Jive Clearspace 2.5
Jive Software released Clearspace 2.5, the next edition of its enterprise collaboration platform. “We also really boosted the social features in a way that works for everyone — not just the Facebook generation. Now it’s easy to find people, connect with them, and set up or join groups on the fly. You can also deliver the collaboration on any web page with just a code snippet — for instance, an e-commerce page on snowshoes could show all the conversations about that snowshoe, or a supply chain application could show all the conversations about that supplier, or posts made by people who work for that supplier.” Sam from Jive shares 7 big improvements in 2.5, and labels this release as the ubiquity driver. And Chuck from EMC is really happy about what they’ve done.

SQL Server 2008 and SharePoint
Microsoft released SQL Server 2008 to manufacturing, and wants SharePoint shops to upgrade from SQL Server 2005 to the latest edition. “Microsoft’s blog provides a list of features describing why IT admins should upgrade, but most of the benefits seem to apply just to improvements in SQL Server 2008. One potential benefit is data compression, which can be automated by default. Compression can reduce your backup size, although SharePoint stores data in the binary large object (blob) form, which doesn’t compress as well as other data types.“

Business Case for Enterprise Instant Messaging
Michael has been researching why organizations aren’t embracing enterprise instant messaging. “We asked organizations that have not deployed enterprise instant messaging as a pilot or in production why they have not done so. The most commonly cited reason is that no one has yet made a sufficiently strong business case for enterprise instant messaging – nearly one-half of decision makers indicated this as a reason for not yet deploying the technology.“