Real World Computing

The new IBM Connections Desktop Plug-ins are out today ... and there seem to be quite a few changes. I decided to have a play and to document the experience for our users.  The result is another presentation.  As usual, sorry for all the blurring but I have to provide some protection.  :-) This particular tutorial simply shows how to get a file from Microsoft Excel 2013 up to a Connections.Cloud community using the File, Save As menu option. There are other ways but I didn't want to confuse people with them... not yet anyway.  BTW: If the controls on the slides aren't working, you might want to head over to Slideshare . How to upload a file to an IBM Connections.Cloud Community using the Plugins in Microsoft Office 2013 from Gavin Bollard A Word on Updates The last slide in this series tells you where to get the plug-ins. They seem to update very regularly (monthly) and each update brings great new features. Of course, it's a bit much to expe...

IBM Connections provides some amazing dropbox-style facilities. If you're finding that you can't email a file because it's too big, or because it's prevented by mail gateways (something that is very common with EXE files), you might want to give IBM Connections a go.  Note that in order to share a file, you need to have already accepted the person as one of your contacts. This procedure is explained in my previous Slideshare tutorial about How to add Guest Users to IBM Connections ,  This tutorial explains in simple terms, how to share a file with users. Everyone, even guest users, can share files (though guests clearly have lower limits than fully registered users). If you do find yourself running out of room, consider creating a community to share your files in. Communities don't have file limits and aren't counted against a user's personal storage quota. Feel free to use this presentation in your own organisation if it's relevant; How...

One of the strengths of IBM Connections is the ability to add guest users.  Unfortunately, for the moment, the process isn't as straightforward as it should be.  Here's some documentation I created for our internal users which, you may find useful in your own networks. I've blurred anything here that could  be identifiable. How to Add Guests to IBM Connections from Gavin Bollard Coming Soon.....  I also have a presentation on how to share files in connections.  I'll make this available too as soon as I've done the blurring.

The Simplest Email Signatures are often the Best These days, email is arguably the most common form of “first contact” with a potential customer, client or colleague. People spend quite a bit of time refining the content of these communications, pushing them through both public relations and legal departments and checkpoints but very few people bother to check beyond the content, specifically ... their signatures.  The aim of this post is to, Prompt you to do some basic checks.  Give you some ideas on how you can improve your signature Document how to create a Signature in IBM Verse. Ask yourself…  When was the last time you sent a work-email to your Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo account to see how the signature looks and to find out what your signature looks like with any legalese added by your corporate gateway?  When was the last time you checked out how your signature renders from a mobile device.  Have you recently checked all phone, mob...

IBM Connections.Cloud is a very powerful set of software and services but using the default settings will result in a community that isn't very pretty, has low usability and will discourage your users from participating. Luckily a few tweaks, some promises and a bit of work on engagement can make a huge difference. The Overall Plan Obviously you need to plan out what your guests and members will be doing in your community. It’s basic marketing. People don’t visit the site for nothing, they are there because of a basic need. You can’t begin to provide a solution until you've identified those needs. The needs could be as simple as, the need to obtain information or the need to collaborate with others . These aren't mutually exclusive needs but they do suggest vastly different requirements. Providing information is usually done via files and/or wikis while collaboration is more of a forums thing.  Understanding the needs will help you to build a community which satisf...

Last Month, I wrote about the many problems with Connections.Cloud. One of the great things about working with IBM (as opposed to Microsoft) is that I've found that IBM are always willing to help. I had three separate contacts from IBM help me through the problem. It became clear that IBM is aware of the shortcomings with Connections and that they're already well on the way to getting them corrected.  If all goes well, IBM will be in a much better spot than Microsoft by the end of the year.  We managed to get the problems with our communities down to four things; Dissatisfaction with the way @Mentions currently work Lack of Collaborative document editing for guests Usability Features General Design Issues (Building without Design) Of these, we were told that the first two can't be solved now but will be solved soon.  In that case, we had to either switch to another product (and inherit a whole new set of problems) or persevere without those features on ...