Adam Brown - Collaboration Blueprint

Quickr 8.1 has just been released. The announcement letter is here.

The new features are:

New features in Lotus Quickr Standard 8.1

Usability enhancements to the browser experience:
Improved navigation and breadcrumbs throughout
Streamlined context menus
Simplified check-in/check-out and version control
Single-page member management
Note: These usability enhancements apply to Lotus Quickr services for Domino
Lotus Connections integration:
From a Lotus Quickr place, access an individual's Lotus Connections profile (in place of the "person card")
Lotus Notes 8.0.1 connector:
View and access Lotus Quickr places from the Notes side shelf
Drag and drop attachments and entire e-mail contents
Lotus Symphony connector:
Context menu within editors to contribute and share content in Lotus Quickr places
Microsoft Outlook connectors:
View and access Lotus Quickr places
Drag and drop attachments and entire e-mail contents
Personal file sharing:
Streamlined place for an end user to store important files and share them with others
Available separately (with the Lotus Quickr connectors) as Lotus Quickr Entry
Administrator enhancements:
Policy settings for places (maximum size, days inactive before locking)
Easy-to-use browser interface for administrators with improved reporting
Note: These administrator enhancements apply to Lotus Quickr services for Domino.

New features in Lotus Quickr Entry 8.1:

Simple personal file sharing improves personal productivity and reduces space required for e-mail attachments.
Single personal place for storing and sharing content accessible from any of the Lotus Quickr connectors or a Web browser.
Content moves seamlessly from Lotus Quickr entry places to standard Lotus Quickr team places.

I am particularly looking forward to having the Notes 8.0.1 sidebar connector. I have been using the beta sidebar for a while and it is great but was always a little buggy (which you would expect off course). Now that it is released I will be able to get all our staff using it. I think that this feature alone dramatically increases the usability of the product for file sharing. It is so simple and accessible having Quickr in your sidebar.

The other thing I am interested in understanding better is the Personal File Sharing feature. Not quite sure how this works yet but am interested how easy it is to share files across boundaries. This is where Quickr needs to compete with the ease of say MS Groove file sharing capabilities. The benefit that I see Quickr having over Groove is that Groove requires each user sharing to install Groove whereas Quickr is accessible from the browser.

The Symphony Connectors are also a big step.