Live from the Social Software Keynote (will be adding photos later) Jeff Schick on stage kicking off the session, Jeff is talking about Social Software leading to increased productivity. Working smarter by focusing on tasks not on tools, Giving examples of Lotus Connections at IBM and embedding of components of connections in various applications. Ian Haynes of HSBC is now taking the stage to talk about collaboration at HSBC, his job is to change the way they work. HSBC has 9,500 offices in 85 countires with 300,000+ employees worldwide. In their industry peoples first instinct is to keep data confidential, so it is a real change in culture to get people to share information openly.. HSBC determined that Lotus Connections best met their needs to connect people. Liked the modular approach to the features, and the ability to implement widgets. Adoption is spreading virally. While difficult to calculate formal ROI many examples of value coming out of Social Software. Social Software is driving culture change by connection people in common interests. Example HSBC has been interested in being “Green” before it was fashionable. Now they have a way of connecting people leading “green” efforts around the world. Concentrate on what you are trying to achieve not the technology. People will adapr at different speeds. Have people start blogging today, get in the habit, don’t worry who is reading initially. Populate your profiles data as much as possible from corporate systems to provide value early on. Guy Alvarez of the Practising Law Institue. Lawyers are required to participate in continuing education, PLI offers 260+ Seminars a year Live, Streamed, On-demand. Guy is focused on innovative new ways to deliver training. Goals were to connect people, enable blogs, and chatting and went out to look for the right solution. First discovery most vendors did not list very well. Narrowed the field from four to two contenders with Lotus being selected.. While the interaction is social, PLIs membership is distinct and limited and uses the system for very specific interactions. Profiles allows customers to connect with faculty and peers before sessions and maintain the connection after sessions. Randy Reynolds. of Success Factors 2400 customers, 4 million users, 60 industries 185 countries, 31 languages 14 product modules. Partnering with IBM to integrate Lotus Connections to connect employees, share knowledge. Embedding Connections in Success Factors and Success Factors in Connections driving efficiency by allowing people to work contextually Jeff is back on stage now, For those of you who remember last years American Idol spoof… well this year we are watching Business Survivor (Jeff..”if this fails my next job is in smartsuite technical support” The Survivor Tribes are the Gibe Tirbe, The Flare Point Tribe and here comes Suzanne from the Lotus Tribe to demo Connections 2.5, OK so Business Survivor clearly lacks the suspense of Survivor, Suzanne is now demoing Lotus Connections in the browser on the iPhone, much like iNotes ultralite captures the native look and feel of an iPhone application in the browser. Next demo is Connections/Success Factors integration. Jeff Shick as Jeff Probst… Classic goes to extinguish torches of the Gibe and Flarepoint tribes. End of keynote more later.