Sosius Blog

June Update

Sync Projects to your local calendar

We have implemented a feature that lets you sync Projects from Sosius to your local calendar, in the same fashion as you sync calendars. Your local calendar will display the Project name, task titles, start and due dates, as well as links to the actual tasks in the service. Seeing as we use the iCal format for this, you can also add your project-tasks to calendars in Sosius this way, just like you would subscribe to an external Google calendar or similar.



Reset Permissions and Ownership

On the Manage Existing Permissions page for any item, we included a new option simply titled Reset. Here you can with the click of a button remove permissions and ownership of items (with the option to cascade children). This means that you can copy/move material, and very quickly remove any unwanted ownership/permissions that came along.



ACL Improvements (Navigator Folder visibility)

First of all, allow me to state how excited I am to bring you such a seemingly technical and boring feature! To explain I will use a couple of examples.

The navigator has always been somewhat problematic because it exposes items located in the parent node. So for instance if you in the below example, only had access to Subfolder 2, you would still see Subfolder 1 and Subfolder 3 as well, even though you could not access them.



While this might seem like an insignificant detail, the fact of the matter was that it limited the flexibility of our folder structures.

Now we have changed this, striving towards the concept: You only see what you have access to. Meaning that in the above example, where you only have access to Subfolder 2, this is all you will see:



Picture Folder as a Sales-team, and each of the Subfolders as different Clients, who should not know of each-other, and it gets easy to see how valuable this is when creating folder structures that needs to fit your own companies needs, as well as your clients.

Expanding on that concept, we also made some changes to how items in the "Content window" are displayed. Take the following example: You have access to Folder, but you have explicitly been denied access to Subfolder 1 and Subfolder 3 - we now use the same concept: you only see what you have access to:



As Subolders 1 and 3 are no longer visible in this scenario, this means no more fumbling around creating unnecessary root workspaces, navigator-disabling, or ill-conceived use of the hidden functionality.

One thing to be aware of is that the breadcrumbs needs to be visible in order to maintain navigation and the URLs (this example: Sosius >> Folder), so any parent nodes will be visible. This means that a good practice from now on will be to name these main categorizing folders "discretely".

Depending alerts

When you are using the project tool, a lot of times it makes sense to set up a task as being dependent on another. So what you really want to see when you are finished with the first task, is an alert being sent out to the person who is assigned to the next task. We have changed the issue response page to include an option to Alert Depending Members, which allows for just that.



Other improvements from this update

To reduce the length of this blog, I will try to summarize the other, smaller items we have been working on this month more briefly:

• The Logout URL which Company Admins are able to define in their Company Management page, now also works for the company admins themselves, not only the other users.
• You can now enable/disable the Java uploader from your settings (all mentions of Active X are also removed).
• We have changed the wordings on the Company Management page, so that you no longer have mysterious options such as "Restrict Workspace Disabled".
• You are now able to enter three-digit telephone country codes (for countries such Finland and Ireland)
• You can CC yourself when sending Direct Access links, by simply selecting the corresponding checkbox.
• The Calendar Month view now works better in Internet Explorer (as well as other browsers)

Introducing Web Folders

I'm very excited to announce Sosius now supports Web Folders. The new Web Folders feature, which is is based on WebDAV allows you to have your files and folders appear in a network drive. To put it simply, it mimics the behavior of an external hard drive and ultimately integrates Sosius as a part of your computer.

The Benefits

• Manage your files

The Web Folders eliminates the need for a browser to manage your files and folders stored in Sosius. Copy, Rename, Cut, Move, Paste and delete, just like you would do it on your local computer.

• Use your favorite software

Seeing as you now have your Sosius content as a Networked Drive, you can use your local software to edit files. The Open, Save and Save As options in all applications will allow you to directly reach or place files in Sosius. Save your documents using Microsoft Word directly to Sosius. Edit existing spreadsheets with Microsoft Excel. And that's not all, other handy features you might be used to are available as well: Mac OSX's Quick Look works, as well as the preview pane in Windows 7.

• File transfer

The Web Folders takes the sting out of transferring data. Upload and download folders, folders including subfolders and selections of files. Use the copy/paste dialog or simply drag and drop them using your file-manager.

• Resume transfers

Transferring files using Web Folders supports resuming on advanced clients. This means that if you are disconnected from your wireless when you have uploaded 50mb of a 100mb file, you do not have to upload the entire file again, only the remaining 50mb.

• Versioning

The Web Folders supports Versioning. You will always have the latest version available to you in the Web Folders. Uploading new version will automatically put the older one into the versions-list, available in the Web Interface.

• Permissions

The Web Folders supports the Permissions applied in the Web Interface, meaning that you will have access to the same files, with the same permissions as defined in the service, and nothing else.

• Create Shortcuts

You can create shortcuts to any item in your Web Folders. Place shortcuts to your active project on your Desktop for quick and easy access.

• Multi-OS Support

WebDAV is a common protocol, and most modern operating systems support it natively. This includes Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OSX and Linux. It is simply a matter of enabling these features and setting them up with your username and password. In addition there is a number of dedicated WebDAV clients which you can use with the Web Folders for more advanced functionality.

Learn how to set up Web Folders on your computer.

Sosius get's screen sharing, web meetings, private IM and more...

Our new real-time collaboration desktop client brings you voice conferencing, a private IM network, on screen collaboration & screen sharing.

Best of all, there are no downloads or installs required for your participants - they can view your screen through a standard web browser.



Download the client.

Share your content with everyone

If you've got big files to share, email can be time consuming and corporate mailboxes often reject anything over 2Mb.

Sosius Direct Access lets you mail a link to anyone, even outside your Sosius network, so they can access your content instantly. You can even limit the availability by setting an expiry time for both link and content.

Learn More.

Even more flexibility for company accounts

Now it's easier than ever to manage the company account for your group:

• Edit individual member profiles
• Customise the policy setting for each user
• See full audit trails/history across the group
• Set up new users and manage their access and permissions in fewr clicks with more control

Sosius at your fingertips via email

Our completely re-written notification system ensures you can keep up with your group even when you can't get to a browser:

Email notifications now...

• show task details
• display tables entries
• show the last 3 comments with user details and mailback
• use relevant custom interface skins
• group actions by workspace with icons and links to updates

Blackberry Apps

We've build a number of custom Blackberry® applications including 'Knowledge Base' and 'Business Continuity' which (in conjunction with your Sosius databases) give you access to the information you need on the move.



For further info or for your own custom Blackberry® application email us.

New Company Management Dashboard

This is an enterprise feature of our product that we are now making available to all types of 'Business' accounts on Sosius. The company management dashboard (My Account > Employee Management) allows you to secure users and manage their accounts from one centralized location.



Some of the features include

Password Strength - Set Members password strength

Max Password Age - Member must change password every x days.

Restrict Workspace - Members do not have their own personal workspace and are unable to create their own groups. When a member clicks on workspace or groups, they are automatically directed to the company workspace or groups page.

Restrict Networking - Members can only perform network searches on other members in the Company group. Members can only network with other members in the Company Group. Members cannot invite other members into Sosius.

Opt-out of Marketing - Members of the Company Group do not receive Sosius Marketing emails. This includes getting started tips and newsletters.

Force SSL - Anyone browsing your workspace is forced to use SSL, they are redirected if required.

Permissions checker - Search for any member across all your workspaces and change their permissions in one click or remove from all groups and workspace in the company account.

New iCal syncing now bi-directional

Have you tried out our iCal syncing feature in our calendars? It's really cool you can use the calendars iCal link to sync your Sosius events with MS Outlook or other desktop calendars. However now we have taken this a step further by including the ability to sync a Sosius calendar with iCal streams from other internet or desktop calendars. You can now keep your google calendar, eventful.com and events services all in one master calendar on Sosius which in turn can be sync'd with your Outlook. This is great for groups, imagine if you were a Chelsea Football club supporter you could import the club's entire season into a calendar you share with the Chelsea supporters group.

Share your Sosius files and more on Twitter

At Sosius we are big fans of Twitter, so we started to think wouldn't it be great if every time we posted a new blog entry or answered a help center question Sosius would automatically update our twitter account with the details. Using our open API services architecture (which allows developers to integrate third party applications or services within Sosius) we built a service to do just that.



Today we're really excited to release into beta the new Sosius service 'Post to Twitter'. Once added to your Sosius account this service will post a tweet to your twitter account with a link to any files, events, polls, etc.. you create that are publicly available.

Follow these steps to setup twitter posting on Sosius.

1. Sign into Sosius
2. Go to ‘My Account’ and scroll down to the ‘Services’ section and click on ‘All Services’.
3. On the ‘All Services’ page add the ‘Post to Twitter’ service.
4. Authenticate with your twitter account.
5. Now create a folder in your workspace, and in the sharing panel click ‘Manage’.
6. On the manage permissions page click the ‘Add Public’ button and then scroll down and give public ‘view’ permissions.
7. Now anytime you create new content in this folder Sosius will automatically post a tweet with a link to the item.

We welcome all comments and feedback.

Releasing Sosius Visualization Technology

We're very proud to announce the release of our new visualization technology, Sosius Visualization was created in direct response to feedback from our clients who want "at-a-glance" progress and status reports on their large amounts of data stored on Sosius.



The new Sosius Visualization application is an innovative technology based on fractal maps that allows executives, managers, workspace participants and others to view project progress with one easy mouse click. The graphic, or “visualization,” is color-coded and reveals patterns, trends and oddities on any given project within the Sosius workspace. Parameters are set by project managers or may be customized by Sosius technicians.

Sosius wins place on DTI sponsored Web Mission '09

Today, we've received some great news. Sosius has been selected for Web Mission '09. This coveted title is only bestowed upon 20 UK Web 2.0 companies each year. As winners, we'll be heading to San Francisco from March 28th - April 3rd to exhibit our product. We're excited about the opportunity and look forward to representing our loyal customers. We're grateful for your continued support! 

Web Mission ’09 is sponsored by UK Trade & Investment, Orrick, Oracle, and TechCrunch. 

For more information about Web Mission 2009, click here, or the official announcement, click here.

Calendar and Events upgraded

Based on feedback from our community, we've made some significant changes to the calendars and events on Sosius.  

Both features underwent a major graphical update, featuring completely new user interfaces.  These updates will make it substantially easier to create new events and view and organise existing ones.

Among the new features available include:

- Members and guests of an event can now see the guest list, invite others into the event, and edit details of the event. Members can also add themselves as guests of an event hosted by friends and colleagues in their network.

- Maps to the events are available to those who add a event location. Registered users can also retrieve directions starting from your address registered with your Sosius account.

- iCalendar synchronization is now available for Calendar items and the Events widget to keep your desktop calendar in sync with your events on Sosius. To use this feature and for further details, click the Sync button on a Sosius calendar or the Events widget on your Dashboard.

Let us know what you think. 

Embedded Multimedia

For the many of you who have been begging for this feature, I am happy to announce that you can now embed multimedia content, such as flash videos and MP3 files, into your Sosius HTML pages.  Thanks to our brilliant developers J, we’ve found a way to bring you this highly-requested feature without sacrificing our world-class security standards.  We provide custom tags (<sosius:video ... /> and <sosius:audio ... />) allowing you to create richer HTML pages.  For added security, we automatically strip any harmful HTML code from all pages created on Sosius.

Learn more about how you can create multimedia HTML pages.

Workflow Redesign

To provide you with greater flexibility, we have redesigned the Sosius workflow feature to let you define more robust, structured processes.  You now have the option to move items step-by-step through the system. As a result of this redesign, Sosius lets you define multiple workflow rules - each with a title and description - giving you much more flexibility to design processes based on the needs of your business.  All workflow actions are automatically logged, so you always have a full audit trail.

A Positive Outlook for 2009

I would like to wish all of you a very happy new year and to thank you for the growth that Sosius has achieved over the past 12 months.  2008 was a challenging year for companies worldwide, so I am especially grateful that our member count, partnerships and revenues are all on the rise and the outlook for 2009 is even better.  In these troubled economic times, we are gearing up to help organizations all over the globe to not only survive, but to thrive.

With so many organizations facing employment and budget cuts, 2009 is sure to be a year dedicated to making the most of limited resources.  Moving away from a competitive mindset, managers recognize that collaboration between employees, departments, business units, partners and suppliers is critical as teams become smaller and every dollar is counted.   This is where Sosius comes in.  Using our powerful, enterprise-grade solution, organizations cut costs and increase revenues by reducing travel, project timetables and system redundancies (to name just a few!) while improving knowledge management, decision quality and access to business opportunities.  With so many ways to work more efficiently, we look forward to helping our member companies make 2009 a year of growth and prosperity.

Happy New Year! 

Andrew Cameron-Webb

A Holiday Gift for Project Managers

For those of you who manage projects, you’ll be very pleased to hear that we’ve taken your feedback to heart and made a major upgrade to Sosius’ project management capabilities.  Our developers have created some great new tools to help you get your projects on track (so you can relax and enjoy the holidays!).

These new features include:

·        Enhanced Display:  Get a quick summary of your projects with improved list and Gantt chart views and new filter and display controls

·        Multiple Assignees:  Assign tasks to more than one member

·        Task Dependencies: Create dependencies between tasks to keep your project on track.  Use the Gantt chart view to pinpoint delays and schedule adjustments

·        Tracking Work Hours:  Track budgeted work hours against actual hours for each task to stay on top of your project’s schedule and costs

Please let me know what you think of these enhancements.  We take your comments very seriously when planning each new release!

Introducing SVN Repository

Not since the launch of OpenSosius (our API) have I been this excited to blog about a new feature. After several months of burning the midnight oil, our development team has released SVN Repository - a new upgrade that brings Sosius' built-in version control system to your desktop. Now you can edit files on your computer and upload them to Sosius without ever opening a browser - and all versions are automatically tracked and maintained. Whether you are working on a crucial client presentation, preparing a confidential contract or conducting due diligence, SVN Repository allows you to collaborate on time-sensitive, critical files with team members all over the world.

SVN Repository is built from Subversion <http://subversion.tigris.org/>  (SVN) - the leading open source version control system that allows teams of users to manage versioned files in a centralised repository. Using SVN, users can copy a folder structure to their local computers, add, edit and delete files and sync the changes back to the central repository. What's more, it's fully interated into your Sosius account, so there's no new user name and password to remember.

Getting up and running with SVN Repository is simple and easy, here's how:

Step 1: Download an SVN client from here http://subversion.tigris.org/links.html#clients.

Step 2. Go to a Sosius workspace and click 'Create' and choose 'SVN Repository' from the list.

Step 3. Once you have created your SVN Repository add it's 'Repository' url (this can be found by clicking the 'Checkout Info' button on the folder) to your SVN client on your computer.

Take a look and let me know what you think!

Wizards & Widgets: Groups Take Center Stage

You may have noticed that we've been a bit "group-obsessed" lately.  Afterall, growing group membership is a key success factor in online collaboration and business social networking.  Our recent release of "public groups" - which are showcased on the new Sosius Community Page - is just the beginning of what we have planned to ignite membership growth in all Sosius groups.

Today I am pleased to announce the release of the "group workspace wizard" that makes creating a new group fast and easy.  In 3 simple steps, you can create a group, invite members and build a workspace where everyone can come together to communicate and collaborate.

We've also upgraded the Group Dashboard widgets to allow members to see the contents of the group workspace.  The links provide group owners with the ability to quickly and easily invite additional members and create new content.

New Community Page and Public Groups

One of the best things about creating new technology is watching it spread.  When we first launched Sosius last September, I never dreamed that one year later we'd have such a large, international member base.

In honor of our first anniversary, we've created a brand new Community Page with a world map that lets you see live member activity around the globe.  We've also added a public groups feature to let Sosius members create their own open communities. As a public group owner, you can allow Sosius members to join automatically or request permission to join.  Either way, public groups grow much faster than private ones and are an excellent venue for meeting other professionals and industry experts.

To help you make the most of the new Sosius Community Page and public groups, we added "Find a Member" and "Find a Group" tools. Now you can easily search for public members and groups to keep expanding your online social network!

Sosius Support Center Takes "Help" to a Whole New Level

We've been told more than once that Sosius provides excellent customer support. However, there's always room for improvement. That's why we've just released the Sosius Support Center - our new and improved help and support system.

One of the best features of the new Support Center is the "public forum". We all know that the members of our close and extended networks are often our best sources of information.

So we've created two community forums - General Help and Developer Support - to allow Sosius members to share questions, issues, ideas and solutions with each other. You can now browse and search for questions and problems, and view and respond to other members' questions. Sosius Support monitors and contributes to these forums, so you can rest assured that you're getting good, accurate information.

We've also added some instructional videos (with more new content on the way!) to make the Sosius Support Center one of the best web-based help systems around.

Discussions Gets an Upgrade

We've just upgraded the Discussions application to make sharing ideas, comments and feedback easier than ever. Discussion forums now include post and view counts, so you can quickly get a sense of the post popular topics.

We've also added sortable columns and given the UI a complete make-over. So go ahead and express yourself - you're ideas won't just sound great, they 'll look great as well!

Showcase Your Documents with New Preview Feature

We've just integrated a great new piece of technology from Scribd - iPaper. Now you can preview your documents using features such as zoom in/out and page forward/back. There's even a key word search. With preview available in full page and thumbnail format, your documents never looked so good.

New Features to Keep You Organized

Ever get the feeling that you're being managed by your "To Do" list instead of the other way around?  And what about that unwieldy daily schedule of meetings and appointments?  Thanks to a few new enhancements, Sosius can help you manage your schedule and work more efficiently than ever before.
 
As I'm sure you've noticed, the Dashboard is now sporting two new widgets - "All Events" and "All Tasks" - to give you an immediate snap-shot of what lies ahead so you never fall behind (well, perhaps that's a bit too optimistic...).  What's more, you can view events for just today or as far out as next month, and you can filter upcoming tasks by due date, status or key word.
 
We've also added a highly-requested feature to the Calendar - recurring events.  Now you can schedule daily, weekly, bi-weekly, etc. events and you only need to create them once.  These recurring events will appear in your "All Events" dashboard widget, so you'd better have a good excuse for missing that team meeting!

OpenSosius Services Launched!

We're proud to announce the launch of OpenSosius Services, a third party services and applications platform. Sosius is now positioned to provide end users with access to an unlimited number of leading online applications and services from one single platform.

OpenSosius Services connects data from Sosius with other applications and services across the web. It extends the benefits of the Sosius platform to companies, developers and non-developers alike by allowing them to integrate applications and services directly into Sosius. The result is a complete, custom enterprise-grade solution for SMBs.

The addition of third party services increases the breadth and depth of the Sosius suite, creating a single access point for valuable online business applications. Sosius users can now access numerous flexible business applications directly from their Sosius workspaces.

Complementary to Sosius’ robust collaboration and networking functionality, these new services enable our users to edit documents online, sign contracts electronically, create 3D slide shows and conduct web conferences. The first services to be made available within the Sosius platform are:

• Zoho Writer – allows users to easily edit documents online directly from their Sosius workspaces
• Zoho Spreadsheet – allows users to edit spreadsheets online directly from their Sosius workspaces
• EchoSign (e-signature) – users can send documents directly from Sosius to be signed electronically
• PicLens (slideshow) –users can now launch a PicLens slideshow directly from their Sosius workspaces
• DimDim (web conferencing) – users can instantly launch free DimDim web conferences with a single sign-on to any Sosius workspace

To learn more about OpenSosius Services and how you can develop applications for Sosius, visit: http://my.sosius.com/ww/developer/services/

Introducing the Sosius Navigator

You may have noticed that we've been on a roll with UI improvements - from minor tweaks to major new features. Today I'm pleased to announce the release of the Sosius Navigator - a terrific new UI element that adds tremendous usability to the site.

The Sosius Navigator shows you where you are and helps you quickly jump to any section of your workspace. It also lets you see who is sharing your workspace and tells you who in your network is currently online. There's even a section where you can add tags to workspace pages in a matter of seconds. Best of all, it's customizable - you can expand/collapse and add/remove the different parts to fit the way you work.

New Custom Branding Features!

We recently updated our UI to improve the look and feel of Sosius. We also added a feature that has been in high demand - branding! All of our new upgrade options come complete with tools that let you customize your Sosius site by adding your company logo, selecting a pre-set color scheme or creating your own custom color scheme to match your company colors.

You can view a demonstration that shows how you can customize your Sosius site with a custom color scheme and company logo.

Check out our new plans that offer branding and other features such as increased storage and bandwidth.

We're Out of Beta!

Today is a very exciting day here at Sosius. We are officially out of beta! Since our launch at Web 2.0 last September, we have made some major upgrades to the service - including our API, ExpertFinder, Import Contacts, Group Dashboard and Tags - and grown our member base to well over 10,000 users. We are now ready to bring a new era of enterprise-grade collaboration and business social networking tools to small and medium-sized organizations, teams, groups and individuals.

Starting today, all Sosius users have the option to upgrade their accounts with additional storage and bandwidth, SSL and other premium features. Our bundled packages and custom "a la carte" features menu provides an easy and flexible way for users to customize Sosius to meet their business needs.

As always, we are committed to making Sosius available to everyone. So, we will continue to offer a fully-functional free version of Sosius, with 200MB of storage and an unlimited number of users and workspaces.

Speak to your Sosius blog with SpinVox

I've just discovered a great tool to use with Sosius called SpinVox. It's a free service that allows you to update your blog by speaking. You get a free telephone number to call and your voice gets translated to text. Now you can speak your mind and have the text sent directly to your Sosius blog!

Here's how to set it up:

1. Create a blog on Sosius - let's call it 'Notes'
2. In the 'Notes' blog, click 'Edit details' and choose an email address for the blog (you will find this feature at the bottom of the page)
3. Make a note of the email address you created for your blog
4. Go to www.SpinVox.com and create a free account, choosing the 'blog' option of use
5. Complete the form, entering in the Sosius blog email address you created
6. Go to the 'My Account' page on Sosius and select 'Edit email' and add in "spin-my-blog@spinvox.com" as an alternative email.
7. You'll get an email from SpinVox with the number you need to call to update your Sosius blog

HTML Editor

We have recently upgraded the HTML editor used on our site. This is a major upgrade of a third party component which includes many new features. Some of the more notable new features include: the specification of font types and sizes, emotions, text and background colours, layers, change tracking, printing and dynamic resizing of text boxes. We hope that these new features will allow you to create richer HTML content in a more pleasurable way.