Did you know that right now, while you read this, there’s a sleeping giant sitting unopened in your Confluence instance? While your wiki might be a wealth of information for your enterprise business, for your project in development, or for whatever you might be using Confluence, it can also be used as a platform for an enterprise (maybe social?) networking. Now I know what you’re saying, “I don’t want my company’s Confluence instance to become a MySpace clone!” That’s understandable, and it doesn’t have to be; however, it can bring your team closer together with a variety of plugins found in your Plugin Repository. This means, your Confluence instance literally just a few clicks away from unleashing new functionality in your Confluence instance.

Just remember, happy employees that have fun together tend to work harder together. As an employee who wants to have fun while working hard, bias is in full effect:

5. IM Presence Plugin

This plugin is valid in all Confluence version from 2.0 up through 2.7.2. Plus, it’s an official Atlassian Supported Plugin. By adding this plugin, you enable a new macro which allows you to show a user’s status on a variety of instant messaging clients within Confluence. All you need to do is enable the plugin via the repository, create a dummy user for Confluence to use, and that dummy user will query the user found in a macro tag such as the following:

{im:my_username@hotmail.com|service=MSN}

Afterwards, the user, in this case ‘my_username@hotmail.com’, will receive a message from the newly created dummy user. After ‘my_username@hotmail.com’ accepts the request, you’ll be able to see that user’s status anywhere the above mentioned macro tag is placed!

4. Google Maps Plugin

Want to make sure nobody gets lost on their way to the big meeting coming up? Perhaps you’re having a company event soon? Well I can’t personally think of a better way to get everyone on the same page than the illustrious Google Maps! This plugin allows you to slap a map from Google right up on the Wiki, and even allows the Satellite image view as well.

3. Mail2News Plugin

Don’t feel like logging into Confluence? Have an email you want to turn into news? This plugin should do the trick for you, much the same way you can do with applications such as Wordpress. You setup an email account for Confluence to access, and keep it preferably hidden, install the plugin, and configure it to grab news from the email address you created. If the email address created supports wildcards, you can even direct the news via email straight to specific Confluence spaces!

2. Calendar Plugin

I would assume most people know about this plugin already, but it’s just too useful to ignore. With this you can create calendars, or subscribe to an iCalendar thus keeping everyone on the same schedule! I know you probably have other calendar applications you prefer to use, but accessing a global calendar with a few clicks is incredibly convenient.

1. Sudoku Plugin

Now, I’m completely incapable of playing Sudoku, it makes my head hurt. I’ll be happy to make sure this plugin gets installed for you, but we’re not your hint line when you get stuck alright? That aside, it is a fun a little diversion you can add to your wiki if you so please. Is it useful in any major way? Well, no, not really. At least they’ll be playing on the company site, rather than trying to get out to Yahoo Games right?

We’ll continue to keep you up to date with new plugins, macros, tricks, and other fun Confluence related information. If you have any hot tips you’d like to drop on us, feel free! We’re always in the hunt for improvements to our favorite wiki application, Confluence!