SAN FRANCISCO (BUSINESS WIRE) — Atlassian announced today the launch of Confluence 3.0, the newest generation of the world’s most popular enterprise wiki. This latest version builds upon the product’s strengths as a platform for enterprise collaboration and content generation, and adds new social features to improve content sharing and discovery.
Confluence now offers a new point-and-click editor that makes it easy for users to build content-rich wiki pages in just seconds. The release also includes several new social features, including the ability to share status updates, follow colleagues, build richer profiles and view activity streams from your network.
“The team has put in hundreds of hours of development to create the best version of Confluence yet. There are some awesome new features to help users of all skill levels contribute content, share what they’re working on and connect with their coworkers,” said Mike Cannon-Brookes, Atlassian CEO and co-founder.
Powerful Page-building, Made Simple for Everyone
Confluence 3.0 introduces the Macro Browser, a new way for users of all experience levels to build content-rich pages in seconds. The macro browser exposes hundreds of page editing capabilities – charts, task lists, photo galleries, RSS feeds and more – through a point-and-click graphical interface.
“I am LOVING the new Macro Browser tool for Confluence 3.0. Finally end-users can access macros and their fidly settings,” said Stuart French, Knowledge Manager with Daniels Sharpsmart. Confluence 3.0 comes bundled with over 80 out-of-the box macros and can be extended with hundreds of other third party plugins like Balsamiq mockups or Gliffy diagrams.
An Exchange for Plugins and Extensions
Atlassian also announced the launch of the Atlassian Plugin Exchange, an online community where customers can discover, evaluate and rate hundreds of plugins created by the Confluence developer community. Plugins allow customers to extend the functionality of their Confluence site, adding features like visual diagrams, mind maps, and UI mockups without changing the core wiki platform. “It’s beginning to be a chore to determine what Confluence cannot do these days,” says Tom Crespi, a Change Management professional in St Louis, Mo.
Popular plugins like Balsamiq, Gliffy and Adaptavist Theme Builder are already available on the site. More information about the Atlassian Plugin Exchange can be found at http://plugins.atlassian.com
A Social Experience
Confluence 3.0 also includes a series of new features that help people discover new colleagues and experts through the content they contribute to the wiki, and establish valuable connections and networks to coworkers. The features that improve people discovery include:
- Hover Profile: hover over a users name wherever it appears in Confluence to view summary profile information, follow the user or click into his complete user profile.
- Enhanced User Profiles – personal profiles now let users enter personal information like position, department and location while displaying the user’s recent activity, current status and people in their network.
- Redesigned Personal Spaces – Each user’s personal space now includes a collapsible side panel that shows detailed profile information such as recent activity, current status and people in their network.
The features that improve people connections and relationships include:
- Status Updates – post a 140-character message to share links, ask questions or simply inform coworkers on what you’re working on.
- Networks – follow other users to add them to your personal network and track their activity throughout your Confluence site.
- Activity Streams – view an aggregated stream of all the activity recently undertaken by all the users in your network.
Customer-Focused Improvements
Confluence 3.0 also delivers a number of customer-requested improvements such as:
- Upgraded PDF Export – PDF export now produces higher quality output and provides greater control through customized stylesheets, title pages, headers and footers.
- Major performance improvements – Response times for clustered environments are up to 100% faster while response times for standalone environments are up to 40% faster.
About Confluence
Confluence is used by over 9000 customers, including Adobe, IBM, Shell, Nike and BMW among others, to collaborate and share critical business content. Confluence 3.0 has also been updated with new tiered pricing plan. To view the new pricing or download a free 30-day evaluation, please visit: http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/.
About Atlassian
Atlassian develops affordable, lightweight software that helps enterprises collaborate better. Its products include Confluence, widely recognized as the most advanced enterprise wiki, and Jira, one of the world’s most popular issue trackers for IT project management. The company has more than 15,000 customers worldwide, including 30 of the world’s top 50 corporations. For more information, visit: www.atlassian.com/