read the analysis, lively comments, and jump in! My two cents (also posted as What Matters comment): I agree with Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson's analysis that digital technology - including but not limited to the Web, communications and computer technology - is a GPT that "leads to fundamental changes in the production process of those using the new invention." and whose impact on productivity will be felt over decades, not years.

HTML 5 Drag-and-Drop Support

Traction TeamPage 5.2 introduces HTML 5 Drag-and-Drop to insert images, attach files to articles, or drag files to TeamPage share folders.

Zoom in to focus, zoom out for awareness, bubble up items in the flow of work

There's been a lot of Web and Twitter discussion about the value of activity streams to promote broad awareness versus the potential problem of showing too much information and having important signals get lost in the flow. I believe that the best solution is to allow people to selectively zoom into activity streams, status and discussions - clipped by space, project, person or milestone - to focus on any particular activity in context. To focus more precisely, click a watch button to get notification when anything is added, changed, or discussed in a context you want to monitor carefully.

Action Tracking and Project Management

Traction® TeamPage dashboards show actions, status, and activities in the context of work, using a format that's easy to read and reduces information overload. You can quickly jot down Tasks, or right click a paragraph in TeamPage to add a Task tag to that paragraph. Integrated action tracking is a standard feature of every TeamPage product.

10 May 2011 | Traction® TeamPage 5.2 Introduces Dashboards for Action Tracking, Project and Case Management

Providence RI — May 10, 2011— Traction® Software Inc, the leader in enterprise social software for work today announced Traction® TeamPage Release 5.2 with new capabilities to make it simple to track actions, show activity, watch status, and follow discussions embedded in the flow of collaborative work. TeamPage 5.2's new activity dashboards show actions, status and work in context using a format that's easy to read and reduces information overload. Activity dashboards allow people dive into and watch activity associated with projects or milestones they want to focus on, while also seeing, searching, exploring and connecting with others across a broad view of actions organized by business context as well as person. Read » Full Release and videos

10 May 2011 | Traction® TeamPage 5.2 Introduces Dashboards for Action Tracking, Project and Case Management

Providence RI — May 10, 2011— Traction® Software Inc, the leader in enterprise social software for work today announced Traction® TeamPage Release 5.2 with new capabilities to make it simple to track actions, show activity, watch status, and follow discussions embedded in the flow of collaborative work. TeamPage 5.2's new activity dashboards show actions, status and work in context using a format that's easy to read and reduces information overload. These dashboards allow people dive into and watch activity associated with projects or milestones they want to focus on, while also seeing, searching, exploring and connecting with others across a broad view of activity organized by business context as well as person.

Literate Business and Euan Semple

Euan Semple's Literate Business post of May 4, 2011 is well worth reading. In preparing to write his book, Euan noted "There's something wrong with the names we use for social web tools in business... whether Enterprise 2.0, Social business or whatever."

Water Cooler ROI Part II - Project Networks Improve Performance

In Water Cooler ROI - Putting Social Software to Productive Work I pointed to some terrific research that uncovered the extent to which project work relies on communication (in various mediums) and how digital networks actual enhance productivity (with a 7% increase in one case). More fuel for the fire comes from Why Project Networks Beat Project Teams, a study published in the MIT Sloan Management Review last month.

Need for Incentives, and other Innovation Myths

In our own Customer Forum, Rolf Isaksen (click here for blog's main page) recently asked: "Why do we need incentives to share?" Some of the follow-on conversation converged on "we don't" with some good pointer to experience and research supporting that premise. Rather, focusing on intrinsic motivation rather than rewards can net greater benefit and long lasting E2.0 success.

I won a ticket to Google I/O!

We've been using the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) for about 2 years and have also gone to the past 2 years of Google I/O. It's been a fun and useful conference and there was no question we were going to go again this year.

Deloitte and Sampson: Focus on process, the "why" not the "what", for social software

I found a common thread on process centric adoption in the Deloitte Center for the Edge's Social Software for Business Performance report and Michael Sampson's User Adoption Strategies book. This advice is reflected in my post on Emergineering from last fall.

March 11 - Vannevar Bush's Birthday

The Computer History Museum's This Day In History March 11 reminded me that today is the birthday of Vannevar Bush (born March 11, 1890), a distinguished educator, engineer, Vice President and Dean of MIT, and President of the Carnegie Institution. As World War II Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, Bush managed all US wartime research, reporting directly to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. After the War he was instrumental in creation of the National Science Foundation based on a 1944 request from FDR. Bush is also known as the author of a famous July 1945 Atlantic Monthly essay As We May Think, where he described a possible "new relationship between the thinking man and the sum of our knowledge" including the Memex - a literary machine which inspired the invention of hypertext twenty years later - and indirectly lead to creation of the Web. See the video archive of the MIT / Brown Vannevar Bush Symposium on the 50th Anniversary of As We May Think for a great collection of talks by Doug Engelbart, Ted Nelson, Andy van Dam, Tim Berners-Lee, Alan Kay, and others inspired by Bush and and his work.

Traction Software Co-sponsors PMI Mass Bay Chapter's Professional Development Day 30 April 2011

Traction Software is happy to co-sponsor the Project Management Institute Mass Bay Chapter Professional Development Day, Saturday 30 April 2011 at the Conference Center at Bentley University, Waltham MA. The event is open to PMI members and non-members - anyone engaged in or impacted by the Project Management profession, from Junior and Senior Project Managers to Managers and Senior Staff. Enjoy the keynote and breakout sessions and earn 6 PDU's toward the Project Management Institute's Professional Education Requirements. See and ask questions about Traction TeamPage's new integrated Action Tracking and Project Management capabilities at the sponsor exhibit during lunch and breaks. For more information, see the PMI Mass Bay PDD registration and program page.

1 March 2011 | Traction Software Named to KMWorld's 100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management

For the seventh consecutive year, KMWorld recognized Traction® Software's market leadership by naming the company to their KMWorld 100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management. The list is compiled by KMWorld's panel of KM practitioners, theorists, analysts, vendors and their customers and colleagues. "We're honored that KMWorld continues to rank Traction Software as a company that matters in Knowledge Management," said Greg Lloyd, Traction Software President and co-founder, "In 2010 we brought Traction® TeamPage Release 5.0 and 5.1 to market, introducing a new generation of social software with integrated collaboration, communication, action tracking and exception handling along with a user interface that's fast, great looking and simple to use. I thank Traction Software's employees and customers for earning this recognition as well as KMWorld for awarding it." » See the 2011 KMWorld 100 list

28 Feb 2011 | テプコシステムズが社内システムのサポート業務にアプライドナレッジの企業向けコラボレーションツール「TeamPage」を採用

[TEPCO Systems Corporation adopts Traction® TeamPage for enterprise support services] 株式会社アプライドナレッジ(本社：神奈川県横浜市、代表取締役：小島 政行)は、東京電力グループの情報子会社である株式会社テプコシステムズ(本社：東京都江東区、代表取締役社長：平井 憲)が、社内システムサポート業務のプラットフォームとしてアプライドナレッジの企業向けコラボレーションツール「TeamPage」を採用したことを発 表します。テプコシステムズの総務部情報管理グループでは現在、約2,000名の社員からの社内IT基盤の利用に関する問い合わせに7名の専任者で回答業務を行って います。これまで主にメールシステムで業務を行っていましたが、グループ内での回答過程の共有や回答履歴の蓄積を徹底して業務品質を向上させる目的で 「TeamPage」を導入し、本年1月より本格運用を開始しました。 Read » full release (Japanese)

28 Feb 2011 | Attivio and Traction Software Bridge Worldwide Scientific Community With Enterprise 2.0 Technology

NEWTON, Mass, Feb. 28, 2011 -- Attivio, Inc. and Traction® Software today announced their work with the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) and Cornell University to create a community portal, bringing together scientists, biologists, universities and agricultural organizations from more than 45 countries to collaborate, educate and disseminate details on wheat rust research and best practices to prevent its spread. To date, the portal has been very successful and was recently honored with a 2010 Forrester Groundswell Award in the category of "Social Impact".

23 Feb 2011 | Traction TeamPage customers Alcoa and Ensign Bickford featured in Deloitte "Social Software for Business Performance" report

Traction® TeamPage customers Alcoa Fastening Systems and Ensign Bickford Aerospace & Defense are featured in this independent Deloitte research report: Social Software for Business Performance (.pdf) - The missing link in social software: Measurable Business improvements by John Hagel III of the Deloitte Center for the Edge. See video interview with John Hagel and a Web version of the report, Metrics that Matter, published by Deloitte University Press.

The Future of Work Platforms: Like Jazz

Yesterday I read GigaOM analyst and editor Haydn Shaughnessy's Future of Work Platforms report (registration required, free seven day trial available). I commented: Haydn -- A very thoughtful and useful analysis – a combination that’s all too rare! I’m particularly happy to see your thoughts on observable work (see the full report for Haydn's excellent analysis).

Ever since Jon Udell coined the term, it struck me as good way to talk about practical benefits and a business purpose for collaboration. In my opinion it helps by pealing back issues of privacy in context and activity streams, along with subtleties required to support the social dance of getting things done, dealing with exceptions, and staying aware of what’s going around you without getting swamped. This is much closer to jazz than the world of canned business transactions. It requires a level of attention to ease of use and user experience that’s just as important but in many ways more challenging to do well in a business context than for the public Web.

15 Feb 2011 | GigaOM Pro - The Future of Work Platforms

GigaOm Pro analyst Haydn Shaughnessy writes "The enterprise collaboration space has entered an exciting new phase of collaboration. New software and applications are coming to market, as are new concepts for how to work and communicate in the knowledge age." Shaughnessy analyzes the new diversity of work, the human element, and provides key takeaways as well as reviews of hosted and E2.0 collaborative platforms. The free summary includes complete table of contents [ including Traction® Software in the E2.0 Platform space ]. A GigaOm Pro subscription is required to view the full report, with a seven day Free Trial available. » Read the summary see also The Future of Work Platforms: Like Jazz

15 Feb 2011 | Web Worker Daily - Looking Beyond the Features to Find Good Collaboration Tools

Simon Mackie of Web Worker Daily writes about the new GigaOm Pro report on The Future of Work Platforms (subscription required). Mackie highlights experience, driving new concepts in collaborative, work, ease of implementation, deep system integration, work process innovation, and stronger management oversight as potentially sustainable differentiators for companies [ including Traction® Software ] in a feature comparison table from the report. » Read the full story.

4 Feb 2010 | SFGate - New Research Benchmarks Best Practices in Mobile Marketing, Business Intelligence and Enterprise Collaboration

Gleanster today announced the publication of three new "Gleansight" benchmark reports, on Mobile Marketing, Business Intelligence and Enterprise Collaboration. Drawing from the experiences of more than five hundred companies, the reports offer a comprehensive look at how Top Performers are implementing each of these initiatives to achieve their desired business objectives.

Applied Knowledge Co Ltd - Bringing Traction TeamPage 5.1 to Japan

Our long-time Japanese reseller partner Applied Knowledge Co Ltd has done a great job bringing Traction TeamPage to the Japanese market. They are an excellent sales and consulting partner for Japanese market customers. AKJ also has deep experience applying Enterprise 2.0 principles, the Traction TeamPage SDK, Japanese Language localization of the TeamPage interface, and Japanese advanced linguistics and faceted navigation capabilities of Traction's Attivio powered Advanced Search.

December 2010 | Gilbane Conference - Portal vs. Enterprise Social Software Panel

Jordan Frank writes: At the Gilbane Conference last month I stood in for Greg Lloyd in the Portal or Enterprise Social Software: Which Collaboration Environment to Choose? panel with David Seuss (CEO, Northern Light) and Jay Batson (Co-Founder and VP, Acquia).

Doug Engelbart's copy of As We May Think - with Doug's 1962 notes scribbled in the margins

The Doug Engelbart Foundation's 1995 Vannevar Bush Symposium video archive page includes a section on Bush's influence on Doug's work, including his copy of Bush's As We May Think with Doug's 1962 notes in the margins (pdf). Talk about deeply intertwingled living history. Per a note in the .pdf, the original hardcopy has apparently been donated to the Computer History Museum. Look for this paper when the Computer History Museum's Revolution - The First 2000 Years of Computing exhibit opens in Mountain View CA - and online on 13 Jan 2011.

14 Dec 2010 | TECH.ASCII.jp - プロジェクトの円滑な遂行をサポートする「TeamPage 5.1」 アプライドナレッジ、コラボレーションツールの新版を発表

12月13日、アプライドナレッジは、コラボレーションツール「TeamPage 5.1」を発表。同日より販売開始した。

7 Dec 2010 | CTOLabs - The 75 Most Disruptive Enterprise IT Capabilities

Bob Gourley, CTOLabs writes: "This list reviews the companies regarded as having very high potential to change the way IT is done in large enterprises. For a company to be on the list they must have a currently shipping capability that appears to be a real game changer in enterprise IT." Traction® Software is listed as one of the Disruptive small to medium companies versus IT Powerhouses like IBM, Microsoft and Oracle. » Read the Full Story

2 Dec 2010 | AppGap Review - Traction TeamPage 5.1 Moves Forward with Project Management Capabilities

Bill Ives AppGap Review of Traction® TeamPage Release 5.1 focuses on Traction's new integrated action tracking and project management: "The action tracking concept is not old school project management with Gantt charts and resource allocation. It is allowing employees to manage their work tasks and make this management transparent to those who need to know...This is the action tracking part of project management for the regular employee, not the program management office. It brings this activity into the enterprise 2.0 world as every task is treated as an object for comments, RSS, and made searchable to those with the proper permissions. Traction has always had great granular security and this permission level technology is applied here, as well." » Read the Full Story

1 Dec 2010 | KMWorld - Collaborate Completely

Traction® Software has announced new Traction® TeamPage capabilities to help teams work together more effectively. Traction TeamPage Release 5.1 makes it easy for individuals to see their own action plans, the status of shared projects, team workload, individual progress and team progress toward common goals--all within the context of the TeamPage collaboration and communication platform where the planned work can also be managed or done. » Read the full story

30 Nov 2010 | R&D Magazine | Borlaug Global Rust Initiative wins industry award

Cornell information specialists received a 2010 Forrester Groundswell Award Nov. 19 for the globalrust.org website, which provides wheat warriors the advantages they need to combat the virulent new diseases of wheat that threaten world food security... From the beginning, the project presented various communication challenges related to intranets and extranets that the DRRW Web team knew they would have to solve to engage all the project partners... "We wanted to engage wheat scientists and promote multidimensional engagement," said Nelson, former communications director for the DRRW and an extension associate at Cornell. "We were looking for the ability to mix social, mobile, multichannel and media to make it easier for these high-value scientists to work together."... A combination of Traction® TeamPage software and Attivio's Active Intelligence Engine enables the globalrust.org website to be user-friendly and deliver key content to more than 300 researchers daily » Read the full story

22 Nov 2010 | Traction Software named to EContent 100 Companies that Matter 2010-2011

Traction Software is honored to be named one of EContent Magazine's one hundred companies that matter most in the digital content industry. Traction was one of only ten companies named to the list in the collaboration category. Traction Software partner Attivio was named to the 2010 EContent 100 list in the search category. EContent Editor-in-chief Michelle Manafy said: "... this year our judging team was tougher than ever before. Few (if any) incumbents were kept on through mindshare and momentum alone; every company was held up to scrutiny in terms of innovation and meeting customer needs. It was a challenging year for voting—as it has been for the companies that made this list through their hard work, customer focus, and continued responsiveness to the changing digital content landscape. The need to leverage tools to effectively maximize the value of digital content has never been greater. Like the creation of this list, the process is a tough one, but it’s well worth it." » See the EContent 100 Introduction and Category Descriptions and the EContent Judging Team.

19 Nov 2010 | Borlaug Global Rust Initiative Wins 2010 Forrester Groundswell Social Impact Award

London, November 19, 2010 Forrester Research, Inc. honored the six final 2010 Forrester Groundswell Award winners for excellence in effective use of social technologies to advance an organizational or business goal. Winners of the fourth annual Forrester Groundswell Awards in the International Business-to-Consumer (B2C) division were honored at Forrester's Marketing & Strategy Forum EMEA in London. "We're thrilled by the diversity and quality of the entries in this year's International Forrester Groundswell Awards," said Nate Elliott, principal analyst at Forrester. "With consumers worldwide embracing social technologies, the Groundswell is now global. The finalists and winners we've recognized — including local efforts on four continents and a number of truly global programs — are among the leaders in using social tools to reach and serve their customers." » Read the Forrester Press Release

Good Titles/Headlines are Good Practice

In my role as an emergineer, I talk a lot about best practices and how they can be leveraged in a given customer deployment. One practice that works in any sphere from email to social software and journalism is to write a good headline.

16-18 Nov 2010 | Showcasing Traction TeamPage 5.1 at KMWorld 2010 Washington DC

Meet Jordan Frank and see Traction® TeamPage 5.1 at Booth # 406, KMWorld 2010 at the Renaissance Washington DC Hotel. TeamPage Release 5.1 makes it easy for individuals to see their own action plans, the status of shared projects, team workload, individual progress, and team progress toward common goals, all within the context of the TeamPage collaboration and communication platform. This clear and simple model is focused on the lightweight coordination of individual and team actions that drive collection, analysis and planning for knowledge management, intelligence analysis, and all business activities.

Borlaug Global Rust Initiative

Combating the Wheat Rust Pandemic: Bridging the Worldwide Scientific Community with Enterprise 2.0 Social Software -- Wheat rust is a serious fungal disease affecting wheat caused by the rust fungus Puccinia triticina. It is the most prevalent of all the wheat rust diseases, occurring in nearly all areas where wheat is grown. Thought to be all but extinct for more than 50 years, the world is now facing a new pandemic of wheat rust -- Ug99, a highly virulent stem rust variant. This strain could potentially be responsible for the destruction of more than a third of worldwide wheat production. Such a failure could be devastating as wheat is the world's most widely planted crop and accounts for a fifth of humanity's calorie intake (1).

9 Nov 2010 | EContent - Collaboration and Knowledge Management Working Well Together

EContent's Marji McClure reports on how collaborative tools integrated with knowledge capture can streamline complex business processes while also providing valuable insights organizations for future use. She interviewed D. Craig McHenry, senior director of competitor insights of Pfizer Nutrition. “The big issue we found ourselves needing to address,” says McHenry, “was how do we really build over time a complete record of the different pieces of information gathered and analyzed and assessed and document it? How do we create a living history or a living document of that conversation?” McHenry and his team turned to Traction® TeamPage. McHenry cites benefits of the Traction solution including reduction in the amount of information being pushed through the company's email system, making it less burdensome to stay engaged and on top of what happens in discussion. » Read the full story

9 Nov 2010 | Portals and KM - Traction Team Page 5.1 Integrates Project Management Capabilities

Analyst Bill Ives reviews Traction® TeamPage Release 5.1 new Action Tracking capabilities. Bill includes screen shots of task, milestone and personal profile views along with his analysis. He says: "The action tracking concept is not old school project management with Gantt charts and resource allocation. It is allowing employees to manage their work tasks and make this management transparent to those who need to know. This is where the observable work comes it. I have seen considerable improvement in employee and team performance when their work becomes transparent to the right others. The spot light does wonders when applied correctly. ... I think that this complete collection of new capabilities builds on the strong platform already established to take it further into the ideal of enterprise 2.0. Here the activities of an organization are accessible to those who need to know and this transparency operates at the task or action level." » Read the Full Story

9 Nov 2010 | Traction® TeamPage 5.1 Introduces Integrated Action Tracking For Improved Team Performance

Santa Clara CA / Enterprise 2.0 — November 9, 2010 — Bridging project management and the flow of work Traction® Software, the leader in enterprise social software innovation, today announced new Traction® TeamPage capabilities to help teams work together more effectively. Traction TeamPage Release 5.1 makes it easy for individuals to see their own action plans, the status of shared projects, team workload, individual progress, and team progress toward common goals – all within the context of the TeamPage collaboration and communication platform where the planned work can also be managed or done.

9 Nov 2010 | Traction® TeamPage 5.1 Introduces Integrated Action Tracking For Improved Team Performance

Santa Clara CA / Enterprise 2.0 — November 9, 2010 — Bridging project management and the flow of work Traction Software, the leader in enterprise social software innovation, today announced new Traction® TeamPage capabilities to help teams work together more effectively. Traction TeamPage Release 5.1 makes it easy for individuals to see their own action plans, the status of shared projects, team workload, individual progress, and team progress toward common goals – all within the context of the TeamPage collaboration and communication platform where the planned work can also be managed or done. Read » full release

8 Nov 2010 | EContent - A Case of Life-Saving Collaboration

EContent reporter Kurt Schiller describes how the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) is marshaling a global response to a threat to world's food supply. Wheat rust is a virulent crop disease spread by the wind that can rapidly decimate crops leading to drastically reduced harvest and the threat of famine - currently endangering Africa, Asia and the Middle East. BGRI chose Traction® TeamPage and its Attivio powered advanced search capability to quickly stand up a hub for collaborative scientific research, planning and public communication of the latest research results to a global audience. See the Traction TeamPage powered BGRI site globalrust.org » Read the Full Story

Action Tracking with Tasks, Milestones, and Projects

Traction TeamPage action tracking is simple to use and seamlessly integrated with Traction TeamPage's award winning Enterprise 2.0 collaboration, communication, microblogging and social networking capabilities. One click adds a task tag to any page, comment, status post or paragraph with automatic rollup by person, date, milestone or project, putting project management in the natural flow of work.

Traction TeamPage 5.1: Social Software, Meet Project Management

TUG 2010 Newport | Interviews

Paula Thornton followed up on a TUG tradition she started last year with a series of short and lively interviews of folk who participated in TUG 2010 Newport. This year Paula interviewed: Brian Tullis, Alcoa (preview below); Michael Wadsworth; Patrice Livingston and Masayuki Kojima, AKJ Ltd.

TUG 2010 Newport | Videos and Slides

TUG 2010 Newport was the best Traction® User Group meeting yet! For links to individual video and audio podcasts of the fifth annual Traction User Group 12-15 Oct 2010 sessions and slides, see the TUG 2010 Newport Agenda page. See Chris Nuzum, Traction® Software CTO and co-founder's TUG 2010 Traction Update below.

TUG 2010 Newport | Thank you!

TUG 2010 Newport just wrapped up after four busy and enjoyable days. It's hard to express how grateful I am to the customers, partners, friends - and the Traction Software team - who made this such an enjoyable event. First I'd like to thank keynote speakers Jim McGee, Chris Nuzum, Jon Udell as well as customers, friends and partners whose thoughtful talks and enthusiasm made Wednesday's sessions so rewarding.

Follow TUG 2010 Newport on Twitter

If you can't make it to the fifth annual Traction User Group meeting on 12-15 October 2010 in Newport RI, you can still join the fun on Twitter! Use hash tag #TUG2010 to follow updates from Newport or ask questions. You can also follow folk attending TUG 2010 Newport with the TUG2010-Newport list

Jon Udell to give closing keynote and join TUG 2010 Newport Observable Workshop

Jon Udell - author, information architect, software developer and new media innovator - will give a closing keynote for the 2010 Traction User Group conference in Newport RI on 13 Oct 2010, bookending Jim McGee's opening keynote on Observable Work. Jon's 1999 book, Practical Internet Groupware, helped lay the foundation for what we now call social software. Udell was formerly a software developer at Lotus, BYTE Magazine’s executive editor and Web maven, and an independent consultant. He is now a writer and producer for Microsoft as well as a hands on organizer of the elmcity project, see Jon's blog and bio page.

Fixing Enterprise Search

A few days ago the Enterprise 2.0 Blog published Venkatesh Rao's excellent post The Real Reasons Enterprise Search is Broken. When he hears ironic jokes comparing search on the public Web versus internal enterprise search, Venkatesh notes: "People move on because they seem to think that this is incompetence at work. Search is soo 1.0 right? It's been solved and we're just fumbling the execution, right?" He says: "I have reached a radical conclusion: broken search is the problem, but fixing search is not the solution. Search breaks behind the firewall for social, not technical reasons... Let's start with the blindingly obvious, and then draw some weird conclusions." I think they are perceptive conclusions based on sound analysis, and agree with most, but come at the problem from a different angle.

1 Sept 2010 | KMWorld names Traction TeamPage a Trend-Setting Product of 2010

KMWorld recognizes Traction® Software's continued leadership in the Enterprise 2.0 market, naming Traction® TeamPage a KMWorld Trend-Setting Product of 2010. KMWorld Editor in Chief Hugh McKellar says: "This year, more than 600 products were assessed by our judging panel which consists of editorial colleagues, analysts, system integrators, vendors themselves (sometimes even competitive ones), line-of-business managers and users. The products selected all demonstrate clearly identifiable technology breakthroughs that serve the vendors’ full spectrum of constituencies, especially their customers." » Read the September 1, 2010 KMWorld Trend-Setting Products of 2010 announcement.

30 Aug 2010 | Borlaug Global Rust Initiative: Forrester Groundswell Award Nomination

The Borlaug Global Rust Initiative is a great example of Enterprise 2.0 technology used to support global collaboration aimed at finding and implementing a solution to a complex and urgent problem - as originally envisioned by hypertext pioneer Douglas Engelbart. How urgent? "90 percent of the world's wheat has little or no protection against Ug99 wheat rust. This plant disease could quickly spread and annihilate a crop that provides a third of the world's calories." The Borlaug Global Rust Initiative was formed to reduce the world's vulnerability to wheat rust diseases through a first-ever international collaboration in wheat research. We're happy the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative case has been nominated for Forrester's 2010 GroundSwell award. Please read the Groundswell page on The Borlaug Global Rust Initiative's Knowledge Bank - and add your own rating, comment and review for the BGRI case and others.

30 Aug 2010 | Alcoa Fastening Systems: Forrester Groundswell Award Nomination

Brian Tullis and Joe Crumpler of Alcoa Fastening Systems have done a great job speaking and writing about their experience using Traction® TeamPage to support their innovative approach to project work. A lot of people ask for Enterprise 2.0 examples which show measurable return and provide practical advice based on experience: Brian and Joe do exactly that. We're happy their Alcoa Fastening Systems case has been nominated for Forrester's 2010 GroundSwell award. Please read the Groundswell page on Observable Work Principles - and add your own rating, comment and review on their case and others. Here's their Groundswell page summary:

Work you can see x Who you know = What you can do

Work you can see x Who you know = What you can do
With thanks to Jessica Hagy
Who created her great This is what 2.0 means drawing on Aug 14, 2010.

29 July 2010 | Enterprise 2.0 and Observable Work: Brian Tullis and Joe Crumpler, Burton Group Catalyst 2010 Santa Diego

Brian Tullis and Joe Crumpler did a lively talk on Enterprise 2.0 and Observable Work at the Burton Group Catalyst 2010 North America conference in San Diego. For those of us who couldn't be there in person, see their Abstract quoted below and the enthusiastic Twitter stream from 29 Jul 2010! I'll add a link to their speaker notes and slides when they become available. Update: Brian posted Enterprise 2.0 and Observable work slides and speaker notes, see inline Slideshare below. Sounded like a super session!

Jim McGee to Keynote TUG 2010 Newport

Jim McGee, Managing Director at New Shoreham Consulting, expert on organizational design and change management for Enterprise 2.0 and Social Media Technologies will deliver the Traction User Group 2010 opening keynote in Newport Rhode Island on Oct 13. Jim is also well known as the author of the popular McGee's Musings weblog on Knowledge Management, Enterprise 2.0 and Social Media technology. On Twitter follow Jim as @JMcGee.

Intertwingled Work and Adaptive Case Management

Tuesday July 6, 2010: As promised, John Tropea posted a comprehensive analysis and synthesis on observable work and Adaptive Case Management (and much more) titled: Have we been doing Enterprise 2.0 in reverse : Socialising processes and Adaptive Case Management It's a great post that's long for a very good reason: John pulls together many themes with well-sourced references and quotes [ another apology to the easily distracted ]. I won't use this comment to summarize all of the points I find interesting and valuable - there's a lot to come back to! I'll will try to summarize one theme John develops that seems directly relevant to Intertwingled Work.

re: Enterprise 2.0 and Observable Work

Monday July 5, 2010: For an update on the Observable Work conversation, see Blog1424: Intertwingled Work

Intertwingled Work

Last week's post by Jim McGee Managing the visibility of knowledge work kicked off a nice conversation on Observable Work (using a term introduced by Jon Udell) including: my blog post expanding on a comment I wrote on Jim's post; Brian Tullis's Observable Work: The Taming of the Flow based on a comment Brian made on Jim's post, which he found from a Twitter update by @jmcgee retweeted by @roundtrip; a Twitter conversation using the hash tag #OWork (for "Observable Work"); John Tropea's comment back to Jim from a link in a comment I left on John's Ambient Awareness is the new normal post; Jim's Observable work - more on knowledge work visibility (#owork), linking back to Mary Abraham's TMI post and Jack Vinson's Invisible Work - spray paint needed post, both written in response to Jim's original post; followed by Jack Vinson's Explicit work (#owork) and Paula Thornton's Enterprise 2.0 Infrastructure for Synchronicity.

re: Enterprise 2.0 and Observable Work

Friday June 25, 2010: Observable Work discussion centered on Jim McGee's original blog post Managing the visibility of knowledge work, including a comment and blog post: Observable Work: The Taming of the Flow by @briantullis and a comment and analysis with several well sourced examples by @johnt, including this:

Enterprise 2.0 and Observable Work

I really like Jim McGee's Jun 23, 2010 blog post Managing the visibility of knowledge work. Jim makes the excellent point that "Invisibility is an accidental and little-recognized characteristic of digital knowledge work." and points back to his 2002 post Knowledge Work as Craft Work to reflect on what Jim calls a "dangerous tension between industrial frameworks and knowledge work as craft work". Early in his 2002 post McGee says:

gwt-traction project on Google Code

While building our new GWT-based Proteus skin for Traction TeamPage 5.0, we created some widgets and utilities that we thought other developers would find useful. Most of these are pretty simple, but we hope they save other GWT developers some time. As we factor out code that can be shared with others, we'll add more to this gwt-traction Google community project.

re: 14-16 June 2010 | Traction Software at Enterprise 2.0 Boston

Thanks to Bill Ives for his writeup of my panel: Selling the Case for Accelerating Business Performance with Enterprise Collaboration Tools.

re: Social Process Reengineering?

The title of this entry had three goals. First, I wanted to convey and play off the stark differences between Social Process Reengineering and Business Process Reengineering. Second, I wanted to leverage the similarities of SPR and BPR to explain that these two processes can, and need, to co-exist rather than compete. Finally, I wanted to ask the question about whether this is the right term of the process. After dozens of conversations with the best minds in E2.0 this week, I've reconciled to a a more targeted and appropriate term: Emergineering!.

Emergineering!

Since introducing the idea of Social Process Reengineering? earlier this week I've socialized it virtually and personally (at E2.0 Boston) with at least a dozen customers, bloggers, analysts and other leading thinkers.

Consensus on the concept was generally positive with a variety of feedback ranging from the matter that the "facebook" approach doesn't just work in the enterprise to the matter that the social, structural and business pain have to be taken into account for successful E2.0 efforts.

Welcome to Traction TeamPage 5.0!

On Tuesday June 15, 2010 we'll introduce Traction TeamPage Release 5.0 to the world at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston. TeamPage Release 5.0's new generation Proteus interface technology is fast, simple, and looks great. TeamPage 5.0 leverages this technology to add extensible personal profile pages, Twitter style personal status, group live blog technology, slick and simple Feed summary and more as a natural part of Traction's award winning Enterprise 2.0 platform.

15 June 2010 | Traction TeamPage 5.0 Delivers Integrated Social Networking and Collaboration with New Generation Interface Technology

Enterprise 2.0 Boston MA — June 15, 2010 — A fresh look at how social networking and collaboration work for business Traction® Software, the leading developer of enterprise 2.0 social software for secure, scalable collaboration, today announced Traction® TeamPage Release 5.0. This release uses Traction’s new generation Proteus interface technology to deliver a look and feel that’s fast, easy to use, and looks great. TeamPage 5.0 leverages this technology to integrate extensible personal profile pages, Twitter style personal status, group live blog technology, a slick and simple Feed summary and more as natural parts of Traction's award winning Enterprise 2.0 collaboration platform. Read » full release

Traction TeamPage 5.0 Delivers Integrated Social Networking And Collaboration With New Generation Interface Technology

Enterprise 2.0 Boston MA — June 15, 2010 — A fresh look at how social networking and collaboration work for business — Traction® Software, the leading developer of enterprise 2.0 social software for secure, scalable collaboration, today announced Traction® TeamPage™ Release 5.0. This release uses Traction’s new generation Proteus interface technology to deliver a look and feel that’s fast, easy to use, and looks great. TeamPage 5.0 leverages this technology to integrate extensible personal profile pages, Twitter style personal status, group live blog technology, a slick and simple Feed summary and more as natural parts of Traction's award winning Enterprise 2.0 collaboration platform.

Social Process Reengineering?

As much as I hesitate to introduce this term into social software lingo, I think it's exactly what Enterprises are doing with social software on the road to Enterprise 2.0 - striving for a fundamentally new way to work.

The title of this entry had three goals. First, I wanted to convey and play off the stark differences between Social Process Reengineering and Business Process Reengineering. Second, I wanted to leverage the similarities of SPR and BPR to explain that these two processes can, and need, to co-exist rather than compete. Finally, I wanted to ask the question about whether this is the right term of the process. After dozens of conversations with the best minds in E2.0 this week, I've reconciled to a a more targeted and appropriate term: Emergineering!. When the emergineer shows up at your door-step, you welcome him or her as someone who can help support a people-centric process which has an underlying structure and requires various types of leadership, but has an unknown outcome. After you read the rest of this entry on Social Process Reeingineering, please continue on with Emergineering!. June 18, 2010 | # | Jordan Frank The title of this entry had three goals. First, I wanted to convey and play ... June 18, 2010 | # | Jordan Frank

Traction TeamPage 5.0: Social Software for Work

Traction® TeamPage Release 5.0's new generation interface technology is fast, simple, and looks great. TeamPage 5.0 leverages this technology to deliver personal profile pages, Twitter style personal status, a flexible follow model with faceted navigation, a top down Feed view of activity and more as a natural part of Traction's award winning Enterprise 2.0 collaboration platform. TeamPage 5.0 puts social software to work for activities that matter most for your business including new product development, sales, life cycle product support, communication with clients and sales partners, collaboration with customers and key suppliers, tracking business issues, marketing and competitive intelligence.

Q: How do I link to an Excel file? A: Why Would you Do That?

I talked to two customers yesterday, both who came to me with some questions about attaching and linking to excel files. Easy enough, but before responding with a simple answer I challenged them: Why are you using Excel?

14-16 June 2010 | Traction Software at Enterprise 2.0 Boston

If you plan to attend Enterprise 2.0 Boston 2010, be sure to visit Traction Software at Booth #515 between 11:30 am through 6:00 pm Tuesday and Wednesday for a major Traction TeamPage product announcement and demonstration! Jordan Frank will be at E2.0 Boston as a panelist for Monday morning's Selling the Case for Accelerating Business Performance with Enterprise Collaboration Technologies Workshop run by Oliver Marks and Sameer Patel (8:30-11:45am). He'll also represent Traction Software for the Social Vendor Idol competition versus Blue Kiwi, Cubetree, Newsgator and Socialtext (3:30-4:30pm Tuesday) - be sure to watch and vote! Greg Lloyd will be a panelist on Mike Gotta's Expert Panel on Standards for Social Computing in the Enterprise (2:15-3:15pm Wednesday). To schedule a meeting, please email e20boston@tractionsoftware.com See you in Boston!

12-15 Oct 2010 | Fifth Annual Traction User Group Meeting, TUG 2010 Newport

Traction Software's Fifth Annual Traction User Group Meeting (TUG 2010) will be in Newport Rhode Island, 12-15 October 2010. Mark your calendars! Wed 13 Oct will feature an opening keynote by Jim McGee followed by a TeamPage update by Chris Nuzum CTO and co-founder of Traction Software, a talk by Attivio VP of Engineering Rik Tamm-Daniels, customer stories, and a closing keynote by Jon Udell. If you can't attend TUG 2010 Newport in person Follow TUG 2010 Newport on Twitter

26 May 2010 | John Tropea - Software for agile ad-hoc processes

John Tropea writes May 26, 2010: A while ago I posted about using wikis to handle process failures, conversations around objects, and activity-centric collaboration; well these posts highly relate to informal processes and ad-hoc collaboration, which is something Jordan Frank know’s a lot about, and which the software firm he works for (Traction Software) can deliver in a way that really differentiates them from other players in the market like Jive SBS, Socialtext, Open Text Social Workplace, etc. See John's Software for agile ad-hoc processes blog post for Jordan's video clip, along with John's summary of key points, and analysis including:

19 May 2010 | Attivio Customer Spotlight: Traction Software

Attivio's customer portfolio features some of the most innovative and forward-looking companies in the technology and business sectors. See Attivio Customer Spotlight: Traction® Software for a video featuring Traction Software's Greg Lloyd, Jordan Frank and Chris Nuzum.

The spy who came in from the code | O'Reilly Radar | Carmen Medina interview

See The spy who came in from the code for James Turner's excellent O'Reilly Radar interview with Carmen Medina who recently retired from the CIA after 32 years after serving in roles including Deputy Director of Intelligence, and Director of the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence. Carmen was the keynote speaker at Traction Software's Oct 2009 Traction User Group meeting, speaking on Enterprise 2.0 and the Context of Work (see slides and video). She'll speak at the Gov 2.0 Expo on May 26, 2010 Washington DC on A Match made in Heaven: High Reliability-High Risk Organizations and the Power of Social Networks. Don't miss her talk, and follow @milouness on Twitter!

30 April 2010 | Traction TeamPage is AIIM E2.0 Community Buyer's Guide Featured Product

April 30, 2010 Traction® TeamPage is the top featured product of the AIIM Enterprise 2.0 Community Buyer's Guide. Read Traction TeamPage rating and reviews.

Return On Information

Rather than thinking about communication, collaboration and KM software in terms of Return on Investment, isn't the real goal to achieve Return On Information?

Ada Lovelace Day | Fran Allen, IBM Fellow and A.M. Turing Award Winner

For the second annual Ada Lovelace Day, March 24, 2010 - celebrating women in science and technology - I've chosen to write about Frances E. Allen, IBM Fellow, Turing Award winner and pioneer in the theory and practice of optimizing compilers. I've never had the pleasure of meeting her in person, but I'll take the liberty of calling her Fran, as Dick Merwin and everyone I know called her in their Fran stories.

Social Media Policy Almost = Blabbing Policy

After reading 10 Social Media Commandment for Employers, I was reminded of Blogging Policy = Blabbing Policy, a blog entry I wrote back in 2006 when the the "conversation" in the blog-o-sphere started to center on corporate blogging policies.

20 April 2010｜ナレッジマネジメント フォーラム2010 に出展

Traction® Software Partner Applied Knowledge Company Ltd will participate in the Knowledge Management Society of Japan's 2010 Knowledge Management Forum held in Tokyo, 20 April 2010. AKJ will demonstrate Traction® TeamPage at the Exhibition Showcase, and AKJ CEO Masayuki Kojima will lead a free Traction TeamPage workshop (registration required). See Knowledge Management Forum 2010 [ in Japanese ] for more participation and registration information.

1 March 2010 | Traction Software Named to KMWorld's "100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management"

For the sixth consecutive year, KMWorld recognized Traction® Software's market leadership in Enterprise 2.0 Social Software by naming the company to their KMWorld 100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management. The list is compiled by KMWorld's panel of KM practitioners, theorists, analysts, vendors and their customers and colleagues. "We're honored by KMWorld's recognition of Traction Software. I'm extremely happy to accept this award on behalf of Traction's outstanding employees, partners and customers. " said Greg Lloyd, Traction Software President and co-founder, "I believe that customer success using Traction® TeamPage is proving the business value of knowledge management by making KM part of the context of work, benefiting everyone in the organization, every day." » See the 2010 KMWorld 100 list

26 Feb 2010 | Great Wired Magazine story on Borlaug Global Rust Initiative

Read this Wired Magazine story Red Menace: Stop the Ug99 Fungus Before Its Spores Bring Starvation on the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative's leadership in a global collaborative effort to combat a critical threat to the world's food supply. Fighting Ug99 wheat rust requires a global response bringing together a diverse community in the US, Africa, Europe and Asia, including plant biologists, plant breeders, field agents, molecular biologists, NGO's, and BGRI sponsors. We're happy and proud that that BGRI is a Traction® Software customer, and that BGRI's globalrust.org site is powered by Traction® TeamPage, used as a hub for both public information on Ug99 wheat rust and for global collaborative scientific research.

Garry Kasparov on Computer Chess and Enterprise 2.0

Professor Andrew McAfee posted a very good business analysis of points made by Garry Kasparov in his Feb 11, 2010 New York Review of Books article on Diego Rasskin-Gutman's book Chess Metaphors: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Mind. Kasparov's summarized of his own thoughts as a Chess Grandmaster and world chess champion playing against - and losing to - IBM's Deep Blue chess computer. But the interesting part comes when Kasparov talks about a recent match open to grandmasters who were allowed to use computer chess programs of their choice to augment their own chess skills: "The surprise came at the conclusion of the event. The winner was revealed to be not a grandmaster with a state-of-the-art PC but a pair of amateur American chess players using three computers at the same time." McAfee quotes Kasparov and continues:

Doug Engelbart | 85th Birthday Jan 30, 2010

"DOUG Engelbart sat under a twenty-two-foot-high video screen, "dealing lightning with both hands." At least that's the way it seemed to Chuck Thacker, a young Xerox PARC computer designer who was later shown a video of the demonstration that changed the course of the computer world." from What the Dormouse Said, John Markoff.

19 Jan 2010 | Jack Vinson - Responsibility to collaborate - Jordan Frank

Business and KM consultant Jack Vinson follows Jim McGee's suggestion and posts his own thoughts on Paula Thornton's video interview with Traction Software's Jordan Frank Vinson says: "The idea behind "responsibility to collaborate" is that the world of work has shifted from my value being solely about I know, though that is still important. Now it is just as important to spread the word and bring together my ideas with those of others in a more open way. This also plays at a group level, where collective responsibility to work together and learn from one another can elevate the level of conversation for people the next time they have an official business meeting. Imagine having issues established and discussed in an easily-accessible way (instead of behind closed doors or even at the water cooler)." » Read his full Knowledge Jolt with Jack post and watch the video.

7 Jan 2010 | Jim McGee - Jordan Frank on ‘responsibility to collaborate’ – lessons in enterprise 2.0 implementations

New Shoreham Consulting Managing Director Jim McGee encourages readers to watch and reflect on Paula Thornton's video interview with Traction Software's Jordan Frank McGee says: "You need to develop a well-tuned design sense to take full advantage of the technologies intended to support collaborative and creative knowledge work. You need to be especially careful to avoid the temptations to over-engineer the technology or the process. The examples that Jordan shares are rooted in the augmentation philosophies of Doug Engelbart rather than the automation philosophies of Frederick Taylor." » Read the full 7 Jan 2010 McGee's Musings post and watch the video.

For more video interviews and Traction User Group talks see the Traction User Group channel on Blip.tv and 12-15 Oct 2010 | Fifth Annual Traction User Group Meeting, TUG 2010 Newport

22 Dec 2009 | the{app}gap - Traction Introduces New Capabilities and Partners with Team Page 4.2

AppGap Analyst Bill Ives reviews Traction® TeamPage Release 4.2 new capabilities, focusing on the Developer Release preview of Traction's Google Web Toolkit (GWT) based Proteus interface. Traction® Software President Greg Lloyd demonstrated Proteus using Traction's production TeamPage server and content. Bill includes screen shots of Proteus Feed views that make it easy to scan and navigate status, new content, edits, tag and moderation actions by space or person - including aggregate roll-up views. Proteus' use of GWT technology makes updates and navigation speedy using automatically compiled web-browser optimized updates that are delivered incrementally. This makes navigation, inline editing and animation effects fast, simple and attractive as well as extensible and developer friendly. Bill concludes: "I think these are all very smart moves and makes Traction more attractive to large enterprise. There is the greater flexibility of interface through Google Web Toolkit, more robust search through Attivio, and heavy duty data management through Oracle. I am looking forward to seeing what they do next." » Read the Full Story

See also Introducing Proteus (demo) for brief tour and Proteus GWT Tech talk slides and interviews.

re: Explaining Twitter - One of Three Places for People

Update Dec 17, 2009: Facebook's controversial ex-post facto revision of member privacy settings along with the revenue driven rise of apps like Farmville (as well as sleezy internal promotion) lead me to revisit this, see Blog1232: Facebook: A Carnival Midway not a Neighborhood?

Facebook: A Carnival Midway not a Neighborhood?

Oliver Marks wrote a very good post: Facebook: The Legal Rumblings Start Dec 17, 2009, on the Facebook's potential legal exposure due to its controversial changes to member privacy capabilities and settings. My comment: Oliver -- Very good followup on Facebook's awkward (to put it mildly) changes to selective privacy capabilities which were a large part of their differentiation vs Friendster and MySpace.

With over 70 million folk apparently hooked on "social" games like Farmville, targeted ads that seem to belong on late night TV, and incredibly lame attempts to nag folk get their friends to use Facebook more (giving "viral" a new and flu like meaning), I see Facebook becoming a downscale carnival midway more than a neighborhood. They certainly have a right to do that.

Originally I thought the equally lame and manipulative privacy changes would just contribute to the downmarket feel of the place.

But as you point out - EU privacy laws may land them in legal entanglements too.

Facebook is becoming a bad example rather than a good example for use of social software in the enterprise - or anywhere for that matter. Look out below!

3 Dec 2009 | Forbes.com - Andrew McAfee: What Enterprise 2.0 Really Means

MIT Center for Digital Business principle research scientist Andrew McAfee references Traction® Software President Greg Lloyd's Enterprise 2.0 Schism blog post in thinking about and responding to points raised in recent Enterprise 2.0 debates. McAfee does not believe that "... E2.0's tools, approaches and philosophies making managers, hierarchies, org charts and formal cross functional business processes obsolete," but does believe that "... ESSPs [ Emergent Social Software Platforms ] will have about as big an impact on the informal processes of the organization as large-scale commercial enterprise systems (ERP, CRM, Supply Chain, etc.) have had on the formal processes." A that's huge deal for organizations. » Read the Full Story

See also follow-on discussion: How big a deal is Enterprise 2.0? What do you mean by "Big"?

Using Enterprise 2.0 to Get Work Done | Collaboration and Content Strategies Blog

Burton Group Analyst Larry Cannell on Traction® Software President Greg Lloyd's recent blog post: "This Enterprise 2.0 perspective is about bringing to bear the resources a company has to help people make the best decisions and improving the quality of their collective work. This is language even a pragmatic business manager can understand." Cannell would like to see more coverage of Enterprise 2.0 from a work based perspective. » Read the Full Story and more on Burton Group's Online Workplace Framework.

Nov 2009 | CMSWire - TeamPage 4.2 Adds Mobile Features, Two Way Email Collaboration

CMSWire's David Roe says Traction® TeamPage Release 4.2 has added "... new features that gives users the ability to post content and comments on company wikis or blogs ‘on the road’ with simple, secure two-way email based collaboration." Roe characterizes this release as "... more than just an upgrade enabling collaboration using Blackberry or other mobile devices" with its use of a new internal architecture that enables Attivio search and an Oracle RDB backend demonstrated at Enterprise 2.0 San Francisco. » Read the Full Story

Nov 2009 | the{app}gap - Attivio Aligns with Traction and Releases New Features

AppGap Analyst Bill Ives interviews Attivio CTO Sid Probstein and VP of Marketing Maryanne Sinville on Traction® Software's selection of the Attivio Active Intelligence Engine™ to power Traction® TeamPage advanced search and content navigation. Sid explains how Attivio's early binding and query-side JOIN operator allows TeamPage to "link security with content that matches the users query and permissions". Sid provides examples using Traction TeamPage Release 4.2 screenshots showing Attivio powered TeamPage permission aware search, faceted navigation and tag clouds, and discusses Attivio's sentiment analyzer and Classification Module. » Read the Full Story

30 Nov 2009 | アプライドナレッジ、協 働作業を支援するエンタープライズBlog＆Wiki「TeamPage」の新バージョン 4.1をリリース

Traction® Software Partner Applied Knowledge Company Ltd announces availability of new Traction® TeamPage release with full Japanese language localization and support » Read the Full Story [ in Japanese ] See also www.TractionSoftware.jp for news on TUG 2009 Japan

25 Nov 2009 | Fierce Content Management - Traction Teams with Attivio for secure social search

Ron Miller of Fierce Content Management writes about a conversation he had with Traction® Software President Greg Lloyd and Attivio CTO Sid Probstein. Miller says: "This is an interesting partnership because, as I've written here before, Enterprise 2.0 collaboration technology has the potential to be an organic knowledge management engine." Combining search, collaboration, and a security model is important. » Read the Full Story

19 Nov 2009 | Ontologies & Tagsonomies at Taxonomy Boot Camp

While at KMWorld 2009, Jordan Frank, Traction® Software VP of Sales and Business Development led a customer panel titled What's Social About Software and co-led a talk with Christine Connors of TriviumRLG at KMWorld 2009's counterpart, Taxonomy Boot Camp. In the session, Ontologies & Tagsonomies: Linked Data, Web 3.0 Tag Mush! Christine addressed questions including: What do ontologies provide that taxonomies and thesauri lack? What is the big deal about the semantic web? What’s the difference between the semantic web, linked data, and Web 3.0 and what are the technologies that will power this next evolution of the web? Jordan explored how driven social tagging can work for or against you and then suggests tagging and search driven entity extraction strategies that can put tagging to productive work. » Click here for the PDF of Jordan's presentation.

How big a deal is Enterprise 2.0? What do you mean by "Big"?

I'm flattered that Professor Andrew McAfee cites Enterprise 2.0 Schism in his Nov 20, 2009 blog post Enterprise 2.0 is Not THAT Big a Deal, kicking off a neat discussion on serious points behind my tongue in cheek analysis. McAfee agrees that Enterprise 2.0 is a big deal - but "... I don't see E2.0's tools, approaches, and philosophies making obsolete managers, hierarchies, org charts and formal cross functional business processes". There's no need to use a 2.0 version for the Enterprise, but:

Peter Drucker and Enterprise 2.0 | Drucker Centenary

Earlier this week Oliver Marks wrote an excellent post on his Collaboration 2.0 Blog: The Purpose of a Business is to Create a Customer' - Peter Drucker Centenary. Oliver celebrates the Nov 19, 2009 Centenary of Peter Drucker's birth with two of his favorite Drucker bumper sticker quotes: " ‘Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes‘ and ‘There is an enormous number of managers who have retired on the job‘, which somehow seem to fit together very well." then uses these quotes as context to discuss the disturbing findings of the 2009 Shift Index report and followup analysis by John Hagel, John Seely Brown and Lang Davidson of the Deloitte Center for The Edge. Please read Oliver's full post - you'll like it. Oliver was also used kind words to build on my earlier Enterprise 2.0 Schism post. Here's a slightly extended version of the comment I posted in reply, along with my two favorite Drucker bumper sticker quotes and several links to celebrate Drucker's birth and life.

17-19 Nov 2009 | What's Social About Software? | KMWorld 2009 San Jose

Jordan Frank, Traction® Software VP of Sales and Business Development will moderate a KMWorld 2009 panel What's Social About Software Wednesday Nov 18th 4:14 to 5:00PM: As "social software" is finding its way into the enterprise, people are wondering what's social about software and why it matters. These practitioners from leading organizations share their views on the realities of how interactions in social software platforms lead to productive work in the enterprise. Panel members include:
Carol Stickley, Manager, IT Knowledge Management - Avery Dennison
Joe Crumpler, IT Manager, ERP and Integration Projects - Alcoa Fastening Systems
Brian Tullis, Director, Information Services - Alcoa Fastening Systems

Enterprise 2.0 Schism

I have to confess that I've enjoyed watching recent rounds of Enterprise 2.0 discussion and mud wrestling. The fact that so many people enjoy debating definitions, values, doctrinal principals - even the existence of Enterprise 2.0 - makes me think that E2.0 might best be framed as a religious debate. With that in mind, I'd like to introduce a new and exciting element: schism.

Introducing Proteus (demo)

Traction Software Director of User Experience Michael Angeles introduces Traction's new Google Web Toolkit (GWT) based Proteus user interface with a brief tour (video below).

TUG 2009 Providence | Thank you!

I'd like to thank all of the Traction customers, partners and friends who traveled to Providence last month to make TUG 2009 Providence as enjoyable as it was enlightening. Special thanks to keynote speakers Carmen Medina, Chris Nuzum, Stewart Mader and all of the customers and partners who participated in the Oct 14 Main event. And my personal thanks to everyone on the Traction Software team who worked so hard to bring TeamPage R4.2, the Oracle RDB backend, Attivo Advance Search, and the Proteus Google Web Tookit (GWT) UI to life. I don't know what we'll do to top TUG 2009 next year - but TUG members provides some excellent ideas! See TUG 2009 Providence | Keynotes by Carmen Medina, Chris Nuzum and Stewart Mader for links to TUG videos, slide shows, interviews, tech talks and more, along with how become a TUG member and join the conversation. TUG registration is free and open to the public.

2 Nov 2009 | Traction Software Showcases New Collaboration Capabilities at Enterprise 2.0 Conference

Traction® Software today showcased three major capabilities that build on the new Traction® TeamPage™ 4.2 release also announced today. “Traction TeamPage has always gotten high marks for its capabilities from analysts, independent reviewers and some of the most demanding and innovative customers in the world,” said Greg Lloyd, president and CEO of Traction Software. “We’re happy to be in this position to listen to our customers as well as the market. Today I’m happy to show Traction’s new Proteus Google Web Toolkit (GWT)-based Web interface and Attivio's Active Intelligence Engine™ (AIE) running on Traction TeamPage Release 4.2. These new capabilities combine Traction’s proven strengths with true innovation - delivering a simple, fast and beautiful user experience that leverages Google’s great Web user interface technology and Attivio’s track record for advanced search, and industry leading innovation in content analysis and navigation. The Oracle RDB backend for Traction TeamPage is a new option for customers with mission critical applications where the ability deploy and maintain all TeamPage data in an Oracle 10g or 11g server provides outstanding ease of use for a high-availability configuration on an RDB platform that’s the gold standard for enterprise IT.” All three new capabilities are available for evaluation and developer release of TeamPage R4.2 starting today, with customer qualified releases starting this quarter. Read » full release

Traction Software Showcases New Collaboration Capabilities at Enterprise 2.0 Conference

Enterprise 2.0 Conference, San Francisco, CA —November 2, 2009 — Advanced Search, Oracle RDB Backend and a fast, simple, and powerful user experience that scales Traction® Software, the leading developer of enterprise 2.0 social software for secure, scalable collaboration, today announced that it is demonstrating new capabilities at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference November 3-5 at the Moscone North Convention Center in San Francisco, CA, Demo Pod #21. Traction will be showcasing Traction TeamPage using Attivio’s Active Intelligence Engine (AIE) along with the TeamPage Oracle RDB option and Traction’s new Google Web Toolkit (GWT)-based Proteus user interface. These capabilities extend Traction’s award winning platform for product development, professional services, pharma, and government customers who choose TeamPage as the best solution for mission critical secure internal and external collaboration. A Development Release of Traction’s new Proteus GWT based user interface and Attivio Advanced Search are running now on Traction TeamPage Release 4.2, which was announced and ships today.

2 Nov 2009 | Traction TeamPage Release 4.2 Adds Mobile Subscription, Notification, and Email Collaboration to Award Winning Enterprise 2.0 Platform

Traction® Software today announced Release 4.2 of its award winning Traction® TeamPage™ enterprise 2.0 social software platform. The software now includes flexible mobile subscription and notification allowing road warriors to easily post content and comments with simple, secure two-way e-mail based collaboration. “With Traction customers in consulting and professional services as well as the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, high tech and government industries, we often see people using BlackBerry and other mobile email devices as much or more than their desktop or laptop Web browsers,” said Traction’s CEO Greg Lloyd. “We defined and developed these capabilities by collaborating with TeamPage customers in professional service firms who love their BlackBerry email as much as they love TeamPage in their browser. These new subscription features bring Enterprise 2.0 collaboration to the road warrior, making it easy to get a clean and simple summary including automatically generated context.” Read » full release

TeamPage Release 4.2: Traction Software Adds Mobile Subscription, Notification and Email Collaboration to its Award Winning Enterprise 2.0 Social Software

Enterprise 2.0 Conference, San Francisco, CA —November 2, 2009 Traction® TeamPage 4.2 developed in collaboration with Traction’s road warrior customers— Traction® Software, the leading developer of enterprise 2.0 social software for secure, scalable collaboration, today announced release of Traction TeamPage 4.2 of Traction’s award-winning TeamPage™ enterprise 2.0 social software platform. The software now includes flexible mobile subscription and notification allowing road warriors to easily post content and comments with simple, secure two-way e-mail based collaboration. As the first release using an updated Traction platform architecture, Traction TeamPage 4.2 combines wiki, blog, social tagging, discussion and social networking capabilities in a secure, scalable collaboration platform.

14 Oct 2009 | Traction Software Selects Attivio to Power Information Access for Enterprise 2.0 Social Software

Traction® Software and Attivio today announced that Attvio's Active Intelligence Engine™ will power the Advanced Search and content navigation functions of its Traction® TeamPage Enterprise 2.0 platform. Traction evaluated several market-leading solutions before choosing Attvio's unified information access engine for its single, flexible API, full Java support as well as its sophisticated and secure permissioning model. “Traction Software’s award-winning social software enables enterprises and government agencies to share information and collaborate in a secure environment. We needed to partner with an information access company that would enable our users to securely capture and share data across entities from one central repository,” said Greg Lloyd, President & Co-Founder of Traction Software. “Attivio was the clear choice for a variety of reasons, including its ability to update information in real-time to ensure the most relevant and current results. AIE improves our users’ ability to find content quickly and offers a dramatically smaller footprint than our previous search engine solution.” » Read full release

Traction Software Selects Attivio to Power Information Access for Enterprise 2.0 Social Software

NEWTON, MASS. – October 14, 2009 -- Attivio Active Intelligence Engine’s Permissioning Model and Real-Time Updates Prove Key Differentiators in Replacing Leading Search Solution at Traction Attivio, Inc. today announced that Traction® Software, the leading developer of Enterprise 2.0 social software, has chosen the Attivio Active Intelligence Engine ™ (AIE) to replace its legacy enterprise search solution for easier indexing, retrieval of content and an enhanced user experience. As part of the selection process, Traction evaluated several market-leading solutions before choosing Attivio’s unified information access engine for its single, flexible API, full Java support as well as its sophisticated and secure permissioning model.

Where's Greg?

You may have noticed a slow down in blog posts by Jordan and myself, and attributed that to our work for TUG 2009 Providence last week, and you'd be partially right (but it was fun - as you'll learn). You can also blame our slower blog posting to time spent on Twitter, both as individuals: @roundtrip (Greg Lloyd) and @jordanfrank and using the Traction Software corporate feed @tractionteam (which broadcasts the title and a shortened link to new content posted on TractionSoftware.com as well as original tweets).

What's being said about TUG 2009 on Twitter?

Can't attend the Traction User Group 2009 meeting in person? Follow what's being said and talk back on Twitter using tag #TUG2009 . The Main event starts at 9:00AM EDT Wed 14 October with Carmen Medina's opening keynote Enterprise 2.0 and the Context of Work, followed by Chris Nuzum CTO and co-founder leading the Traction Software Roadmap discussion at 10:45AM EDT. See TUG 2009 Providence | Keynotes by Carmen Medina, Chris Nuzum and Stewart Mader

Structuring for Emergence

Enterprise 2.0 Social Software is appealing for many reasons, but a core value is the facilitation of emergence. Many in our community may quibble with McAfee's definition of Enterprise 2.0 but I think all will agree that the need to support emergence is a key trait. However, an emergent discussion shines a light on the interacting role of structure and emergence.

2.0 Adoption Council | Neat Tweet!

Susan Scrupski (aka @ITSinsider) tweets Sep 22, 2009: reading a great preso by a Council member. great testimony for e20 vendor Traction Software @TractionTeam

re: At What Scale Can Web Services Survive?

9 Months later, I have an answer: 300 Million Users. It's good to see that all that traffic can add up to enough dollars to sustain the service. I wasn't looking forward a cash crunch at FaceBook leading to the dismantling of the network of friends I've spent a few hundred (or maybe a thousand) clicks putting together.

As We May Work - Andy van Dam

On April 17, 2008 Professor Andy van Dam of Brown University delivered the keynote address of the Enterprise 2.0 Summit 2009 Tokyo. Andy's title is a play on Vannevar Bush's July 1945 essay As We May Think. As We May Think inspired creation of pioneering hypertext systems by Andy, Ted Nelson, Doug Engelbart and others, leading to Tim Berners-Lee and the World Wide Web. The creators of these hypertext systems originally envisioned an environment where individuals could write, link, comment on and share what they wrote as well as search and read what others had written - core capabilities of what we now call social software for the public Web or an Enterprise. Andy's keynote is a personal history, and a vision of how the Web provides a new context for work as well as public communication, socialization, commerce, scholarship and entertainment. For the full slide set see As We May Work (.ppt 8.8MB), posted here with Andy's permission.

Is Twitter Like Going Out for a Smoke? - And Other stories

Bill Ives posted an interesting post Is Twitter Like Going Out for a Smoke?, responding to a Twitter / Water Cooler analogy by Arie Goldshlager and a smoker's network analogy pointed out by Stewart Mader and Gil Yehuda in Lessons from New York Smokers. I commented: Bill -- An interesting post and topic! I think there's likely an interesting history (and sociological studies) of how informal groups form and cross-link in businesses and other organizations.

28 Aug 2009 | KMWorld names Traction TeamPage a Trend-Setting Product of 2009

KMWorld recognizes Traction® Software's continued leadership in the Enterprise 2.0 market, naming Traction® TeamPage a KMWorld Trend-Setting Product of 2009. KMWorld Editor in Chief Hugh McKellar says: "[These products]... represent what we believe are the solutions that best exemplify the spirit of innovation demanded by the current economy, while providing their customers with the unique tools and capabilities to move and grow beyond the recession." » Read the August 28, 2009 KMWorld Trend-Setting Product announcement.

Project Artifacts - Risks, Issues, Questions, Requirements and more

Glen Alleman at Herding Cats offers really nice distinctions in Risks and Issues Are Not The Same. In the course of working with a lot of teams as they deploy TeamPage as a project wiki, I've seen a wide range of terms for project artifacts. The more these concepts are discussed and hashed out, the better.

Skiing on the Slope of Enlightenment

At our market launch in 2002, I recall all kinds of skepticism passing off the wiki and blog markets as a fad. Today, with a complete social software platform and the most robust wiki framework on the market, we are skiing on Gartner's Slope of Enlightenment. Gartner reports that Social Software suites are headed for the trough of disillusionment (a good and necessary transition before hitting the slope of enlightenment), though our customer case studies show little illusion about the tangible and necessary business value delivered by Traction TeamPage. » Read Gartner's press release and ReadWriteWeb's report. ReadWriteWeb's writeup.

TUG 2009 Providence | Keynotes by Carmen Medina, Chris Nuzum and Stewart Mader

Traction Software's fourth annual Traction User Group Meeting - TUG 2009 13-16 October 2009 in Providence RI - will feature an opening Keynote by Carmen Medina, closing Keynote by Stewart Mader and customer talks by Alcoa, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a top tier management consulting firm, and others. For live updates see What's being said about TUG 2009 on Twitter?. Tune in for Carmen Medina's 9:00AM EDT opening keynote followed by a Traction TeamPage Product Roadmap session and other highlights listed below. [ Update: See links below for TUG 2009 videos and slides ]

TeamPage ハンズオン セミナー | Free Seminars in Yokohama

Traction® Software partner Applied Knowledge Company Japan announces free Traction® TeamPage seminars July 29, Aug 7, Aug 26 2009 at AKJ's Yokohama office. See CNET Japan announcement or AKJ Seminar Page for registration details.

2 July 2009 | 出展レポート｜製薬IT ソリューション Expo 2009 (INTERPHEX 2009)

Traction® Software partner Applied Knowledge Company Japan President Masayuki Kojima spoke and exhibited at the 2009 Tokyo IT Pharma Solutions Expo. Kojima-san's theme was use of Traction® TeamPage to support strategic management of internal and external information. See highlights (in Japanese) below, with more information at TractionSoftware.jp

23 June 2009 | Enterprise 2.0 2009 Boston: Red Couch Interview with Greg Lloyd

Traction® Software President and Co-founder Greg Lloyd was invited to a video interview on the Level 3 Red Couch at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference 2009 Boston - see below.

13-16 Oct 2009 | Fourth Annual Traction User Group Meeting

Traction Software's fourth annual Traction User Group Meeting will be in Providence Rhode Island 13-16 October 2009. Mark your calendars! This year we'll feature more customer stories and roundtable / birds of a feather discussions as well as an exciting keynote and TeamPage roadmap session. In addition to the customer and keynote sessions we'll offer an afternoon of basic to power user Training preceding the Conference, and two days optional days of advanced training with SDL/SDK and Advanced Platform Topic tracks. For agenda, training, travel and registration information see tug2009.TractionS….

Compliance and Enterprise 2.0 - For the right reasons

Burton Group analyst Mike Gotta writes Compliance Doesn't Sell E2.0 … But It Should in his personal Collaborative Thinking blog. Mike summarizes a June 2009 E2.0 conference interview with Alexander Howard, quoted in Compliance concerns dog Enterprise 2.0 collaboration platforms. Howard asks:

How 1.5 is Greater than 2.0

I found Tom Davenport's discussion of Why 1.5 is Greater than 2.0 by way of Bill Ives in Mixing Old and New School Communication. Davenport talks about the social reasons in favor of a blend between social and traditional approaches. I think an answer to How 1.5, in this context, is Greater than 2.0 is both social and structural.

24 June 2009 | Enterprise Wiki Software Guide | Future Changes

Stuart Mader's Future Changes publishes a new Enterprise Wiki Software Guide. Mader identifies key Enterprise Wiki features and capabilities including: Workspaces, Permissions, User Management/LDAP, Notifications, Discussions and more. His summary for Traction® TeamPage begins " Traction TeamPage is an enterprise wiki with the ability to host multiple workspaces, page level permissions, a rich text editor, threaded discussions, tagging, search, page and comment moderation, blogging, and templates... » Read the Full Enterprise Wiki Software Guide

What's Social About Software? And Why It Matters.

Innovation starts with words, and ways to convey them.

Enterprise 2.0 2009 Conference & Presentation on What is Social About Software

This year's Enterprise 2.0 Conference was June 22-25. Traction® Software had a booth and Jordan Frank presented in the Market Leaders track on "What is Social About Software? And Why it Matters." Here's the presentation (PDF) and its abstract:

Bersin & Associates Enterprise Social Software 2009 Report Features Traction TeamPage

Bersin & Associates' analyst David Mallon included a profile of Traction® TeamPage in his report Enterprise Social Software 2009: Facts, Practical Analysis, Trends and Provider Profiles. The product profile shows "Complete or near complete functionality" in their Key Features Support, Collaboration, and Conversations score card. In the review of Traction TeamPage, the report says: "Traction also beats the odds when it comes to ability to innovate (the company is technologically at the top of the wiki field) and in providing customer support... Out of the box, Traction® Software’s TeamPage application is the most fully featured social software platform covered in this study. It has the security and permissions models required to meet IT’s standards. The interface is clean and user-friendly." » Read The Full Report (Bersin Subscription or Payment Required)

18 May 2009 | Open Enterprise 2009: Interview with Jordan Frank, Traction Software

Enterprise 2.0 Blog - Stowe Boyd writes May 18, 2009 I interviewed Jordan Frank, of Traction® Software, recently, an old friend that I haven’t spoken to in several years. Jordan and Traction have been working with companies applying social tools for quite a long time — almost ten years — and his insights are quite interesting, and detailed. >> Read More [ video below ]

11 May 2009 | Collaborative problem solving at KUKA

KMWorld quotes Tom Woodman, enterprise applications manager at KUKA Systems on use of Traction® TeamPage to track, manage and report on issues across project groups. Woodman says: “TeamPage helped us document what wasn’t working, collaborate around potential solutions and turn on a dime to fix them. Then, it helped us spread the word about those improvements to the rest of the company very quickly. As a byproduct, we are also able to meet compliance requirements, because auditors can easily review the issues and determine if there are any that would need further scrutiny from a financial reporting point of view.” » Read More

Having versus Using Enterprise 2.0 Software

Gil Yehuda wrote a very good post today Enterprise 2.0 Thoughts to end the week. He talks about Enterprise 2.0 maturity, second wave adoption, focus on work, and levels of the conversation. It's a great post you should read in full and reflect on. One particular point caught my attention; Gil says: "... having a wiki, forum, blogs, etc. on the intranet and using a wiki, forum, blog effectively to improve the transparency and productivity of collaboration are very different indicators of progress."

Andy Keller talks about Traction's use of GWT | Video

May 12, 2009 5:38pm rotkapchen Great explanation: Traction Director of Engineering Andy Keller tells why Traction's chose GWT (Google Web Toolkit) for TeamPage's new interaction layer. View video inline below or youtube.com/watch…

#E2L09 Innovation Starts with Ideas. Wiki will Cross the Work 2.0 Frontier When TeamPage 5.0 Carries Ideas into Action.

These case studies are a taste of how ideas and issues turn into action, how tasks evolve from conversations and how boundaries have to appear to disappear for W2.0 ideas to meet E2.0 execution. See you at E2.0.

KMF2009 ワークショップでの講演のビデオを掲載！

2009年4月14日（火）に開催された日本経済新聞社 主催「ナレッジマネジメントフォーラム2009」ワークショップでの弊社小島の講演『KMに必要なものは戦略、ツール、評価、そして風土改革です！』の一部を You Tube にアップしました。是非、ご覧ください。 [ As posted on TractionSoftware.jp For English summary, please see April 2009 | Knowledge Management Forum Japan - grl ]

Can't stuff the Web back in a box ...

On April 16 2009 Oliver Marks wrote The CIA's Collaboration Growth Curve & IBM's Lotusphere ecosystem connecting three topics: 1) the transformation of the CIA's collaborative practices; 2) how this relates to the concept of the collaboration curve introduced by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown (JSB), and Lang Davison, and 3) his reaction to IBM's Lotusphere Comes to You roadshow event in San Francisco that day. It's a great post which motivated me to add a comment which I expanded a bit below.

re: Explaining Twitter - One of Three Places for People

Rafe WTF of the day: @Josh comes back from lunch... "I got some cat food, do you want it?" Twitter.com 4:13PM 15 Apr 2009 ... much funnier than my example, but QED.

22-24 April 2009 | SCIP Conference booth and Presentation on Tagging Strategies for CI

The Society for Competitive Intelligence Professionals SCIP 2009 annual conference will be held next week in Chicago - 22-24 April 2009. Come see Traction® Software at our booth and at Jordan Frank's Clinical Skills Track presentation, Tagging Strategies and the Information T, on Thursday 23 April at 11:35 AM. You can also register for the free Intelligence 2.0 Clinic on April 22nd hosted by AuroraWDC (SCIP 2009 registration is not required for the Clinic)

22 April 2009 | Intelligence 2.0 Clinic

If you're attending the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professional's annual SCIP 2009 conference next week - or happen to be in Chicago - join us from 2:00 to 5:00 PM on Wednesday April 22 for a free Intelligence 2.0 Clinic moderated by Arik Johnson of AuroraWDC and featuring CI Software and Systems from Traction® Software, Digimind and Comintell. SCIP registration is not requried to attend the Intelligence 2009 Clinic. The event will be held in the Lincoln Executive Boardroom at the Sheraton Chicago. Click Here to find our more and RSVP.

April 2009 | Knowledge Management Forum Japan

Traction® Software partner Applied Knowledge Japan launched Traction's Japanese website (tractionsoftware.jp) and brought Traction® TeamPage to a large audience this month at Knowledge Management Forum 2009 in Japan.

Enterprise 2.0 and the importance of Silo Smashing!

Recent posts by Michael Sampson, John Tropea and Thomas Vander Wal converge on the need for Enterprise 2.0 tools to smash the silos segregating content types and isolating workspaces.

Mixing Tasks and Conversations, and KUKA as the "seminal enterprise 2.0 solution"

A tweet from John Tropea identifies our Kuka Systems case study as the "Seminal enterprise 2.0 task based / process solution." THANKS! I can't imagine a better endorsement of a case study, or the product supporting it.

Should Software Vendors Also Sell Professional Services? YES!

This conversation started with Stewart Mader and continues with Bill Ives. While most of our customers run the easy installer and are up and running readily, many benefit from our front end advice as well as more formal professional services engagements. This exchange offers two simple benefits that are strategic to the customers and to the software producer (and, in turn, to the customers).

30 March 2009 | CMS Wire - Track and Rate Your Documents with Updated TeamPage 4.1

David Roe of CMSWire reviewed the latest Traction® TeamPage 4.1 release and the plug-ins for Metrics and Ratings. About the new Metrics plug-in, he says "Traction is pin-pointing interactive learning by community members, administrators and managers about the document as one of the key advantages... With the new tools, it will be possible for Wiki administrators to build the Wiki around identified needs rather than building on information that is often out of date and inaccurate." » Read the Full Story

23 March 2009 | DestinationCRM - Who's on Your Team

DestinationCRM published Traction® Software President Greg Lloyd's Who's on Your Team which highlights the importance of using wiki-style collaboration and social networking to make team boundaries fuzzier. These fuzzy boundaries, Professor Andrew McAfee says, makes it "easier to convert potential ties to strong or weak ties, and stay on top of what's happening in an extended network of connections you otherwise would not have made." Possibilities emerge to leverage weak ties and potential ties for productive work. Lloyd talks in detail about the nature of strong, weak, and potential ties, as well as the hub and spoke collaboration model that is essential to business communication » Read Full Story

re: Explaining Twitter - One of Three Places for People

Update: Steve Buttry Information Content Conductor of Gazette Communications posted an excellent tip sheet: Leading your staff into the Twitterverse for a workshop he'll be leading for the American Society of Newpaper Editors. It's an great introduction to Twitter which covers linking, following, tools and ethics. I believe Steve's advice is just as valuable for neighborhood (Facebook) and workplace (Enterprise 2.0) microblogging. Steve writes:

March/April 2009 | Intranets - TeamPage at KUKA Systems as Solution for Managing (and Maximizing) Change

Carolina Reid's Solution for Managing (and Maximizing) Change is a case study covering KUKA Systems deployment of Traction® TeamPage as a means to track and collaborate on process improvement. She wrote:

I Can't Tweet & Trusting Online Services

Last fall, I pointed out an issue of trust as part and parcel of Web 2.0 security (See What Web 2.0 and E2.0 Security Means to Me). When we accept social services like Facebook and Twitter as Two of Three Places for People, we entrust them to manage our data securely, to keep consistent terms (i.e. they don't suck us in and then suck us dry by starting to charge for basic services), and to be there when we need them. Today, I felt muzzled as I was touched by the uptime issue. I got this "over capacity" memo when I went to Tweet an answer to Dave Lamp's Question. I've received the "over capacity" messages several times and will continue, for now, to trust they'll iron things out over at Twitter HQ.

Reading blogs at 800 MPH

I took a long needed vacation last week and came back to the usual firestorm of post-vacation pile-up that makes one pause before entertaining the idea of another break. Anyhow, after meeting a few high priority deadlines, I had time this afternoon to review everything posted to our TeamPage server in the last 2 weeks.

Ada Lovelace Day | Professor Lee S. Sproull, Stern School, NYU

For this first Ada Lovelace Day I've chosen to write about Professor Lee Sproull an internationally-recognized sociologist whose research centers on the implications of computer-based communication technologies for managers, organizations, communities, and society. Professor Sproull is a pioneer and visionary in the rigorous study of what we now call social software.

Explaining Twitter - One of Three Places for People

Last week a friend who just signed up on Twitter said: "... just like Jon Stewart, I can't figure out how it works or why anyone would want to tweet or get anyone else's twitter. I had no idea what grunt and stalker is but I am assuming that is reality too. I put this all in the pocket with second life (stupid bulky awkward and totally useless)." So I reluctantly joined the crowd attempting to explain why people who have a job and have a life might be interested in Twitter. I decided to describe Twitter as one of three distinct places on the Web where I socialize every day: the public commons. The others two are my neighborhood and my workplace.

re: Kuka Systems TeamPage Case Study

A customer story about giant orange robots - for real! How good can it get?
KUKA Titan Largest and strongest 6-axis industrial robot in the world. Payload capacity: 1000 kilograms

Kuka Systems TeamPage Case Study

See Kuka Systems for an excellent TeamPage story Jordan wrote in cooperation with this Traction TeamPage customer. KUKA is one of the world's leading suppliers of robotics as well as plant and systems engineering and has been in the automation technologies business since 1898. They build robotics systems for factory automation and are a leading worldwide supplier of assembly and welding systems, and other related machinery, servicing the automobile, aerospace, and energy industries.

re: Reinventing the Web

For an excellent first hand history of the Web - and a linked data proposal which seems to share many of the simple, scalable properties of his original invention - see Tim Berners-Lee's Feb 2009 TED Talk on the 20th anniversary of the Web:

KUKA Systems

KUKA is one of the world's leading suppliers of robotics as well as plant and systems engineering. Their Enterprise Applications group deployed Traction® TeamPage in 2006 to support a process for collaborative Issue Tracking for their deployed enterprise information system.

Traction TeamPage Videos

One good way to learn about Traction TeamPage is to start with the video introduction, but to get the best experience and discuss how TeamPage will help your team or organization, please contact us for a live demonstration.

Providence Geek Talk | Frank and Nuzum speak out: How Pages Crush Documents

Chris Nuzum and I had a chance to speak to the Providence Geeks about what we've done with Traction TeamPage and how "Pages are Crushing Documents." I do a history of our company and transition into a history of communication and collaboration that runs the course from stone tablets to books through email and documents and finally culminates in wikis and blogs. Now that wikis and blogs are becoming the new currency of collaboration and communication, my presentation focuses on how "packaging matters" with particular focus on the ways pages can be re-used and distributed in ways that can improve communication performance and enable innovation like we've never seen it before. Caught on "film" are my talk followed by a video podcast interview.

9 March 2009 | Traction Software Announces Japanese Website, Free TeamPage5 Licensing and Customer Forum

We're happy to announce the launch of a Japanese version of Traction® Software's website and the extension of Traction's Free TeamPage5 Promotion and Forum to customers in Japan. The launch of the new site and customer Forum was done in partnership with Applied Knowledge Company Japan (AKJ).

9 March 2009 | Traction Software Named to KMWorld's "100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management"

For the fifth consecutive year, KM World recognized Traction® Software's market leadership in Enterprise 2.0 Social Software by naming the company to their list of 100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management. The list is compiled by KMWorld's panel of KM practitioners, theorists, analysts, vendors and their customers and colleagues. "Each company embodies as part of its culture agile and limber execution of its mission, embracing a spirit of both adaptability and innovation." said Hugh McKellar, Editor-in-Chief of KMWorld Magazine. Read Full Release

3 March 2009 | TeamPage 4.1 Review at The AppGap

In his review of Traction® Software's recently announced Traction® TeamPage 4.1, Bill Ives focuses on how TeamPage puts social software to work: "I think these are all good additions enabling more of the social side of work to be transparent, measured, enhanced, and contribute to increased enterprise performance." » Read Full Review at the AppGap

Water Cooler ROI - Putting Social Software to Productive Work

Matt Hodgson's the ROI of Being Social at Work points to recent MIT research suggesting 40% of productivity for creative teams is a direct result of communication and employees with the most extensive digital networks are 7% more productive.

Orient EuroPharma | 友華生技醫藥股份有限公司

Orient EuroPharma deployed Traction® TeamPage in the year 2005 to address critical communication issues within the company. The deployment is supported by our partner, Applied Knowledge Company, in Japan. As of the date of this case study, March 2009, the focus on internal communications, market intelligence and document sharing has thrived and spread from the IT department throughout the organization. This interview with Orient Europharma discusses their background, the problems which led them to deploy Traction TeamPage, and the benefits they’ve experienced as a result.

re: I Love My iPhone

Joel (Chief Geek at Geek.com) loves his iPhone too. He called me after I'd left my Providence Geeks presentation to tell me he'd been walking around like a wet dog in the rain in search of his car. We used our iPhones to find eachother and then used his to find his car. Good fun.

Clarity Amid the Hype

Mike Gotta posted Enterprise Twitter: Clarity Amid The Hype analyzing - and generally agreeing with - points raised by Adina Levin (Socialtext) in her excellent post What's Different about Enterprise Twitter? I agree with Mike's analysis and Adina's thoughtful points (read them both) but want to focus on Mike's conclusion:

25 February 2009 | Traction TeamPage 4.1 Release, New Activity Metrics & Content Ratings Plug-In

Traction® TeamPage 4.1 Extends “Live Blog” Technology to Document Sharing, Enhances Content Through Ratings and Offers Collaborative Insight with Deep Metrics — Traction® Software, the leading developer of Enterprise 2.0 social software, today announced the release of Traction TeamPage 4.1 and new plug-ins for content ratings and user activity metrics. TeamPage 4.1 breaks new ground by making it easy to analyze user activity and rate TeamPage blog posts, comments or wiki pages to highlight and act on important information. These capabilities support “wiki gardeners” and help identify best practices or patterns that can build a stronger community and improve the content it creates. » Read More

25 February 2009 | New Metrics & Ratings Plug-Ins For Traction TeamPage Expose Social Interactions, Demonstrate Platform Extensibility

Traction® TeamPage 4.1 Extends “Live Blog” Technology to Document Sharing, Enhances Content Through Ratings and Offers Collaborative Insight with Deep Metrics

Traction TeamPage: The One System to Rule It All

Needless to say I'm delighted with Michael Sampson's Currents: "TeamPage - the One System to Rule It All". I like One System to Rule It All angle, butassume that would make me a metaphorical Elven-smith of Eregion rather than Sauron of course. Hmmm

re: Why Software is a Good Investment

What Jordan meant to say: Send us your money and you'll be happy and save more than you spent!

Why Software is a Good Investment

In tough economic times organizations are faced with hard budgeting choices as they weigh the cost and benefit of investing in durable goods, people, marketing and software. Here are some reasons why software should be at the top of the list:

Michael Sampson's Currents: "TeamPage - the One System to Rule It All"

Michael Sampson is a well-known and respected collaboration market analyst, consultant and author (of Microsoft Press's Seamless Teamwork: Using Microsoft SharePoint Technologies to Collaborate, Innovate, and Drive Business in New Ways), Michael speaks with authority when it comes to assessing collaboration platforms. Sampson's post this week, Traction® TeamPage: The One System to Rule It All, explains the threaded discussion and social tagging model in TeamPage. This post was one outcome of his investigation into E2.0 security and - in this case - how a strong security model can enable productive cross-workspace interactions. He concludes "The Traction team have done a fantastic job building security in from the ground up, and the level of configuration is fantastic. If you are in the market for a collaboration platform, check out what they are offering...[an example with screenshots followed by]... I think that rocks! " » Read More

re: Ask an Engineer: What do you think of the Facebook Terms of Service Flap?

For a good example, see Nicolas Kolakowski's Feb 20, 2009 eWeek story Facebook Launches Social Widget for Facebook Connect :

Ask an Engineer: What do you think of the Facebook Terms of Service Flap?

If you haven't been paying attention to this week's flap on Facebook's revised terms of service - posted three days ago and retracted today - Andrew Lavelle of the Wall Street Journal published a good recap today. The controversy relates to what rights does Facebook get to content that an individual Facebook user posts? There are a lot of good arguments about what rights people think Facebook should be able to retain, but there's a second level of discussion that relates to how people expect Facebook privacy settings to work, and how these expectations make it difficult to craft an agreement that seems fair, makes sense, and corresponds to what Facebook actually implements and enforces.

President 2.0

We've seen our US Government and state level customers seek out and achieve great success as they make their own migrations to "2.0" style collaboration with TeamPage. While "grasss roots" action at the agency level is encouraging, top down involvement and mandates tend to accelerate the proces. With Obama's Transparency and Open Government mandate, perhaps we have it!

re: Searching for the Perfect Fried Clam | Rhode Island

For a longer list of Providence RI restaurants I like, see Providence Rhode Island Restaurants: A Local's Favorites contributed to Bill Ives' list of restaurant picks.

re: Email isn't dead - It's only sleeping ...

In yet another conversation on "is email dead?" I settled on: No - it's just a "strange legacy idea" that's tragicomically inept for collaboration.

18 February 2009 | Jordan Frank and Chris Nuzum to speak at Providence Geek Dinner

As T.F. Green’s now-under-construction Intermodal Facility attests, a lot of cool stuff is being built in the Ocean State. Some of it isn’t as easy to spot though. One very cool project is the work of Providence-based Traction® Software. Consistently recognized as a leader in social software for the enterprise, Traction’s award-winning Traction® TeamPage platform includes blogs, wikis, social tagging & bookmarking, and now, “live blog micro-messaging” (think real-time Twitter for business). At February’s Geek Dinner, Jordan Frank, VP Marketing & Business Development, and Chris Nuzum, Co-Founder and CTO, will present their insights into the nature and importance of social software, demo TeamPage, and answer questions from the audience. » Join at least 40 others from RI and the surrounding areas and RSVP Here. » Also, read Jordan's companion blog post on RI Nexus for this event.

Metrics Plug-in

The Metrics plug-in allows community members, administrators and managers to benefit and learn from all user interactions with the content.

Content Rating Plug-in

Project workspace owners can enable and configure rating methods on a per project basis. To meet a range of needs and preferences, you can choose between two types of ratings behaviors:

29 January 2009 | Top Enterprise 2.0 Tips for Improving Workforce Collaboration in 2009

David Booth's four part CEO series quotes Traction Software's Greg Lloyd offering top Enterprise 2.0 tips for improving collaboration in 2009 and thoughts on where Enterprise 2.0 technology is heading. » Read More

What are you good at?

I like what Seth Godin says in What are you good at? Where he talks about the distinction between content (domain expertise) and process (emotional intelligence skills you have for managing projects, visualizing success, dealing with priorities and so on).

At What Scale Can Web Services Survive?

One more data point in line of my Whither Web 2.0 Social Networking Discussion which questions the revenue models of web services (with web social networking as a focal point): An on-line service the scale and scope of Microsoft's Online Services is running into red ink of proportional scale. It lost $471 Million per last quarter. The clear and present issue is not whether a profit may be turned at some even-large scale, but what will change about the business model and how will that affect users?

Reinventing the Web

John Markoff wrote a really good Jan 11 2009 New York Times profile, In Venting, a Computer Visionary Educates on Ted Nelson and his new book, Geeks Bearing Gifts: How the Computer World Got This Way (available on Lulu.com). Markoff notes that Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, but: "Lost in the process was Mr. Nelson’s two-way link concept that simultaneously pointed to the content in any two connected documents, protecting, he has argued in vain, the original intellectual lineage of any object... His two-way links might have avoided the Web’s tornado-like destruction of the economic value of the printed word, he has contended, by incorporating a system of micropayments."

Searching Content for People

By moving communication and knowledge exchange to web pages, social software breaks down the walls that traditionally divide e-mail communication and traditional folder based document sharing. As discussed at the conclusion of So, What About Enterprise Social Networking?, this style of interacting online opens avenues for content enrichment and exploitation.

So, What About Enterprise Social Networking?

Last week's post, Wither Web 2.0 Social Networking? and My 2 Cents., offers my perspective on the murky future of web facing personal social networking, as well as a recipe for its survival. The Enterprise Social Networking market, meanwhile, is growing up more steadily in the wake of its Web 2.0 sibling and, despite some commonalities, faces a different value equation, use cases and market forces.

Wither Web 2.0 Social Networking? and My 2 Cents.

Michael Fitzgerald's MIT Tech Review column Are Social Networks Sinking? summarizes the inevitable deflation (though not all-out devastation) of the Web 2.0 Social Networking market (not to be mixed with the Enterprise 2.0 market - which is growing more steadily in-the-wake-of, rather than in-step-with, the Web 2.0 market) bubble.

December 2008 | the{app}gap reviews TeamPage Live Blog

Bill Ives recaps a conversation about revenue growth records and offers a quick review of the new Traction® TeamPage Live Blog interface. Ives writes "Because the interaction is supported in Traction, conversations you might otherwise have in IM or Twitter can take place securely within a TeamPage context with a robust content, tagging and discussion model." » Read the Full Story

re: Tuesday Dec 9, 2008 | Forty years after the Mother of All Demos

See also Dylan Tweeny's Wired summary Dec 9, 1968: The Mother of All Demos, including this video clip. Doug hasn't lost his enthusiasm and motivation!

Tuesday Dec 9, 2008 | Forty years after the Mother of All Demos

On Dec 9, 1968 Doug Engelbart stepped onto a stage in front of about 2,000 people. He adjusted his headset and sat down before his mouse, chord key set, and twenty-two foot TV projection screen. His NLS/Augment system prefigured the Web, shared screen teleconferencing, much of what we know as hypertext, in what's often called the Mother of All Demos. Read this authorized clip from John Markoff's excellent book What the Dormouse Said or see the video of the Demo.

Live Blog for Micro-Messaging

Live Blog is an automatically updating browser window that allows users to type a brief note from wherever they are (a traditional browser or mobile device such as an iPhone) which will appear as a highlighted entry within seconds for all users who are monitoring that space. The TeamPage Release 5.0 Proteus skin extends Live blog capabilities to include a Twitter style follow model and much more.

Wikis and Blogs vs. Suites | Forrester vs. CMS Watch | Where is the gloom and doom?

 There seem to be conflicting views on what kinds of IT applications and vendors will get hit the hardest in an economic downturn. Will it be point applications like Wikis and Blogs, or Enterprise 2.0 Suites? Or will it be big ticket collaboration platforms from vendors like Microsoft, OpenText and Documentum?

Forrester Research | Social Computing Changes the Enterprise Collaboration Landscape

Rob Kopolowitz states that "wikis are providing a valuable piece of the overall (Social Computing) strategy" in his April 2008 report titled "Social Computing Changes the Enterprise Landscape." The report profiles Traction® TeamPage customer Enel North America and their use of Traction for collaboration and corporate communication on their Intranet. Get on the bandwagon, Koplowitz explained that 64% of enterprises surveyed have already started to invest in Wikis. » Read the full report (fee required)

21 November 2008 | Traction Software Introduces Live Blog Micro-Messaging and End-of-Year Discount

With new Live Blog technology for Traction® TeamPage™ 4.0, users can write brief notes from wherever they are and share them instantly over Traction's award-winning TeamPage enterprise wiki platform. TeamPage 4.0 is the first enterprise 2.0 suite to incorporate micro-messaging technology that's been made popular by web services such as Twitter and Pownce. Traction Software also announced an end-of-year promotion featuring a 20% discount through the end of December. » Read Full Release

21 November 2008 | Traction Software Introduces Live Blog Micro-Messaging and End-of-Year Discount

Traction Software Introduces Live Blog Micro-Messaging and End-of-Year Discount First Enterprise 2.0 Product to Integrate Micro-Messaging; Employees Easily Stay in Touch With Customers and Colleagues

Do Something Differently - Spend less for better results

JP Rangaswami offers typically sound advice for businesses looking at how to cope with hard times in his October 19th post Invented Here. He says when times are hard, a firm has four choices:

Live blog with Traction TeamPage

from Michael Angeles, Traction Software Director of User Experience: Live Blog is a new plug-in for TeamPage 4.0. The new Live Blog interface works like Twitter or IM. It creates an automatically updating browser window you can park on your desktop (or iPhone). You type a brief note and everyone with access to that Live Blog sees their window update in seconds. But unlike Twitter or IM, Live Blog is backed by Traction's TeamPage platform that provides scalable storage, security, integrated search and all of the other capabilities that make TeamPage the leading best platform for Enterprise 2.0. For a video introduction see below. If you don't have Traction yet, remember that Traction is free for up to five project spaces and five users. Get a free Traction TeamPage/5 license and start Live Blogging now!

Record 2008 Results and End of Year Discount

We're happy to announce that 2008 marks the sixth year of consecutive revenue and customer growth at Traction Software. With the support of our growing customer base, thousands of TeamPage deployments, and a product that consistently earns reviews that put TeamPage at the top of the pack, we're able to continue our product and market leadership despite challenging economic times for competitors who charge more and deliver less.

13 November 2008 | Computerworld - Wikis that work: Four IT departments get it right

Beth Stackpole's article examines Enterprise wiki technology moving into IT Departments. Two of her four case studies are Traction® TeamPage deployments at Enel North America and Shorebank. Comparing Enterprise Wikis versus other technologies for discussion and collaboration, Stackpole says:

Reviewers and Customers Praise TeamPage 4.0 - Cite breakthroughs in Enterprise 2.0 collaboration

Since Traction® TeamPage 4.0 was released in June 2008 we're happy to report that reviewers and customers have consistently applauded the innovation TeamPage 4.0 brings to the market. When you want to be able to use wiki-style collaboration on products, plans and projects - as well as free-form encyclopedia pages - it quickly becomes obvious that you need to be able to distinguish between the 'latest stable version' of a constellation of pages and the 'work in progress cloud' created through collaborative editing.

Fuld & Company Intelligence Software Report - 2008/2009 Edition

When it comes to Collaborative Intelligence, Traction® TeamPage makes the grade. Traction TeamPage stood apart in Fuld & Company's Intelligence Software Report which rated TeamPage's support as Very Good or Excellent in four out of five stages of the intelligence cycle. Fuld's Intelligence Software report offers insight into the CI process and technology preferences of "CI Super Tech Users" and then rates 13 software platforms that are used most often by Competitive Intelligence teams.

What Web 2.0 and E2.0 Security Means to Me

E2.0 technologies must manage a delicate balance between collaborative freedoms they promise with the security, dependability and audit trail requirements that any enterprise has to have to let them in the door.

3 November 2008 | Web Worker Daily: Traction TeamPage Goes Beyond Blogs & Wikis

Scott Blitstein's review of Traction® TeamPage 4.0 says: "TeamPage incorporates all of the standard features you would expect from a wiki / blog like linking, journaling, edit history, tagging and categorization, threaded comments and moderation. (But) It’s the advanced features that make it stand out though...The challenge for Traction is to balance a very powerful feature set with ease of use, and for the most part I think they pull this off."

November 2008 | EContent - Web 2.0 Security: Getting Collaborative Peace of Mind

Marji McClure writes: "Most companies don't want to inhibit the collaborative flow that Web 2.0 has brought to the marketplace; don't want it to hinder their overall operations and they want to continue to build on their Web 2.0 platforms. Yet as the use of these collaborative applications becomes integrated into business processes, the need for them to be secure becomes imperative. [The problem as, Traction® Software's Jordan] Frank points out is that some people trust such systems just because their friends do, and because sites such as Facebook haven’t let people down—yet. He cautions that a breach could cause a backlash against such networks. 'Ensuring success in Web 2.0 means that trust doesn’t get broken,' says Frank." » Read Full Story at EContent. Subscription is required for on-line access. Another version of the story is published at CIO Today.

24 October 2008 | Intranet Journal -- Putting Hypertext to Work for You

Paula Gregorowicz wrote a thorough review of Traction® TeamPage 4.0. Gregorowicz leads off the review by presenting the challenge E2.0 systems face in an effort to provide emergent freedom while also offering control and structure:

Sweet Tweet

At the age of 12 (or so), I tried board-sailing and totally failed. I had no sense for how the mechanics of the sail and the wind worked together to point my board in any given direction. Then I got in a sailboat which, for whatever combination of reasons, made sense of the whole sailing process.

I Love My iPhone

I don't often get enthusiastic about software (except for Traction TeamPage!) or a device, but my iPhone caught me off guard.

Joel (Chief Geek at Geek.com) loves his iPhone too. He called me after I'd left my Providence Geeks presentation to tell me he'd been walking around like a wet dog in the rain in search of his car. We used our iPhones to find eachother and then used his to find his car. Good fun. February 26, 2009 | # | Jordan Frank Joel (Chief Geek at Geek.com) loves his iPhone too. He called me after I'd ... February 26, 2009 | # | Jordan Frank

Light up some classrooms! DonorsChoose.org Challenge

On Oct 1 DonorsChoose opened their Blogger Challenge 2008 to help spread the word about a great model for charitable giving. It's simple: Teachers ask. You choose, Students learn. Click the badge below to learn more and bring some light to classrooms where any contribution can make a difference. You'll feel good on a person-to-person level, and help children succeed in life.

24 September 2008 | Frank speaks on "Whither Documents - Putting Hypertext to Work" at KMWorld

Jordan Frank speaks on "Whither Documents: Putting Hypertext to Work on the KM 2.0 Path" at KMWorld 2008. Frank will provide context in terms of the history of communication and collaboration - then discuss how simple tools like wikis and blogs have put us on the precipice of a new era that will force us to rethink our fundamental document and content organization models. Frank will speak at 3:00 PM on Wednesday September 24 in the Enterprise 2.0 in Action track. » Read the Full Press Release » Read the Session Description at the KMWorld 2008 Conference Web Site

22 September 2008 | KMWorld names TeamPage 4.0 A Trend Setting Product of 2008

KMWorld recognizes Traction® Software's continued leadership in the Enterprise 2.0 market. Their 2008 Trend-Setting product award cites the new moderation-in-place, wiki page name management, and user profile features found in Traction Software's June 2008 release of Traction® TeamPage 4.0. » Read Full Press Release

22 September 2008 | Traction's TeamPage 4.0 Named to KMWorld's 2008 Trendsetting Product List

Innovative Moderation and Wiki Page Name Management in TeamPage 4.0 Puts Hypertext to Work PROVIDENCE, RI -- (Marketwire - September 22, 2008) - Traction® Software, the leading developer of products for secure, scalable, hypertext collaboration, today announced Traction® TeamPage™ 4.0 has been named to KMWorld's trendsetting products list for the fifth year in a row.

Avast Ye Enterprise 2.0 Seekers!

If ye be seeking Enterprise 2.0 Skills, click Traction Software or prepare to be Boarded, Pillaged and Sunk by thy Competition! If thou knowes't not how Enterprise 2.0 Skills canst Protect thy Treasure - Unto thy very Corporate Life - Profesaarh Andrew McAfee can set thee aright. Arrhh!

6 September 2008 | LinuxInsider - Wikis Within the Enterprise: Serious Collaboration

In Wikis Within the Enterprise: Serious Collaboration, Vivian Wagner of LinuxInsider explains how "New features are giving wikis the business chops to thrive as an indispensable enterprise solution." About Traction® TeamPage, she says "Traction TeamPage uses a wiki model, complete with tags, revision history, and other features that wiki users have come to know and love. But it also gives businesses the ability to organize, sort and categorize the information in creative and unique ways." Jordan Frank, VP of Marketing and Business Development, Traction® Software says: "It's a new cognitive model. It's not just the features across the board, though all of those in Traction are best in class. What makes this product do exceptionally well is the way these features work together to solve business problems."» Read Full Story

Ariadne | Information Overload Paper - 10 ways to cope

Sarah Houghton-Jan wrote and excellent paper, Being Wired or Being Tired: 10 Ways to Cope with Information Overload, in Ariadne (a Web Magazine for Information Professionals). It's actually ten general areas for coping, each with about 5 suggestions. Ever since Kid 1 and Kid 2 popped into my life, dealing with every kind of overload (e-mail overload, magazine overload, chores overload, poop overload...) has become a factor in my life!

Which Enterprise 2.0 Users Are Talking About What and Who, Now and Then?

On his blog, I'm Not Actually a Geek, Hutch from Connectbeam writes "How Are Enterprise 2.0 Vendors Pitching Web 2.0? Using Wordle to Find Out. Here's another great tool that transforms the problem of having "Too Much Information" to not having enough!

How (Not) To Fail

Euan Semple breaks with tradition with a Top 8 list rather than a Top 10, and by explaining Most Companies Who Try to do Enterprise 2.0 will Fail (worst practices) vs. why they will succeed (best practices). From both sides of the IT fence (as a consultant and sales person at a VAR, an operations manager and product manager at a global content delivery service, and in marketing and consulting roles here at Traction Software) I've seen my share of internal failures and customer or prospect failures too. I've commented here on 3 of Euan's Top 8.

Monash University - the Understandascope

Dr David Low of the Understandascope deployed Traction's TeamPage when his university-based research unit was founded in 2006. With only basic html skills, Traction TeamPage enabled him to quickly create a quality website and discussion blog:

Aberdeen Survey | Getting Social About Selling

Smart enterprises are deploying blogs and wikis to power the Enterprise front line: Sales. Use cases may involve using Enterprise 2.0 technology to distribute timely market information, maintain a continuous loop of customer feedback, or maintain a wiki to manage selling points, FAQs, and collateral.

Multi-Tasking Turtles Beat Focused Hares

Fast access to new information and multi-tasking (to a point) can both contribute to overall performance. A pair of studies appear in an MIT Sloan Management Review profile, What Makes Information Workers Productive. The studies authored by Sinan Aral (Leonard N. Stern School of Business) and Erik Brynjolfsson (MIT Sloan School of Management) look at productivity at a recruiting business, and find some surprising results.

Collaborating Across "Boundaries" - Searching People for Answers

Mike Gotta points to new research published in HBS Working Knowledge analyzing which groups in an organization are most likely to communicate, crossing social and physical boundaries. The study, Communication (and Coordination?) in a Modern, Complex Organization, reports that "women, mid- to high-level executives and members of executive management, sales and marketing functions are most likely to participate in cross-group communications." It is these people who bridge groups in social structure.

6-8 October 2008 | Third Annual Traction Software User Group Meeting

Traction Software is happy to announce the Third Annual Traction User Group (TUG) Meeting to be held this year at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay October 6-8 2008. With customer presentations from the world's leading pharmaceutical companies, financial institutions and manufacturers, this year's TUG meeting provides one of the best forums of the year for in depth Enterprise 2.0 case studies, best practice sharing, and lessons learned. A TeamPage Developer Track also offers a terrific opportunity to learn how use Traction's Skin Definition Language and other extensions to make widgets, forms, interface tweaks, and completely customized user experiences. Click here to register now or learn more about TUG 2008 [ TUG 2008 registration closed ].

NHS integrates Intranet 1.0 with Enterprise 2.0 to get Social with TeamPage 4.0

The UK's National Health Service's Orkney region deployed Traction with great success in 2005 to address an unfavorable report about the state of internal communications. The original NHS Orkney Customer Story details how they used Traction for everything from wiki collaboration on policies and procedures to action tracking and even an internal blog to announce "stuff for sale." Since then, usage has only improved and Traction has also been deployed at the NHS Camden region. In June, David Rendall upgraded to the recently announced TeamPage 4.0 Release. I'm pleased to be able to share some of his notes and screen shots - to offer a glimpse into how an organization facing major Internal Communications deficiencies just three years ago is an Enterprise 2.0 leader today.

23 July 2008 | Virtual E2.0 Conference - Traction Sponsors Forrester Keynote

Register Now (free admission) to join in on the Enterprise 2.0 Virtual Conference on the 23rd of July. The Agenda kicks off at 12:00 with Gartner Analyst David Mitchell Smith's Keynote Innovating the Enterprise with Web 2.0 and ends with a Forrester Analyst Rob Koplowitz's Keynote Control vs. Chaos: The Enterprise Web 2.0 Effect.

Who's on Your Team ?

Web-based social software makes it possible for people to discover connections and stay in touch on a global scale without imposing undue work on either the sender or receiver of information - unlike email, face to face meetings, or any other medium in human history. In Who’s on Your Team? Enterprise 2.0 and Team Boundaries Larry Irons discusses a 2002 study on distributed work that's relevant for Enterprise 2.0 collaboration. The study found that members of geographically distributed teams have a fuzzy notion the boundaries of their team (who was in, who was out) while collocated teams rarely disagreed. Larry suggests that wiki style collaboration and social networking will make team boundaries fuzzier - and that's a good thing.

9 July 2008 | SC Magazine - Web 2.0: Sign up for Enterprise 2.0

Barry Mansfield's article Web 2.0: Sign up for Enterprise 2.0 argues "Simply blocking applications means disgruntled staff and missed opportunities. Businesses need to change tack." His article reviews the motivation for organizations to adopt rather than eschew E2.0 applications. It also profiles the UK's National Health Service (NHS Orkney) Traction® Software Customer. » Read Full SC Magazine Story » Read NHS Customer Story

No need to curb your enthusiasm ...

Read Prof Andrew McAfee's recent blog post Curb My Enthusiasm for a very concise summary of the model, analysis and conclusions of a July / August 2008 Harvard Business Review article he co-authored with MIT's Erik Brynjolfsson. McAfee poses a polite challenge that I'll paraphrase: For a bold and important claim, where is he wrong?

CI Ethics Survey

If you want to benchmark your opinion on Competitive Intelligence practices vs. other respondents, this survey being run by Fuld & Company provides an opportunity. The questions in the survey are also thought provoking and great grist for internal discussion groups.

Why Enterprise Search Sucks

Ron Miller of EContent wrote a very good article AIIM Study Finds Enterprise Search Still Lacking about an upcoming AIIM report on Findability and disappointed expectations for enterprise search. Ron's title is more polite than some of the words I've heard (and used) to characterize enterprise search. Bluntly - if we all agree that enterprise search sucks, what is to be done?

Borders, Spaces, and Places

One big problem for collaboration has been too many borders - technical or cultural - creating silos of information for no good reason - and many bad ones. There's also a big problem if you don't have a good way to mark borders that enable collaboration where there's a natural expectation of privacy.

25 June 2008 | Frank Speaks on Non-Subject Tagging at Boston KM Forum

Jordan Frank's presentation "Non-Subject Tagging in an Enterprise 2.0 World" was featured on the agenda of the Boston KM Forum's latest meeting titled "Categorization and Tagging - Where's the Beef?" » Read the presentation » Read the Meeting Agenda.

Get a Bike Mr Kagermann!

WSJ.com's Ben Worthen quotes SAP chief executive Henning Kagermann "giving an interview in the back seat of a hybrid Mercury SUV instead of his usual Town Car, in accordance with SAP's new environmental policy". Kagermann is skeptical about the proposition that "large corporate-software projects will disappear, replaced by easy-to-use Internet-programs targeted at individual workers". Kagermann says:

451Group Reviews TeamPage 4.0 | Traction Software tackles wiki complexity in 4.0

Kathleen Reidy of the451group wrote an update on Traction Software highlighting key new capabilities in new TeamPage 4.0 release. She wrote: Its TeamPage product is well respected on technical merits, and the latest release will continue to appeal to more-technical buyers that understand the complexity of maintaining and growing large wiki sites. » Read the full report » Read about What's New In 4.0

20 June 2008 | 『 Traction TeamPage 』の最新バージョン 4.0 をリリース - Traction TeamPage 4.0 Announced in Japan

Our Japanese Partner, Applied Knowledge, today announced availability of Traction TeamPage 4.0. This is the Japanese version of the 4.0 release announced by Traction Software on 2 June 2008. » Read the Japanese Press Release » Read What's New In 4.0 » Read the English Press Release.

A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower Strategy | Video

I'm just back from the 2008 Current Strategy Forum at the US Naval War College in Newport. This year the topic of panels and presentations (including addresses and extensive Q&A by the Secretary of the Navy, Chief of Naval Operations and, the Commandant of the Marine Corp) was the Cooperative Strategy for 21s Century Seapower - a joint strategy for the US Marine Corp, Navy and Coast Guard. The strategy raises prevention of war - deterrence, cooperative relationships with more international partners, trust built through humanitarian assistance and disaster response - to an equal level as the conduct of war. In the very best sense this is a positioning statement: what a nation should expect from its maritime forces.

10 June 2008 | Bill Ives Reviews Traction TeamPage 4.0 | AppGap

In his review of Traction® Software's recently announced Traction® TeamPage 4.0, Bill Ives says: "TeamPage has been a highly rated Enterprise 2.0 platform for some time... The upgrades with Team Page 4.0 will only make it better." » Read Full Review at the AppGap

10-11 June 2008 | Enterprise 2.0 Conference - Frank speaks on E2.0 in Action

Traction® Software is proud to be a sponsor again this year at the E2.0 2008 Conference in Boston. Jordan Frank speaks on "Putting Wikis, Blogs and Tagging to Work - Enterprise 2.0 in Action": How E2.0 applications can deliver on the content leverage and re-use goals that "1.0" CMS systems promised but never fulfilled. » Read More at the Conference Website. » Read Jordan Frank's Presentation (PDF)

Personal Notebook

Problem:

Law Enforcement and Intelligence

Law enforcement and Intelligence agencies are confronted with the problems of cooperating internally and externally (across agency) on cases, and may be legally bound to keep a log of hypotheses, activity, findings, evidence captured, interviews, and other material related to the case.

Account Team Communication

Problem:

Law Firms and Litigation Support

Problem:

Public, Investor, and Customer Affairs

Problem:

Human Resources

Human resources groups have the heavy burden of managing policies, training material, and standard forms. They also have to take in and respond to questions and communicate frequently to the whole enterprise. This is a big job to do, but it's easy with TeamPage.

Dashboards simplify the communication job

A TeamPage Dashboard is easily configured to display the latest policies, training material, Q&A and other material. You can easily change the sections here to show company events, announcements and anything else employees may need know now about.

Sections can display the latest questions and a list of all that timeless policy content.

Moderation allows HR to control key documentation

Permission controls manage who can author, edit and who can read drafts. So, the links that appear in grey in the dashboard above may only appear to a select few people.

In the example below, a user with permission can read the draft or published version and is able to Publish the draft version to open it up for everyone else. You can use the content of the page to carry the message, or attach any number of documents. You may also write wiki links to related content or links to forms that may exist in TeamPage or on other enterprise systems.

Edit history and audit trail tracks all changes

You can sleep at night knowing that all changes are tracked in TeamPage. Moderation history even tells you when certain versions were published or unpublished. The ability to Read Edit History is a permission, so you can also restrict this information to the core HR team.

Ask and Answer Questions

HR Teams are bombarded with questions on policies, benefits, training opportunities and a wide range of other issues. You can establish a Q&A section in an open space, or set it up to receive questions in a private space only visible to the HR Team.

Using a task to receive questions offers the chance to assign questions to a subject matter expert to be sure of follow-up.

That's just the beginning

Contact us to learn more about how TeamPage can make your HR function more productive, how TeamPage Premium Search can make finding anything a snap, and why banks, hospitals and many other organizations have adopted TeamPage to establish an HR communication hub.

Exception Handling

Problem:

Internal News and Information

Problem:

Community of Practice

Problem:

Operations Log

Problem:

Corporate Communication

Problem:

Product Management

Problem:

Program and Project Management

Project teams need to keep up with work and actions within their own team and rarely are able to follow the pulse of activities of related teams working in parallel. They need a way to document and track major program objectives, raise alarms or exceptions, and distribute up-to-date information on a timely, efficient basis. Traction® TeamPage integrates communication, collaboration, action tracking and exception handling in a model that's easy to use, secure and effective, see Action Tracking with Tasks, Milestones, and Projects.

Connections

To the best of my knowledge, Clay Shirky is responsible for popularizing the term Social Software. By his definition, it's primarily about patterns of connections:

Welcome David, Kellen, Michael !

With the release of Traction TeamPage 4.0 it's been a busy week! I'd like to take time out to welcome three new Traction Software employees:

4 June 2008 | eWeek - Traction Digs in for Enterprise Wiki Control

Clint Boulton's review of Traction® TeamPage 4.0 highlights the benefits of moderation and page name history: "Another area where the more discerning enterprise users will take pleasure in TeamPages 4.0 is in the software's enhanced moderation tools... These moderation tools create what is essentially an audit trail that shows a great deal more than the edit history in most wikis. Now that's what we call control." The article also quotes the UK National Health Service's use of TeamPage 4.0 to allow them to "work collaboratively and to fine-tune your posts before letting everyone else see them." » Read the Full Story

2 June 2008 | GCN Lab Review: Traction TeamPage 4.0

Traction® TeamPage 4.0 earns top grades for Performance (A), Ease of Use (A-), Features (A), and Value (A-) in John Breeden's GCN review: A tool for smart sharing: TeamPage Helps You Manage and Make Good Use of Wikis and Blogs. After rating the new 4.0 release with A's in all categories, Breeden concludes that TeamPage is just the kind of wiki platform which can make an impact in Government: "Beyond the important matter of permissions, TeamPage's ability to handle data is impressive. If more wikis were designed this way, they probably would be more widely used in government, either as internal tools or for public comment." » Read the Full Story

2 June 2008 | TEAMPAGE 4.0: PUTTING HYPERTEXT TO WORK

Traction Software’s TeamPage 4.0 Includes New Social Networking, Innovative Moderation and Page Name Management for High Performance Group Collaboration

2 June 2008 | Traction TeamPage Release 4.0

TeamPage 4.0 builds on Traction Software's award-winning secure, scalable and highly adaptable hypertext platform while adding new page and comment moderation, page name management, social networking, and e-mail notification capabilities that are simple to use and powerful. If you want to make your business work like the web, Traction TeamPage 4.0 is the best Enterprise 2.0 product to get the job done. » Read What's New In 4.0 » Read the Full Press Release » Read the Japanese Press Release

The Rise of Enterprise 2.0, Andrew McAfee | Video | Enterprise 2.0 Summit 2008 Tokyo

The Rise of Enterprise 2.0 - Professor Andrew McAfee, Enterprise 2.0 Summit Tokyo (2008) from Traction Software on Vimeo.

Article Templates

Getting people to collaborate can be a tall order. So why make it harder by starting them off with a blank page? Traction Page Sections and Article Templates work together to solve the problem.

Page and Comment Moderation

The Traction TeamPage moderation model allows for collaborative or formally controlled approval of page edits and comments, as well as new content. With TeamPage 4.0, moderation users who can read "drafts" in any number of work spaces can view, navigate and search the entire system based on its draft state or based on the "latest stable" published state.

Personal Profile Pages

In social networking applications, each person's profile page is a hub for their activity. It acts as both a directory entry and a blog. The Traction Profile page is the ideal place to learn about any person and their contributions to TeamPage.

Traction TeamPage 4.0 Puts Hypertext to Work

Traction TeamPage Release 4.0 delivers a combination of wiki, blog, tagging and social networking capabilities that extend Traction's secure, simple and scalable hypertext platform to handle Enterprise 2.0 collaboration on the work that matters most to your business: developing products, communicating with customers and sales partners, collaborating with key suppliers, tracking business issues, and competitive intelligence.

Non-Profit Pricing

To qualify for non-profit pricing, the purchaser must be a United States IRS Certified Charitable, Educational or other 501(c) Tax-Exempt Non-Profit organization (or non-US equivalent). Non-profit prices are not eligible for Government discounts. Please contact sales.

E-Mail and IM Notification

Most users are happy with the daily summary provided by the E-Mail Digest, a permission filtered newsletter format that concisely shows all new content, and packs discussions into threads. However, other users prefer more immediate notification via RSS Feeds. E-Mail Notification, however, fits well with E-Mail habits, provides nearly immediate notification and is highly configurable so you can use it to monitor anything from all content, or a very specific search type query.

Page Name Management and Name History

The concept of a name space is central to wikis. Each page in a wiki has a unique name, allowing you to link to that specific page by its page name (which generally is also the page title). Traction TeamPage delivers the ease and power of Named Pages without the constraints for less formal use cases that don't require it. TeamPage also offers a Global Name Space (that spans all spaces) and allows you to Alias Page Names across spaces.

Installation Instructions

For the smoothest installation experience, we highly recommend that you follow the step-by-step installation instructions in the PDF Installation and Configuration Guide. This guide also includes detailed instructions for configuring Traction to work with Active Directory and LDAP servers, as well has how to set up Traction for the first time.

17 April 2008 | Enterprise 2.0 Summit 2008 Tokyo

Traction Software is co-hosting the Enterprise 2.0 Summit 2008 Tokyo with over 325 people are registered to attend this event. Greg Lloyd, President of Traction Software, will present a video interview with Professor Andrew McAfee on The Rise of Enterprise 2.0. The interview questions came from attendees themselves, prior to the event. Other US keynote speakers include Joseph Nusum of McKinsey, speaking on Emergent Innovation and Enterprise 2.0, and Professor Andy van Dam of Brown University, speaking on a personal history of hypertext and a perspective on Enterprise 2.0 titled As We May Work. Andy van Dam is a pioneering computer scientist, credited with building HES, one of the first three hypertext systems built in the late 1960s. The Tokyo conference includes panels, papers and exhibits. See The Rise of Enterprise 2.0, Andrew McAfee | Video | Enterprise 2.0 Summit 2008 Tokyo for Professor McAfee's keynote.

14-17 April 2008 | SCIP 2008 Annual Conference

Please look for us in booth #412 at the SCIP 2008 Annual Conference and Exhibition in San Diego!

Email isn't dead - It's only sleeping

Caroline McCarthy has a wonderful post The future of Web apps will see the death of e-mail. She quotes Kevin Marks:

19 Feb 2008 | Greg Lloyd on "Enterprise 2.0 for Intelligence Analysts", FASTForward 08

Greg Lloyd spoke at FASTForward '08 Orlando in the Implementing Content-Based Collaborative Applications session on 19 Feb 2008. Abstract: It’s easy to store and find documents in folders if you know the structure by heart. FAST even makes it easy to search the content of your files, Web pages, and messages and navigate by content. What’s difficult to capture, search, and navigate is the context that makes content relevant for collaboration in a link-poor environment that exists in the typical enterprise. Enterprise 2.0 technology – specifically blogs, wikis, and social tagging – provide immediate value for collaborative work by creating an evolving record that connects external intelligence, internal dialog, and work product. This record can make enterprise search work and scale like the Web. Part 1 (Greg Lloyd, Traction Software) of this session examines how intelligence analysts in business and government are using Enterprise 2.0 tools to help manage this deep, broad, and challenging form of collaboration. Click here for a copy of the slides 7MB .ppt

Burned by a Bad Choice

Sometimes "free" is hardly that, and TCO calculations don't begin to account for the "cost" of a failed initiative. Below is an anonymized e-mail sent from a manager in one division of a very large global enterprise to another manager in a separate division which is now evaluating Enterprise Wiki software.

"Control Doesn't Scale" Part II - Let Go to Grow

In yesterday's note Control Doesn't Scale, I talked about how Enterprise 2.0 relies on an Enterprise 2.0 architecture and approach in order to work more like the web. Reflecting on a speech by Andrew McAfee at FASTForward 08, Bill Ives puts the matter very nicely:

22 Feb 2008 | Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check - Traction TeamPage goes "Beyond-the-Basics" with Hypertext Collaboration

In a post congratulating Traction® Software for its fourth consecutive selection as one of KMWorld's "100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management," Burton Group Analyst Peter O'Kelly writes: "I consider TeamPage the market-leading beyond-the-basics collaborative hypertext solution; it's a compelling example of the power of moving beyond files, to a world of hypertext information items/content components." » Read Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check Blog Entry. » Read Full KM 100 Press Release

21 February 2008 | Traction Software Named to KMWorld's "100 Companies That Matter in Knowledge Management"

For the fourth consecutive year, KM World recognized Traction® Software's market leadership by naming the company to their list of 100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management. "Traction Software continues to demonstrate leadership in delivering Enterprise 2.0 wiki and blog software that matches enterprise IT realities," said Hugh McKellar, Editor-in-Chief of KMWorld Magazine. "Their unique social tagging model, discussion threading technology, deep audit trail and permission filtering capabilities demonstrate a clear focus on meeting customer requirements in the real world." » Read Full Release

"Control Doesn't Scale"

David Weinberger has an incredible knack for putting information management issues into perspective, and always does so with just the right amount of humor and sarcasm (something I generally aim to achieve - but I imagine I fall short of a perfect Weinberger).

Automatic vs. Manual Tagging - Born to tag? and to What End?

Dennis McDonald recently posted an entry on his experience with Reuters' automatic tagging tool called Calais. He concludes:

Enterprise 2.0: Radical Change by Revolution or Mandate?

Ross Dawson's Enterprise 2.0 will bring radical change in organisations quotes Steve Hodgkinson, Ovum research director from an article by Merri Mack writing in Voice and Data magazine:

Best Practice and the Wiki Big Brain - An MBA Class Case Study

Some of my past entries (Best Practice and the Wikipedia Big Brain, Yin and Yang of E2.0, and Pros and Cons of Emergence) have discussed the importance of some structure in the collaboration process, even when using software like wikis and blogs which can permit N degrees of emergent structure. A recent sustained effort by an MBA class in Israel illustrates the importance and benefit of applying structure to the task.

Could I interest you in a Memex?

Today Weblogged News (Will Richardson) has a thoughtful post "Proficiency in Tossing Stuff Out", reflecting on Thomas Washington's essay in the Christian Science Monitor. Washington says: "The pursuit of knowledge in the age of information overload is less about a process of acquisition than about proficiency in tossing stuff out."

24 January 2008 | Projects@Work - Micro to Macro PM: the Wiki Way

Jordan Frank's article published in Projects@Work this month describes how Wikis fit in the center of project management collaboration, or alongside a traditional group scheduling and resource management system. Within the article, he points to two sites ( ShoreBank
and National Health Service Orkney who have reached exceptional success in using the Traction® TeamPage to do project management the wiki way! » Read Full Story

Wiki Collaboration for Wicked Problem Solving

Nick Fera asks who is better for "Wicked" problem solving, Groups or Individuals? after reading a December 5, 2007 article in ScienceDaily about a Sandia National Laboratories study.

Careers at Traction Software

Traction Software is a fast-growing enterprise software company leading the charge in the "Enterprise 2.0" collaboration market. With an impressive and quickly growing customer list and a technical lead in the Enterprise Wiki software market, the opportunity for career growth is exceptional. For goal-oriented team players with an entrepeneurial spirit, a career at Traction Software offers the right candidate a chance to have a real impact by making their mark in a company that is already well recognized in the US and around the world.

Inside Sales Representative (Lead Generation)

Job Description: Have the opportunity of a lifetime at Traction Software, a quickly growing company leading the "Enterprise 2.0" software charge. As part of a marketing campaign that generates interested leads, you will reach out to Fortune 100-1,000 companies, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations with the primary objective of qualifying leads and setting up appointments for the sales team. The right individual will aggressively call leads, engage interest, and create the excitement that Traction TeamPage Enteprise Wiki and Blog software applications can offer. The ideal individual will be trained at the highest level on lead generation. Secondary objectives are organized around assisting field and web marketing efforts to sustain and increase lead flow.

All in a Day's Work - The Magnitude of Collaboration

Spending just a little time looking at specifics on your own collaboration patterns sheds light on the central role of communication and collaboration in the every day business process of a "knowledge worker."

MIT Sloan Management Review | Failure to Collaborate and Share Knowledge --> Team Failure

Collaboration and knowledge sharing don't sound mission critical until you consider this: Teams that fail to do both, fail to perform. Bridging Faultlines in Diverse teams (A Dummer 2007 study published in the MIT Sloan Management Review) details the kinds of performance failures that result when teams fail to collaborate and share knowledge:

The least entertaining game ever

Good Morning Silicon Valley's Off Topic section for 18 Jan 2008 links to this page as "the least entertaining game ever". Unfair, unkind, funny, but with an element of truth: close to a perfect example of what I'd call a good cheap shot. To restore my karmic balance and express a personal opinion that the authors of the game might appreciate, see this page.

McDonald on Project Blogs and Wikis - For "Heavy-Duty" and "Innovation Oriented" teams

Dennis McDonald really strikes the "What Project Blogs?" nail on the head when he describes how, for lighter-duty "innovation oriented" teams, blog/wiki systems can be their core platform whereas for "heavy duty" teams, they "take precedence by making the availability of reports and data from the more structured tools more accessible." With blogs for projects, function follows form. More specifically, project teams need to communicate and share content over time - that's the form of a blog and is the principal rationale for why every project team should maintain one, or more, blogs. Additional project management functions required can be layered on top of the blog, or can be provided by other more structured systems when necessary.

How Can I Organize Information? Let Me Count the Ways

As I read through a few posts from Lynda Moulton, Jack Vinson and Jessica Baumgart, all involved in my ASIS&T 2007 and Gilbane panels late last year, I am pausing to absorb the surprising rate at which we've collectively moved away from the double drawer file cabinets and dewey decimal systems that I learned to use only a decade or two ago.

28 November 2007 | Gilbane Conference - Jordan Frank on Text Mining

In the Text Mining / Text Analytics and BI - The End Game panel, Jordan Frank's presentation explains how enterprise blogs are critical infrastructure for text mining and enterprise search. The panel was moderated by Joyce Ward of LexisNexis. Frank was joined by Matt Kodama of Endecaand Steven Cohen of Basis Technology.

When (and How) to Ask a Crowd?

In "Wisdom of Crowds is Cowardice," Central Desktop points to a Ross Mayfield statement (on the Conferenza blog) about the benefits of making decision rights more participatory and decoupling information rights from decision rights. Central Desktop concludes by urging "Lets just try to keep a little perspective when we talk about this stuff." OK. Lets do that...

Putting the "Enterprise" in Wiki, Blog and Social Software

I enjoyed reading "Why Enterprise Software Sucks" at Signal vs. Noise. It's to the point and does a nice job of building on Khoi Vinh's note "If it Looks Like a Cow, Swims Like a Dolphin and Quacks Like a Duck, It Must be Enterprise Software." That said, it also diminishes the importance of IT as a decision maker and the party responsible for managing software.

13 November 2007 | eWeek - Google Wiki, Where Art Thou?

Clint Boulton's column asks "What happened to Jotspot?" since they were bought by Google in October 2006. Traction Software's Jordan Frank is quoted: "The large volume of Google account holders, and the ease with which consumers and professionals can use Google Apps for informal file sharing and calendaring, would put wiki technology into the hands of many user groups who wouldn't have considered trying to use one for day-to-day information management... The result would greatly expand the prosumer market (Company employees using Wikis and other internet tools outside the firewall) and, as a result, put more pressure on enterprises to deploy best of breed Enterprise Wiki and Blog offerings such as Traction TeamPage." » Read Full Story

12 November 2007 | CMS Wire - TeamPage 3.8 Weds Blogs to Wikis and Other Dubious Enterprise Stuff

Angela Natividad offers a synopsis of the 3.8 features and benefits. She points out that Release 3.8 "makes it easy to blog in the same context at which you conduct wiki-style page editing. Your blog and wiki can live under the same name space, or you can create unique spaces for each." She also discusses the easy linking GUI, draft moderation, compliance and page name history features. » Read Full Story

November 2007 | The 451 Group - Can Traction Software gain traction with latest wiki release?

Senior 451 Group analyst Kathleen Reidy published her second review of Traction Software and Traction TeamPage (first report published Feb 2007). Reidy's November 9, 2007 report describes Traction Software's new TeamPage 3.8 release, the implications of the release, and Traction Software's position in the market. » Read Full Story (Subscription Required)

12 November 2007 | EWeek - Wiki Maker Looks for 'Traction' in Software Market

Clint Boulton reviews Traction TeamPage Release 3.8: Traction is jazzing up TeamPage Release 3.8, a piece of software that is used to help businesses collaborate on projects in an online workspace, with new draft moderation and linking utilities. » Read Full Story

12 November 2007 | Traction TeamPage Release 3.8 Supports "Collaboration at the Edge"

Traction TeamPage Release 3.8 introduces page name history, cross-wiki page name aliasing, a best in class GUI for easy linking, and 'latest stable version' moderation for edits as well as new pages and comments. This collection of features takes Traction TeamPage another step forward in supporiing collaboration 'at the Edge' as groups recognize need to edit, publish and tag with selectable levels of read and author permission crossing many wiki and blog spaces. The new Page Name History feature aids 'fearless refactoring' while extending TeamPage's lead in providing best in class Audit Trail and Edit History » Read the Full Release

NEW TEAMPAGE VERSION IS FIRST WIKI TO MATCH LINKING AND MODERATION WITH ENTERPRISE 2.0 REALITIES

Traction® TeamPage Introduces Page Name History and Cross-wiki Name Aliasing; Easy Linking GUI; and Page/Comment Moderation; Enables Collaboration ‘at the Edge'

7 November 2007 | Frank on "E2.0 in Action" at KMWorld 2007

Jordan Frank’s “Tagging Strategies for Enterprise 2.0 & Enterprise 2.0 in Action” presentation was featured in the Enterprise of the Future: Strategies Track at the KMWorld 2007 Annual Conference. Frank discussed blog and wiki use cases within the enterprise, enterprise social tagging strategies, and 6 enterprise and government customer stories including ShoreBank, NHS, the US Department of Defense, and others. Click here for a copy of the slides presented by Frank.

24 October 2007 | Frank Speaks on Tagging Strategies at ASIS&T 2007 Annual Conference

Jordan Frank’s “Tagging Strategies for Enterprise 2.0 - Blog/Wiki Driven Milestone Management at Shorebank” presentation was featured in the Corporate Blogs and Wikis Panel at the ASIS&T 2007 Annual Conference. Frank presented alongside Jack Vinson and Jessica Baumgart on the panel moderated by Christina Pikas. Follow links to each participant's name for their notes on the panel, and click here for a copy of the Tagging Strategies slides presented by Frank.

Collaboration Tools - Are Information Silos a Problem?

James Robertson's article Collaboration Tools are Anti Knowledge Sharing? discusses the pros and cons of collaboration tools, with particular emphasis on the problems associated with proliferation of 100's or even 1,000's of information silos. Michael Sampson's response nicely vouches for the pros, while cautioning against having a hodgepodge of disparate collaboration tools.

Pros and Cons of Emergence

Jim McGee did an excellent job in The Problem of Emergence of wrapping up our coffee talk with Jack Vinson on the pros and cons of emergence when adapting Web 2.0 to Enterprise 2.0. The simple fact is that Enterprise 2.0 is different from Web 2.0, and because of that, these differences have to be accounted for in the technologies implemented and in support of the adoption process.

Making Wikis Work in Business - Leading Users to the Water

Rod Boothby's post on Managing Wikis in Business draws out the main points on a post and MBA research by the same name written by Penny Edwards.

17 October 2007 | Greg Lloyd Presents "What's Next in Wikis and Weblogs" at NAC Fall 2007

Greg Lloyd speaks today at the Network Application Consortium's fall conference on Collaboration Technologies: What Works, Whose is Easier, What's Secure and Where's the Intersection.

National Health Service Orkney (NHS Orkney)

David Rendall of NHS Orkney (a regional health board of the UK's National Health Service) deployed Traction TeamPage and NewsGator Enterprise Server for a variety of use cases spanning the entire NHS Orkney staff. A year later, the use of the platform continues to gather momentum. NHS Orkney now has a single, central point of reference for internal communication and information as well as external news. Rendall says:

2 October 2007 | Building a Culture of Collaboration

Bill Roberts' article in CIO Today investigates the culture challenge to collaboration, even when Enterprise 2.0 software is used as a platform. He interviewed a Senior Product Manager from Saba, where Traction® TeamPage was deployed at Centra Software (later acquired by Saba) to harness collective intelligence about customers and competitors. Saba reached 70% adoption across the relevant group of 200 employees. Furthermore, they've proven that the platform and process around it is durable, as it was sustained for over 2 years and through the acquisition process when Saba bought Centra Software. It's a great start, though they are looking to do better. » Full Story

19 September 2007 | Chris Nuzum Presents Traction at Providence Geeks Dinner

From Providence Geeks, Digital Innovators in the City-State: This Geek Dinner was a heavily-attended double header (RI Nexus and Traction Software). Chris Nuzum, CTO of Traction Software, spoke about their award-winning enterprise wiki… it’s actually much more than a wiki.

re: A Web That Works | NHS Orkney

See also David's Oct 4, 2007 post Understanding the "corporate" mindset. Thanks for the kind words, David!

Searching for the Perfect Fried Clam | Rhode Island

Bill Ives of Portals and KM shifts his usual focus to raise a question near and dear to all of us who live in New England, Searching for the Perfect Fried Clam. He lists three tempting choices in Massachusetts, settling on Woodman's in Essex as his first choice. I'll certainly put that on my list, but must nominate Evelyn's Drive Inn in Tiverton RI for the Clam of Honor. Not only do they have great fried clams, but they're also my top choice for Rhode Island style (clear) clam chowder and traditional Rhode Island stuffies ("Fresh local quahogs halved and filled with our spicy blend of chopped clams and chourico").

11-12 September 2007 | Traction User Group Meeting

Our second annual Traction User Group (TUG) meeting was held last week in Newport, RI. The two day event featured twenty-six speakers including:

22 August 2007 | KMWorld: Traction TeamPage a Trend Setting Product of the Year

Recognizing Traction Software's consistent technology leadership in the enterprise wiki and blog software market, for the 4th consecutive year KMWorld recognized Traction TeamPage as one of their selected 2007 Trend Setting Products of the Year. Hugh McKellar, Editor-In-Chief, and his team of analysts, integrators, editors and users selected the trend setting products from a list of more than 650. » Read More

Get Intuition with Traction

One of my favorite aspects of the Traction platform is its ability to help human's "scale" to handle working with a large amount of information content. As I noted in Wikis Reduce Email, we have over 130,000 pages, comments and attachments in our own enterprise system, but it's very manageable. Traction turns information overload into underload and facilitates the transformation of text into human knowledge and intuition. Blosint agrees.

Wikis Reduce Email

Michael Sampson's Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams Report post talks anecdotally about how "Wikis Reduce Email."

"Same old, same old" & Enterprise 2.0 Durability

When asked "How are things?" a college friend used to reply "Same old, same old" as a way of saying "Nothing has changed, nothing's gone wrong, things are fine." This was always good to hear.

A Web That Works | NHS Orkney

David Rendall, National Health Service Orkney created his A Web That Works blog to complement his poster presentation at the UK's National Health Service conference: Delivering Healthcare in the 21st Century, 11-12 Jun 2007, Glasgow UK. David co-authored a 30 July 2007 Intranet Journal article about his experience with Traction Software's Jordan Frank. Visit David's blog ! To download a full-size copy of David's poster (3.2MB .jpg) click here, posted with David's permission.

August 2007 | Gilbane Group Interview: New solutions for a multilingual world

Kaija Poysti of the Gilbane Group's Globalization Blog interviews Traction Software's Greg Lloyd. Kaija says that in companies the "multilingual environment is not only about translation, but about working with customers and colleagues whose native language is different from one's own. That can lead to a lot of miscommunication, and I think that nobody has even started to measure the real costs or missed sales arising from it."

Learn by watching - Then do

JP Rangaswami writes an excellent blog - Confused of Calcutta - where he shares his experience as an "accidental technologist" who moved from investment banking to the services arm of a telco. His post on Facebook and Knowledge Management tells a great story about what happened when he decided to open up his mailbox to his direct reports:

Looking for a new Fake Steve Jobs ...

Learning Fake Steve Jobs' real identity is about as much fun as learning that Santa Claus died on 6 September 1959 of pneumonia and complications from a stroke. Adopting an anonymous persona for for satiric or polemical rants has a long and honorable history, unlike the self-serving sock puppetery of some real life CEO's. The former FSJ takes a nice parting shot at Valleywag:

30 July 2007 | IntranetJournal - Traction, Newsgator Weave a Web that Works | NHS Orkney

This case study, authored by David Rendall (Computer Programmer - NHS Orkney) and Jordan Frank (Traction® Software), explains how Traction® TeamPage and NewsGator Enterprise Server form "a Web That Works," seamlessly integrating Enterprise Wiki, Blog and RSS technologies at NHS Orkney. NHS Orkney is a branch of the UK's National Health Service, the 4th largest employer in the world.

re: Detailed Data Aside, Executives Back E2.0

Forrester provided more grist for the data mill on this topic. The following chart and some detail on it was posted at Read/WriteWeb:

White papers

Click a white paper title to read the paper online or download a .pdf copy for printing.

Blogs and Wikis: Building Customer Connections

AIIM E-DOC Magazine Jul/Aug 2007 Issue - Greg Lloyd, Traction Software writes: Blogs get a lot of press when individual bloggers express their opinions on politics, news of the day, or anything that strikes their fancy and thousands of others quickly jump in to join the conversation. The Wikipedia project (www.Wikipedia.org) is a well publicized example of the use of wiki software to bring people from around the world together to collaboratively write, edit and correct an online encyclopedia of over four million articles - and growing - without centralized control. One common question from business people is: "Can I use blogs and wiki's to keep in touch with my customers?" The short answer is yes. Here are some practical examples.

re: Detailed Data Aside, Executives Back E2.0

To add a bit more data fuel to the survey research fire: In an in depth survey of 120 IT Executives at large companies (average $10B revenue), Nemertes Research reported that "18 percent said their company is using blogs, 32 percent are using wikis, and 23 percent are using RSS."

The Yin and Yang of Enterprise 2.0, the scruffy-neats, and INNATS

The success of user generated content sites and communities such as MySpace, Wikipedia and the Blogosphere leads many to question the merit of imposing any structure on collaboration. Leading thinkers like Jim McGee and Bill Ives recently offered their ideas and sought opinion from others on the FASTForward blog.

ShoreBank

After their initial pilot period, ShoreBank achieved overnight adoption within their IT Department after adopting Traction® Software' TeamPage Enterprise Wiki and Blog platform for Milestone Centric Communication and Collaborative Content Management.

And here's what Enterprise 2.0 looked like in 1968 | Dealing lightning with both hands...

The video This is what the web looked like in 1994 - a DEC promotional video of that era - got a bit of attention recently. Just for the record - here's what Enterprise 2.0 looked like in 1968 - courtesy Doug Engelbart and his team at SRI:

Detailed Data Aside, Executives Back E2.0

A new market report, this time by McKinsey& Company, says a majority of executives say they plan to increase investments in technologies which fall under the collective hood of Enterprise and Web 2.0.

July 2007 | Podcast Interview: Overcoming Fear of Blogs | Mike Gotta

Collaborative Thinking - Mike Gotta writes Jul 5, 2007: At the Enterprise 2.0 conference, I had the opportunity to interview Jordan Frank from Traction® Software. The podcast can be listened to, or downloaded, here at the Burton Group Inflection Point site (along with other analyst podcasts).

19 June 2007 | E2.0 Conference - E2.0 in Action ShoreBank Case Study

The E2.0 in Action track's Enterprise 2.0: Case Studies of Excellence - Part 1 panel will feature Traction® Software's Jordan Frank who will show how Traction® TeamPage is used as a blog and wiki platform for Milestone Management at ShoreBank. The panel, moderated by Brian Gillooly (editor in Chief of CMP's Optimize) will also include presentations from iUpload, Denodo, Newsgator, and Smartsheet. See also Enterprise 2.0 Podcast interview with Mike Gotta.

Is Enterprise 2.0 for Babies or Boomers?

Joe McKendrick asks "Is Web 2.0 Really Dominated by the Young?" and offers some data suggesting its for people of all ages, though under 25ers are the majority in communities like MySpace. In the enterprise, however, there is a question as to whether 2.0 adoption is better started with younger or more experienced management-level employees.

4-5 June 2007 | Interdoc Symposium - Frank to Speak on Enterprise Wikis

Jordan Frank will bust 2.0 myths before bringing the relevance of Web 2.0 to the enterprise to light with enterprise case studies from finance, pharmaceutical, government and non-profit markets. He will finish off with best practices that all but guarantee real results. » Full Conference Schedule

31 May 2007 | Traction TeamPage a hit at LinuxWorld Japan

Congratulations to our Japanese partners SEL and AKJ on a great showing for Traction TeamPage at LinuxWorld Japan 2007. SEL was a gold sponsor and launched a Japanese TeamPage customer forum in advance of the event.

May 2007 | TechScore - 住友電工情報システムとアプライドナレッジが社内情報共有の分野で連携

English Abstract: Sumitomo Electric Information Systems Co., Ltd and Applied Knowledge Co., Ltd have partnered to integrate “QuickSolution Portal” and “Traction® TeamPage” in order to promote more effective and efficient utilization of the TeamPage Enterprise Blog and Wiki platform.

May 2007 | Computerwoche.DE - Enterprise Wikis erlauben zwanglose Teamarbeit

English Abstract: Hearing the term Wiki most contemporaries think just of the success of the free encyclopedia Wikipedia. While almost nobody doubts the benefits of these tools for Web Communities, still skepticism prevails over the advantages for enterprises the tools can offer in the professional areas. Wikis are still considered as primitive tools, promoting an anarchic way of working: Since each coworker can change existing documents even from his superiors. Whereas the analysts of Gartner prognoses that Wikis will develop to a commonly used tool for collaboration and up to 2009 more than 50 percent of all companies will use them. This article contains a german version of the Wiki comparison in the InfoWorld Wiki Roundup » Read Full Story (in German)

22 May 2007 | Greg Lloyd on Interop 2007 Enterprise 2.0 Panel

Greg Lloyd (Traction Software Inc) joins Dion Hinchcliffe (Hinchliffe & Company), David Barnes (IBM), and Rod Boothby (Teqlo) for a discussion and demonstration of the latest Enterprise 2.0 products and trends. This is part of the Enterprise 2.0 track organized by Dion Hinchcliffe. To download Greg's PowerPoint slides - including a screenshot walkthrough of the demo = a big file! click here (15MB .ppt)

Building pleasant and stable islands in a storm-tossed sea

Traction Roots: A Whirlwind Tour (.ppt 6.2MB) tells the Traction story in pictures: 1) Tim Berners-Lee's web trades stable links for utmost simplicity and bottom-up scalability without central control; 2) Traction creates spaces which are pleasant and stable islands with a rich hypertext model internally: bi-direction links; comments based on ternary relations rather than hacking the representation of the referent object; faceted permission models uniformly enforced for search results, cross-references, as well as content browsing; fully journaled actions, etc. 3) Traction generates HTTP addressable views of its content to enable any item in the Traction corpus to be read and linked like the rest of the web (optionally restricted by access controls). This creates a pleasant and stable island that's easily connected to other islands of stability on the Web - as well as anything in the storm tossed sea - not a stovepiped box.

Enterprise 2.0 - Letting hypertext out of its box

In his Mar 26, 2006 post, Putting Enterprise 2.0 in Perspective, Mike Gotta agrees with Tom Davenport and Andrew McAfee that a balanced discussion of E2.0 should include "... how well an enterprise addresses the complex organizational dynamics that often inhibit change," not just "irrational exuberance regarding the technology."

re: Beta Bloggers Need Not Lurk in the Enterprise

A study by Bill Tancer of Hitwise provides more grain to the Lurker effect that I referenced at AlertBox. He indicates that 0.16% of visits to YouTube are to upload content and 0.2% of visits to Flickr are to add a picture. This affirms that most of us are passive visitors of public sites. But this is far from a blow to 2.0. In fact the increase in viewership affirms the value of the medium. Individuals simply need a reason to contribute. As I conclude in the original post here about Beta Bloggers, there is a simple and obvious role for any knowledge worker to publish a steady stream of content in the process of every-day work process and communciation.

Re-Emergent Collaboration? Wikipedia, the Sequel

This week, BusinessWeek.com reports the Wikipedia co-founder seeks to start over. While the blemishes of vandalism and some poor writing doesn't sway Wikipedia fans, Larry Sanger, one of the Wikipedia co-founders, disagrees.

"Best Enterprise Wiki” Software Now Free for Five Users

Traction Software Announces Traction® TeamPage™: Free Download Includes Five Login Accounts and Five Projects, so Large and Small Enterprises Can Try TeamPage for Zero Commitment and Cost

New Plug-In Architecture Enables Traction Users to Easily Develop, Manage and Share TeamPage Extensions

Simple New Architecture and Interface to Upload and Configure Plug-ins Enables Customers and Partners to Develop and Share Traction® TeamPage Extensions, Creating a Path to Better and Faster Customization and Richer Site-Specific Functionality

26 March 2007 | Traction Announces Free 5 User Version, New Plug-In Architecture for Developers, and Release 3.7.3

Individuals and organizations may now download and use a free, perpetual Traction® TeamPage™ license. The Plug-In announcement introduces a simple mechanism for Traction developers and administrators to install, configure and manage plug-ins to create their own skins and widgets, as well as override or extended TeamPage features. The TeamPage 3.7.3 release announces the new Auto-Save feature, RSS subscription for Traction TeamPage FAST Search Module queries, new server ACLs, an improved Jabber notifier, and new section types to track active discussions and edit activity. Edit and Discussion sections, like other Traction Sections can be scoped to the server, any project, or even a given category label (like Requirements) in a project.
» Read the Release 3.7.3 and New Plug-In Architecture Enables Traction Users to Easily Develop, Manage and Share TeamPage Extensions release
» Read the Best Enterprise Wiki Software Now Free for Five Users release.

Plug-In Architecture for Customization

Developers can use Traction® TeamPage's plug-in architecture to add new functions to TeamPage or override and extend the appearance and behavior of standard TeamPage features and interfaces. The architecture preserves plug-ins in their own directories so the installation of new plug-ins or software updates is non-destructive.

Auto-Save for Article and Comment Forms

Computer crashes, network interruptions and accidently closed browser windows are inevitable. They're all are costly when you lose valuable work in your browser!

About Traction TeamPage Free Licenses

Traction Software's award winning Traction TeamPage software is free for up to five users. You can download and install TeamPage on your own hardware or your own hosted service for personal or business use.

12 March 2007 | BusinessWeek - No Rest for Wiki - Highlights Traction Customer Enel North America

The CEO Guide to Technology's "No Rest for the Wiki" story by Rachael King says that that these online tools for building collective info banks are making deeper inroads in corporations and rewriting the rules of collaboration. Within the article, she points to the Wiki success at Enel North America, a Traction® TeamPage Customer. Enel North America is a subsidiary of their parent company Enel (EN), is utilities company with a focus on renewable energy. Enel is a Global 100 company with about 56,000 employees worldwide.

March 2007 | Traction Software named to KMWorld "100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management"

For the third year in a row, Traction® Software was included in KM World's list of 100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management. Hugh McKellar notes that the companies listed "distinguished themselves to our panel of judgets because of their role in creating, enhancing, or defining a market." » Read More

What is a Blog? A Wiki?

Despite years of debate, constructive discussion and an occasional flame war as well as scores of wikipedia edits, there remains ambiguity and disagreement on "what is a blog" and "what is a wiki." In a series talks at KMWorld, Burton Group’s Catalyst Conference, IQPC’s IntranetWeek and others over the last year, I've offered my own definition. So, here goes my attempt at a baseline set of definitions, with a bit of historical context.

Sherlock Jr.

Just what you need, believe me.

Information Foraging at FASTForward '07

I enjoyed FASTForward '07 last week in San Diego - an excellent conference and 60 degrees warmer than Providence Rhode Island! It featured great keynotes (particularly Andrew McAfee on Enterprise 2.0 the Next Disruptor), sessions, networking and entertainment.

Social Media and the Inc 500 - The Mattson & Ganim Barnes Report

The good news: Research shows awareness and use of social media (Message boards, social networking, online video, blogging, wikis and podcasting) is significant and apparently on the rise.

7 February 2007 | FASTforward '07

Greg Lloyd will speak on the topic "Search Meet Blogs and Wikis" at FASTforward '07, the FAST Search & Transfer user group meeting.

TeamPage Attivio® Search Module

Posting your communication and knowledge to TeamPage is only as useful as your ability to get it out. Dashboards in TeamPage provide great structured navigation. Adding Premium Search provides great unstructured navigation. Your users have come to love outstanding search on the web. The TeamPage Attivio® Search Module meets the need for your enterprise, including drill down navigation users will love.

23 January 2007 | SCIP Boston Chapter Meeting

The SCIP Boston Chapter hosted a meeting this week titled "Harnessing Web 2.0 For Competitive Intelligence." Greg Lloyd joined the panel to talk about the impact of Web 2.0 technologies including blogs, RSS and social tagging on the competitive intelligence process. An agenda is posted at the Knowledge is Power CI Forum.

23 January 2007 | CBI Predictive Intelligence Conference

At this pharmaceutical industry conference hosted by CBI, Jordan Frank, joined by Matt Cole of QL2 Software, gave a presentation titled "Synthesizing Data from Blogs for Future Projections and Pattern Assessment." The presentation discussed methods for data mining and visualization of content from internet blogs as well as capturing the breadth of data types to consolidate information in enterprise blogs, in support of further mining and content collaboration.

Flip Test 1971 | Email versus Journal

Andrew McAfee asks a great question in A Technology Flip Test: Introducing Channels in a World of Platforms: "... imagine that current corporate collaboration and communication technologies were exclusively E2.0 platforms -- blogs, wikis, etc. -- and all of a sudden a crop of new channel technologies -- email, instant messaging, text messaging -- became available. In other words, imagine the inverse of the present situation. What would happen? How, in the flip-test universe, would the new channel technologies be received?"

January 2007 | InfoWorld Wiki Roundup | Wikis Evolve as Collaboration Tools

Mike Heck's January 5, 2007 review ranked Traction® TeamPage #1 in an InfoWorld Test Center roundup including TeamPage, Confluence, SocialText and Near-Time. The ranking earned TeamPage the "Best Enterprise Wiki" and the "InfoWorld 2007 Technology of the Year" award. The review concludes: Traction TeamPage clearly placed above the others with its superior ease of use and query ability that presented each user with just the knowledge they need. Traction TeamPage received an overall rating of Excellent with a 9.0 score. » Read the full InfoWorld Review

January 2007 | Blogs and wikis: ready for prime time?

January 1, 2007: Judith Lamont of KMWorld writes about corporate use of blogs and wikis for knowledge management, content management and collaboration. The article profiles ShoreBank's use of Traction® TeamPage to communicate and organize information about 75 IT projects at any given time.

January 2007 | Traction TeamPage: Best Enterprise Wiki | InfoWorld 2007 Technology of the Year Award

Best Enterprise Wiki InfoWorld 2007 Technology of the Year Award, Jan 1, 2007: "Traction® TeamPage, built on 100 percent Java technology, combines the group editing of a wiki with project blogs. Labels organize posts within users' projects, and robust permissioning ensures that pages are delivered dynamically based on a user's rights. Maybe best of all, widgets can present links or content driven by any Traction query." » See InfoWorld Award page and Enterprise Wiki Roundup | InfoWorld Test Center Review.

InfoWorld 2007 Technology of the Year Award

Everyone at Traction Software is honored to learn that TeamPage has been named a InfoWorld 2007 Technology of the Year Award Winner. In addition to InfoWorld, we'd like to thank customers and friends of Traction for helping us build a product that works well and serves a useful purpose. I'd personally like to thank Traction Software's employees and partners, as well as the inspiration from Andy van Dam, Ted Nelson and Doug Engelbart. What a way to start the New Year!

Presenting at the December KM Forum Boston

I had the honor of speaking at the Boston Knowledge Management Forum on Monday. I was joined by Kathleen Gilroy of the Otter Group (who wrote a piece on the event beforehand) , Susan Dobscha of Bentley College, and Kelly Drahzal of IBM. I was also on an enterprise blog/wiki vendor panel led by Kathleen (thanks Kathleen!).

December 2006 | Test Lab: Traction Juices Up Collaboration

December 18, 2006: P.G. Daly of Intranet Journal's Test Lab wrote a terrific and comprehensive review of Traction® TeamPage. The full review is worth reading, but here are a few quotes:

FAST-Enabled Search and Navigation for Traction TeamPage

On Dec 18, 2006 Traction Software Announces Release of Integrated FAST InStream™ Search Technology to Enable Secure Search, Entity Extraction and Drill Down Navigation. The module is an integrated and easily installed option that extends Traction's permissioned search model to over 370 document formats for files attached to TeamPage posts or stored in TeamPage web folders. FAST's advanced linguistic analysis adds relevance ranking and automatic entity extraction to support interactive permission-filtered drill-down by person, company, location and other attributes. "In the era of Enterprise 2.0, smart companies are leveraging tools like Traction TeamPage to empower individuals to create their own content," said John M. Lervik, CEO, FAST. "Now, by leveraging Traction TeamPage together with FAST InStream businesses can offer their employees a new and more powerful package of tools to help them produce, share and then intelligently search this collective intelligence, creating a smarter, faster-moving and more profitable workforce." » Read the Press Release, Read the Traction TeamPage Fast Search Module feature page

Traction Software Brings FAST-Enabled Search to Blogs and Wikis

Traction Software Brings FAST-Enabled Search to Blogs and Wikis Traction Goes Beyond Blogs and Wikis, Offering Integrated FAST InStream Search Technology to Enable Secure Search, Entity Extraction and Drill Down Navigation PROVIDENCE, RI -- (MARKET WIRE) -- December 18, 2006 -- Traction® Software, the leading developer of products for secure, scalable, web-based collaboration, today announced the general availability of its Traction® TeamPage™ FAST Search Module. The Module is an integrated and easily installed option, based on Fast Search & Transfer's FAST InStream™ OEM search technology solution. The Module is priced at USD $15K per Traction TeamPage Server.

October 2006 | Traction Software named a KMWorld KM Promise Award Finalist

Traction Software goes beyond blogs and wikis to deliver technology and best practices supportive of work process, and ensure customer success. KMWorld describes the award criteria: This award is given to the organization that is delivering its promise to customers by providing innovative technology solutions for implementing and integrating knowledge management practices into business processes. The award-winning organization demonstrates how it goes beyond simply delivering technology to working with clients to ensure that both the technology and knowledge processes are embedded into the work processes. In other words, it helps organizations realize positive business results. » Read More

December 2006 | Berlind (and Frank) on Wikis and Blogs at the Gilbane Content Management Conference

David Berlind writes about the impact Wikis and Blogs will have on the enterprise, and conducted a video interview with Traction Software's Jordan Frank along with others from various corners of the Content Management industry. Berlind wrote:

re: Use of Weblogs for Competitive Intelligence | First International Business, Technology CI Conference, Tokyo Oct 2005

See Enterprise 2.0 - Letting hypertext out of its box
Beyond blogs and wikis

re: Beyond blogs and wikis

See October 2006 | Burton Group Report - Hypertext and Compound/Interactive Document Models for a synopsis of how Traction builds on classical hypertext roots to make blog and wiki two interaction and presentation styles designed to support collaboration in place and collaboration over time.

October 2006 | Burton Group Report - Hypertext and Compound/Interactive Document Models

Burton Group's Peter O'Kelly's report titled Hypertext and Compound/Interactive Document Models: Collaboration and Content Management Implications goes a long way towards explaining the benefits of and drive towards hypertext (a platform for blogs and wikis and more) as a backbone for collaborative work and communication. In the report, Burton Group says Traction® TeamPage... "...comes closest to bringing the visions of hypertext pioneer Doug Engelbart to fruition, and that it is also a very useful leading indicator in terms of features other vendors will eventually add."

November 2006 | EContent 100 Companies that Matter 2006

For the third year in a row, Traction Software is named to the blogging category in the EContent Magazine list of companies that matter most in the digital content industry. In the 2006 EContent Announcement, Michelle Manafy says "We carefully reconsidered last year's list members and kept only those companies who we agreed continue to lead the industry. For some this means market share, but for most it means thought- and technology-leadership, innovation, and even experimentation."

Enel North America

Enel is a Global 100 company and was listed at #65 (as of 2005) on Forbes World's 2000 leading companies. Enel has one of the the largest global renewable energy portfolios in the world with over 19,000 MW of hydropower, wind, geothermal and biomass capacity worldwide. Enel North America, Inc. is a leading owner and operator of renewable energy plants in North America, with with over 70 plants in 16 U.S. States and 2 Canadian Provinces. With offices in the United States and Canada, Enel North America is active in a number of clean power sources, including hydro, wind, and biomass, as well as pursuing potential geothermal opportunities.

Beta Bloggers Need Not Lurk in the Enterprise

KnowledgeJolt with Jack writes about a study reported on Jakob Nielson's AlertBox about Participation Inequality: Lurkers vs. Contributors in Internet Communities. Jack agrees and expands on Jakob's recommendations for increasing participation. Both are on point for public internet communities like wikipedia, group blogs and product review sites. However, the problem can be simplified in enterprise settings when catering to beta bloggers.

A study by Bill Tancer of Hitwise provides more grain to the Lurker effect that I referenced at AlertBox. He indicates that 0.16% of visits to YouTube are to upload content and 0.2% of visits to Flickr are to add a picture. This affirms that most of us are passive visitors of public sites. But this is far from a blow to 2.0. In fact the increase in viewership affirms the value of the medium. Individuals simply need a reason to contribute. As I conclude in the original post here about Beta Bloggers, there is a simple and obvious role for any knowledge worker to publish a steady stream of content in the process of every-day work process and communciation. April 19, 2007 | # | Jordan Frank A study by Bill Tancer of Hitwise provides more grain to the Lurker effect ... April 19, 2007 | # | Jordan Frank

Wal-Mart, Meet lonelygirl15

Tom Siebert from OnlineMedia interviewed me last week for a story he broke on a Pro Wal-Mart blog which, as it turns out, was put together by a professional writer and photographer, and financed by Wal-Mart through their PR firm, Edelman, and a funded non-profit called Working Families for Wal-Mart.

Pipeline Management - Sensitivity Analysis

In the management of a business obstacles may arise at any moment. One of the better lessons I learned at business school (the one on the other side of the river) is to recognize that the past does not predict the future (I have also learned that in a casino or two). A related lesson was to do sensitivity analyses on our data models and business plans.

Greg Lloyd on "The Return of Interactive Hypermedia, or the Triumph of Ted Nelson" at Burton Group's Catalyst Europe Conference

Greg speaks at Burton Group's Catalyst 2006 Europe Conference, Barcelona 12 Oct 2006. His topic, The Return of Interactive Hypermedia, or the Triumph of Ted Nelson is part of the Collaboration and Content track in a session: Leveraging the Services Infrastructure to Improve the User Experience.

re: Blogging Policy = Blabbing Policy

In support of this point, Rod Boothby's post titled Bloggers are Dangerous includes this thought: Blogs dont cause problems, people do.

Best Practice and the Wikipedia Big Brain

At the recent Interop New York (see TechWeb story), Andrew McAfee compares Wikipedia to an ant colony, suggesting that the opposite of imposed structure is not chaos. He said:

Pastepost

The first public document from the first Hypertext Editing System (Andy van Dam et al, Brown University, 1968) was a press release announcing its own creation. Brown University Public Affairs thought this was very clever. AvD and crew wrote a two page press release, which in the second paragraph claimed to:

Features

Traction® TeamPage integrates collaboration, communication, action tracking, exception handling, social tagging, activity streams, discussion and social networking using Traction's award-winning hypertext technology. TeamPage makes Enterprise 2.0 technology secure, attractive, effective and reliable for business.

That was fast!

See the update time on Olivier's TeamPage 3.7 post (from my Technorati watchlist)!

September 2006 | Collaboration Loop | Traction TeamPage Releases v3.7 for Blogs and Wikis

September 12, 2006 By Collaboration Loop Staff: Traction Software today announced Traction TeamPage Release 3.7. New features added in this release include extensible widgets, edit history and rollback, inline sections, flexible outputs to any format, and upgraded mobile device support. Traction's TeamPage software combines the group editing of a wiki, the interface of a blog, and a access control and comment model to provide secure, scaleable web based communication to business and government customers. ...

October 2006 | SITA: A Case of Limitless Collaboration

Marla Misek wrote an EContent case study on SITA's deployment of Traction® TeamPage for collaboration across a group of 100 employees on a virtual team, and to build a knowledge base. Raj Vardhan, head of SITA's Sales and Business Development said "We have increased empoyee participation, recognition, and social networking and we've broken hierarchical barriers. Interestingly, its also generated a strong viral effect: we have a number of departments now clamoring for their own access to the platform to foster collaboration. For us, it's real evidence that there was a need for this." » Read SITA Customer Case Story » Read Full Article (Subscription to EContent Required)

Authority versus Page Rank

On 15 Sep 2006 Tim Bray wrote in Wikipedia: Resistance is Absent:

12 September 2006 | Beyond Blogs and Wikis: Traction Release 3.7 Announcement

New features added in this release include extensible widgets, edit history differences and version rollback, inline sections, flexible outputs to any WordML and PDF, and upgraded mobile device support. Traction® Software products combine the group editing of a wiki and simplicity of a blog while satisfying enterprise needs for secure, scalable, web-based working communication. more » Read Full Release » Read about Traction Features » Read Beyond Blogs and Wikis

Beyond Blogs and Wikis: Traction TeamPage Release 3.7 Delivers Secure and Scalable Web Collaboration

New Features Include Extensible Widgets, Secure Group Editing, Inline Sections, Flexible Output Formats, and Mobility

August 2006 | Traction TeamPage named a KMWorld Trend-Setting Product of 2006

KMWorld magazine recognized Traction TeamPage as a "robust enterprise blog platform" in their Trend-Setting Products of 2006 review. Having received this award for the third consecutive year confirms Traction Software's continued innovation and leadership in the blog and wiki market. » Read More

September 2006 | Fuld & Company Intelligence Software Report 2006-2007

Register for a free copy of the Report In its latest survey of 17 competitive intelligence software packages [including Traction® TeamPage], Fuld & Co. urges executives to match packages based not only on their features, but also on how they fit with a company's approach and progress in utilizing competitive intelligence techniques...

The Collector

Traction's Collector is a unique feature that provides an easy way to bookmark Traction articles and comments for later reference or immediate action. You can have multiple collections, each with its own set of articles.

Customer Support

Good customer support is, by all means, a feature. At Traction Software we strive to provide top notch customer support and professional services.

Installation and Administration

Installating Traction is easy. You need to install one piece of software and configuration is a breeze.

Language, Localization and Time Zone Support

Traction is fully localized allowing for support of most languages and the simultaneous delivery of the interface in different locales and time zones.

The Traction SDK and SDL

The Traction Software Developers Kit (SDK) and Skin Definition Language (SDL) make it easy for developers to extend or customize Traction Teampage's appearance, behavior, and connections to other systems.

Skin (Interface) Options and Customization

The default Traction interface is the Proteus skin (some of the feature descriptions shown the older Mexico skin). Traction ships with several other skin options and easy out of the box skin customization options. Using the Skin Definition Language (SDL), its also possible to craft any interface that suits your needs and package it as a plug-in so it is easily managed and shared.

Custom Interfaces, Views and Forms

You can use Traction's Skin Definition Language (SDL) to create custom views, forms or entire interfaces for specific applications or needs. This can be done as a set of views for a whole site or for a single page.

Mobile Device Interface

The Simple skin is an alternative interface to Traction which is delivered automatically to mobile phone Web browsers with limited screen space and HTML capabilities (modern smart phone users can use the Proteus skin). The Simple skin is also useful for legacy desktop Web browsers or screen readers.

Listeners and Notification

For cases where the built in notification methods like the E-mail Digest, E-mail Notifier and Dynamic RSS and Atom Feeds aren't adequate, Traction supports plug-in listeners (written using the Traction SDK) that can take action when an article is posted.

Dynamic RSS and Atom Feeds

Traction produces dynamic, secure, and authenticated feeds. It can deliver an RSS 2.0 or Atom feed of any Traction view, even an arbitrary search query.

Export to Word or PDF

In addition to Printing and Email Out, another way to get content out of Traction is to export to WordML or PDF format.

Printing

Configurable printer-friendly pages allow users to select any arbitrary set of articles or comments and print them together.

Trackback

You may publish to an external blog system using trackback out, and just as easily accept trackback pings into your Traction server.

E-mail Out

It's easy for permitted users to send an arbitrary collection of articles via email.

E-mail Digest

The Email Digest is the most commonly type of notification.

Widgets

Comments and Threaded Discussions

Comments and full threaded discussions may be initiated on articles or even at the paragraph level.

Share Folders & WebDAV

Each space has a share folder where you can add files and folders via the browser interface or Microsoft Windows Explorer. A given user's ability to read, add and change content in the share folder is governed by permissions in Access Control and Security.

Attached Documents & WebDAV

The WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) specification is supported in Traction for article attachments and WebDAV Share Folders.

Editing

Traction supports Wiki style collaborative editing and edit histories for articles and comments. Once an article is posted to Traction, Edit and Edit Own permissions control who can edit the article using Traction's editing interface (see Publishing). Edit Own permission allows you to grant people permission to edit the content that they posted - but not content posted by others.

Linking

Publishing, editing and linking pages is the core strength of wiki platforms. Traction takes linking to a new level with features that: create a variety of link types; support bi-directional linking with referential integrity persisting through edits and across permission boundaries, and introducing wiki page name history to complement wiki content history.

Email Reply

When email is sent or posted to Traction, you can reply directly from Traction. The response message is sent as an ordinary email, but also published to a selected project.

Publishing

While most users contribute with the Add New Article form, Traction offers a variety of methods to publish content:

Dynamic, Permission Filtered Views

All views in Traction are delivered dynamically based on a given user's permissions assigned in Access Control and Security.

Search

Traction's integrated search provides up to date, permission filtered search results.

Access Control and Security

Access Control Lists (ACLs) allow server and project administrators to easily manage access to the server and manage permissions in each space.

Calendar Navigation

Traction helps you makes sense of your workspace with date range displays.

Tags for categorization and social tagging

Traction shines when it comes to categorizing your content. Tags (or labels) are used to organize or describe information within and across project spaces. Social Tagging, with permission filtering is enabled as users in each project can define their own tags, and apply them to content (pages or comments) in any space they can see.

Audit Trail

Traction is a true journaling technology, with best of class audit trail capability that goes well beyond basic wiki style edit history.

Page Sections

Sections are a very powerful tool in Traction that allow you to display any cross-section of content at any volume level -- you can show as little as a just titles or entire pages within a section.

Home Page and Dashboards

Organizing by Space

SITA | Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques

SITA is the world's leading service provider of IT business solutions and communications services to the air transport industry. SITA manages complex communication solutions for its air transport, government and GDS customers over the world's most extensive communication network, complemented by consultancy in the design, deployment and integration of communication services. SITA is a community of 600 airline and GDS members and 2,000 customers, including Air France, Air Madagascar, Air Malta, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Hapag-Lloyd, KLM, IATA, and Royal Jordanian.

August 2006 | Harness the Power of Collaboration

By Miya Knights, 15 August 2006 - The market for enterprise social networking software tools is growing, with suppliers such as Traction® Software joining the likes of Socialtext in providing purpose-built tools for organizations that want to replace unstructured communication tools, such as e-mail, with something more sophisticated. They offer the granularity of control and the permissioning and workflow structure of other enterprise-scale software products...

August 2006 | Blogging Your Project

Elizabeth Harrin, a senior project manager and writer describes how blogs enable project communication and includes two Traction® TeamPage case studies, August 3, 2006 The ability to share views in real time can also help combat the silo mentality that grows up around projects. A blog is a level playing field, owned by the project, and easy enough to use for everyone to feel they can get involved... early signs are that blogs are a low-cost solution for project managers to improve communication and collaboration on projects. That alone should make them worth investigating further.

Explaining Knowledge Management

Green Chameleon posts two wonderfully funny fake interviews: Explaining KM #1 (which roasts KM academicians) and Explaining KM #2 (which roasts KM consultants). I hope they go on to produce Explaining KM #3 to roast KM software vendors! Produced by (and starring?) folk from StraitsKnowledge.com, which appears to be a very good Singapore-based consulting and research firm focused on knowledge, learning and innovation.

Personal publishing and the future of e-mail

David Baker writes on The Future of E-Mail, riffing on an article New Technology, New Media and New Paradigm by Paul Gillilan in the print edition of last month's BtoB Magazine. David quoted from Paul's article:

Blogging Policy = Blabbing Policy

I have been asked by many current and prospective customers these days about best practices for internal and external blogging policy.

IQPC Conference - Is a Wiki or a Blog Right for You?

Three corporate communications execs paneled off on whether "a Wiki or Blog is right for you." I presented yesterday and am enjoying being a fly on the wall in the audience today. A refreshing aspect of the panelists and audience members in this group is that none are pundits, blog consultants or vendors (apart from me) so it was an excellent opportunity to see the blog and wiki market from a pure user perspective. Below are the notes I was able to scribble as the dialogue went on. I tried to capture everything relevant as clearly and truthfully as possible.

Jordan Frank leads IQPC Intranet Week Workshop

Jordan ran a workshop at the International Quality & Productivity Center's Intranet Week conference on July 24, 2006. The workshop, titled "Incorporating a Wiki and/or Weblog into Your Intranet," covered key value points for blogs and wikis on the internet, how the use of blogs and wikis in the enterprise differs from typical internet examples, 4 enterprise and government case studies, key factors for deployment and best practices. We also ran an interactive workshop where we broke up into teams and built up a Traction based intranet.

Portal Market Flattens, Changes?

When I saw the "Application Integration & Middleware Technologies / Portal Software" market projection sidebar on the cover of KMWorld this month I thought "Great, 5 more years of solid growth for portal license revenues." Then I looked at the numbers.

BEA's State of the Portal Market 2006 in Portals Magazine cites a Gartner study stating $6.4 Billion in 2005 software license revenues and an estimated 2.6% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) through 2010.

Collaborating around the Collaborative Technologies Conference

Greg and I joined panels at CTC which brought together a really great set of speakers from John Seely Brown to Rod Boothby of Ernst & Young and Larry Cannell of Ford Motor. My take away from the conference? Collaboration isn't about documents anymore (and never was).

Apocalypse?

Regarding Yahoo's new The 9, Tim Bray writes: "This is the End, maybe, of Civilization As We Know It. I’m thinking now would be a good time for the Borg to come along and assimilate us all..." Come on Tim! Hardly the Apocalypse! Somewhere between the burning of the library of Alexandria and the first Entertainment Tonight.

June 2006 | Wikis und Blogs für "Enterprise 2.0"

Writer and consultant, Detlef Schmuck met us at the Collaborative Technologies Conference and wrote an article in Germany's heise online discussing enterprise fit for team focused blog and wiki applications like Traction® TeamPage. » Read More

Greg Lloyd and Jordan Frank Join Collaboration Panels at CTC 2006

Greg and Jordan joined an incredible roster of speakers at the CTC 2006 conference this month. Greg Lloyd was on the Alternative Enterprise Collaboration Options panel on Tuesday. Click here for Greg's panel presentation. Jordan Frank was on the Collaborative Workspaces: Key Trends panel on Wednesday. Click here for all the presentations from Jordan's panel. Watch our blog page for reflections on the conference and dialogue that followed.

FAST and Traction partner to deliver answers in context

Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) is a leader in high performance, scaleable content search and navigation (see FAST's position in Gartner's Magic Quadrant Report for Information Access Technology). Traction Software Inc and FAST are pleased to announce an agreement to offer a new FAST powered module to Traction TeamPage customers. The optional module extends Traction's standard search capability by adding permission-filtered search across over 370 formats of documents attached to TeamPage blog posts (or stored in TeamPage's built-in web folders). Just as significantly, the new module will offer navigation by topic and entity (company name, person, location, date) automatically extracted from blog post and document content based on FAST's deep analysis. This partnership will enable permission filtered content search and navigation across federated Traction TeamPage and other FAST indexed content stores, delivering analysis and answers in context to enterprises or networks of any size. » Read the Press Release

Notes and Insights from the Catalyst Conference

I was invited to speak at the catalyst conference (see Jordan Frank Talks on Blogs and Wikis at Burton Group Catalyst Conference) and was able to sit in on both the Collaboration & Content and the User Centric Identity management tracks.

Jordan Frank Talks on Blogs and Wikis at Burton Group Catalyst Conference

I spoke yesterday, June 14, at Burton Group's Catalyst customer confence. The topic, Blogs and Wikis: Enterprise Examples, Real Results, was included in the Collaboration and Content track which is part of their newly announced practice in this domain. I started by defining the blog and wiki terms and then reviewed 5 Traction customer case study examples and a discussion of the qualitative and quantitative outcomes. The examples included non-profit, defense, pharmaceutical and finance organizations.

ROI for Competitive Intelligence?

Corporate blogging is one form of synthesizing and distributing information, and it has its own return (see ROI for Corporate Blogging?). Competitive intelligence (CI) and market research functions face a similar challenge: How do you value distribution and synthesis of information?

ROI for Corporate Blogging?

Charlene Li questioned the math for calculating the ROI of Blogs. She wrote:

Fast and Traction Software Partner to Combine the Power of Search and Enterprise Blogging

Fast and Traction® Software Partner to Combine the Power of Search and Enterprise Blogging OSLO, Norway & NEEDHAM, Mass. & PROVIDENCE, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE) --June 12, 2006-- FAST InStream(TM) OEM enterprise search solution and Traction's TeamPage(TM) hypertext blog / wiki platform provide businesses with secure search, collaboration and information-sharing capabilities.

KM is the Forest, Enterprise Blogs are the Path

When I saw Michael Koenig's article in KM World, KM: the forest for all the trees, I thought this might be another story about how ECM can save paper. No, Koenig explains that KM is far from a fad, and took a stab at defining knowledge management.

re: Use of Weblogs for Competitive Intelligence | First International Business, Technology CI Conference, Tokyo Oct 2005

See Traction Roots - Doug Engelbart
Reinventing the Web
Intertwingled Work
October 2006 | Burton Group Report - Hypertext and Compound/Interactive Document Models
The Evolution of Personal Knowledge Management

re: Traction Roots - Doug Engelbart

See Use of Weblogs for Competitive Intelligence | First International Business, Technology CI Conference, Tokyo Oct 2005 and its link to the full Tokyo paper for my thoughts on how Doug's Augment model effectively extends TBL's web.

Traction announces x64 Sun Fire Support, Joins Sun at AIIM

Traction Software joins Sun in their AIIM Partner Pavilion today to preview Traction Release 3.7 and announce support for the Sun Fire x64 server platform in addition to already supported SPARC platforms. Stephen Borcich, vice president of Partner Marketing at Sun Microsystems said “There is an increasing demand for flexible, out-of-the-box and open-standard hardware and software solutions. Together with Traction Software, a leader in the quickly emerging enterprise blog and wiki market, we are enabling solutions that support this vision for customers." » Read the full release: Traction TeamPage Enterprise Blog Software to support the Solaris 10 Operating System Across Entire Sun Fire Servers Family

Traction TeamPage Software to support the Solaris 10 Operating System Across Entire Sun Fire Servers Family

Traction to Preview TeamPage 3.7 at Sun's AIIM 2006 Partner Pavilion AIIM Conference, Philadelphia, PA, May 16, 2006 - Traction Software, the leading developer of enterprise blog / wiki software for team collaboration, today announced platform support for the Solaris™ 10 Operating System (OS) on Sun Fire™ AMD Opteron processor-based x64 (x86, 64 bit) and SPARC®-based servers. Traction® TeamPage™, a Java™-based Enterprise Blog server application, will include easy installers for the Solaris 10 OS on SPARC and x64 server platforms. Traction Software will preview the upcoming 3.7 release in Sun Microsystem’s Pavilion at the AIIM Conference May 16-18, 2006 in Philadelphia, PA.

National Archives Conference on Blogs and Wikis - and My Most Productive Hour

Marvin Kabakoff of the National Archives and Records Administration hosted a 1/2 day conference on blogs and wikis last Wednesday in Boston. Marvin talked about the evolution of records management, Matt Kowalczyk reviewed the use of Traction for a US Department of Defense project, and Mark Levitt from IDC pointed us to the role of Blogs and Wikis in contextual collaboration. Over a bagel, I had revelation on knowledge worker productivity.

re: Personal Knowledge Management: Building Actionable Content from Collaborative Publishing

Clay Shirky writes very perceptively on the role of groups; an excellent early paper is Social Software and the Politics of Groups (2003).

Beyond blogs and wikis

I really like David Berlind's post IBM's Suitor asks how you share documents. Wrong question, right time (May 2, 2006). David makes a great points including: "Think about freeing your knowledge. Then worry about the format (after your thinking leads you to regular document land)." But I think David edges close to a similar problem in characterizing blogs vs. wiki's - particularly with respect to Traction and other products which purposefully blur the boundaries.

Thierry Barsalou, IPSEN CIO, Speaks at Gilbane Conference on Content Management

Rod Boothby wrote a great summary of a presentation by Thierry Barsalou (CIO of Ipsen Phamaceuticals) on their Traction driven Enterprise Blog system for Competitive Intelligence. At the 2006 Gilbane San Francisco conference, Thierry reviewed Ipsen's business requirement, technology selection process, taxonomy planning, and path to adoption across all their global offices. He concluded with remarks about using Traction for other collaborative applications such as managing controlled vocabularies (a wiki type application for compliance purposes), project communication and other knowledge management related activities. » View PDF of the full presentation

State of Connecticut - Department of Information Technology

Rock Regan chose to deploy Traction when he was CIO of the State of Connecticut. In his new CIO and Government Technology Blog, Rock quotes Government Technology's story on IJIS Institute's use of Traction and adds:

The Evolution of Personal Knowledge Management

July 1945 The difficulty seems to be, not so much that we publish unduly in view of the extent and variety of present day interests, but rather that publication has been extended far beyond our present ability to make real use of the record. The summation of human experience is being expanded at a prodigious rate, and the means we use for threading through the consequent maze to the momentarily important item is the same as was used in the days of square-rigged ships. -- As We May Think by Vannevar Bush, Atlantic Monthly, July 1945

Use of Weblogs for Competitive Intelligence | First International Business, Technology CI Conference, Tokyo Oct 2005

Abstract: Over the past fifty years, the inspiration of hypertext systems has been the challenge of dealing with an ever-increasing volume of information. With the advent of the World Wide Web (WWW) as a near universal platform for commercial and scientific information, it is now possible to use the WWW as a platform for collecting, analyzing, disseminating and receiving feedback on competitive intelligence and other valuable business information. This paper will use examples of weblog deployment for competitive intelligence in the pharmaceutical industry to examine broader challenge of enabling enterprises to more effectively deal with the ever increasing volume of critical business information in general.

QL2 and Traction - Drawing actionable intelligence from the deep web

Traction Software is happy to announce a partnership with QL2 Software. This comes after 9 months of working together and our first production deployment at a big pharma company last fall. QL2 and Traction bring intelligence from the deep web into Traction's Enterprise Blog where it can be analyzed, annotated and quickly brought to the attention of blog readers. Pharma users can track clinical trials, adverse events and DNA sequencing submissions. Every business can become better at competitive intelligence and quickly respond to events reported anywhere on the web. Combining QL2's WebQL and Traction's TeamPage supports better, faster, more market aware decision making. » Read the Full Release

QL2 and Traction Software Team Up

WebQL Gathers Data from the Deep Web so Users can Share, Comment and Distribute within the TeamPage Collaborative Weblog Environment

(deleted)

April 2006 | Wikis and blogs transforming workflow

by Shamus McGillicuddy ... Where e-mail and enterprise content management systems fall short, enterprise blogs and wikis shine as indispensable communication tools. Experts say CIOs should be looking at these Web-based tools not as renegade applications but as lightweight liberators that boost productivity throughout an organization. ...

re: Personal Knowledge Management: Building Actionable Content from Collaborative Publishing

See John's News Analysis on the SIIA Personal Knowlege Management Brown Bag, 25 April 2006. One particularly nice quote:

Feldman Explains Open Source, I Ponder his Approach

In a multi part series published in KM World magazine, David Feldman is explaining Open Source software and the dynamics of the groups who support it. The developer group organizations are as interesting to understand (see Bob Wolf reference in Collaboration - Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow - Boston KM Forum) as where open source will make its biggest mark (open source tools vs. operating systems vs. applications, for example).

re: Personal Knowledge Management: Building Actionable Content from Collaborative Publishing

See also:
Collaboration - Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow - Boston KM Forum
Collaborative Intelligence in Large or Growing Organizations

Lucent Technologies

Michael Angeles of Bell Labs explains how Weblogs are used at Lucent. In his presentation (20 May 2005 | Enterprise Weblogging: Using Weblogs for Communication and Information Management), he discusses a Traction® TeamPage based Training Weblog which was by a Program Management team to keep engineers and users of a new enterprise system up to date. The following narrative is paraphrased from Michael's PowerPoint presentation notes:

Personal Knowledge Management: Building Actionable Content from Collaborative Publishing

I enjoyed participating on a lively panel in NYC last Wednesday. John Blossom of Shore Communications moderated an SIIA Brown Bag. From John's blog: ...

Integrated Justice Information Systems Institute (IJIS)

The Integrated Justice Information Systems Institute (www.ijis.org) deployed Traction TeamPage for their public website, working committee extranet which includes over 400 members, and staff intranet.

European Pharmaceutical Group

A pharmaceutical group based in Europe with world wide facilities and over 1 billion Euros in 2005 revenue deployed Traction® TeamPage enterprise blog software as a Competitive Intelligence platform. Traction enables a collective intelligence process spanning business functions and time zones. The system enables market and competitive information, analysis and commentary to flow more freely in order to support timely, informed decision making processes and increased market awareness.

re: Collaboration - Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow - Boston KM Forum

Bill Ives was also at the KM Forum on Collaboration and, in a post about IBM's new Global Innovation Outlook 2005 report, expands on Bob Wolf's discussion of the Linux Community's ability to respond to a crisis.

TextWise - Delivering an automated, scalable, and contextual e-commerce solution on the web

Shortly after adopting TeamPage in the Spring of 2005, Rob Rubin (then CTO) of TextWise said "Since we've been using Traction® Software's TeamPage enterprise blog for our product development management, our culture has changed 100% to where our meetings and communications are totally driven by TeamPage. One day, our email system was down and not one engineer complained because they use Traction® TeamPage exclusively to track status and projects."

Knowledge Fishing vs. Knowledge Farming

Euan Semple's IT professionals, knowledge management and trout farming notes that a conversation "about managing communities of practice is raising my usual concerns about the fatal combination of the words "knowledge", "communities" and "manage"."

Doug Engelbart - Hyperscope Project

See the Hyperscope Project for Doug's newest project (supported by a November 2005 NSF Grant) to apply bootstrapping principles to the evolution of a new generation of tools.

eCourier - The UK's Express Courier Company

eCourier, the UK's pre-eminent express courier service deployed Traction® TeamPage to accelerate technology development activities across three countries, report progress to investors, and conduct internal conversations. Full case study is provided here. Also see coverage in ComputerWorld, 25 May 2005 | Courier turns to blog tools to speed package-tracking, and ComputerWeekly, August 2006 | Harness the Power of Collaboration.

re: Traction Roots - Doug Engelbart

See also Tricycles vs. Training Wheels

Traction Roots - Doug Engelbart

The source of the term Journal for the Traction TeamPage database is Douglas Engelbart's NLS system (later renamed Augment), which Doug developed in the 1960's as one of the first hypertext systems. Traction's time ordered database, entry + item ID addressing, and many Traction concepts were directly inspired by Doug's work. I'd also claim that Doug's Journal is the first blog - dating from 1969.

April 2006 | Red Herring Short Lists Traction Again

Red Herring short listed Traction® Software as one of 200 of the most innovative technology firms in North America. Criteria include financial performance, technology innovation, execution on strategy, management quality, and integration into their ecosystem. This assessment allows Red Herring to see past the “buzz” and make the list an invaluable instrument for discovering and advocating the greatest business opportunities in the industry. Red Herring's Spring 2006 event is themed The Pursuit of Disruption. Traction was selected to the Red Herring 100 for 2004 and we're pleased to be recognized as a leader this year by Red Herring and others including eContent and KM World. » Read Red Herring's Full Release. » link 'Read Traction Software's Full Release' public641

Traction Software Short-listed as a Finalist for the “Red Herring 100 North America” Awards

The most-promising technology ventures will be honored at the Red Herring Spring 2006 CEO Summit

SITA Gets Traction with Enterprise Blog Software

SITA, the world's leading service provider of IT business solutions and communications services to the air transport community, deployed Traction® TeamPage for Sales Operations, Marketing, Training & Development, Communications, and other functions, enabling users to better categorize and filter content. Departments in Geneva, London, Rome, Montreal, Beirut, Paris, Singapore, Rio, Mumbai, are actively using it to centralize documents, share ideas, collaborate on projects and exchange feedback.

SITA Gets Traction with Enterprise Blog Software

B-spirit.com, a Traction Partner in Switzerland and France, leads the Implementation. Providence, RI, April 3, 2006 ─ Traction Software, the leading developer of enterprise blog software for effective team collaboration, today announced the deployment of its TeamPage Enterprise Blog platform for SITA, the world's leading service provider of IT business solutions and communications services to the air transport community. The deployment was managed by Traction’s France and Switzerland Consulting Partner b-spirit.com.

Collaboration - Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow - Boston KM Forum

At the Boston KM Forum meeting today, Lynda Moulton and Larry Chait put together a speaker lineup that reminds us of past experience where collaboration worked, and highlights key trends that speak to trends making collaboration a credible activity in the future. I did my best here to capture a few best practices and key learnings.

March 2006 | Traction Named to “100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management” By KMWORLD Magazine for Second Year

Hugh McKellar, KMWorld's Editor-in-Chief said "Traction® Software is included again this year because of its continued work to bring knowledge management innovation and collaboration to companies throughout the world and in a variety of industries. They continue to take an innovative lead with enterprise blog technology that fits the needs of knowledge workers and will form an essential part of the enterprise intranet." » Read KMWorld 100 Companies Page » Read Greg Lloyd's View from the Top in KMWorld » Read Full Press Release

Traction Named to “100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management” By KMWORLD Magazine for Second Year

US Government is Sharing Information

According to INPUT research on government spending, the US Government will spend $64 Billion on IT contracts with $5 Billion of the total allocated to software. The top five government software spending priorities for 2006 show aggressive focus on software to store, manage and share information.

Collaborative Intelligence in Large or Growing Organizations

Arik Johnson (of AuroraWDC) and I developed a workshop on Collaborative Early Warning. We cover a range of topics from "the Wisdom of Crowds" to how to apply Jan Herring's Key Information Topic protocols to the early warning process. We then break into a teams to review a business case and conduct a war gaming exercise.

January / February 2006 | Collaborative Early Warning

By Jordan Frank and Derek Johnson (COO - AuroraWDC), printed in the January/February edition of Competitive Intelligence Magazine, a publication of the Society for Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP).

Vantis PLC (Formerly Numerica Group)

"Don't dismiss blogs as disruptive - Use them to your advantage" contends Ross Mullenger of Numerica Group in InternetWorld UK's cover "Dear Diary" story, subtitled "Meet Joe Blog", referring to the Numerica case study.

London Part III of III - Commitment Counts

On the last night of my trip, I grabbed Sushi dinner with a customer and Suw Charman. Suw is a Corante analyst, author of Strange Attractor and author of Dark Blogs Case Study 01 - A European Pharma Group. Conversations ran the gamut as they should when a virtual colleague is first met in person. Among other things, Suw briefed me on the Open Rights Group, which she heads in her copious spare time, and, we exchanged ideas on social software adoption. We are both steeped in various implementation projects and have seen some similar, some divergent trends. What's clear is there are no hard and fast rules, but lessons to learn from each deployment.

7 February 2006 | Traction Software Expands European Distribution and Support

Adhena, VAR in Switzerland, is serving Switzerland, Austria, Germany and France. e-mediate, a VAR in the Netherlands, is serving the Benelux region. Both resellers are prepared to sell and support Traction TeamPage in their respective markets. Adhena and e-medate are focused on bringing the latest and best enterprise content management solutions to their customers in a variety of industries. » Read More

7 February 2006 | Traction Software Expands European Distribution and Support

Signs Two European Resellers, Covering Benelux, Austria, Germand, France & Switzerland. February 7, Providence, RI -- Traction Software Inc., the leading developer of enterprise blog software for effective team collaboration, today announced that it has signed two new European resellers to distribute, integrate and support Traction’s enterprise blog solution, TeamPage. The two resellers, Adhena Consulting AG, focused on Switzerland, Austria, France and Germany, and e-mediate, covering Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg are both focused on bringing the latest in enterprise content management solutions to its customers in a variety of industries.

London Part II of III - Trend-Spotting with BlogPulse

While in London I delivered a presentation at a Pharmaceutical Competitive Intelligence conference. 26 January 2006 | Untying the Distribution Challenge detailed several aspects of how to build a blog-driven market monitoring and early warning system. Based on requests for a copy of the presentation, it was well received. One example worth sharing related to how blogs play a role in interpreting markets.

Tried Ponzu in SFO ...

Heading back from conference in San Francisco: Asian Mary (sake / vodka with wasabe bloody mary mix) would qualify Ponzu for Jordan on spice level. Braised soy/ginger boneless short ribs with asian veggies (chestnuts, ginko, lotus root, daikon, carrots) was great comfort food. yum.

London Trip Part I of III - Its a small blog world after all

I returned Sunday from a 5 day London trip which capped off an 8 day Pharmaceutical Competitive Intelligence conference tour. And have just now gotten over jet-lag, life-lag, and the desk clearing process required to allow focus here.

Tricycles vs. Training Wheels

In Infoworld, Jon Udell writes When it comes to increasing human productivity, user interfaces aren't one size fits all and cites Doug Engelbart:

December 2005 | Managing the Knowledge Workforce

Jonathan Spira's inspiring new book provides a fresh view of the challenges facing today's knowledge worker and practical strategies to outfit them with tools they need. One case study covers the story of a competitive intelligence group in a Fortune 500 company. They deployed Traction® TeamPage enterprise blog software to effectively put "CI in context for decision making" and "provide easy access to information across the business." The system supports collaboration between 25 people involved in the intelligence process and over 100 decision makers. (Page 141-144)

26 January 2006 | Untying the Distribution Challenge

Building a Blog Driven Market Monitoring and Strategic Early Warning System. Jordan Frank delivered a session covering challenges faced by CI units, the importance and method for defining Key Information Topics, how to use internet blogs to trend-watch, and best practices for deploying enterprise blogs to support the intelligence cycle.

23 January 2006 | Early Warning Workshop

Arik Johnson and Jordan Frank led attendees through early warning methods and a hands-on mini wargame using Traction TeamPage. The hands-on portion involved three independent "companies" as they worked their way through objective definition and competitive response development in a constantly changing competitive environment.

Welcome to Traction Blogs!

This is a group blog for employees of Traction Software Inc of Providence Rhode Island. You can read about Traction Software's customers products, partners elsewhere on this web site, but here you'll find a public conversation about anything and everything. Blogs is just one page of Traction's web site, but every news item, customer story and product note is a Traction blog post. Everything on this site is powered by a single Traction TeamPage server showing the content of Blog, Press, and Public projects (blog/wiki spaces) using a custom skin (for a similar example see IJIS.org). Welcome!

14 December 2005 | Traction Customer IJIS Named one of Business Week's WebSmart 50

The deployment of Traction® TeamPage by IJIS, a membership organization representing information technology companies with the mission of improving information sharing in the Justice community, was recgonized as one of the 50 innovative uses of internet technology in business. Traction was deployed for the IJIS website, partner extranet and staff intranet. Paul Wormelli, Executive Director, said ". "Traction’s solution enabled us to meet all of our collaboration requirements by providing an easy, faster way to notify members, access information and save time working together." » Full Release

TRACTION CUSTOMER IJIS INSTITUTE NAMED ONE OF BUSINESSWEEK’S WEBSMART 50

IJIS Institute Cited by BusinessWeek as One of 50 Innovative Uses of Internet Technology in Business Providence, RI, December 14, 2005 —Traction Software, Inc, the leader in Enterprise Blog software for business, today announced that The Integrated Justice Information Systems (IJIS) Institute was selected as a BusinessWeek “WebSmart 50” organization, in the November 21, 2005 issue, based on IJIS’s deployment of Traction TeamPage™ enterprise blog technology for its Website, Partner Extranet, and Staff Intranet. You can read about the Web Smart 50 by going to: http://www.businessweek.com.

US Department of Defense - Rapid Acquisition Incentive-Net Centricity

The DoD CIO CIO office selected the "Liberty Project" as one of four out of 120 program proposals for RAI-NC funding. The program aimed to determine how best to deploy Traction® Software's Enterprise Blog platform in a net-centric environment with the goal of accelerating Test & Evaluation programs. The "Liberty Project" tested night vision technology and achieved significant improvements in communication effictiveness, tighter reporting cycles, improved information availability, and lower cost to the network.

Rice University - Carbon Nanotechnology Lab

The Carbon Nanotechnology Lab at Rice University deployed Traction® TeamPage to support information exchange throughout a research program team. The deadlines were very tight and reporting cycles to the sponsor, DARPA, occurred weekly. Traction enabled the program team to coordinate activities and allowed the program manager, Howard Schmidt, to both manage the team effectively and be accountable to his sponsor. The solution brought hard returns to execution time and quality.

December 2005 | Analysis: A "Green" Utility Chooses Blogging for Business

by Doug Henschen. The company [Enel North America] initially took advantage of the [Traction® TeamPage] software to deliver basic intranet-type information, including HR policies and benefits, company news and even a monthly company update from the CEO... Work is now underway on a collaborative application for some 30 employees in the business development group who handle due diligence on potential acquisitions. » Read More

December 2005 | EContent 100 Companies that Matter

For the second year in a row, Traction Software is named to the EContent Magazine list of companies that matter most in the digital content industry. "Our goal was to be sure that those who make the list again and again don’t do so out of habit or mindshare, but rather because they continue to innovate and deliver products and services that further the evolution of digital content."

29 November 2005 | Gilbane Content Management Conference

Traction customer Ernest Kayinamura of Enel North America (Enel, based out of Italy, is a Global 100 firm and one of the worlds largest integrated energy companies) presented his case study in the Blogs & Wiki's @ Work session. Traction Software's Enterprise Blog software was featured in the Sun Microsystem's Partner Pavillion. » Full Release

Gilbane Conference - Sun Microsystem's Partner Pavilion Features Traction Enterprise Blogs for Business