New twist on KM Lotus' new knowledge management portal is code-named Raven. As with most attempts at getting everything you need in one place, I remain skeptical. However, I am impressed with some interesting new twists on the same old story. For example, Raven search results can include not only detailed information, but references to experts connected to the information. This can be invaluable in large organizations.
Lotus is engaged in practical application usability testing.
In one of the labs at Lotusphere, I stumbled across a user interface testing and feedback session between partners, users, and Lotus software developers. This first-hand feedback should have a positive impact on those little features that are so easy to miss, and yet so important to how a new release is received. If you've tried to figure out how QuickPlace works, you've discovered you can't easily hook into it. Brian and I hope that developers will be able to hook into, or use outright, some of the Raven features to integrate the really cool stuff, such as that expertise finder, with other knowledge management tools. As a contributor to a magazine that prides itself on helping you solve real-world problems, I'm pleased to see Lotus is focused on doing the same.