Traction TeamPage

Infobox Software
name = Traction TeamPage


caption = Traction Software logo
developer = Traction Software
latest release version = 4.0
latest release date = release date|2008|06|02
operating system = Cross-platform
programming language = Java
genre = Blog Wiki
license = proprietary
website = http://www.tractionsoftware.com

Traction TeamPage is a proprietary web-based collaborative hypertext product developed by Traction Software Inc of Providence Rhode Island. TeamPage is one of the first products in the enterprise blog and wiki market, with Traction release 1.0 shipped in 1999.

Traction is a hypertext platform built to support working communication within and between groups and is modeled on Douglas Engelbart's On-Line System (the first hypertext journaling system) and influenced by the work of other hypertext pioneers including Andy van Dam's HES and Ted Nelson's Xanadu.

Traction is known for features including permission filtered bi-directional linking, paragraph level addressability and inline comment threads, and a journaling model which records time stamped label changes as well as wiki style content history. The platform includes a sophisticated permission model that aggregates multiple weblog/wiki spaces, and is the first blog/wiki type product with integrated WebDAV.

In July 2002, in an InfoWorld test center review of Traction TeamPage Release 2.8, Jon Udell of InfoWorld wrote "(Traction) can be best described as an enterprise Weblog system." [ [http://www.infoworld.com/article/02/07/12/020715aptraction_1.html InfoWorld July 2002 Test Center Product Review.] ] This is the first use of the term "Enterprise Weblog" in the press.

In June 2002, a public In-Q-Tel customer agreement represents the first significant enterprise site license of a blogging platform. [ [http://traction.tractionsoftware.com/traction/permalink/Public71 June 2002 Press Release describing In-Q-Tel's expansion to an enterprise license.] ] In-Q-Tel (the venture arm of the US Central Intelligence Agency) invested in Traction Software starting in May 2000. [ [http://www.in-q-tel.com/invest/traction.html In-Q-Tel's Traction Software Portfolio Company Page.] ] .

In 2003, the US Department of Defense CIO office funded a Rapid Acquisition Incentive-Net Centricity (RAI-NC) pilot program, titled the "Liberty Project," to study the business case for using weblogs for net-centric project communication and information management. The study involved funding to add the WebDAV extension to the Traction platform and to support the following Liberty Project participants: Traction Software, The Office of Naval Research, the Army Night Vision Lab, Defense Acquisition University, Naval Underwater Warfare Center, Marine Corps, Ford Motor Company, and the New York City Police. [ [http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/24041-1.html Navy Team Evaluates Weblogs, Government Computer News, Nov 2003] ] [ [http://www.dau.mil/pubs/dam/03_04_2005/bro-ma05.pdf Defense AT&L Magazine, "Weblog Technology for Acquisition Program Management," by McVay and Brown, March-April 2005. An overview and opportunity analysis written by participants from the US Navy and US Defense Acquisition University] ] [ [http://www.afcea.org/signal/articles/anmviewer.asp?a=130 "Weblogs Weave a New Communication Hub", Signal Magazine, May 2004] ]

Other public Traction TeamPage customers include: Enel (energy) [ [http://www.intelligententerprise.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=174900837 Analysis: A "Green" Utility Chooses Blogging for Business, Intelligent Enterprise, Dec 2005] ] , Ipsen Pharmaceutical [ [http://lighthouseseminars.com/gilbane_sf_06/presentations.html The Business Case for Enterprise Blogs and Wiki's, April 2006] ] , Lucent [ [http://urlgreyhot.com/personal/publications/enterprise_weblogging Michael Angeles' May 2005 presentation to the American Society for Information Science and Technology (New Jersey Chapter)] ] , SITA, the Western States Information Network, a law enforcement agency funded by the US Department of Justice and the State of California [ [http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/18_8/emerging-tech/21220-1.html Washington Technology "Tech Success: Weblogs Help Justice Take a Bite out of Crime" by Joab Jackson, July 2003.] ] , US Air Force.

Traction TeamPage has been recognized as InfoWorld's 2007 Technology of the Year award winner: Best Enterprise Wiki [ [http://www.infoworld.com/slideshow/2007/01/27-2007_technology-4.html InfoWorld 2007 Technology of the Year award winner: Best Enterprise Wiki] ] (see review [ [http://www.infoworld.com/Traction_Software_TeamPage/product_66312.html?view=0&curNodeId=0 Traction TeamPage 2007 InfoWorld review] ] ), as well as a KMWorld magazine trend setting product in 2005 and 2006 [ [http://www.kmworld.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=18052 KMWorld Trend Setting Products 2006] ] . TeamPage is one of seven social software products reviewed by Clay Shirky in Esther Dyson's May 2003 edition of Release 1.0 (TeamPage subtitle "Weblogs Grow Up") [ [http://www.edventure.com/release1/abstracts.cfm?Counter=3066273 Social Software: A New Generation of Tools, May 2003] ] and one of nine blogging platforms evaluated in depth by Forrester Research's 2006 Blogging Wave report [ [http://blogs.forrester.com/charleneli/2006/06/forresters_blog.html Forrester's Blogging Platform Wave Evaluation, June 2006] ] . Traction TeamPage is also reviewed in Fuld & Company's 2006 Competitive Intelligence Software Report [ [http://www.fuld.com/Products/ISR2006/HomePage.html Fuld Intelligence Software Report 2006/2007] ]

In a March 2005 report titled "Blogs Wikis & Beyond," Burton Group Analyst Peter O'Kelly wrote: "Although Traction's products are marketed as 'enterprise weblog' offerings, they are in fact powerful hypertext systems that exploit blog- and wiki-related advances to maximize simplicity but also do so on a scale that addresses elaborate hypertext application scenarios that would overwhelm wiki alternatives." [ [http://www.burtongroup.com/Content/doc.aspx?cid=11 Blogs, Wikis and Beyond: New Alternatives for Collaboration and Communication, Peter O'Kelly, Burton Group, March 2005] ]

Traction TeamPage Release 3.7.2 shipped in December 2006 with support for widgets, export to PDF or WordML briefing books, mobile skins, and a wiki-style edit history views with a roll-back option, and an optional FAST Search module providing automatic entity extraction and drill-down navigation as well as integrated attachment search.

References

External links

* [http://www.tractionsoftware.com/ Traction Software product website and blog]