IBM Lotus Connections 3 is available

A couple of weeks ago we announced Lotus Connections 3, and today it became generally available. This is a substantial update with many improvements and some major new capabilities – so, it’s a good time to provide a quick overview of what’s new and improved.

Files – lots of new display options… you can now choose which pieces of information you see, and also choose whether to see full details or a ‘social view’. Collections have become folders – you can drag and drop files into them – and you can pin important files to give them extra visibility. Finally, you can take one of your files and copy it to a community.

Click on the image below for a larger view.

Communities – the two big improvements are the ability to create a friendly ‘handle’ URL for a community and the ability too create sub-communities within a community.

Bookmarks – some navigation and management improvements, and the ability to add an existing bookmark to an activity, community or blog.

Forums – previously forums only existed as an element within a community, but now they’re also a major Connections element in their own right.

The home page – improved layouts on the widgetised home page and the news feed, and recommendations… Connections will look at your tags and contacts, and then suggest other content you might be interested in (what we describe as social analytics).

Following – you can follow certain Connections elements and be notified when they are updated. Follow-able elements include wikis (entire wikis or specific pages), files and folders, forums, blogs, activities, communities and profiles. So just about everything.

Improved navigation – the top level navigation is now simplified but at the same time offers more. The home page, profiles and communities sit on the top level, and everything else sits under ‘Apps’. That drop-down menu allows you to jump to certain places in one click (e.g. files shared with you).

New APIs – probably the most important of these APIs is that which allows compliance and auditability solutions to integrate with Connections.

That’s a small selection of all that’s new and improved – for the full list see here.