Sosius Blog
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:
- Create a blog on Sosius - let's call it 'Notes'
- 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)
- Make a note of the email address you created for your blog
- Go to www.SpinVox.com and create a free account, choosing the 'blog' option of use
- Complete the form, entering in the Sosius blog email address you created
- Go to the 'My Account' page on Sosius and select 'Edit email' and add in "spin-my-blog@spinvox.com" as an alternative email.
- 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.
XFN and FOAF
We have recently added support for two internet standards: XHTML Friends Network (XFN) and Friend of a Friend (FOAF). Your profile and network pages have been updated to include these two new features. XFN and FOAF work together to publish in a machine readable way (i) who you are connected to and (ii) details about yourself. In both cases we respect the privacy settings in your account so that only information you have declared to be public will be published.
XFN is a simple way to represent human relationships using hyperlinks. Any links in your Sosius profile to contacts in your network will be marked up with a XFN tag. This will allow other applications to determine who you are connected to. This information will only be made available to outsiders if you have set you Network privacy to "Public".
FOAF is a simple vocabulary for describing yourself and your social network. It is designed to be machine-readable so web applications and other software can discover information about you and your activities and connections. Once again, we only show information that is already publicly available in your profile. If you look to the bottom of your profile page you will see a FOAF icon which is a link to your FOAF file.
Introducing OpenSosius
When we first launched Sosius, we made a commitment to create a community of users who would partner with us to build the world's most flexible and extendable online collaboration and business social networking solution. For the past several months, we have been working round the clock to develop the most essential tool for making this happen - an API that we call 'OpenSosius.'With 'OpenSosius', developers can now build custom online and desktop applications on the Sosius platform. What's more, we'll soon be launching a way for developers to make their custom applications available to all Sosius members, as either shareware or premium services.
I am very excited about this release and cannot wait to see what nifty applications our users come up with.
Groups Get a Dashboard
We have recently expanded the capabilities of our widgets system. Widgets can now be display on Group homepages as well as Item pages and your Dashboard. We have restrospectively upgraded all of your groups to show a standard set of widgets:
- group members: lists the members in the group
- shared items: which items have been shared to the group
- latest items: the latest content to be added or editing in the group.
These three widgets will help you keep abreast of all that is going on in the group.
Furthermore, if you own the group then you can customise the widgets to better suit your requirements: change their formats, ordering or show more items. If you would rather that group members were not able to see who else is in the group - just remove it from the group homepage.
We think that these changes will make groups much more useful to you.
Import Contacts
You have always been able to invite members by manually entering their email address. Now the process is much easier because you are able to import your contacts from an online email account such as Hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo. All you have to do is go to you "Network" page and then click on the "Import" button. You will then be able to enter your credentials for your email account provider. This will return you a list of all your contacts. The next step in the process is to select which contacts you wish to invite into your network.Reflections on 2007 and the exciting year ahead
I hope that the new year has gotten off to a great start for everyone. Life here at Sosius is certainly hectic but very exciting as we look ahead to a pivotal year in our history. Looking back on 2007, I am quite pleased that we reached some major milestones. We launched the beta version of Sosius in September and managed to attract a brilliant member base that is now heading toward 10,000 users! We introduced the Expert Finder as a foundation for our business social networking capabilities and released the alpha version of our API to empower the developer community to create endless new features and applications that will extend the Sosius suite. 2008 is shaping up to be an even more exciting year as our membership explodes and our technology reaches new heights.
It goes without saying that none of this would be possible without the support and input of our members. We are constanting receiving invaluable feedback - from very positive comments to excellent suggestions for improvement - and I am personally very grateful for all of it. I am confident that 2008 will be a stellar year for Sosius. There is no question in my mind that we are building the #1online collaboration and business social networking community.
Andrew Cameron-Webb
Sosius Founder & CTO
Drag and Drop Moving
It is now possible to drag and drop items between folders. This is muchh easier than using the current cut and paste actions which are currently available. If you have selected the view items by either of the "Large Icon" or "Thumbnail" views you will be able to use this new functionality. Just click on the item you want to move, hold the mouse key down and drag the item to the desired folder. When the target folder highlights drop the item into the folder by releasing the mouse button. The item will then be moved into the target folder.New Feature: The Expert Finder
Today I have some great news! Thanks to some nifty new tagging technology (and the amazing work of our chief architect, Murray), Sosius members can now search the entire Sosius community to find people who are experts in almost any field. We call this new feature “Expert Finder.” We hope it will be a valuable resource for all our users and a great way to network.The Expert Finder also allows you to market yourself as an expert. Simply by adding some keywords to your profile in the new “Expertise” and “Interests” fields, everyone in the Sosius Network can find you when they search on those terms. Please note though that we regard your privacy very seriously; you control how much information people can see through your personal settings, and the feature is switched off, by default, until you add your keywords.
We've created a new help page that gives further details about the new Expert Finder feature. Please check it out and let me know what you think!
Andrew Cameron-Webb
CTO & Founder
Finer Privacy Control
You now have greater control over who sees what of your data because we have just added some extra areas where you can configure privacy settings. You now have control over the following areas:
- Profile: the textual description you write about yourself,
- Details: sensitive information such as age, gender, company and URL,
- Contact info: phone numbers, address, instant messaging clients,
- Messaging: who can contact you,
- Network: who can see your network.
We have configured the new areas (Details, Contact info and Network) to have sensible defaults so you needn't worry about your data being opened up to too many people. Only your network will be able to see your details and contact info. Your extended network will be able to see the people you have in Your Network.
Tags now supported
Sosius now supports tagging on all items. Tagging allows you to associate keywords with an item. You may wish to apply categories or location information to a particular item. For example, you might apply the tags "Conference", "Finance", "New York" to an event.
Once you have applied tags to a number of items, you are then able to filter the items by selecting tags. Tagging allows you to mark up information the way you want to and then to recall it using terms you have specified. For example, you could filter to find all items with the "Conference" and "New York" tags.
Everytime you create or edit an item you can apply tags to it. You will also see a "My Tags" line in the footer of the page. It lists all the tags you have applied and allows you to then manage (add, edit, delete) them by clicking the "manage" link.
You can view all of your tags by clicking the Tags link in the top navigation bar. This will take you to a page where you can start filtering all of the items you have tagged.
To find out more on the general concept of tagging please read the Tag entry at Wikipedia.
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