Lotusphere: IBM outlines Lotus Connections improvements

IBM announced a more flexible interface for Connections 2.5 at Lotusphere 2009

The next edition of IBM's Lotus Connections social software will offer customisable interfaces and micro-blogging capabilities, IBM told the crowds at Lotusphere 2009.

Lotus vice president of social software Jeff Schick said that customers wanted to reflect their company's brand and feel, and connect in real time.

"Connections 2.5 will have a flexible user interface to allow customers to integrate any information from any source," he said, promising more customisation through drag-and-drop widgits.

Connections 2.5 will have a new wiki service on the home page to allow users to create and modify content instantaneously, with a choice to go back to a previous edition of the content if they need to.

A personal 'posting wall' and micro-blogging capabilities will allow people to communicate their status and important information with colleagues immediately, and see status connections across their network, Schick said.

Also, a Lotus Connections forum will make it easier for users to follow conversations in their chosen communities, while integration with LinkedIn will allow people to expose information from their public profile directly into Lotus Connections.

Finally, IBM revealed that Lotus has deepened integration between Quickr collaboration software and Connections 2.5 to give users more content sharing capabilities.

The next edition of Connections will also support Apple's iPhone, IBM revealed.