While the developerWorks website is all about great technical content and trial downloads, the developerWorks community is all about you. It's the professional network for developers, students, and IT pros (fans go so far as to call it "the world's geekiest social network"). But it's more than just the devoted membership—the developerWorks community is a unified set of community tools for connecting, sharing, and collaborating with other developers, based on the award-winning Lotus Connections 2.5 application suite.

The developerWorks community can help you troubleshoot technical problems, share your knowledge and perspectives, and collaborate with and gain wisdom from recognized experts. If you haven't already, join the millions of skilled developers who count on developerWorks resources and the developerWorks community to help them do their jobs each day.

What's new in the developerWorks community?

Since we opened the community doors in April of 2009, we've been listening to your suggestions and requests. Here are the major new features and functions we're offering in response:

More ways to socialize

• Connect your developerWorks community activity to Facebook. Learn how.
• Access your Facebook friends directly from your developerWorks community profile. Learn how.
• Display your status in the developerWorks community. Learn how.
• Exchange messages with other developerWorks community users via users' profile boards. Learn how.
• Get Twitter updates on your developerWorks community home page. Learn how.
• Share developerWorks community content to any of 45 other social sites. Learn how.

More ways to collaborate

• Share files with the developerWorks community.
  Learn how | Watch the demo.
• Create instant wikis to showcase your expertise and invite collaboration. Learn how | Watch the demo.
• Enhance groups by starting a blog or wiki or by adding files and activities for group member use. Learn how.

More ways to customize

• Browse and filter all user activity across the developerWorks community, in real time, to discover and follow new people and new content. Filter activity by application, or by articles, forums, or downloads. Learn how.
• Manipulate over 20 widgets to customize your home page.
  Learn how.

More ways to personalize

• Change your display name, and other contact information, directly in your profile. Learn how.
• Easily update your profile and tag it so others can find you by common interests, skills, and roles. Learn how.
• Add new personal details, like your education background. Learn how.
• Select which profile details to make publicly visible. Learn how.
• Keep track of your recent activity. Learn how.
• Create your personal forum signature. Learn how.

Ways to find things faster

• Search across all developerWorks community tools at once. Learn how.
• Take advantage of suggested tags in your watchlist to keep an eye on the people, tags, and blogs that interest you most. Learn how.
• View content recommended by developerWorks editors. Learn how.
• Easily follow any developerWorks community blog via your watchlist. Learn how.

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Sign in and get started

To participate in the developerWorks community, you first need to register with the developerWorks community. Click Sign in (or register) at the top of any developerWorks page and fill in a short registration form to get started.

When you register, you'll create an IBM ID and password as well as a unique display name that identifies you to the community. (Hint: Choose a display name that contains your first and last name, such as james_coughlin, so you are easy to find and recognize in the community.) If you later change your mind and want a different display name, you can easily change it by editing your profile.

At registration, an initial developerWorks community profile is created for you—it includes your first name, last name, and your display name. Once you complete the registration form, you'll be able to sign in, expand your profile, and start exploring all that the developerWorks community has to offer. Each time you return to the developerWorks community, you'll simply sign in with your IBM ID and password.

To sign in once you're registered, simply click Sign in (or register) at the top of any page on the site. When you're signed in, you can access your developerWorks community home page, your profile, and all the community tools from the developerWorks community masthead shown in Figure 1:

Once you're signed in to the developerWorks community, your next step is up to you! The following sections offer some quick suggestions to help you build your skills and your professional network with the developerWorks community.

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Introduce yourself in your Profile

Profiles make it easy to find and connect with other members of the community who share your interests or are solving the same problems you're working on.

The following steps walk you through ways you can personalize your profile. Feel free to skip around; these are just suggestions. You can do any or all of them in any order.

1. Personalize and flesh out your starter profile. Click your profile name in the masthead, click My profile, and click EDIT. Add as many professional and personal details under the Professional info and General info tabs as you like to introduce yourself to the community.

   Be sure to select your roles, skills, and interests. These selections will serve as user tags that will lead you and your peers in the developerWorks community to discover common interests and expertise and to form meaningful connections. For example, in another user's profile, you can click any of his or her roles, skills, and interests to see all users who tagged themselves with that role, skill, or interest. You can also search profiles by keyword in the upper right to find all users who tagged themselves with a certain term.

2. Add your education background (schools, degrees, fields of study, courses and grants), if you like. Click Community, click Profiles, then click My profile > Professional info, and click EDIT.
3. Start building your network. Find people that interest you and invite them to join your network. In your profile (click your profile name in the masthead, and click My profile), click a tag of interest in the User tags module, and discover users who share that interest. Click a person's display name to view their profile. If you and the person share common interests, click Invite to my network, and that person will receive an e-mail inviting him or her to be one of your network contacts.
4. Communicate your status to your network. In your profile (click your profile name in the masthead, and click My profile), add a status message by clicking What are you working on right now?. Your status will appear in the Public updates section of everyone's My Home page. It will also be visible in your home page and at the top of your view of All profiles:
   
   Figure 2. Example of status updates in developerWorks community profiles
   
   
   
5. Exchange messages with the developerWorks community by writing to anyone's profile. The Board is space on everyone's profile where you can communicate with other users, similar to the Wall in Facebook. Try it out. Just open a person's profile page, and click inside the Board area, where Write a message on this profile board is displayed. Type your message and click Post Message. You can also post responses to messages, and you can remove content that you find inappropriate in your Board or that you have posted to another person's Board. People receive an e-mail notification whenever a new message or response is posted to their profile.
6. Access your Facebook friends directly from your developerWorks community profile. To add the Facebook widget to your profile:
   1. Click your profile name in the masthead, click My profile > Settings, and expand the Profiles widgets section.
   2. Check the Facebook profile widget box, and click Update.
   3. Now the Facebook widget is on your developerWorks community profile. In the widget, click the action menu on the widget title bar, and then click Edit.
   4. In the widget, click Connect and follow the directions on the next few screens (you will be taken to Facebook to log in and enable Facebook to connect to developerWorks).
   Now, whenever you are logged in to Facebook, your picture, status, and 10 of your friends' photos will display on your public My developerWorks profile:
   
   Figure 3. Example of Facebook updates and friends on your developerWorks community profile
   
   
   
7. Connect your developerWorks community activity to Facebook. To share selected activity on the developerWorks community with your Facebook friends through your wall and News feeds:
   1. Click your profile name in the masthead, click My profile > Settings, and expand the Facebook connect section.
   2. Select the button to connect with Facebook and follow the directions on the next few screens (you will be taken to Facebook to sign on and enable Facebook to connect to developerWorks).
   3. Once you have successfully connected with Facebook, you'll be returned to your developerWorks community profile. Now choose the developerWorks community tools that you want to share activity about. Do this by again clicking the Settings tab, and expanding the Facebook connect section. Then choose the activities you want to share with Facebook by checking or unchecking the boxes, such as Profiles, Blogs, Bookmarks, etc.
      
      For example, if you select Profiles, every time you update your status in the developerWorks community, this information will be posted to your Facebook wall for your friends to see:
      
      Figure 4. Example of Facebook updates from the developerWorks community
      
      
      
8. Want to change your display name? Or your first or last name? You can do that directly in your profile as well. To change your display name, or any other contact information:
   1. Click your profile name in the masthead, click My profile and then click the General info tab. Click EDIT.
   2. Open the Basic profile information section. (See Figure 5.)
   3. You can type the display name you want, or any other contact information updates. Notice that display name, first name, and last name are required fields, so you cannot leave any of those blank. When you've made your changes, click Update. Change will take effect and be visible to you in the developerWorks community within 30 minutes.
9. Select which contact information you want to be publicly visible in your profile:
   1. Click your profile name in the masthead, click My profile, and then click the General info tab. Click EDIT.
   2. Scroll down and open the Contact Information section. (See Figure 5.)
   3. You can add or change the information in any text box on this page. Your e-mail address is required, but you can elect to hide it so that it's not visible from your public profile. To hide your e-mail address, make sure Hide is selected under Public profile settings. Select any other items that you do want (click Show) or don't want (click Hide) to appear in your public profile, and click Update:
      
      Figure 5. Example of where to change your display name and hide certain contact information
      
      
      
10. Keep track of your recent activity in your profile. Click your profile name in the masthead, click My profile, and then click the Recent activity tab. For example, you can sort your activity by Groups, Forums, and Downloads. If you sort by Downloads, you can see similar products that other users downloaded:
    
    Figure 6. Example of recent downloads and other suggested downloads
    
    
    
11. Create a custom signature to add your personal touch to your forum posts. Click your profile name in the masthead, click My profile > Settings, and expand the Forum signature section. Then type up to 1500 characters to append to your forum posts, and click Update.

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Explore and customize your developerWorks community Home page

Your Home page is now organized into two sections, Updates and My widgets, giving you two different ways to track what's happening in the community.

In Updates, you can view and filter the latest updates for all the developerWorks community tools in an easy-to-read list format. Filter the updates in five ways to reveal the items that interest you most:

• Public updates: What's happening, as it happens, across My developerWorks
• My updates: What your network contacts are doing in My developerWorks, and how the entire community is responding to your contributions to the developerWorks community
• My watchlist: Your personal view of updates related to the people and topics you're interested in; as well as specific recommendations from the developerWorks community editorial staff that match your interests
• My notifications: All the notifications that you have sent or received, such as an invitation to join a group or view a file
• My saved items: Any items you saw anywhere in the developerWorks community and selected to return to later

In My widgets, you can choose from over 20 developerWorks community widgets to add to your My widgets page. These modules of content are updated automatically without your needing to reload the page. They show you everything at a glance that is going on in the developerWorks community tools, so you can hone in on the community updates you care about.

Once you're chosen widgets that interest you, you can drag and drop them anywhere you like on your My widgets page. For example, you might choose to add the My Network widget at the top so you don't miss any contributions made by the people in your network. And if you are a fan of the developerWorks community wikis, you might add the Popular Wikis widget just under it, so you can see which wikis get read the most. You can arrange the My widgets view in a two-column or three-column layout. Experiment and select the layout you prefer.

The following steps walk you through ways you can use and customize your home page. Feel free to skip around; these are just suggestions. You can do any or all of them in any order.

1. Explore your home page. Click your profile name in the masthead, click My home, and on the Updates tab, check out the Public updates of all activity going on right now in the developerWorks community. You can filter this live feed by All updates, by Recommendations from the developerWorks editorial staff, by tool (Profiles, Groups, Blogs, etc.), or by Articles, Downloads, or Forums. Click any items of interest to dig deeper.
   
   Figure 8. Example of the Public updates in My Home
   
   
   
2. See your activity in the developerWorks community and how other users are responding to it. Click your profile name in the masthead, click My home, and on the Updates tab, click My updates; this section will grow as you participate.
3. Start watching people, tags, and blogs that interest you. Click your profile name in the masthead, click My home, and on the Updates tab, click My watchlist and search for people, tags (see Figure 10), and blogs of interest (see Figure 11). Note also the Suggested tags; these are good ones to watch because they capture the skills and interests you indicated in your profile.
   
   Figure 9. Example of watching a tag in a My Home watchlist
   
   
   
   
   Figure 10. Example of watching a blog in a My Home watchlist
   
   
   
4. Alternatively, view the developerWorks community activity through widgets on your home page. Click your profile name in the masthead, click My home, and click the My widgets tab. These widgets are your window into the activity in each of the community tools in My developerWorks. You can add, configure, remove, and reposition the widgets described in Table 1.

   To add the widgets you want, click the Customize button. You can now select the widgets you want to add. (You can also size your widgets to fit a 2- or 3-column layout by clicking Change Layout.) Experiment with dragging and dropping the widgets on the page. To customize the widget, click the down-arrow in its title bar.

   
   
   Figure 11. Choosing widgets for My Home
   
   
   
5. Keep up-to-date with the people you're following on Twitter. Add the Twitter widget to your My Home page to display the latest public tweets from developerWorks on Twitter, your most recent tweets, and your friends' most recent tweets. To add the Twitter widget:
   1. Click your profile name in the masthead, click My home, and click the My widgets tab. Click the Customize button in the upper right. Select Add Content, and select Other (or All). Choose the Twitter widget, and it now appears on your My widgets page.
   2. On your My widgets page, click the down arrow to the right of the Twitter widget title bar, and click Edit. Add your Twitter user name and password. (Be sure to use your Twitter user name, not your e-mail address.) Click Save.
   3. Select one of the three views: My Friends timeline, My timeline, or developerWorks timeline (see Figure 13). Each time you sign in to the developerWorks community My Home page, you will be prompted to enter your Twitter user name and password.
      
      Figure 12. Twitter widget
      
      
      

You can see in Figure 13 how Ami has customized her My widgets page, placing the Twitter widget and Blogs widget most prominently.

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Find common ground in Groups

A group connects people with a shared interest, expertise, or goal. Group members benefit from and build on each other's knowledge and contributions.

You can join or start a public group that anyone can join. You can also start a public group with invitation-only access, allowing you to control membership by having users request to join. And you can start a private group that does not allow public access, where you limit membership to a particular set of users.

Finding and joining groups

To find groups of interest, click your profile name in the masthead, click My groups, and click the Public Groups tab (see Figure 15). In the left column, browse for groups by tags or by categories such as Recent (recently updated), Popular (groups with the most members), and Alphabetical.

You can also search all groups by selecting Public Groups in the search area in the upper right and entering a search term.

To learn about a group, click the group name.

When you click a group's name, its overview page will display, as shown in Figure 16. If the group appeals to you, click Join this Group.

Once you've joined a group, click Message Board and scan the topics that are being discussed (see Figure 17). When you're ready to contribute to the forum, you can start posting your thoughts and queries to the group, and responding to other members' questions and comments. You can also add bookmarks and feeds to the group. And group owners can add even more content; see Adding a group blog, wiki, files, or activities below.

Accessing any group you've joined is easy: just click your profile name in the masthead, click My groups, and then click the My Groups tab. Another way to access your groups is from Home > My widgets. Look for the Groups widget, and select the My Groups view.

Starting a group

Consider starting a group when:

• You can't find an existing group that addresses your topic area or specific interests.
• You have identified individuals in the developerWorks community that you want to team with.
• You enjoy helping others in your field, answering questions, and building knowledge and consensus. (Try creating a general, or entry-level, public group, which anyone can join.)
• You are an expert in your field and you want deep, focused collaboration on a topic of special interest. (Try creating a public group with invitation-only access or a private group.)

To start a group, click the Start a group button, and fill in the fields shown in Figure 18. As the owner of that group, you can invite others to join and manage the content and membership for the group. Use the Members page to add or remove members from your group. All members of the group can view the list of people who belong to the group.

Adding a group blog, wiki, files, or activities

If you're a group owner, you can enhance your group by integrating a blog and wiki, as well as files and activities, that are just for group member use. Each item you integrate has its own widget, or section, on your group overview page, as shown in Figure 19.

When you first create a group, it displays a Message board, Feeds, Bookmarks, and Members. As a group owner, you can customize your group to reflect its goals and ways of interacting. On the group's overview page, click Customize, and then select the widget for activities, blogs, files, or wikis. Once you've clicked a widget to add it to your group, a section containing the widget is added the group's overview page, and a link to the tool displays in the left column.

For example, if your group is working on a project, add activities to help members assign tasks, track progress, and share resources. If collaboration is essential for your group, enable file sharing to allow members to download and share files, and add a wiki so they can collaborate on project documents. You might also create a blog so that your group can interact and stay involved and informed with the latest news. See details under Creating a blog for your group below.

As a group owner, you can maintain your group as it evolves by editing widget settings to reflect the latest interests or focus of the group. Or you might want to temporarily hide or permanently remove widgets, such as an activity or blog, that your group no longer needs. (When you hide or remove the Bookmarks widget, the Important Bookmarks widget is correspondingly hidden or removed.) Access these options by clicking the top right corner of the widget to open the action menu.

As a group owner, you can also arrange the widgets on your group's overview page to prioritize specific functions. For example, if the message board is the most active part of your group, you can position it at the top of the overview page to help members see the latest posts. Or if you want to highlight and encourage the use of the group blog, you can place it high on the overview page. To move a widget, click the widget title bar and drag the widget to a new location on the overview page. Then release the mouse to dock the widget in the location that you want.

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Follow news and views in Blogs

Blogs allow community members to share thoughts and expertise on topics that matter to them, as well as engage in conversations with each other. The developerWorks community blogs feature a tagging system and a recommendation feature, so that bloggers and readers can categorize discussions, in addition to recommending blog posts.

The Blogs page is your entry point to creating and participating in blogs. From the Blogs page, shown in Figure 20, you can browse for blogs, read recent entries, see what others are viewing or recommending, and request your own blog.

You can also customize the way information is presented by sorting the display on the Blogs page. For example, you can sort the list of blogs or the list of blog entries by date, title, most recommended, most commented, or most visited.

Viewing and commenting on blogs

Click a blog title to view a blog, or click an entry title to view an entry, such as the entry in "design@developerWorks" shown in Figure 21. Post your comments and invite others to provide feedback on what you post.

Following a blog

To easily keep up with new entries in blogs you like, click Follow this blog in the upper right of the blog, as shown in Figure 22. This blog now appears in your watchlist in your Home page (on the Updates tab, click My watchlist and look for the blog you just followed in the list of blogs you're watching).

Creating a blog

1. Once you've signed in to the developerWorks community, click Community in the masthead, click Blogs, then click the My Blog tab.
   
2. Click Request a Blog, and fill out a short form. The form asks for your name (optional), your display name, your e-mail address, and the reason you'd like to start a blog.
3. We will reply to your e-mail address with further instructions.

Creating a blog for your group

Group owners can create a blog for use by the group members. Each group can have only one blog. To create a blog for your group:

1. From your group's overview page, click Customize and select Blog. The group blog is created and displayed on the group's overview page.
2. Choose Create your first entry.
3. Return to your group. The new entry displays in the blog section.

Blogs for restricted groups: If your group is restricted, the blog will also be restricted and for the exclusive use of community members. It will not display on the Browse Blogs page, but it will appear on your My Blogs page.

Blogs for public groups: If your group is public, the blog will also be public. In this case, the blog will display on the Browse Blogs page as well as on your My Blogs page.

Blogs for moderated groups: If you group is moderated (it's a public group, but users must ask to join), the blog will be public and will display on the Browse Blogs page as well as on your My Blogs page, but the comments will be moderated by default.

From the group, you can do the following:

• Click Create Blog Entry to create another blog entry.
• Click View All to open the Blogs page and see all activity for this blog.
• Click the Edit button at the top of the group page, and then click the Blogs tab to change blog settings such as the title, description, tags, timezone, member access, and whether the comments should be moderated.

Note: The group blog you create also appears on your My Blog page. You can edit all settings for the blog, except for membership from that page, as well as from the group. Blog membership must be managed from the group itself.

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Save and share your Bookmarks

Bookmarks are a great way to save, share, and discover expert content and interesting Web pages.

The bookmarks that you collect in the developerWorks community are stored in a central repository. You can share some or all of your bookmarks with others, and you can see other people's collections of bookmarks as well. For example, you can explore bookmarks by tag and by creator, and thus easily discover mutual interests and beneficial resources.

The developerWorks community makes it easy to find bookmarked treasure. You can sort the bookmarks by date and by popularity, and see which bookmarks are attracting the most visits.

You can also search for bookmarks by tags and people that interest you, and discover entire collections of content that is right up your alley. Figure 23 shows the Public Bookmarks view.

Creating a bookmark

You can save a Web page URL as a bookmark that you and others can use to access the page. To create a bookmark, you have two choices:

If you know the URL of the page you want to bookmark...

You can create a bookmark for it within the Bookmarks tool:

1. Once you're signed in to the developerWorks community, click Bookmarks and click the Public Bookmarks tab, and click the Add a Bookmark button.
2. Fill in the form to create the bookmark for that URL (go to step 3 below).

If you are viewing the page you want to bookmark...

You need to have the Bookmark this! button in your browser's toolbar. If you don't the button installed, follow these How to bookmark instructions.

Once you have the Bookmark this! button in your browser's toolbar, do the following:

1. Open a Web page that you want to bookmark.
2. Click Bookmark this! in your browser toolbar.
3. Select where you want to add the bookmark. You can save a bookmark to:
   • Bookmarks
   • Groups that you've joined
   • Activities that you're a member of
   • Blogs that you own
4. Provide information about the bookmark and click Save.

Adding a bookmark to a group, blog, or activity

Open a URL that you want to bookmark. Click the Bookmark this! link in your browser toolbar, and in the "New Bookmark" form in the pop-up (see Figure 24), select the tab for groups ("communities"), activities, or blogs. (Only the groups, activities, or blogs that you have joined or created will be displayed.) Add a message or description to explain why you're adding the bookmark to that group, activity, or blog.

Sharing an existing bookmark with other users

Beside any bookmark on the Public Bookmarks, Popular, or My Bookmarks page, click show details. Then click Notify other users and fill in the form with the recipient's name and a brief comment. Click Send Notice.

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Create to-dos in Activities

Activities are a set of tools for keeping track of your and others' contributions, shared resources, to-dos, and deadlines in individual or collaborative projects.

The My Activities page, shown in Figure 25, lists the activities that you've started or that you're a member of. On this page, you can sort your activities by priority, and see recent updates to all your activities at a glance.

To start an activity, first identify a goal, such as resolving a bug or researching a topic. Create an activity to track that goal by clicking Start an Activity.

Then add entries to the activity to capture required tasks, store associated documents, and assemble the people that you need to reach the goal.

Use the views described in Table 2 to navigate the page:

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Share and collaborate on Files

Files sharing is a great collaboration tool that lets you exchange information and ideas with your peers without sending large files through e-mail.

You can browse and work with files that others have uploaded (see Figure 26). You can recommend and comment on other people's files. And you can upload files of your own so that other people see and work with them.

Files can be private, shared, or public. Private means that only the owner can see and work with it. Shared means that the owner has shared it with specific people, and they can share it with more people. And Public means that anyone can read the file.

When you share your individual files with other people, you can give them Reader or Editor access to the file. When you share your file collections with other people or groups, you can give them Reader, Contributor, or Manager access to the collection. Like individual files, collections can be private, shared, or public.

When you add a file, as in Figure 27, it becomes the first version of the file. When the file is edited and saved, that becomes the second version. A third edit creates a third version, and so on. If you have access to see a file, you can see its versions. If you have Editor access to a file, you can delete versions.

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Showcase your expertise in Wikis

Wikis are pages where groups of people jointly create and maintain content through contribution and collaboration. Wikis apply the wisdom of crowds to generating information for people interested in a particular subject.

The Public Wikis page shown in Figure 28 lists wikis that have been made public by their owner.

Starting a wiki

Once you're signed in to the developerWorks community, click Community, click Wikis, then click Start a wiki to create a wiki. It's best to have some introductory content in mind, as well as a plan for the first few pages of your hierarchy.

While you create your wiki, you can keep it private by restricting it to members, editors, and managers, and then not adding any members. When you're ready to make it public and editable by logged-in users, expand Site Tools and click Manage Access. Select All users and All logged in users. Click the My Wikis tab to see wikis you created or are a member of.

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Try out other features

Searching across all developerWorks community tools at once

• Use the Search field in the masthead of any page to find information anywhere in developerWorks community easily.
• Use the developerWorks community advanced search (below the masthead, in gray) to customize and filter your searches in and across the developerWorks community tools, as described below.

In an advanced search, you can search for one or more keywords in any combination of the developerWorks community tools. You can search all public content from the developerWorks community or just the content that is related to you. You can also filter the search results by different criteria, such as by tags, person, blog or wiki title, or file name.

You can choose to narrow your search to one or more tools to find content from specific areas. For example, a search for the keyword "java" that is limited to the Groups tool returns only entries from Groups with the word "java" in the title, description, tags, or content. You can further narrow your search results by choosing to search your own content only. For example, searching Groups and selecting Search MY content searches for "java" in only those groups that you are an owner or member of.

Advanced search has the added benefit of matching different word forms, such as plurals, alternate verb endings, and various grammatical tenses, in the search results. For example, when you search for the term "run", your results could include the terms "ran" or "running."

To do an advanced search:

1. Click the down arrow next to the search field.
2. Select Advanced search.
3. Select the tools that you want to search.
4. Define the scope of your search by selecting one of the following:
   • Search ALL content. Select this option to search all public content in the developerWorks community.
   • Search MY content. Select this option to search only the content relating to you.
5. Enter one or more keywords in the Keywords field.
6. Enter one or more tags in the Tags field.
7. Type a name in the Person field to find content associated with that person.
8. Enter a title or file name in the Title or File Name field to retrieve entries with the specified title or files with the specified name.
9. Click Search.

Note: There are a few restrictions that apply to search. Search results do not return:

• Bookmark URLs
• Feed URLs
• Activity titles if the title includes HTML tags

Sharing content with other social sites

You can share content that you see in the developerWorks community with popular social sites. Click the Share this page button at the bottom of any developerWorks community page:

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Conclusion

developerWorks has delivered twelve year's worth of how-to information on open standards technologies and IBM tools and products to software developers and IT professionals. Attracting a worldwide audience of over 3.4 million unique visitors monthly, the information takes the form of how-to articles, tutorials, forums, IBM trial downloads and tools, technical briefings, blogs, spaces, podcasts, sample code, wikis, and much more.

With the advent of the developerWorks community, we've expanded on this core strength by letting you tailor your experience on the site to suit your needs and preferences. You can still use the developerWorks site as you always have; the developerWorks community is fully integrated into the site, and gives you the additional benefit of a personalized profile and custom home page as your gateway into the educational content and into the skilled community of developerWorks users, who are students, software developers, and IT professionals like you.

Which brings us back to you, where we started. The developerWorks community is all about you: giving you the tools and the community access to easily find the people and the knowledge you need to achieve your professional goals.

This introductory tour of the developerWorks community has only scratched the surface. You will undoubtedly find your own additional uses for the flexible and complementary tools of the developerWorks community. Please let us know what you think of the developerWorks community and what else you'd like to see in it. We have a few ideas of our own, and getting input from you will keep us on the right track.

Resources

Learn

• The developerWorks rich sample group not only showcases the features of the developerWorks community groups, but has a lot of tips, files, and other information about using the developerWorks community tools.
  
  
• IBM Lotus® Connections is the basis for the components in the developerWorks community: each component derives from its counterpart in Lotus Connections. Lotus Connections is social software for business that helps you connect with the people and information that you need.
  
  
• Stay current with developerWorks technical events and webcasts.
  
  

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About the authors

As a developerWorks Web editor, Gretchen Moore has shaped developerWorks' editorial style, publication processes, and best practices since she helped launch the site in 1999. She's the Web editor for the Linux zone, and also serves as the tech lead for the Web editors of the technology zones. Her degrees are in Biology from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC, and Technical writing from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. For more info, see Gretchen's profile on My developerWorks.

Ami Dewar is the developerWorks Advanced design team lead. Advanced design is a hybrid team of designers, developers, and architects working to keep developerWorks on the cutting edge. Ami, formerly the lead graphic designer, has been a designer with IBM for six years, creating over 1200 feature graphics and 8000 technical illustrations. Learn more in Ami's profile on My developerWorks: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/profiles/user/amidewar.

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Table of contents

• What's new in the developerWorks community?
• Sign in and get started
• Introduce yourself in your Profile
• Customize your Home page
• Find common ground in Groups
• Follow news and views in Blogs
• Save and share your Bookmarks
• Create to-dos in Activities
• Share and collaborate on Files
• Showcase your expertise in Wikis
• Try out other features
• Conclusion
• Resources
• About the authors
• Comments

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