December 18th, 2007
IBM Atlas for Lotus Connections
As the social networking space grows, and most importantly is reaching into the business world, so to grows the need for tools to help visualize and analyze the information in these networks. Today, IBM is announcing something I am very excited about, and have been biting my tongue on for a while! (and is being reported in many other blogs, but I wanted to share the information as well)
Introducing IBM Atlas for Lotus Connections. Atlas is an IBM Software Services for Lotus (ISSL) offering that extends the power of Lotus Connections, and is comprised of the following four components:
My Net: Visualize and manage your personal network.
Find: Find expertise in your extended network.
Reach: Identify the shortest path to reach someone
Net: Visualize and analyze social networks in an organization
So what does that mean in plain English? It means that these are tools that help you locate subject matter experts, and see the linkages that connect (pun intended) people.
For example, by mining my email and instant messaging, Atlas is able to show me a list of my closest connections. As you might guess, my colleague and friend Ed Brill (shown by the arrow below) is very close to me. Others that I have less frequent contact with are further from the center.
Or I could look at a graphical representation of how people are connected to me.
Atlas also helps me determine ways to make connections with people that I am not currently linked to, by suggestions people who are connected to both of us.
You'll be hearing more about this in the future, and I'll make sure to point you to more information, demonstrations, etc.
Update (Dec 19, 9am ET): I changed the URL for the press release.
