Today, in a presentation at its annual PartnerWorld conference, IBM will unveil software that could make the iSeries community a more tightly knit group than it already is. The software, known as IBM Community Tools (ICT), will give iSeries customers and Business Partners the means to instantly communicate with each other to share their knowledge and technical skills. The new tools will be made available for download at the iSeries Nation Web site this week.
If you've ever used instant messaging to communicate with fellow employees or friends, think of ICT as an instant messaging client on steroids. As soon as you've downloaded and installed ICT on your PC--Windows 98 or higher is required--you will be offered a simple interface that lets you pick from five instant messaging tools.
- SkillTap lets you broadcast questions to online community members and get immediate answers.
- FreeJam lets you create or participate in an instant online discussion.
- With PollCast, you can survey the online community and receive anonymous results.
- TeamRing allows you to deliver a Web presentation to community members.
- Through w3alert, you can send instant alerts to the community that include optional hot links to Internet pages.
Besides the messaging tools, ICT includes Question Search, an application that scans multiple knowledge bases in parallel for answers to iSeries questions. While IBM has not yet offered specifics about the knowledge bases that the tool searches, they could include many of the technical databases currently available on the iSeries Web site.
Though ICT may be new to iSeries customers and Business Partners, its tools have been in use within IBM for almost a year. During 2002, Big Blue's Internet Technologies and Webahead groups--the same people who design IBM-sponsored Web sites for major sporting events--released the messaging tools on IBM's corporate intranet sites. The tools utilize a fistful of IBM products, including Lotus Sametime, MQ Event Broker, WebSphere Application Server, and DB2.
Last year, some enterprising iSeries executives decided that besides helping IBM to communicate, the messaging tools could enhance community-building efforts among iSeries customers and Business Partners. Several meetings and phone calls later, the Webahead team agreed to "externalize" the tools for the iSeries community.
As part of the project, IBM decided to migrate all of the server-side code for the tools to the iSeries. It made this decision for an important reason: to demonstrate the iSeries' ability to integrate and manage multiple technology platforms. As it so happens, IBM's intranet messaging tools run on a variety of servers. The ICT version of those tools, however, runs in several partitions on a single iSeries 820. While Lotus Domino and Sametime run in an OS/400 partition, MQ Event Broker runs in a Linux partition. There are also separate OS/400 partitions for WebSphere and DB2, enabling the iSeries to provide firewall protection between ICT's various software components. There's even an Integrated xSeries Server card that supports user authentication functions.
While IBM is optimistic about the potential of ICT, it is not offering the tool suite as a substitute for Supportline or other technical support programs. Instead, ICT will complement and build upon these programs by giving iSeries customers and Business Partners new ways to assist and inform each other. When you pose a question or present an idea via ICT, chances are high that you'll get responses from IBM employees as well as fellow users. However, the iSeries organization will not be telling its staff to log onto the network. Instead, it will let the ICT network develop in whatever directions the iSeries community wants to take it. In this sense, ICT is very much an extension of the iSeries Nation and the concepts that gave it birth.
While ICT is barely off the drawing boards, its creators are already thinking of new applications for the messaging suite. For instance, ICT could become a community-building tool for IBM's other server and software brands, not to mention IBM's Business Partner communities. In addition, there is an outside chance that IBM could someday make ICT's server-side code available as a community-building solution for its customers' own organizations. I can think of several companies that would love to deploy a small iSeries as a dedicated instant messaging server within their intranets.
While there's no telling whether we'll get the ICT server code in the future, we can all benefit from the ICT client starting this Tuesday. That's when the iSeries Nation Web site will host an online chat to provide all the details about the ICT tool kit. To take part in the chat, just click here for further information and to fill out the registration form. I'll see you online.
Lee Kroon is a Senior Industry Analyst for Andrews Consulting Group, a firm that helps mid-sized companies manage business transformation through technology. You can reach him at
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