NewsGator Adds Microblogging, iPhone Client Support to SharePoint

NewsGator (site)  has released a couple of new tools for SharePoint. Technically they are for their Enterprise 2.0 solution Social Sites, which is built on top of SharePoint, but close enough.

Connecting to SharePoint via your iPhone

The iPhone is a mobile client for Social Sites, allowing users to do things like:

• Send status updates and view updates from others
• Upload videos and photos
• Comment on updates
• View notifications if someone comments on your updates
• Participate in discussions
• Look up contact information for other users

Along with the iPhone client, there will also be an iPad client available — with all the same capabilities — when that product hits the shelves.

Back in December we talked with J.B. Holston, NewsGator CEO and President, about the future of social computing. When we talked about predictions for 2010, Holston said that enterprises will have to directly confront mobile.

With the increased popularity of the iPhone and the new buzz — no not Google Buzz — around the upcoming iPad, it makes sense that NewsGator would provide clients to its SharePoint solution as one of their first steps in the mobile access arena.

Microblogging in the Enterprise

One of the other things Holston talked about back in December, was that NewsGator would be releasing enterprise microblogging capabilities for SharePoint as well. Back then, we were told to expect it before the end of the year, so it's a little late arriving.

NewsGator's microblogging suite is integrated into Social Sites offering functionality such as:

• A global conversation page showing all updates for everyone
• The ability to send messages to specific people or a community
• The ability to view community streams and conversation modules
• Hashtag support
• The ability to offer feedback via a "like" button
• Emails for updates and notifications like comments or "likes"
• Standard and custom filtering
• Inline viewing of attachments like photos or videos

In addition, the NewsGator microblogging suite offers new APIs to integrate consuming and publishing activity information in other applications.

It's all available Now

If you are using Social Sites, both the iPhone client and the microblogging suite are available in version 3.1 today. Otherwise, head over to NewsGator's website and check out all the functionality included in Social Sites 3.1 to see how SharePoint has been leveraged to provide an enterprise social computing solution.

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