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Subscribe via EmailSince the announcement of the updates to Lotus Quickr 8.2 earlier this week, I have received a lot of questions from Quickr customers asking exactly what the announcement means to them.
I am delighted that the Lotus Quickr product managers, Jelan Heidelberg and Marc Pagnier, have been kind enough to provide some pre-release/draft information that clarifies the situation:
1) What is the announcement ?Please note: this information is in DRAFT form and so should treated as such until formally released by IBM.
* IBM announced on September 8th that the new "Wikis" and "Files" services, to be available in Lotus Connections 2.5 will also be provided, free of charge, as an entitled capability for existing and future Lotus Quickr customers. This entitlement is specific to these two (2) new services; the other Connections services (ex: activities, profiles, blogs, bookmarks, etc..) will still require a separate purchase.
* The formal name of the offering to which Lotus Quickr customers will have access is "Lotus Connections Files and Wikis for Lotus Quickr." This will be available as a separate eAssembly in customers' Passport Advantage records. The eAssembly can be found using the "Download finder" and searching under "All my entitled downloads - by brand" for "Lotus Connections Files and Wikis for Lotus Quickr" in Passport Advantage.
2) When will this Files and Wiki entitlement take effect ?
* eGA of the Files and Wiki entitlement is currently planned for September 28, 2009.
3) Why are we entitling Lotus Quickr customers to the Files and Wiki capabilities from Lotus Connections ?
* The Personal Files and Wiki services have been designed from early on as a common component between Lotus Quickr and Lotus Connections. Personal Files are a natural extension to team libraries, and Wikis are already a core element of Lotus Quickr (a Wiki component was introduced in Lotus Quickr 8.0). These services are therefore functionally part of the team collaboration strategy that Quickr addresses. Similarly, Wikis are critical to communities and Lotus Connections, while Files are a natural extension to "Profiles" and Communities. Instead of trying to impose a superficial distinction between these offerings, the Lotus team thought it would be more simple and customer friendly to provide this functionality in both Lotus Quickr and Lotus Connections.
* Considering that the intent is to provide this functionality in the next release of Lotus Quickr, the Lotus team thought it would be beneficial for the Lotus Quickr customers to take advantage of this functionality early without having to wait until the next release of Lotus Quickr, even if this means that the branding, installation, etc.. are not quite integrated.
4) Will the same Wiki and Files functionality and capabilities be available as part of both Lotus Quickr and Connections ?
* Yes, Lotus Quickr customers will have access to exactly the same Files and Wiki components that are included in Connections. The Lotus Connections Files and Wikis for Lotus Quickr offering will be similar to what we have done with Lotus Connections Activities and Lotus Connections Profiles. We will have a separate "eImage" with the new name, but under the covers, the "eImage" will include all of the Lotus Connections code. The customer is simply restricted by the license as to how much of the code they are allowed to install. In the case of the Files and Wikis for Lotus Quickr, we'll include a required README file that will tell them how to install only as much as they are entitled to (Files, Wiki, search, news). The installation of the Wiki and Files will actually use the "Connections" install process and branding.
* All enablement materials to be published as part of the launch of Lotus Connections 2.5 that relates to "Files" and "Wikis" will be applicable to these services as part of Lotus Quickr.
5) How integrated are the "Wikis" and "Files" with Lotus Quickr ?
* The installation for Files and Wikis is performed by the Lotus Connections installation program. The branding and installation are therefore separate from the Lotus Quickr installation.
* The new Wiki and Personal Files services are intended to be used on separate servers, and integrated into Quickr places through the use of feeds. The new Wiki service does not (yet) replace the existing Wiki service in Quickr J2EE, in other words it won't be possible in the short term to use the new Wiki as a component of a team place (with integrated membership, back-up/ restore, etc.). The new Wiki is therefore only intended for stand-alone places.
* Providing a navigation between the Quickr server and the Wiki and Files Connection servers is possible but will require the change of the Quickr and Connections themes to expose the appropriate links/URL's where appropriate. This is a change that requires some customization and the appropriate skills.
* As in Connections 2.5, the content from Personal Files and the Wiki is available only through the Web UI. In other words, don't look for the Quickr connectors (ex: Lotus Notes, MS Office, etc..) to work with the content in "Files": this functionality is not yet available. It is the intent to deliver a desktop connector for "Files" in a future release of Quickr but the exact date and confirmation will be provided at a later time.
6) Are all Lotus Quickr customers entitled to the Files and Wiki capabilities?
* Customers with the following products active on maintenance will be entitled to the "Wikis" and "Files" services. All of the following customers will be entitled to these services, regardless of the deployment option (Quickr / Domino or Quickr / J2EE) they have selected:
o IBM Lotus Quickr Standard - Authorized User
o IBM Lotus Quickr Standard - Extranet
o IBM Lotus Quickr from Limited Use - Authorized User
o IBM Lotus Collaboration Accelerator (via entitlement to full Lotus Connections)
* Customers with the following products active on maintenance will NOT be entitled to the "Wikis" and "Files" services:
o IBM Lotus Quickr Entry - Authorized User
o IBM Lotus Content Accelerator
o IBM WebSphere Portal Extend
7) How does this entitlement impact the entitlement to Lotus Connections ?
* This entitlement has no impact on the customers using Lotus Connections. If a customer already has Lotus Connections, this entitlement is irrelevant regardless of whether they are a Quickr customer.
* There is no step-up upgrade offering or formal discount available for Lotus Quickr customers to purchase the Lotus Connections product.
9) Where can I get more information on Wikis and Files ?
A readme file (translated) will be provided at eGA with some practical information but the following sites will provide further details:
* On the Connections 2.5 Web sites:
o Infocenter
* Guides on how to use Files and Wikis have been provided and are referenced here.
* Best practices on how to deploy an environment (topology) running both Lotus Quickr and Lotus Connections will be provided post eGA.
I do think that this information answers a number of questions, most particularly around the motivation for the announcement, the delivery mechanism and the integration (or lack of) at this stage.
Having used the Files and Wikis components extensively through the Lotus Connections 2.5 beta and now as part of customer rollouts of the released product, I can see massive benefits for organisations and users that will get to use the tools as part of their Quickr entitlement - social file sharing makes much more sense for adhoc 1:1 or 1:few sharing, and the Wikis component is a massive improvement over the Quickr Wikis functionality.
Sure there will be some confusion over which tool is right for which task in some cases, but I believe that the benefits will outweigh the issues that are raised. If nothing else, it gives Lotus Quickr customers to ability to try out some of the features of Lotus Connections without procuring any additional licences - that can't be a bad thing!
By: Stuart McIntyre - Quickr Blog | 0 Comments | On: 10 September 2009 06:45:44 | Tags: quickr files wikis
