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Using Connections 7.0
Welcome to the HCL Connections™ documentation site, where you can find information about Connections. Connections is social networking software designed for the workplace. Its features help you to establish dynamic networks that connect you to the people and information you need to achieve your business goals.
Blogs
Use blogs to share your announcements, updates, and opinions with others.
Blogging within a community
Use a blog to enhance your community with a way to ask a question, brainstorm, or simply share your ideas.
Using an Ideation Blog
Use an HCL Connections™ Ideation Blog to generate ideas and gather feedback on ideas within a community.

Using Connections 7.0
Welcome to the HCL Connections™ documentation site, where you can find information about Connections. Connections is social networking software designed for the workplace. Its features help you to establish dynamic networks that connect you to the people and information you need to achieve your business goals.
- Accessibility features for Connections
  Accessibility features assist users who have a disability, such as restricted mobility or limited vision, to use information technology content successfully.
- What's new in Connections?
  HCL Connections 7.0 gives collaboration a boost with these new features and enhancements.
- Overview
  HCL Connections™ is a collaborative tool that makes it easy to connect with others and exchange ideas. Start sharing important information, building a network of useful contacts, and following people that interest you.
- Home page
  Use the home page as a command center to scan and manage items that need your attention. You can view your most recent project updates, check in on the people you follow, and review your action items all from one place.
- Profiles
  Use profiles to connect with others, showcase your skills, and find the people you need.
- Activities
  Use activities to keep a team informed, collect and share project resources, or to assign and track tasks.
- Files
  Using the Files app, you can upload, organize, share and collaborate on files easily. Files can be shared, tagged, organized in folders, and accessed from other applications, such as Activities and Communities.
- Communities
  Get together with people who share your interests.
- Blogs
  Use blogs to share your announcements, updates, and opinions with others.
  - Contributing to a blog
    Ready to share information and ideas with others? Learn how to create a blog, post an entry, and add extra content.
  - Connecting with other blogs
    Get involved in the conversation! Find blogs to follow, like entries that interest you, and share your own entries with others.
  - Managing a blog
    Are you a blog owner? Learn how to customize your blog, manage blog content, or read an overview of blog permissions.
  - Blogging within a community
    Use a blog to enhance your community with a way to ask a question, brainstorm, or simply share your ideas.
    - Creating a community blog
      If you installed HCL Connections™ Communities and you are a community owner, you can create a blog for the use of the community members.
    - Using an Ideation Blog
      Use an HCL Connections™ Ideation Blog to generate ideas and gather feedback on ideas within a community.
    - Managing an Ideation Blog
      An Ideation Blog owner can manage their blog in a variety of ways.
- Forums
  Share information, brainstorm ideas, ask and answer questions, and discuss topics of mutual interest in a forum.
- Wikis
  Tap the wisdom of the crowd by building a body of knowledge in a wiki. Everyone on your team can make a contribution.
- Bookmarks
  Use Bookmarks to collect and organize shortcuts to websites.

Using an Ideation Blog

Use an HCL Connections™ Ideation Blog to generate ideas and gather feedback on ideas within a community.

What is an Ideation Blog?

An Ideation Blog is a type of blog that is designed to generate ideas on a particular topic, collect feedback, and reach a consensus on the best ideas. An Ideation Blog can only exist within a community and membership is limited to the community, but you can manage the settings for an Ideation Blog from your My Blogs page. A community can contain multiple Ideation Blogs.

Using an Ideation Blog

From your community's overview page, choose Community Actions > Customize.
Select Ideation Blog.
Click Create Your First Idea to add an idea to the blog.
Click Vote to vote for an idea you support. If you change your mind, click Voted to cancel your vote.
Click Add a Comment to comment on an idea.
Click More Actions > Notify Other People to send a link to the idea to people you specify.
Click Graduate when you decide that an idea has enough support from the community. This will freeze all voting and commenting on the idea. If you change your mind about a graduated idea, open the idea and select Cancel Graduation.
To review activity in the Ideation Blog, choose one of the following views from the navigation pane:
- All Ideas shows all ideas that were contributed to the Ideation Blog, including graduated ideas.
- Open Ideas shows just the ideas still available for an action, such as voting, commenting, or graduating.
- Graduated Ideas shows ideas that you graduated.
- My Votes shows the ideas that you voted for.

More information


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See Managing an Ideation Blog to learn about Ideation Blogs management permissions.