Thank you to everyone who provided suggestions and feedback as we developed SP2 for Community Server 2008.5 and Community Server Evolution 1.0.

To get SP2 for CS 2008.5, click here.

For Evolution 1.0 SP2 , click here. 

The following bug fixes were made:

Blogs

• Community Server now always uses the querystring value.
• The comment form requires a name only when it does not allow anonymous comments.
• Posts made by the owners of the Section will no longer be process by the SPAM blocker.

 Forums

• Reporting Author link is fixed in Report Abuse functionality.
• Uploading media/image to forum post no longer causes server errors.
• Forum Permissions are checked when retrieving forums.
• Email generated by "Suggest Answer" now has correct URL.

 General

• Metablog API now saves files in post-specific folders.
• The accessdenied.aspx page is no longer missing from the Web root.
• The cry emoticon now renders.
• System administrators can delete announcements and profile comments as an anonymous user.
• The user interface was simplified to support single file uploads.
• LiveWriter no longer overwrites images.
• Common.css has been modified to fix typos and blank areas.
• The URL HTML has properly encoded so overrides are not malformed.
• CommunityServer.Components/Components/Globals.cs has been modified to support relative URLs below the root.
• HttpHandler has been modified to support  ~/ in Chameleon.
• Usernames can be used as Email addresses.
• Problems with broken URLs have been fixed.
• Admin links now display on the Dashboard drop-down menu.
• Changed enum parse on application type to be case-insensitive.
• Now allow non-US media URLs
• Use absolute path instead of relative path in mass emails.

 Groups

• Users are given permission to create all of the necessary default applications inside of a Group before the applications are created so the exception is not thrown.
• A pager is inserted when group lists exceed 20.
• An error is no longer generated when a user clicks the Contact Group Owners link.
• Groups now require a media gallery for uploading files.

 Media Galleries

• Files are now stored in a specific folder and are stored with a unique filename so uploaded files are not overwritten.
• Media Gallery comment notification emails now contain the correct post URL.
• The Multiple File Upload control no longer appears if Flash 10 or greater is installed.
• The media gallery share e-mail URLs have been fixed.
• ConditionalActions control  has been added so media upload can be disabled.

REST API

• New patches for CS core and the REST service have been created to eliminate REST API Timeouts for ThreadQuery.
• REST API no longer causes a deserialization exception when hex characters in forum post are serialized on community server and then deserialized on the client application.  

Users/User Profiles

• The friend list is no longer truncated.
• The status area is now labeled Private Area in conversation mode.
• The link in e-mail generated by Change Password no longer results in a "Access Denied" error.  

Wikis

• Users who create wiki pages can now delete them rather than receiving a foreign key restraint error.
• Wiki spam emails are now sent only to those with wiki admin or moderator permissions for that wiki.
• The maximum RSS for Wiki pages is now 25.

To get SP2 for CS 2008.5, click here.

For Evolution 1.0 SP2 , click here. 

As always, we value your feedback, suggestions, and comments. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop us a line 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in our online community.

Click here to register for Wednesday’s live demo of the Telligent platform, and see firsthand the enterprise functionality of Community Server Evolution.

Seats are limited. Reserve your spot today.

Image via Wikipedia

I saw Steve Rubel’s research recently and wanted to chip in with some thoughts.

If you’re wondering about the baby monitor picture to the right, that represents what Edelman’s Wolfgang Luenenbuerger calls the “baby monitor principle.” The notion is that consumer expectations from social media are pretty much in line with how parents react to baby monitors. If you’ve spent any time on Twitter and witnessed the communications or micro-messages being pushed up to the service, well, you understand. Whether it’s a failed router, hapless iPhone or requesting new features, savvy consumers now expect companies to not only listen to them but engage them – and fast. Fact is, if you don’t someone else will. And that someone is usually a competitor.

Now, let’s dissect what’s trending according to Edelman.

Satisfaction Guaranteed - Customer care and PR are blending as consumers use social media to demand service

I touched on this as we looked at the Baby Monitor Principle above, but there’s no question companies are now retrofitting their customer service and delivery approach. I was tweeting earlier about how companies are prepping themselves to better engage with customers after a post from Peter Kim commenting on the lack of awareness within the brand monitoring space. My argument is simple. The technology is available to listen and foster engagement. It’s the mechanics of engagement that makes companies look clumsy. In other words, corporations sometimes aren’t very good at humanizing themselves. Expect smart companies to continue to invest in community managers and digitally-savvy PR firms to run niche outreach and influence programs.

Media Reforestation -  The media is in a constant state of reinvention as it transitions from atoms to bits

The digital train is tearing down the tracks and has no signs of slowing. Every industry is being reshaped by the expectation that everything should be digitized. Add digital hungry consumers with web devices, NetPCs, Kindles and smart gaming consoles and you’ve got a multichannel marketing and distribution train wreck. Look for media and publishing companies to continue to invest in niche sites and technologies that will not only spur innovation but will give a PR lift to old media’s ailing digital reputation.

Less is the New More - Overload takes its toll. Gorging on media is out. Selective ignorance and friends as filters are in

I don’t suspect gorging on media to go out anytime soon for early adopters and those working in high-tech. However, i strongly advocate the filtering principle. In fact, many of you might even say there’s no such thing as information overload because most of us don’t really have the know-how to effectively filter through the noise. In other words there’s no such thing as information overload, just bad filtering. And look no further than the lack of adoption for RSS inside corporate firewalls as an example. If you’ve spent any time inside a feedreader or RSS aggregator you know how utilitarian they are at delivering customized content. The problem is that most companies haven’t really figured out how to incorporate RSS scenarios into day-to-day workflows. In turn, you have a large and essentially untapped segment of users that haven’t been exposed to effective filtering. Thus, I’d expect consumer-driven things like customer reviews and ratings to continue to drive the “friends as filters” notion Rubel describes.

Corporate All-Stars - Workers flock to social media to build their personal brands, yet offer employers an effective and credible way to market in the downturn

The digital set have been fortifying their online reputations for a while now. But things have changed dramatically with the proliferation of social networks, lifestreaming apps and microblog services like Twitter. Employees have quickly figured out that publishing content (blogging) and participating in online communities can give new meaning to the “squeaky wheel gets the grease” saying. With corporate boundaries increasingly blurred around the ownership and distribution of content, smart users have take it upon themselves to become their own media company. While that scares some 1.0 companies, other organizations are taking advantage of the end result: a more human face associated with their brands.

The Power of Pull -  Where push once ruled, it’s now equally important to create digital content that people discover through search

This one’s really easy to dissect. Just focus on the word “create”. Edelman says marketers and PR pros are finally realizing the intricacies of how content should be created. According to a December study by Junta42, more than 50% surveyed  are planning a larger spend on content and search engine marketing (SEM). While that’s music to SEM and SEO firms, it has more to do with prepping your organization to adopt a more holistic approach to media creation and distribution. Very few companies thoroughly analyze the ins and outs of why content should be created in the first place. It’s becoming an opt-in web, so make sure your content is not only findable but ask yourself if it my web content was a magazine or newsletter, would people want to stay subscribed?

We recently discovered a potential security vulnerability in Community Server versions 2007 – 2008.5. Our team has created a fix, and the patch is now ready for you to download and install. We recommend that all clients update ASAP.

 
Directions for installing the patch:

1 ) Download the .zip file here at the URL below based on your configuration:

 ·         CS 2007 SP3: http://dev.communityserver.com/downloads/CS2007_SP3.zip   

·         CS 2007.1 SP2: http://dev.communityserver.com/downloads/CS_2007.1_SP2.zip

·         CS 2008 SP3: http://dev.communityserver.com/downloads/CS2008_SP3.zip

2) Unzip the file(s) and extract them to a location on your computer.
3) Follow the directions in the Readme file for installing the patch on your Community Server server(s).

Where is the text?

Read the announcement and download the service packs here.

Telligent has teamed up with TotalDevPro.com, an online social network for developers, to serve as the first Market Partner for the community site.

TotalDevPro.com is a one-stop, online resource designed for developers researching products and services in the Microsoft ecosystem. TotalDevPro.com focuses solely on Microsoft-related products and services with filtered and edited content to ensure effective results.

The Web site is a premier online community that encourages developers to rate products and companies, leave comments, provide feedback, and interact with other developers via email and messaging. Technical information paired with valuable user feedback allows the purchase an experience, not a process, for developers.

TotalDevPro.com is part of TechWeb, the Global Leader in Business Technology Media, offering a breadth of online resources and tools for people who buy, build and manage technology.

The community site is powered by Telligent’s Community Server, the world’s leading .NET platform for online communities and social networks, and will make its debut on December 1, 2008.

Read the official announcement.

Congrats, Dell!

thanks.

There is a place off of 121 in Grapevine called Fellowship Church. If you haven't checked it out, you are missing out. Stop in once, it may change your life.  Check it out www.fellowshipchurch.com

Hat tip to the Twecosystem (again) for pointing me to this gem from David Meerman Scott speaking at the Inbound Marketing Summit earlier this month. He was asked "How do I make the case to start doing inbound marketing in my organization?

Rightfully so, he takes a jab at some of the traditional ROI questions and compares them to real-world situations.

“What’s the ROI of putting on your pants in the morning?” and “What’s the ROI of the army of Guatemalan landscapers now raking the bushes around the building?"

And a blog nod to Maine Internet Marketers Hall for recording the podcast.

georgedearing's video profile

Last week marked the release of Telligent's newest product, Community Server Evolution, a platform aimed squarely at the intranet and enterprise 2.0 markets. For those of you familiar with Telligent, you'll immediately recognize that Evolution's DNA stems from its bullet-proof big brother, Community Server. So right off the bat, that should allow you to check off all the boxes when it comes to the technology, as we've scaled Community Server for some of the largest social media efforts around. Instead, let's talk about what Evolution will do for your business.

1. You can finally feel confident about starting an intranet initiative

It's different behind the firewall. In fact, most business people will tell you it's quite a challenge mimicking some of the things we take for granted on the consumer web. Typically things like search, usability and basic collaboration are expected in anything that even smells of the consumer web. So why do we all give in when the experience shifts behind the firewall? We're making sure you don't have to give in. Once you've established how you intend to transform the way you collaborate, Evolution will adapt with you.

2. The pulse of your organization becomes much more visible.

It may sound a bit cliche to talk about the pulse of a company, but with Evolution it's almost eerie the things you can extrapolate when you see a bird's eye view of an organization's activity. Within seconds I can see who's connected to who, how many discussions are taking place, or the statuses of my departmental colleagues. Once you start to see how connectedness drives conversation, you can glean intelligence from those interactions.

3. You'll accelerate the way you find resources and expertise.

Information is the lifeblood of today's organization. If you can't filter the flow and capitalize on the important bits and bytes, you're at a competitive disadvantage. With Evolution, the gold nuggets of information come in the form of activity streams, rich user profiles,and answer-rich forums and message boards. It's not that you'll rid yourself of those hallway sprints to find Jenna in Marketing, it's more about being prepared to ask her the right question at the right time.

4. You'll have one-click access to fundamental Web 2.0 applications like blogs,wikis, forums and groups.

I don't mean to harp so much on the technology here, but we've found that Evolution is a great way to provide a hands-on rollout of social computing 101 exercises. In a short time, you'll be able to stitch together quick scenarios for various departments that paint the bigger picture of how all this stuff actually helps them do their job. I can tell you first hand that Evolution usage will equate to all sorts of creative ways to share information, connect, and communicate. And isn't that what we're all striving for after you strip away all the Web 2.0 hyperbole?

5. You can easily incorporate your day-to-day activities and enhance your workflow -- instead of disrupting it.

This is a big one because we all know a big Achilles' heel of any software or services rollout is adoption. For us Telligenti, adoption comes day one. When you're provisioned as an employee, Evolution is a big part of that onramp. The fundamental things you can quickly accomplish -- building your profile, blogging, joining a group, etc -- all become a part of the way you work inside the firewall. You quickly find yourself easily cutting and pasting content and letting that content live where it needs to live. The world of file shares and dormant repositories of data become a thing of the past because valuable artifacts and discussions can be surfaced via tagging, voting and threaded discussions. And if you're a SharePoint user, you're sure to like the expanded capabilities related to blogging, wiki publishing and a cool email gateway that allows you to post and respond remotely to forums. How's that for flexible workflow?

6. You'll have the IT group on your side when you decide to champion an enterprise 2.0 approach.

You know who you are. You're the tinkerer, the strategist, and the solo freedom fighter dead-set on making the mess inside the firewall a better place for knowledge workers everywhere. You'll have the confidence to strut into the IT group's weekly meeting and prove you won't be making their lives miserable. After your IT team sees the back-end and how easy Evolution is to deploy, they might even bring the donuts to your weekly meeting.

7. You'll have the line of business execs in your corner when you pitch the CIO on enterprise and intranet 2.0.

Before you head to the CIO's office, you'll be armed with case studies from happy business people that loved the Evolution use cases you (IT) had them adopting  in a matter of hours. It shouldn't be a surprise that you IT types like Evolution. We set out to make it as easy as possible to incorporate a lot of the tools and tasks you need to deliver services to the business. You'll love the hooks we've provided into things like Active Directory, Exchange and the portal de jour, SharePoint.

8. You'll reduce your email.

It's interesting how our company nicely stigmatizes email. Fact is, with Evolution you quickly learn when email is inappropriate or just doesn't cut it. There's really no reason to email someone when you can post a message to a Group or Forum, see a colleague's status, or skim a blog or wiki post. If anything, Evolution will open your eyes to all the options you have to communicate and collaborate.

9. You'll reduce your meetings.

No really. On numerous occasions I've circumvented the dreaded "I could've avoided this meeting" syndrome. With Evolution, there's plenty of ways to become a real self-service employee and find the information you need. That means having actionable content that's timely, accurate and even archived for future reference. We like to describe this as surfacing your valuable corporate intelligence and activity. For example, if you're trying to schedule a meeting with Mike in Product Engineering and notice his Evolution status says "finishing up client specifications doc", you might want to avoid sending that Outlook meeting request. If you had an RSS subscription to Mike's blog, you would have had that insight.

10 . You'll have some innovation on display as you try and recruit all those Gen Y Workers.

Across the board you'll hear companies, especially large ones, stress the importance of recruitment and retention of younger workers. How can you expect to lure the youthful digital natives if you can't build the right village around them? Evolution provides a  helluva start to the blueprint.

11. And finally, you can actually be a part of the conversation instead of just watching it on the sidelines.

Have a gripe about something that doesn't work? No problem, you have all sorts of ways to submit feedback. You can find an appropriate group, participate in a specific forum, or create a blog post that's highly visible across the EVO landscape. Flexibility and understanding the way people interact and engage in digital environments underscores much of the vision we had in mind for Community Server Evolution.

Did we get your attention? Email us for a demonstration today. We want your feedback.

CONTACTS:

Funding Gives Boost to Social Computing

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 23, 2008 – Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment organization, today announced an agreement to acquire a $20 million stake in Telligent Systems, makers of social computing solutions and business intelligence tools. Based in Dallas, Telligent will utilize the funds to expand its sales teams and territories, including growth in international markets, as well as increase its marketing and advertising initiatives and product development plans.

“Intel Capital makes strategic global investments to help provide enterprises with the latest tools they need for growth, innovation, productivity improvement and cost savings,” said Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital and executive vice-president of Intel. “These social media applications offered by Telligent will help push the boundaries of online collaboration and communication allowing companies to be more efficient and productive.”

“The way people work together is changing and communication is happening in real-time at a much faster pace,” says Telligent CEO Rob Howard. “This significant investment from Intel Capital will allow us to grow our team, our capabilities and our reach during a time of market expansion.”

“Telligent's software solution brings the latest networking tools to the enterprise -- helping to advance teamwork and interaction between employers, employees and customers in a global landscape -- and will be a significant part of Intel Capital’s growing portfolio of Enterprise 2.0 investments,” said Lisa Lambert, managing director, Software & Solutions, Intel Capital.

Telligent’s flagship product, Community Server®, is an enterprise social computing platform with more than 3,000 customers and was among the first to offer a suite-based social collaboration solution. Community Server includes blogging, Web discussions, videos, Really Simple Syndication (RSS), wiki and rich user profiles.

Telligent has completed an initial closing with Intel Capital with the remainder of its stake to be acquired within twelve months subject to certain closing conditions.

About Intel Capital

Intel Capital, Intel's global investment organization, makes equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. Intel Capital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware, software, and services targeting enterprise, home, mobility, health, consumer Internet, semiconductor manufacturing, and cleantech. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than US$7.5 billion in approximately 1,000 companies in 45 countries. In that timeframe, 168 portfolio companies have gone public on various exchanges around the world and 212 were acquired or participated in a merger. In 2007, Intel Capital invested about US$639 million in 166 deals with approximately 37 percent of funds invested outside the United States. For more information on Intel Capital and its differentiated advantages, visit www.intelcapital.com.

About Telligent

Telligent is a leader in enterprise ready, secure, scalable and fully supported solutions for online communities and social networks. Telligent’s flagship offering, Community Server, provides a fully integrated platform utilizing social media to enhance customer relationships, brand engagement, increased ROI and provide channels for valuable customer insight and feedback. With its software solutions and extensive development and customization service offerings, Telligent empowers digital marketing and Enterprise 2.0 collaboration for many of the world’s largest brands. Clients include: Associated Press, Conde Nast, Dell, Electronic Arts, GlaxoSmithKline. Honda, Intel, Mazda, Microsoft, MSNBC, MySpace.com, National Geographic, NFL, Visa. For more information, visit Telligent.com

Intel is a trademark of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.

*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

In its 18th year, the Dallas 100™ Awards, presented by the SMU Cox Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship, recognized the top 100 fastest-growing, privately held companies in the North Texas area.

And Telligent made the list!

In order to qualify for the Dallas 100™, a company must be an independent, privately held corporation, proprietorship or partnership (not a subsidiary of a parent company) as of May 1, 2008; be headquartered in the Dallas area; have had sales of more than $500,000 in fiscal 2005; have had sales of not more than $75,000,000 in 2005; have a three-year sales history reflecting growth; and, have a credit report and character satisfactory to the Dallas 100™, determined at the sole discretion of the Dallas 100™.

If you thought Community Server 2008.1 had some cool features, you haven't seen nothin' yet. In the new 2008.5 release, not only did we make enhancements to the forums module but we were able to squeeze in Wikis, an entire new component to the Community Server platform. That being said, this is not your traditional point release. The demand was too high to let this one slip into Q1 2009.

Before I dive into feature highlights, I would like to say thanks to all community members and Telligent employees for all their feedback during the beta phase. It's amazing what a community can do to improve a product launch. Oh, and I can't forget about the Telligent Community Server Product Team for their hard work and making this happen -- and ON TIME!

Ok let's get to it. What you'll notice right away are the enhancements to the Forums/Discussions and the addition of the Wiki.

Forums

• A new forum can be enabled for question and answer or for a general discussion.
• New workflow:  User A asks a question, users B & C suggest answers, and user A marks one of both of the suggest answers as the "verified" answer. Once an answer is verified it is always shown at the top (in green) of the thread under the question.
• New design: The theme icons and visuals have been updated to clearly reflect the three post/thread states (Unanswered, Suggested Answer, and Verified Answer)
• Supports points system for contributions.
  

 
Wikis

• WYSYWIG editable pages with revision history's, tags, comments, and ratings.
• Multiple Wikis per site and one Wiki per group.
• Roles for Wiki Administrators and Moderators.
• The ability to create a Table of Contents.
• Supports attachments and points system for contributions.

In addition to the Forums and Wikis we made much needed enhancements to Enterprise Mail Gateway, Content Manager, Spam Filtering, and improved System Performance.

Telligent has a Windows Service job which can be run to offload some of the Tasks / Job processing from your web server... The most common configuration is to use the task server for running the Enterprise Search Indexing jobs, although you could use it to do your Search Barrel Indexing as well... The second most common item is to use the tasks service to send outgoing emails... Communityserver queues emails into the SQL database by default, and uses a "job" to send them. The key to using...(read more)

Telligent has a Windows Service job which can be run to offload some of the Tasks / Job processing from your web server... The most common configuration is to use the task server for running the Enterprise Search Indexing jobs, although you could use it to do your Search Barrel Indexing as well... The second most common item is to use the tasks service to send outgoing emails... Communityserver queues emails into the SQL database by default, and uses a "job" to send them. The key to using...(read more)

Telligent has a Windows Service job which can be run to offload some of the Tasks / Job processing from your web server... The most common configuration is to use the task server for running the Enterprise Search Indexing jobs, although you could use it to do your Search Barrel Indexing as well... The second most common item is to use the tasks service to send outgoing emails... Communityserver queues emails into the SQL database by default, and uses a "job" to send them. The key to using...(read more)