ThoughtFarmer
Encyclopedia
ThoughtFarmer is a commercial social intranet software product developed by OpenRoad Communications Ltd. in Vancouver
, BC, Canada.
ThoughtFarmer is collaborative enterprise 2.0
software built on ASP.NET
, for on-premise use behind the firewall. ThoughtFarmer is designed to be a turnkey solution to reduce implementation time. ThoughtFarmer is recommended for Microsoft
environments that can take advantage of its single sign-on with Windows Authentication, integration with Microsoft Exchange
, and synchronization with Active Directory
.
ThoughtFarmer appeared in Gartner's Magic Quadrant
for Social Software in 2008 and has appeared in Forrester analyst reports on social software and enterprise 2.0.
ThoughtFarmer was originally created in 2005 as an intranet solution for Intrawest Placemaking, a division of Intrawest
. The goal of the project was to replace the existing static intranet with a site that would "turn every user into a contributor", inspired by Wikipedia. Since then, ThoughtFarmer progressed through several iterations and was developed into product that has been adopted by organizations around the world including MEC
, Electronic Arts
, eHarmony
, Guardian Media Group
, Penn State University, and WATG.
Early versions of ThoughtFarmer included features such as profiles, commenting, tagging, search, recent activity tracker, news feed on the home page, document management, wiki
-style content editing and revision control, Microsoft
integration, organizational chart, rich-text editor, and an employee directory.
integration feature that supported archiving of e-mail distribution lists on the intranet, as well as an improved employee directory with filters, and tree-view navigation. As of June 3, 2009, the latest supported languages for ThoughtFarmer 3.5 are English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Dutch.
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, BC, Canada.
ThoughtFarmer is collaborative enterprise 2.0
Enterprise 2.0
Enterprise 2.0 is the use of "Web 2.0" technologies within an organization to enable or streamline business processes while enhancing collaboration - connecting people through the use of social-media tools. Enterprise 2.0 aims to help employees, customers and suppliers collaborate, share, and...
software built on ASP.NET
ASP.NET
ASP.NET is a Web application framework developed and marketed by Microsoft to allow programmers to build dynamic Web sites, Web applications and Web services. It was first released in January 2002 with version 1.0 of the .NET Framework, and is the successor to Microsoft's Active Server Pages ...
, for on-premise use behind the firewall. ThoughtFarmer is designed to be a turnkey solution to reduce implementation time. ThoughtFarmer is recommended for Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
environments that can take advantage of its single sign-on with Windows Authentication, integration with Microsoft Exchange
Microsoft Exchange Server
Microsoft Exchange Server is the server side of a client–server, collaborative application product developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Servers line of server products and is used by enterprises using Microsoft infrastructure products...
, and synchronization with Active Directory
Active Directory
Active Directory is a directory service created by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. It is included in most Windows Server operating systems. Server computers on which Active Directory is running are called domain controllers....
.
ThoughtFarmer appeared in Gartner's Magic Quadrant
Magic Quadrant
The Gartner Magic Quadrant is a proprietary research tool developed by Gartner Inc., a US based research and advisory firm. According to Gartner, the Magic Quadrant aims to provide a qualitative analysis into a market and its direction, maturity and participants, thus possibly enabling a company...
for Social Software in 2008 and has appeared in Forrester analyst reports on social software and enterprise 2.0.
ThoughtFarmer was originally created in 2005 as an intranet solution for Intrawest Placemaking, a division of Intrawest
Intrawest
Intrawest ULC is a developer and operator of destination resorts and a luxury adventure travel company. The company was founded in 1976 as a privately funded real estate development company...
. The goal of the project was to replace the existing static intranet with a site that would "turn every user into a contributor", inspired by Wikipedia. Since then, ThoughtFarmer progressed through several iterations and was developed into product that has been adopted by organizations around the world including MEC
MEC
MEC can refer to:Businesses* Mountain Equipment Co-op, a Canadian outdoors gear & clothing store* Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, a Japanese Mitsubishi Group core company* Morgan Electro Ceramics, a ceramics manufacturing company...
, Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
, eHarmony
EHarmony
eHarmony is an online dating website grounded in relationship science that matches single men and women for long-term relationships. To optimize the matching process, eHarmony operates eHarmony Labs, a relationship research facility, and publishes eHarmony Advice, a relationship advice site...
, Guardian Media Group
Guardian Media Group
Guardian Media Group plc is a company of the United Kingdom owning various mass media operations including The Guardian and The Observer. The Group is owned by the Scott Trust. It was founded as the Manchester Guardian Ltd in 1907 when C. P. Scott bought the Manchester Guardian from the estate of...
, Penn State University, and WATG.
Early versions of ThoughtFarmer included features such as profiles, commenting, tagging, search, recent activity tracker, news feed on the home page, document management, wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
-style content editing and revision control, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
integration, organizational chart, rich-text editor, and an employee directory.
Version 3.0
ThoughtFarmer version 3.0 saw the addition of blogs, discussion forums, calendars, and RSS feeds. Multilingual support with a localized interface and automatic translation features were also added.Version 3.5
ThoughtFarmer 3.5 added a Microsoft ExchangeMicrosoft Exchange Server
Microsoft Exchange Server is the server side of a client–server, collaborative application product developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Servers line of server products and is used by enterprises using Microsoft infrastructure products...
integration feature that supported archiving of e-mail distribution lists on the intranet, as well as an improved employee directory with filters, and tree-view navigation. As of June 3, 2009, the latest supported languages for ThoughtFarmer 3.5 are English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Dutch.
Version 3.6
ThoughtFarmer 3.6 was released on January 13, 2010. Version 3.6 saw the introduction of three new enhancements: Personalized Home Pages, Search Filters and customizable Groups.Version 3.7
ThoughtFarmer 3.7 was released on June 1, 2010. Version 3.7 introduced forms based authentication, multi-file uploading, and improved pasting from Microsoft Word.Version 4.0
ThoughtFarmer 4.0 was released on Dec 8, 2010, and this is the latest stable version. Version 4.0 offers improved attachment editing, intranet analytics, a new API, and a feature to convert Microsoft Word documents into HTML pages. Version 4.0 also introduced integration between ThoughtFarmer and Microsoft SharePoint 2010.System requirements
According to the ThoughtFarmer home page, basic server requirements are as follows:- Windows ServerWindows ServerWindows Server is a brand name for a group of server operating systems released by Microsoft Corporation. All are part of Microsoft Servers.- Members :This brand includes the following software:* Windows 2000 Server* Windows Server 2003...
2003 or 2008 - Microsoft SQL ServerMicrosoft SQL ServerMicrosoft SQL Server is a relational database server, developed by Microsoft: It is a software product whose primary function is to store and retrieve data as requested by other software applications, be it those on the same computer or those running on another computer across a network...
2005 or 2008
See also
- Comparison of wiki softwareComparison of wiki softwareThe following tables compare general and technical information for a number of wiki software packages.-General information:-Target audience:-Features 1:-Features 2:-Installation:-See also:* List of wiki software* List of wikis* Wiki farm...
- List of wiki software
- Collaborative softwareCollaborative softwareCollaborative software is computer software designed to help people involved in a common task achieve goals...