There will also be support for native OpenOffice, but maybe not in the first release. These connections give a single interface back to the services.

Quickr Services run on the Quickr server, which can be either Domino or now Websphere Portal-based. These are the Quickr applications, and include team blog and wiki capability, with data stored either in Domino .nsf databases or JSR repositories on Portal. There are also some supplied templates for some common business needs -- brainstorming, for example as well as the blogs, wikis and so on.

As ever, techically it supports the common platforms: IE and Firefox browsers; the server runs on Windows, Linux, AIX, Solaris and you also have a choice of server platform in Domino and Portal. FileNet support will be coming later, now that IBM owns FileNet.

So what does Quickr add up to? Well, just like QuickPlace, it's out the box collaboration, and actually will open and operate existing QuickPlaces. Consider it as out of the box collaborative services as opposed to Notes and Domino or Portal more as development and runtimes. But like QuickPlace before it, Quickr is extensible -- just add new connectors or services as required.

It's also free to existing users: Quickr Personal, which gives access to everything Quickr can do in one private and one public space is available to anyone who has a Notes or Sametime license (on maintenance), free. Current QuickPlace users get Quickr Standard free in the same way. It ships in Quarter 2.

Lotus Connections
Lotus Connections is Lotus' attack on the social computing needs of business. It consists of five pieces, all based on so-called Web 2.0 technologies.

Connections has people Profiles, which contain not just identity data but also contain what individuals do and where they fit in the organisation. Profiles also contain links to other data in Connections, which means that people can also be found by what they have done, for example, documents they have read and activities they're involved in.

Communities bring together people with like interests and work assigmennts, and they then use Activities -- the Activity Explorer we've seen at past Lotuspheres -- to work together and individually on tasks and projects.

Blogs provide space for sharing of ideas and opinions, reaching out to the community, and commenting on what other have said.

Dogear, first seen at Lotusphere a couple or so years back in the Innovation lab, manages team bookmarks. As people find information of value, they bookmark it -- Dogear it -- tagging it into the community space so that the rest of the community are updated. These can be updated via feeds, too, if necessary.

This is real, on the ground, people-based Knowledge Management, and I think that it is KM that will work. I liked the ideas behind Discovery Server, but that was just too much in terms of cost and committment for most organisations. Connections promises to deliver the same benefits in a simpler and more user-centric manner.