Back in September, with the release of Atlassian Confluence 4.0, I thought the new text editor was one of the particular highlights of this major version update.

Now with the release of 4.1 this week, there are further improvements to the new rich text editor including:

• Build richer pages, faster with Autoconvert (it automatically embeds content like Confluence pages, YouTube videos, Skitch images, Flickr photo streams, Vimeo videos, and Google maps when you paste a link). 
• Enhance documentation with Image Effects (see the screenshot). 
• Make bulk changes to pages with Find & Replace.

As well as enhancements to Confluence, the fast pace of ongoing improvements to Team Calendars also continues.

Finally, don't forget to get your Confluence Origami Necktie, a fashionable quick-reference guide. Make it, snap a pic and share it on Twitter with the #confluencetie hashtag :-)

There is a lot to like in Confluence 4.0's new content editor. What I particularly like is that they haven't just improved the usability for everyday users, they have also made it even easier for those same users to utilise one of Confluence's key strengths, macros.

It seemed that my keynote talk at KM Singapore helped to change some people’s thinking about intranets. Challenging the notion that they are old, dull sites containing policies, I generated new enthusiasm for what intranets can (and should) do. But the most controversy came during the question-and-answer session, where I found myself saying:

“Blogs and wikis are dead.”

I certainly understand James' sentiment here. I'm also sure some intranet managers will draw a sigh of relief when they read this, thinking they don't need to worry about this social stuff anymore. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, if we look at James' presentation it is full of refined examples of the software patterns that we call wikis and blogs... including REA Group (Jive), IDEO (ThoughtFarmer) and also Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (which integrates Atlassian Confluence along with a number of other platforms). I'm reminded that wiki is both a verb and a noun.

BTW I'm not aware of any leading enterprise 'wiki' that doesn't provide a rich text editor - even Atlassian are ditching wiki markup entirely in their upcoming version of Confluence.

Following on from my post about Deloitte's contradictory experiences of using both Yammer and Microsoft Sharepoint, it begs the question - what enterprise social business software should you be using?

In the video above, CIO's from two companies, Equinix and Flextronic, talk about this issue. The approach taken by Flextronic - who employ 200,000 employees in 30 countries - is a combination of open infrastructure and experimentation, using small pilots. This exact approach won't work for everyone, but if we boil this down to a core idea that everyone can apply, then I would recommend a design thinking led approach:

In this interview, Jive's CEO Tony Zingale provides some good inputs into this design process:

• The consumer Web 2.0 is driving demand, but don't wait or expect Facebook (and others like them) to build a solution suitable for the enterprise.
• The cloud vs self-hosted question is important to some companies (although I would add, not all).
• Its not worthwhile trying to build it yourself - but make sure what you buy is built from the ground up, to be a social system.

So what do built from the ground up social business tools look like? Here is a good overview from tibbr:

As the tibbr video shows, social business tools can integrate with existing enterprise information systems (systems of record). In your organisation, this might include existing information management platforms like Sharepoint:

We also need to support other simple 'social' business activities needed by users, for example calendars and scheduling etc:

Also, pick tools that allow us to 'nudge' users, rather than forcing change:

Consider all these points and you should find that users love the tools you provide them...

BTW If you are interested in some theory behind these examples, see my presentation, Architected for Collaboration, and my post on Designing Social Workplaces.

I was recently asked what is a fairly frequent question... what's the difference between the popular social suite software options, aka enterprise wikis, which includes products like Confluence.

Personally I think one of the stand out features of Confluence is its rich text editor + macro capabilities. In some respects, if you aren't thinking about Confluence with this in mind, then really I'm tempted to ask why are you even considering Confluence. Confluence isn't just a wiki, its an enterprise social swiss army knife. Or as I like to think about it, its the social computing equivalent of the spreadsheet. :-)

However, it can be difficult for novice users to get into using macros and other advanced Confluence features. But this sneak peak of Confluence 3.3 from Matt Hodges really shows how its becoming easier and easier for anyone to become a Confluence wiki ninja and make existing ninjas even more productive.

This is cross posted from the Headshift Australasia blog... if you check out the original post, there are links to plenty of additional reading about the case studies we mentioned.

This Friday morning (9am, Sydney, Australia time), Anne and I are excited to be presenting a webinar for Atlassian. We will explain the benefits of customising Confluence and how applying a user-centered approach can help to overcome the typical barriers of enterprise wiki adoption.

We will be covering:

• The benefits of using Confluence as an enterprise social computing platform;
• The user's perspective and barriers to wiki adoption;
• Taking a user-centred design approach with Confluence; and
• Examples of user-centred design for Confluence from Headshift's portfolio.

To attend this webinar, please register here.

Five great tips from the Atlassian guys on how to get the most from your Confluence wiki's Personal Space:

1. Manage Personal Files
2. Start a Personal Blog
3. Share what you're working on
4. Show that you're an expert
5. Show that you're a person

These tips actually have pretty broad application to just about any enterprise social computing platform that supports some kind of profile or personal space, however I think there are some particular Confluence features that are worth bearing in mind:

• Every change you make to your personal space is part of the overall tagged (and secure) activity stream of Confluence, so your personal space isn't another silo; and
• You can attach documents and other files to your personal space and use macros to pull content from elsewhere across Confluence (and beyond) - so its more than just a "profile" page.