Who is who in your zoo?
Steve Hodgkinson
21/12/2007

I used this tool in a demonstration put on by the folks in the Labs at Lotusphere earlier in the year, and it is very impressive...but a little scary. Atlas provides a kind of who's-who-in-the-zoo directory on top of the Lotus Connections software.

Connections is IBM's enterprise-ready social networking platform, providing functionality similar to the web 2.0 functions of MySpace and Facebook. Lotus Connections enables users to create a profile of themselves and their expertise and interests, create and contribute to forum discussions, publish a blog, track activities and create social bookmarks - or 'dogears' - to share useful links and resources. The connections platform provides a secure way for enterprises to create the so-called 'architecture of participation' that drives web 2.0, boosting the sharing of knowledge across the organisation and stimulating collaboration.

Atlas adds value to Connections by assisting users to visualise the pattern of interactions between people and topics in their network. The software produces a graphical map showing who is (and who is not) creating and contributing to network interactions, how frequently and on what topics. One imagines that reactions to this innovation will be mixed, ranging from intense interest by those seeking affirmation of their role as knowledge creators and avid networkers to abject horror by those revealed to be either knowledge-black-holes or isolationist-atolls.
 
While the mapping may stimulate some to, as it were, pull their social networking finger out, its real value lies in its ability to allow people to see across the organisation's social networks and to identify new people, information and network relationships. Atlas will complement traditional enterprise search tools to help people find useful resources. A feature called Reach, for example, assists a user to navigate the up to six degrees of separation that may divide them from a colleague who both knows something useful and can be seen to be a respected expert on the topic.

This is an interesting innovation, bringing a social dimension to enterprise search and linking all the threads needed to tap into the 'real' knowledge of the enterprise and add 'hot' relationship value to 'cold' information: Who knows something about a topic? How current is their knowledge? Who are they talking to about it? Who are they working with? Who else is interested in this topic? What are they doing with this information? It will require a sophisticated enterprise, however, to have the vision and courage to unleash such awareness within their workforce.

- Steve Hodgkinson is Research Director at Ovum.

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