You can create your own Linchpin environment all by yourself

All of these steps can be performed or started without any obligation to pay anything.

Create a prototype of your new social intranet right now!

Linchpin is a comprehensive solution for enterprise intranets created by //SEIBERT/MEDIA based on Confluence, the collaborative intranet software by the Australian company Atlassian. Confluence is a professional wiki system many collaboration and knowledge management capabilities built in (learn more about Confluence).

To create the Linchpin solution, //SEIBERT/MEDIA has added a selection of useful add-ons and specific configurations to support full personalization and provide social elements and features, to meet the growing needs of your corporate communications department (learn more about Linchpin).

You don't have to rely on //SEIBERT/MEDIA to create a Linchpin intranet - you can do it yourself by downloading, installing and configuring all the add-ons that we use in our Linchpin solutions.

Step 1: Get to know Linchpin and Confluence

If you have never seen Linchpin or Confluence before, we recommend that you read through Atlassian's Confluence documentation, and review our Linchpin site and videos to get an idea of what you can achieve with both solutions. 

Step 2: Try a demo instance

Once you understand Linchpin and Confluence, it is best to try a Linchpin demonstration instance using SWIFT - you can experiment there without worrying about breaking anything, and learn what the system can do for you.

You can use a demonstration instance to build a prototype that you can present to your company's intranet committee. Having a working prototype is invaluable for creating enthusiasm and buy-in from stakeholders, and demonstrating that your chosen solution will meet your company's requirements.

If you are using the demo instance to build a prototype, you should read Atlassian's Confluence administrator's guide, so you know where configuration options will be found, and what to be careful of. 

Step 3: Define your requirements

Before you jump right in and start configuring add-ons, you should be able to answer the following questions, and be able to set up the required spaces, groups, permissions and templates in Confluence.

• What types of information do I want to store in the intranet?
  • Business processes
  • Project documentation
  • Enterprise and departmental information
  • ...
• Based on your answers to the question above, what spaces will I need? 
• What will the page structure in each space look like?
• What groups of users are there?
• What permission restrictions should be in place?
• What templates would make my users' lives easier?

Personalization and customization

• Every user shouldn't have to see information that is not relevant to them - what will be relevant to different user groups? This includes both content (spaces and pages), as well as navigation elements.
• Each user group will have a different set of applications they commonly use - which should be included by default for each group

Social aspects

• How will your users want to use the microblog?

Of course, there are a large number of other questions and considerations that go into designing a good intranet, but these should get you up and running quickly with Linchpin. 

If you aren't using a demo instance, after installing Confluence, you will need to install the Linchpin add-ons separately. You will need to decide for yourself exactly which add-ons your company needs, but we have found that the majority of our Linchpin customers typically require the same collection. 

Linchpin Core add-ons are the ones we consider must-haves. They allow for high levels of personalization based on user profile fields (location, language, department), providing customized navigation, news, events and more, targeted to specific groups of users.

Linchpin Extras are those created by //SEIBERT/MEDIA specifically for Linchpin customers and often used, in addition to the core add-ons.  Third party add-ons are regularly requested by our customers. Both of these collections of add-ons extend the functionality and customizability of your Linchpin intranet.

Click on names to see more information about each add-on. 

Linchpin Core

Linchpin Extras

1. Linchpin Theme - User/Administrator Guide

You can choose to configure the Linchpin Theme add-on before anything else, or leave it until later. You can add your logo, change the theme's colors, configure a footer, customize it for each department, and style it specifically with CSS and Javascript. 

2. Custom User Profiles - Administrator Guide

Many core add-ons are based on the Custom User profile add-on. This must be configured first, or after the Linchpin Theme. Consider the types of fields you will need in each user profile, define profile categories and assign the fields to each category. If necessary, connect fields to LDAP, AD or other user directories as used by your company. 

3. Navigation Menu Editor - Administrator Guide

Defining navigation elements is the first step and an important one! Try to slot content into appropriate navigation categories and define the navigation hierarchy. Be careful to use unambiguous names that clearly represent the content contained within each menu item. Also think how the navigation should be tailored to different groups of users, based on their user profile fields.

4. App Center - Administrator Guide

Take note of what applications your users use, and put them into sensible categories. Select which application each user group need to see by default, based on user profile fields.

5. Enterprise News Bundle - Administrator Guide

There are many forms of 'news' content in your organization. Define what types of announcements need to be mandatory (every user must check a box to say they have read it), and which news items need to be shown to which groups of users as based on their user profile fields.

6. Microblogging – Administrator Guide

Microblogging can be used as a bulletin board, to replace email, for project or teamwork, for social communication (car pooling, leisure activities), notifications from IT (maintenance or outages), to answer frequently asked questions, or to notify specific locations/buildings/departments of something. A microblog can be embedded in spaces, and can take different forms: global, space-based or topic-based.

Duplicate Content Defender - Administrator Guide

You can choose whether you want the add-on to search for duplicated or similar content within the same space, or across all spaces (default).

Easy Events RSVP - Administrator Guide

Consider what types of events are held in your company (seminars, training courses, presentations, customer events, conferences with parallel sessions, exhibitions, hackathons, meetings, etc). Define a workflow for the creation of the various types of events, and choose users or groups that are allowed to create and manage those events. Choose the pages on which events will be displayed. 

Terms of Use - Administrator Guide

You need to write the terms of use, which will then be displayed for users to acknowledge when they a) log on for the first time, or b) when the terms have changed.

Space Privacy - User/Administrator Guide

Do you need to provide an extranet to work with customers or external partners? Then you'll need to set it up similar to a standard space in Confluence, with a few extras - choose whether external users can see each other, what permissions they have, and whether the extranet space is visible to your standard intranet users.

Edit Lock

This add-on does not require any configuration. It ensures that two users do not edit the same page at the same time, overwriting each others' changes. 

Language Manager - User Guide

Intranet editors and content creators will be the primary users of the Language Manager add-on, and there is no general configuration needed. You do need to set the language for each page as you create it, and link translated version of pages with each other.