Releases

Alkemio makes updates to the production platform approximately every two weeks. On the Forum you can find the latest release notes. Below, we give you an overview of the highlights as well as links to notes from 2023 and before.

Enhanced Search Functionality    Release 2024-03-27

We’re excited to announce significant improvements to our platform’s search functionality! With the adoption of Elasticsearch, a renowned leader in the field, we’ve enhanced the search experience. Our platform now utilizes Elasticsearch, a robust search engine. Its extensive capabilities empower us to deliver more accurate and efficient search results.

🎯 Relevance, Precision, and Flexibility

With Elasticsearch under the hood, you can expect better, more relevant results. The advanced algorithms consider various factors, such as term frequency, document relevance, and context, resulting in improved search outcomes. Furthermore, we’ve introduced a more flexible approach to presenting search results. Whether you are looking for specific Spaces, or content within the Spaces, the system adapts.

🚀 Speed and Efficiency

Elasticsearch’s indexing and retrieval mechanisms enable faster search performance. You will experience reduced latency, making their interactions with our platform seamless.

📈 Scalability

Our revamped search infrastructure is easily extendable. As we grow and add more content, Elasticsearch accommodates additional search results and tailored recommendations. First up: adding collaboration tools to your search results!

🛠️ Ongoing Improvements

Due to the indexing process, there might be a slight lag in displaying the latest results. Rest assured, as our approach stabilizes, we’ll gradually reduce this lag. Also, in this version, you won’t see the detailed reasons behind a result being returned. Previously, the matched terms were displayed, but we’re addressing this limitation in future updates.

Enhancements to the Innovation Flow: Smoother Experience and Default Selection 🚀    Release 2024-03-11

We’ve been hard working refining the innovation flow to enhance user-friendliness. Check out the latest updates:

🖊️ Directly Customize Your Innovation Flow in Challenges and Opportunities

Say goodbye to the days of navigating through Space settings to tweak templates. As an admin or lead of a Challenge or Opportunity, you can now modify your innovation flow directly within the specific Challenge or Opportunity. Here’s how:

  1. Click on the ⚙️ icon next to your innovation flow.
  2. Add Phases: Click the ➕ button on the right to introduce new phases. Alternatively, use the “more” button on existing phases to add more depth.
  3. Rearrange Phases: Simply drag and drop phases to change their order. Organize your flow to suit your needs seamlessly.
  4. Edit Phase Details: Click the “more” button to adjust phase titles or descriptions. Ensure that each phase clearly conveys its purpose.
  5. Collaboration Tool Flexibility: Continue to move your collaboration tools across phases as needed.

🌟 Default Flow Selection for New Challenges and Opportunities

Space admins now have the power to set a default flow for any fresh Challenge or Opportunity. Head to the Challenges tab in your Space settings and choose a template from your collection. This ensures consistency and streamlines your workflow.

📝 Enhanced Clarity with Phase Descriptions

We’ve also made things clearer for non-admins. Each phase in the innovation flow can now hold a description. This provides better guidance on what’s expected during each stage. Whether you’re fine-tuning existing Challenges or creating new Templates, these enhancements will empower you to craft more awesome flows! 🎉

From now on, our release notes will reside on Alkemio’s Forum. If you’d like to receive news from Alkemio in your email inbox, sign up for our newsletter here. Thank you for being part of our vibrant community. Together, we’ll continue to transform ideas into reality!

Alkemio Product Update: November – March    Release 2024-03-01

We’re excited to share with you all the updates and improvements we’ve made over the past few months. We apologize for the delay in updating our releases page, but we’re back on track now and ready to keep you informed about all the exciting developments at Alkemio.

🚀 Let’s dive into how our platform has evolved during this period:

Multi-User Whiteboard: Co-Creation in Real Time

We’re delighted to announce that our multi-user, real-time whiteboards are now accessible to all spaces with a Plus account. Collaborate seamlessly during meetings without the hassle of transferring notes afterward. Explore our tips and tricks to maximize the potential of these whiteboards.

Chat Guidance: Your AI-Powered Assistant

Got questions about Alkemio? Look no further. Our new Chat Guidance feature delves into the platform documentation on your behalf. From quick tips to in-depth explanations, Chat Guidance is conveniently located at the bottom right of your screen, ensuring a smoother journey.

New Websites: Welcome to Alkemio!

We’ve launched a fresh landing website and split our existing site into two distinct domains:

🚀 Welcome.alkemio.io: Here, you can learn all about the platform, sign up, create a new Space, or schedule a demo with our team.

🎯 Alkemio.org: Discover more about Alkemio the Foundation—our vision, partners, organizational structure, governance, and more.

My Dashboard: Your Command Center

Your journey, your contributions, your way. The new Dashboard provides a panoramic view of all activity within your Spaces. From recent posts to invitations, it serves as your command center. Navigate effortlessly, stay informed, and dive back into your latest adventures. Scroll down to read more.

Accessibility Improvements: Inclusivity at the Core

We firmly believe that everyone deserves a seat at the table. To that end, we’ve meticulously optimized Alkemio for accessibility. Features such as keyboard navigation, skip links, and button labels ensure a more inclusive experience for all users.

UX Enhancements: Where Functionality Meets Delight

Details matter. Default images now grace your banners and avatars when no image was selected. Since January all members, not just the creator, can add links to a collection of links and documents. And the post description limit? Expanded, so you can express yourself fully. These are just a few examples: on a daily basis, we’re working on making your interactions delightful and efficient.

Performance Boost: Faster Than Ever

Time is precious. We’ve optimized the platform to significantly reduce loading times for the pages within your Spaces. Whether you have 2 or 20 posts in your Knowledge base, you won’t have to wait.

🎉 Stay Curious, Stay Connected

From now on, our release notes will reside on Alkemio’s Forum. If you’d like to receive news from Alkemio in your email inbox, sign up for our newsletter here. Thank you for being part of our vibrant community. Together, we’ll continue to transform ideas into reality!

🎉 Introducing My Dashboard!    Release 2024-02-07

We’re very excited to welcome you at your new Alkemio “Homepage”: My Dashboard. Here you can easily resume your work and stay updated on your communities. Have a look at these new features:

🚀 Quick access to your favorite communities You’ll see the last 5 places that you’ve contributed to, whether they are Spaces, Challenges, or Opportunities. To see more, just click on the button on the right.

🔔 All the latest activities in one place The Recent Contributions panel shows you everything that’s going on in your communities. You can filter by Spaces and by your role in them.

…and there is more:

  • Don’t miss any invitations: they are now shown in the New Memberships block
  • Keep track of your own latest activities with My Latest Contributions
  • Discover new templates from the Innovation Library
  • Make the most out of Alkemio with the ‘Tips and Tricks’

Good to know: The exact layout of your Dashboard depends on whether you’re signed in or not, and whether you have any memberships.

Have a look at your Dashboard to explore what else is new, and tell us what you think!

Release 2023-11-01

Prepare yourself for a list full of new updates in this 2023-11-01 release! The main navigation of the platform is refreshed, to put the focus on your community.

Alkemio now takes the role of “powering” your Space. So “Alkemio” will be much less visible. This big and important change also allowed us to simplify the user navigation.

The user in a Space is primarily interested in working in the Space. The platform level jobs, such as finding other contributors or challenges as well as best practices, are now gathered in one menu button - leading to the same platform pages as before. We aim to avoid users getting lost or distracted but keep the ability to interact with the wider platform.

All search interaction is now gathered in a single search menu bar, providing the option to search either just within the Space or across the full platform.

Interested in checking and trying out these new changes? Go directly to Alkemio. As always, your feedback and comments are more than welcome. Enjoy!

Previous releases

A collection of our earlier releases.

Our most recent releases:

  • 2023-09-29: "Refresh Space Dashboard and settings, extended character limits, and performance improvements"
  • 2023-08-04: "Email Notifications, Notifications for new activities, Callouts and Calendar in Challenges and Opportunities"
  • 2023-07-20: "Innovation Flows, improvements to Banners in Challenges and Opportunities, Alkemio and non-Alkemio user invites, Challenge filters and tags"
  • 2023-06-16: "Innovation Hubs, threaded comments and emoticons, refresh of the Space settings, and document storage"
  • 2023-05-18: "Innovation Library, Single whiteboard, Collection of Links, and Document Storage"
  • 2023-04-24: "Community, Challenges and Knowledge Base menu tabs in each Space as well as Callouts in Context"
  • 2023-03-31: "Community Forum, Whiteboard templates from the platform, sorting of Callouts, Community Application Questions, and new text editor"
  • 2023-03-02: "New landing page, communities grouped by topics, ability to tag people/organizations, search in Space, and new calendar view"
  • 2023-02-13: "Message other users / community hosts / organizations, improved sharing, more content on calendar events"
  • 2023-01-31: "Events calendar, simplified use of whiteboards and private Challenges"
  • 2022-12-23: "Refresh of user interface, sign up with Linkdin, reccomendations and top callouts visible"
  • 2022-11-28: "Uploading documents, Innovation library, less boundaries to contribute"
  • 2022-11-14: "Mobile experience improvements for Hub / Challenges / Opportunities and a Help Center"
  • 2022-11-09: "Rich content editing (WYSIWYG), simplified Callout creation, Single Card Type Callout, moving Cards between Callouts"
  • 2022-10-31: "Closing Callouts, Activity log: real time updates, performance + new activities, Home Page Contributors"
  • 2022-10-11: "Sharing of Hubs, Challenges or Opportunities as well as Callouts, Cards or Whiteboards(Formerly known as Canvases), latest activities on dashboard"
  • 2022-10-06: "Simplified Challenge & Opportunity creation flow as well as more guidance, members allowed to create Challenges, innovation flow management, Callout inspiration, Challenges page refresh"
  • 2022-09-28: "Search refresh, Contributors page, translation updates, user/organization profile banners, emoji's"
  • 2022-09-15: "Discussion Callout, comments, latest activities, user and organization banners, email notifications"
  • 2022-08-26: "UX refresh, Callouts, Innovation Flows, +++"
  • 2022-07-13: "Whiteboards(Formerly known as Canvases) as Cards, managing the Community, less User logins, and displaying character limits"
  • 2022-06-29: "New home page, new platform and website domain, and Aspect management templates"