IBM Lotus Connections Profiles LinkedIn Widget - First Impressions

04/12/2010 02:27 PM by Chris Toohey

This just in...

IBM and LinkedIn just boosted social networking in the enterprise with a new widget which offers Lotus Connections users instant access to LinkedIn profiles.

Big Blue's latest addition to its widget catalog is a plug-in that integrates LinkedIn's professional graph, information used to define people's connections and relationships, with IBM Lotus Connections social software for business. The new widget allows users to enhance their Lotus Connections Profile with information from their LinkedIn profile.

LinkedIn is an online network of more than 60 million business professionals in more than 200 countries. With the new LinkedIn widget, users can access the world's most popular professional network directly from Lotus Connections. With this widget, IBM is combining the best of business and professional social networking sites, making it easier for users to access and view LinkedIn professional profiles with just one click from within Lotus Connections.

"IBM's integration with LinkedIn demonstrates our commitment to providing social software solutions based on open standards that instantly connect people with information," said Jeff Schick, VP of Social Software, IBM. "Through these integrations, we are making it easier for enterprises to maximize the use of and derive value from social software."

The Lotus Connections Profiles service permits a user to share their contact information, report to chain, and details they provide in their About Me section on the Profiles page. This new widget permits a Lotus Connections user to include information from their LinkedIn profile in their Lotus Connections profile. Some examples of LinkedIn information that can be included on a Lotus Connections Profile include: job experience, education, honors and awards, personal interests, Web sites, number of recommendations and specialties.

The plug-in can be easily added to a user's Lotus Connections Profile and gives each user control about how much they would like to share from their LinkedIn profile. The LinkedIn plug-in for Lotus Connections is available to customers for download from https://greenhouse.lotus.com

So, I thought I'd check this out...

When you log-in to your IBM Lotus Greenhouse Connections Profile (log-in required), you will now see the new LinkedIn Widget located at the bottom-right of your Profile.

You can click edit, which will result in a LinkedIn OpenID-style cross-authentication/authorization prompt:

After you've successfully authenticated to LinkedIn (and thus granted access for IBM Lotus Greenhouse to bind to your LinkedIn account), you will be presented with a series of options.

This widget allows you to display the following information from your LinkedIn profile:

• Show my LinkedIn profile
• Current Job Experience
• Past Job Experience
• Education
• Number of Recommendations
• Websites
• Specialties
• Honors and Awards
• Interests

After selecting which information you wish to display on your IBM Lotus Greenhouse Connections Profile and saving your preferences, the information will appear within the LinkedIn Widget on your Profile.

First Impressions

Interesting, and I'm always happy to see integration with technologies, cloud services, and other business tools... but I have a few questions.

Is this information indexed? Can it be searched-on like my existing Connections Profile information can, thus allowing more people to find me based on my experience, interests, etc.?

Not too sure, to be honest. I'll have to follow-up on this and report back.

Is there a way to have the LinkedIn information populate my Connections Profile information?

Signs point to no, at least on this release, but this would be an excellent feature-add for Connections Profiles. It's not like your Facebook profile, where information tends to be more personal... it's LinkedIn which, just like an IBM Lotus Connections Profile, should contain your professional profile.

The ability to synchronize that data would make this a killer plug-in to any IBM Lotus Connections environment.

... that's all I have at the moment, but I'll try to hunt down those answers and post them in a complete review of the new IBM Lotus Greenhouse Connections Profile LinkedIn Widget -- coming soon!