One of the key and compelling new features of the Sun Java System Portal Server 7 release was support for Communities and Collaboration. See Paul's writeup that introduces this feature-set and explains why "Community Portals" have the potential to impact how we use the read/write Web.

To follow up on that, Jeff just recorded a screencast that demonstrates the usage of Communities in Portal 7, including the Community samples that ship with the product.

Check out the screencast (it runs about 6 mins) and his blog.
 


Jai just did a technology preview of Ajax support in Sun Java System Portal Server 7. It demonstrates a variety of ways by which Ajax can be applied to Portals to significantly impact user experience, interactivity and much more.

The demo shows a new Ajax Container in action. This Container Ajax-enables each individual channel on the Portal Desktop such that the channels can interact with the Portal in an async manner. The Container also allows for a richer user experience by introducing features such as dynamic drag and drop positioning of channels, easy addition and removal of channels, and inline editing of channel preferences

Check out the screencast (it runs about 12 mins).