(This is a delayed post from a post I did internally to evangelize Lotus Connections 2.5 to IBMers -- posting here cause I think this is just way TOO cool.)
My first 24 hours with Lotus Connections 2.5 inside IBM were AMAZING. Ok, I know you all think that I'm biased.. but I'm not.. ok maybe I am.
I woke up Thursday at 4am for some reason. I initially thought it was a bathroom break, but when I went back to bed, I couldn't sleep. I decided to check whether the environment had been upgraded to 2.5.
To my surprise it was, so I started updating my status. At around 6 am, I already started getting value out of it. Yes, two hours after the system was up, its new features were already allowing me to discover information!
At that time, Heath McCarthy had just uploaded some new presentations documenting new ways to customize and integrate Lotus Connections. Awesome!
30 minutes later, I posted a question related to one of the new features. Within 20 minutes, the product designer responded that it's high but that he's looking for feedback!
At 10:45am (four hours later), it was my turn to present at Lotusphere Comes To You in Des Moines. When it came time to demo Profiles, I pointed to how useful it is to ask questions to my network and get immediate answers. But even better, how the product designer was able to get feedback from a wide array of users.
By the end of the day, there had been 19 responses from all over IBM... How would have this conversation happened before? Yes, you are right.. via email!!! You would have had 19 emails going back and forth!! Another advantage? Since this was an open discussion, anybody within IBM could have participated! Everyone has a voice, and the more people participate, the more information the product designer has to make an informed decision. It's a WIN - WIN all around.
The crowd agreed. They were all nodding their heads. Some had their eyes wide opened in amazement. I then re-emphasized that at this point, the system had only been live for 6 hours!
Throughout the day, I was flooded by new invitations (I got about 20 new invitations) from people asking to join their network. Where they discovering me somehow?
Finally, I uploaded some files into the new Files module. [Some time ago] I noticed that those files already have 40+ downloads. The 'Discover' tab in the home page is sweet! 
Believe it or not, I still haven't been able to play with all the new features of Lotus Connections... but I wanted to quickly share with you my first success stories of the first 24 hours. More success stories are just down the road...