Social Software

QEDWiki

QEDWiki is an IBM product to help user to create a Wiki website. QEDWiki is a browser-based assembly canvas used to create simple mash-ups. QEDWiki is a unique Wiki framework in that it provides both Web users and developers with a single Web application framework for hosting and developing a broad range of Web 2.0 applications. QEDWiki can be used for a wide variety of Web applications, including Web content management for a typical collection of Wiki pages, traditional form processing for database-oriented CRUD (Create/Read/Update/Delete) applications, document-based collaboration , rich interactive applications that bind together disparate services, and situational applications (or mash-ups).

QEDWiki also provides Web application developers with a flexible and extensible framework to enable do-it-yourself (DIY) rapid prototyping. Business users can quickly prototype and build ad hoc applications without depending on software engineers. QEDWiki provides mash-up enablers (programmers) with a framework for building reusable, tag-based commands. These commands (or widgets) can then be used by business users who wish to create their own Web applications.

QEDWiki is a lightweight mash-up maker written in PHP 5 and hosted on a LAMP, WAMP, or MAMP stack. A mash-up assembler will use QEDWiki to create a personalized, ad hoc Web application or mash-up by assembling a collection of widgets on a page, wiring them together to define the behavior of the mash-up application, and then possibly sharing the mash-up with others. Mash-up enablers provide QEDWiki with a collection of widgets that provide application domain- or information-specific functionality. These widgets are represented within QEDWiki as PHP scripts.

When a user renders a page within a QEDWiki workspace, the QEDWiki framework processes the widgets on the server side and then generates a DHTML page that is sent to the browser for client-side processing. The framework includes a rich AJAX-enabled MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture so that each wiki page is a rich, interactive application for end users.

By using QEDWiki, user who may not be programmers can create Web applications to address just-in-time ad hoc situational needs; they can also integrate data and mark-up using widgets to create new utilities. Users can bind rich content from disparate sources to create new ways to view information; they can also add behavior and relationships to disparate widgets to create a rich interactive application experience. QEDWiki can be used to quickly promote a mash-up for use by others and to enable multi-user collaboration on the development of a mash-up.

There is a new version of QEDWiki released recently, which includes some new features. It provides a new Widget Editor and Manager. Users now can now create and edit widgets and their configuration data inside QEDWiki within a wizard-like interface. The widgets can be JavaScript or PHP-based. Support is provided for widget persistence, packaging, and versioning. It also contains a user customizable palette. Users are now able to change palette drawer names as well as create a unique palette drawer into which they can store their favorite widgets. Users can also change the title that appears in the title bar of a widget on a per-instance basis as well as choose to have the title bar be hidden. The new wiki features have been added to QEDWiki, such as a page-level table of contents, improved wiki navigation, more traditional wiki mark-up, backlinks, and orphaned pages.

Posted at 01:24PM Jul 06, 2007 by Xuan Zhang in Wikis  | 

Blogs

Blogs is a blogging tool supported by IBM which is included in IBM Lotus Connections. In many organizations, it’s been difficult for individuals to develop their voice and express ideas and opinions to people outside of their immediate work groups or the company. Blogs provide a way for people to present their ideas and receive feedback from others. And users across the network can easily find the blogs and learn from these experts without interrupting the experts or clogging up e-mail in-boxes. Blogs provides a simple blog for the user which allows user to create a Web blog where user or a group can post information for other people to read. User can limit access to certain users inside firewall, or user could open up access to partners, customers or the general public, which means Lotus Connections blogs give user full control over who can access, create and edit specific blogs. User could change themes by himself. Once a user creates blogs using a theme can switch to a different theme later.

Posted at 01:16PM Jul 06, 2007 by Xuan Zhang in Blogs  | 

Dogear

Dogear is a bookmarking tool supported by IBM which is one of the components in IBM Lotus Connections. As a bookmarking tool, Dogear allows user to save a bookmark, either as a private or shared, from user’s browser to a server. Therefore the saved bookmarks can be later accessed through any computer connected with Internet by user or other users. User could view all bookmarks that have been shared by others and filter them by tags, most recent, and popularity as well as search bookmarks by keywords or descriptive text.

One of the key features of Dogear is that it can subscribe to an expert's bookmarks. Dogear exploits the enterprise by allowing people to bookmark pages within their Intranet. In addition it uses enterprise directories to authenticate the user's identity. In this way people can find experts on specific topics within the company. When a user searches for a particular topic can look at the Dogear about the tag contains that topic to see who has been bookmarked pages around that topic. Dogear will also show tags associated with that tag which may help to refine the search. Once users have found a potential expert, they can see that person's bookmarks, internal blog, and contact information. This form of expertise location helps spur collaboration and sharing of resources within the company.

Dogear gives people a better way to manage their own bookmarks as well as share, subscribe and search the community’s bookmarks. Dogear makes it easier than ever before to share information and accelerate innovation. With Dogear, user can discover where people get their information. User can go straight to information that a member of a community has already vetted and found appropriate and useful. User can discover information using search-and-pivot browsing: start by navigating by tags or links or people, and, when you find someone who looks interesting, pivot to go to their Profile or their bookmarks. Dogear is a whole new way of connecting people and amplifying the power of working together.

Posted at 01:15PM Jul 06, 2007 by Xuan Zhang in Bookmarking  |