Recently OpenText re launched their latest website OnLine.OpenText.Com (http://online.opentext.com), which is on the surface a revamped version of their old Communities website, but the new site has much more to offer. In this article we shall take a short tour around the site and uncover some of the hidden gems.Some of you may be asking why another website is needed when you already have the OpenText corporate site, the always useful Knowledge Centre or KC, its IXOS equivalent the ESC, and the showcase of new functionality that is FirstLook ? The sites History & Aims page explains that the site is designed for the Livelink users in any organisation where as the Corporate site is more for investors and new customers and the KC is more for existing support staff and developers, OnLine, they say, is there "to help our users get the most out of our products". It also provides a starting point for people to move into the other OpenText websites as they need to as well as promoting awareness of them.
What is there inside OnLine that may be of interest ? My personal favourite is the Blogs section, which contains blogs from OpenText staff as well as some of the 'seasoned livelink veterans' from the user community who have been awarded the title of Global Star ECM Champions as part of the Global Star program. It is in this latter section that my own personal blog can be found. Some of the key luminaries that you may have heard of such as Martin Sumner-Smith (VP Customer Partnership), Tammy Jakubowski, formerly McMahon (User Research Engineer) and David Slimmon (Knowledge Manager and KC Admin) are among the OpenText staff contributing to personal blogs, on the other side of the fence we have the likes of Stephen Fisher, Eric Slaghuis and myself among many others giving our thoughts and comments on Livelink and the universe in general. There is plenty to learn and read in these, some is Livelink related and contains many useful tips & tricks, additionally there are many postings on wider topics such as usability, meta data and how to use technology to benefit your organisation.
As well as the Blogs, there are also a small number of Discussion Forums which are more aimed at the non-technical aspects of Livelink such as keeping a user community interested and excited about Livelink as well as some general forums to support the OnLine site. At present, there is not as many forums, or posts, as there are in the KC, but given time I hope that the breath and number of them will increase.
In conclusion, I think that OpenText OnLine has the potential to become a great addition to the OpenText suite of websites and offer something distinct and different from the existing sites. As previously mentioned the site is based on the Livelink Communities of Practice (CoP) product, and there is one thing a community needs its people taking part, so join now and participate ;-).
