The Connections Blog

Good to see Lotus Connections being integrated into more of IBM's customer-facing sites:

IBM has today announced new social technology enhancements to developerWorks, the most comprehensive technical resource on the Web, to help software developers gain new IT skills, quickly establish professional relationships, and more easily collaborate with peers around the world to create and deliver new technologies. 

Today, while developers have access a wide variety of IT resources scattered across the Web, many are struggling to maximize their productivity and are faced with managing too much information that is not relevant, multiple sign-ons and social networking profiles just to get to the technical information they are seeking. As a result, there is no easy way to quickly access and integrate this information to more quickly build their skills around key IT and industry trends, while connecting and collaborating with peers. 

IBM is responding to these requirements with MydeveloperWorks, a newly converged website that combines developerWorks technical resource with a global social netoworking community. Now developers can gain access one single resource to gain real- time access to key technology updates, gain critical skills requirements more quickly and ultimately speed development to bring new innovations to market faster. 

Developers and other IT professionals can set up their profile and begin connecting with others by visiting: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks

. Today, developers can start setting up a profile, customizing their home page, join groups, add bookmarks, watch others or start an activity. Eventually, a developer will be able to bring in contacts from 3rd party social networking sites to "My developerWorks" and quickly check their other networking activities right from their profile.

IBM has created a press release around this news, so that many of the IT news sites are beginning to cover the enhancements:

Based on Lotus Connections, IBM's enterprise networking and collaboration technology, developerWorks members can now collaborate in a secure vertical network that connects people around a focused task or goal.

For example, as economic stimulus funding accelerates electronic medical records projects across the healthcare industry, developers are looking to more quickly gain skills around XML and open standards to facilitate greater data management and information integration features. Using My developerWorks, a developer can tailor their personalized homepage to receive content on XML healthcare standards, join professional groups on stay current on new skills resources.

Users can also select other experts from their XML group to collaborate on an upcoming project. For example, they can create an activity that invites others to join, devise, architect and deliver an electronic medical record proposal. As a result, the developer has gained a new skill set, established new relationships and generated a marketable deliverable. This new network of colleagues can also recommend each other for future projects and ongoing collaboration opportunities.

"Never has there been a better time to harness social technology to drive some of the world's most important transformations, from energy to healthcare," said Stephanie Martin, director of developerWorks. "IBM is the only vendor that can bring collaboration technology and content together to help developers maximize their productivity. They can tackle new IT challenges by quickly establishing a worldwide network of peers, gain recognition and easily find technical resources they need to succeed in their field."

I think this looks to be a big improvement to the developerWorks site and a great demonstration of the integration possibilities for Lotus Connections.  Good work...