cyn.in - Open Source Enterprise Collaboration Software

January 4, 2009 at 9:41 pm · Filed under Web 2.0

Version 2.1 of cyn.in was officially released In December. The highlights include; an integrated microblogging application, the introduction of an activity stream, and a simplified user interface. cyn.in is a software tool developed by Cynapse. It helps teams to create collective knowledge by sharing workspaces, applications, documents, files and digital content within a secure, unified environment. cyn.in combines the capabilities of collaboration tools like wikis, blogs, file repositories, micrologs instant discussions and other social applications into a seamless platform. The cyn.in desktop client keeps users updated with its activity stream while enabling instant discussions within any document, file or content.

Like a number of other vendors such as Traction, the cyn.in people realized that an enterprise version of Twitter would really work only if it was contextually integrated into the tools that their teams already use for collaboration. So they tightly integrated microblogging into cyn.in. Sarah from ReadWriteWeb had this to say in the New York Times: “The cyn.in client is beautiful implementation of how microblogging could and perhaps should) work for businesses, but it’s the client’s integration with the cyn.in team collaboration suite that makes it so worthwhile.” I think this will be the trend for enterprise micro-messaging.

The cyn.in people have added some other features. The concept of “spaces” has been the central aspect of cyn.in. Spaces help a group of users to create a secure work area within their cyn.in site and allocate explicit permissions to select users within it. Spaces are useful to most large companies with diverse teams.

However, a substantial number of their customers and users felt the need for a simplified central collaboration area that is accessible to every user of the cyn.in. So they added the concept of the Main space. This is where all users of a cyn.in site can create or edit any content, without worrying about permissions or sharing rights. It is like the central town plaza. This makes the main space ta useful place for free form collaboration, and its no more necessary to create a bunch of spaces before new users start using cyn.in. New spaces are only needed when there is a requirement for security isolation.

They also added a new feature called ‘All Updates’ to all spaces. This shows all activity within a space (and from all spaces nested inside the space). This bridges content from all applications and types into a simple unified interface.

To help with compliance requirements, the new cyn.in recycle bin grabs deleted content from across the site, and allows the administrator to process the deleted content as per the compliance requirements. cyn.in rules can be applied to the recycle bin for custom automated processing of deleted content as well.

This looks like another useful option for enterprise 2.0 collaboration and content sharing that is continuing the trend of integrated suites of applications taken from Web 2.0. It is available in a hosted version and or as an enterprise application. The New York Times has published an extensive review of the cyn.in desktop client. You can check out more details about the product at the Cynapse web site. They also have a Cynapse blog.