This chapter provides a brief introduction to Atlassian and Confluence. You will also find an overview of the core concepts of enterprise collaboration and, more specifically, remote collaboration. You’ll learn how Confluence supports organizations in simplifying remote collaboration by providing a robust yet flexible platform. We aim to set a solid background before proceeding to the practical sides of this book.
Knowing Atlassian will help you better understand Confluence and get the most out of it. You will learn the company values that guide Atlassian in building, maintaining, and improving all the company’s products, including Confluence. This knowledge will help you understand the philosophy of Confluence thoroughly. All these benefits are critical when trying to master your company’s primary collaboration tool.
The primary concepts of enterprise collaboration will help you focus on the most critical problems of modern collaboration, where people work from different places within different time zones. These concepts will help you prepare for the complexities you’ll have (or you already have) while designing and maintaining a collaboration platform for your company.
Having basic knowledge of Confluence, Atlassian, which produces and develops this product, enterprise collaboration concepts, and corporate cooperation will enable you to get much more effective results with the techniques you will learn in the following sections.
After reading this chapter, you’ll come away with the following knowledge:
Our first goal is to familiarize you with Atlassian, the company that built, maintained, and improved Confluence. Our second goal is to introduce you to Confluence from scratch.
We will divide our tour of Atlassian and Confluence into eight parts:
Knowing the company that produces Confluence can help you increase the efficiency you will get from this product. We have compiled summary information about Atlassian as follows:
Table 1.1: Atlassian offices around the world
As shown in the preceding table, the company has offices in different parts of the world. Additionally, Atlassian has allowed employees to work from (almost) anywhere since 2020. Being a 20-year-old company with more than 8,000 team members, Atlassian has more than 260,000 customers worldwide.
Atlassian, which went public in 2015, has recently invested heavily in the cloud, and it has powerful tools for collaboration and productivity in its product portfolio, as shown in Table 1.2:
Table 1.2: Products by Atlassian
As you can see, Atlassian provides different solutions for different collaboration needs. Jira and Confluence are the most popular tools; the number of tools grows continually.
Let’s talk about Atlassian’s Point A, an innovative program that’s more than just a buzzword. Point A is Atlassian’s incubator for new ideas, where collaboration with customers and partners takes center stage. By focusing on real-world challenges and iterative design, Point A reflects a bold new direction in product development. It’s about building tools that people like you really need.
Why should you care about Point A? Because it’s shaping Atlassian’s future of collaboration tools. Point A isn’t just an abstract concept; it’s a tangible path to new solutions that could become vital to your daily work. By following Point A, you’re not just watching innovation unfold; you’re potentially influencing products that may become integral to your workflow. It’s a glimpse into the future of teamwork tools, and it offers you the opportunity to be part of something groundbreaking. So far, Point A has given us some incredible success stories such as Jira Work Management, Jira Product Discovery, Atlas, Compass, Beacon, and Confluence Whiteboards. You can find more information about Point A via this link: https://www.atlassian.com/point-a.
To understand Atlassian, it’s beneficial to understand its values. Atlassian has five core values. These values significantly guide the way Atlassian conducts business, develops products, and builds its brand. The company is constantly evolving and changing; however, these five values remain constant. They are as follows:
We highly recommend looking into the Atlassian values here: https://www.atlassian.com/company/values.
Confluence emerged in 2003 and is a system used by teams to store, share, and work as teams. At its core is the ethos of combining knowledge and teamwork. It allows collaboration within a single unit and between different departments in small or large companies (marketing, HR, IT, etc.). Users can combine all company-scale projects and teams.
Texts, references, images, and any content can be stored, shared, and edited simultaneously through Confluence. Because all this happens in the cloud, labor is saved and doesn’t require much extra effort. It creates an open, easy-to-use, secure platform that allows teams to brainstorm, interact, discuss, and disseminate knowledge. It helps to carry individual studies to the culture of team spirit and transforms monologue into dialogue. Planning, goal setting, executing, and learning come together in one place in an organized and user friendly manner.
Teams working from the office, remotely, or hybrid benefit from Confluence.
According to Atlassian, Confluence has four essential functions:
There are several competitors or similar products on the market. We can name a few here:
There are two hosting options for Confluence:
Atlassian recommends the Cloud version, but the Data Center option better suits you if you have a business requirement preventing you from hosting your data in the cloud. Many companies want to strictly control who has access to data held in Atlassian products such as Confluence or Jira. These companies often choose Data Center over Cloud. Additionally, data residency on Cloud is limited for some countries, which can be a significant obstacle for companies in regulated industries such as finance or medicine. This limitation can make migration impossible, reinforcing the preference for Data Center solutions.
Although they have a lot in common, they have significant functional differences. The Cloud edition is a software as a service (SaaS) solution and offers many benefits. For example, Atlassian takes care of all the technical details to provide an always-on, continuously updated, secure system. On the other hand, you must maintain your infrastructure if you opt for the Data Center edition.
Throughout this book, we recommend and assume that you have the Cloud version.
More information can be found here: https://www.atlassian.com/migration/assess/compare-cloud-data-center.
Confluence has four different plans for different needs, namely Free, Standard, Premium, and Enterprise:
This book recommends and assumes that you have the Premium or the Enterprise plan. These plans have all the features that you will need when you study this book. A brief overview of the essential differences between Confluence Premium and Enterprise follows. Although these two plans are similar, they have some important differences that are summarized in Table 1.3:
Table 1.3: Differences between Confluence Premium and Enterprise
As you can see, the Enterprise plan provides the most advanced features of Confluence and a higher SLA.
You will likely need to consult documentation frequently. Confluence’s official documentation (see Figure 1.1) is one of the most reliable sources in this case:
Figure 1.1: Confluence’s official documentation
As you can see in this image, in this documentation, you’ll have reliable information presented in an efficient way, on topics such as the following:
Atlassian Marketplace is a thriving online platform that hosts plugins, apps, and integrations specifically designed for Atlassian products. It’s a space where developers can share their creations, and users can find the tools they need to enhance their Atlassian experience.
The importance of Atlassian Marketplace can’t be overstated. It enables the customization and extension of Atlassian products, allowing users to tailor them to their specific needs. Whether it’s project management, code integration, or workflow enhancement, Atlassian Marketplace offers solutions that can make an Atlassian product an even more powerful part of your toolkit.
Atlassian Marketplace boasts a diverse array of features, including a user friendly interface for browsing and discovering apps, detailed reviews, and support resources. You can find both free and paid solutions, with clear information on pricing and functionality. With robust search and filter options, finding the perfect tool to augment your Atlassian experience is just a few clicks away.
Atlassian Marketplace and Confluence are tightly intertwined. Through Atlassian Marketplace, Confluence users can access a wide variety of add-ons (or plugins) that expand Confluence’s capabilities. Whether it’s new macros, templates, or integrations with other tools, AM empowers Confluence users to adapt the platform to their specific requirements.
We’ll be delving into Atlassian Marketplace in more detail in the later sections of this book. Its rich ecosystem and endless possibilities are worth exploring, and we’ll guide you through everything you need to know to make the most of this invaluable resource.
We expect this critical system on which your team works together to be operational. But unfortunately, no system can be 100% functional. However, in the previous sections, we saw that the service level is 99.9% for Premium licenses and 99.95% for Enterprise licenses. You can find the link to Atlassian’s Service Level Agreement in the Further reading section at the end of this chapter.
The interruptions are sometimes due to planned maintenance and unforeseen events. When such a situation occurs, our primary expectation is that the problem will be resolved as soon as possible and everything will return to normal. However, our other expectation is to be informed effectively and transparently in this painful process.
This is where Atlassian’s status page comes into play. Thanks to this tool, you can instantly monitor the service quality of Confluence and Atlassian’s other products. When there is a problem, you are immediately informed first-hand in the most reliable way without having to send a panicked email or make a phone call. Thanks to this, you know that the Atlassian team has already noticed the problem and is working on it, so the team does not become burdened with unnecessary demands and can devote its energy to solving the problem. You can access this tool at https://confluence.status.atlassian.com.
The Confluence Cloud status page is pictured in Figure 1.2:
Figure 1.2: Confluence Cloud status page
As you can see in the screenshot, this tool has many features. We recommend you learn all these features and try them out a few times. We also recommend you try it when everything is operational without waiting for any interruptions.
With this tool, you can do the following:
Note
You can stay instantly informed about updates from Atlassian by using the yellow Subscribe to Updates button located at the top-right of the screen. You can receive these updates either via email or through a platform such as Slack. We recommend utilizing this service and closely following the updates.
Atlassian Statuspage
This tool works on the status page, another famous product of Atlassian. Here, the status of Confluence and all Atlassian products can be instantly monitored.
We will now provide an example of how Atlassian maintains communication when there is a problem. The following is a screenshot of an issue that occurred on September 29, 2022:
Figure 1.3: Past incident post published on Confluence status page
As can be seen here, the Atlassian team published five papers on this subject during the day. Here you can see the incident management maturity of the Atlassian team.
We must always be able to look ahead to maintain a platform on which the whole team will work. Changes we are unprepared for can put us in a difficult position. On the other hand, if we are aware of the upcoming changes, we can make much more sound decisions.
Atlassian is constantly improving Confluence by adding new features, removing some parts, and changing some features.
Atlassian Cloud Roadmap
One of the most reliable and effective ways to learn about the changes that await you is to review the official Cloud Roadmap that Atlassian has published here: https://www.atlassian.com/roadmap/cloud.
The Atlassian Cloud Roadmap is shown in Figure 1.4:
Figure 1.4: Atlassian Cloud Roadmap
As you can see in the previous screenshot, here is the roadmap of all Atlassian products, not just Confluence. You can view the changes that concern Confluence using the Product filter near the top of the screen.
Here you can see the following information about the changes:
We recommend that you follow this roadmap, which is updated quarterly. We also recommend that you proactively make the necessary technical and administrative preparations.
Confluence and Jira Software are both products from Atlassian, and their tight integration is designed to enhance team collaboration, project management, and workflow tracking within an organization. Here’s how the integration between Confluence and Jira Software works, and why it’s beneficial.
The tight integration between Confluence and Jira Software supports a more cohesive, efficient, and transparent approach to project management and collaboration. By connecting documentation, discussion, task tracking, and reporting across the two platforms, teams can work more seamlessly and maintain alignment with both high-level objectives and day-to-day tasks. It reduces the fragmentation of tools and information, leading to a more streamlined and productive working environment. We will revisit Confluence’s integration with Jira Software in the next chapters.
We have briefly introduced Confluence and Atlassian; this will help you better understand the philosophy of Confluence and get the most out of it. It’s now time to meet some fundamental concepts of enterprise collaboration.
Today, working life practices are seriously questioned. Focused experts are trying to detect and identify problems in the actual ways of working. Based on some of these studies, we would like to review a number of basic concepts frequently mentioned today.
Enterprise collaboration refers to the ways in which employees within an organization communicate, collaborate, and work together across different levels, departments, and locations using various tools, technologies, and practices. The term can encompass a wide range of activities and processes, supported by collaboration software and platforms designed to facilitate teamwork on a larger scale. What follows is an overview of the key aspects of enterprise collaboration.
Enterprise collaboration often relies on digital platforms, software, and tools that enable seamless communication, document sharing, project management, and more. Examples of collaboration platforms include Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Atlassian products such as Jira and Confluence.
Unlike small team collaboration, enterprise collaboration involves coordination and communication across various departments, teams, and potentially different geographic locations. It’s about working together on shared goals, projects, or initiatives at the organizational level.
One of the goals of enterprise collaboration is to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and information across the organization. This can lead to better decision-making and innovation by tapping into diverse insights and expertise.
Enterprise collaboration tools often support real-time communication through instant messaging, video conferencing, and shared workspaces, allowing employees to work together regardless of location.
Successful enterprise collaboration usually requires integration with existing business systems such as CRM, ERP, or document management systems. This helps ensure that collaboration tools align with the broader business processes and objectives.
In large organizations, collaboration must be managed with attention to security, privacy, and regulatory compliance. This includes managing access controls, data protection, and adherence to various legal and industry standards.
Enterprise collaboration isn’t just about tools and technologies; it also involves fostering a collaborative culture. Leadership, trust, clear communication, and a shared understanding of goals and values are all vital to making collaboration effective.
Implementing effective enterprise collaboration can be complex. Challenges may include resistance to change, difficulties in integrating different tools and systems, ensuring security, and maintaining a consistent collaboration experience across diverse teams and locations.
Metrics and analytics may be used to evaluate the success of collaboration initiatives, including user engagement, efficiency gains, improved innovation, and satisfaction levels among employees.
When well implemented, enterprise collaboration can lead to more efficient processes, improved problem-solving, greater innovation, and a more engaged and satisfied workforce.
Enterprise collaboration represents a strategic approach to enabling teamwork and coordination across an organization. It relies on a combination of technology, processes, and a supportive culture to enhance communication and collaboration at all levels of the organization. It can play a vital role in supporting organizational agility, innovation, and overall performance.
Enterprise collaboration is vital in today’s complex and rapidly changing business environment for several reasons, and specific circumstances have given rise to the development and adoption of collaboration platforms. The following subsection provides an overview of this.
Enterprise collaboration is important for the following reasons:
Some of the circumstances that gave rise to enterprise collaboration platforms are as follows:
In conclusion, enterprise collaboration has become crucial in modern business, driven by globalization, technological advancement, the shift toward remote work, and the growing complexity in business processes. Well-implemented collaboration strategies and platforms can lead to increased innovation, efficiency, agility, and competitiveness, addressing the challenges and opportunities of today’s dynamic business landscape.
The need for remote collaboration has become increasingly prominent, particularly with the rise of globalization, distributed teams, and the shift toward remote and flexible working arrangements. The following subsection provides a detailed explanation of the need for and benefits of remote collaboration.
Let’s think about why we need remote collaboration:
Remote collaboration offers a lot of benefits:
Remote collaboration is not merely a trend but a vital aspect of modern business operations. With the strategic use of technology and proper management practices, it can lead to increased productivity, flexibility, diversity, and resilience. By embracing remote collaboration, organizations position themselves to compete effectively in a global marketplace and adapt to the continually evolving business landscape. It is a model that aligns with the needs and expectations of a modern workforce and can drive significant long-term value.
Hybrid working refers to a working model that combines both remote (off-site) work and in-office (on-site) work. It’s a flexible arrangement that allows employees to split their time between working from home (or another remote location) and working from the physical office.
All-remote working refers to a working model where employees work entirely outside of a traditional office environment. Unlike hybrid working that combines both remote and in-office work, all-remote working means that there is no requirement or expectation for employees to be physically present in an office at any time.
Agility is an iterative approach that focuses on the continuity of new releases and includes customer feedback while managing projects. Teams break the requirements into smaller workpieces sorted by importance, and integrate the plan according to the implementation, which enables the team to respond to changing conditions.
Today, a team specializing in a single function (human resources, software development, finance, etc.) is not enough to handle ambitious projects. On the contrary, we need the cooperation of teams specializing in different fields working for a common purpose. Modern self-sufficient teams and individuals from other specialties are called cross-functional teams.
A cross-functional team is a group of people with different functional expertise working toward a common goal. It may include individuals from various departments and levels of an organization, such as finance, marketing, operations, and engineering. The idea is to bring diverse perspectives and skills together to accomplish a specific objective, often related to problem-solving, product development, or process improvement.
Cross-functional teams represent a collaborative approach to tackling complex projects, enabling a more holistic view and drawing on the diverse skills needed to succeed. They can be highly effective but require careful planning, coordination, and leadership to overcome potential challenges related to diversity of thought, priorities, and working styles.
A distributed workforce refers to a business model where employees work from various geographical locations rather than from a central physical office. The workforce could be spread across different cities, states, countries, or even continents.
An information silo, or a data silo, is a term used in information systems and business to describe a situation where a set of data or information is isolated or segregated from other parts of the organization. This isolation can occur within different departments, teams, or even different systems within an organization.
Information silos can create significant challenges within an organization, inhibiting collaboration, efficiency, and effective decision-making. Addressing this issue often requires a comprehensive approach, including technological, cultural, and organizational changes to foster open communication and collaboration.
Information architecture strategy refers to the planning, organization, and structuring of information within a system or environment, such as a website, application, database, or business process. The goal is to make information easily accessible and understandable, facilitating efficient navigation and meaningful interactions for the users.
An information architecture strategy is a holistic approach to managing information in a way that aligns with both user needs and business goals. It plays a vital role in enhancing user experience (UX), supporting effective content management, and contributing to the overall success of a digital product or service. It’s a multidisciplinary effort that involves collaboration among UX designers, content strategists, developers, and other stakeholders.
A single source of truth (SSOT) refers to the practice of structuring information so that there’s a singular, authoritative data repository or record for each piece of information. In a business context, it means that everyone in the organization relies on the same data point or definition, reducing inconsistencies and errors across different departments or systems.
A single source of truth serves as the definitive and authoritative reference for a particular set of data. It’s a concept widely applied in areas such as data management, software development, content management, and more. It promotes consistency, accuracy, and efficiency, but requires careful planning and execution to be implemented effectively.
Synchronous communication refers to a mode of communication where all parties are present and engaged at the same time. This real-time interaction allows for immediate feedback and collaboration, fostering a sense of connection and immediacy.
In essence, synchronous communication is a valuable tool for fostering real-time collaboration and connection, particularly for complex or urgent matters. However, it requires careful planning and consideration of the needs and preferences of all participants. Balancing synchronous communication with asynchronous methods can help create a more flexible and inclusive communication environment, accommodating various work styles, locations, and schedules.
The communication happens in real time. Zoom calls, phone calls, and real-time chat messages are all examples of synchronous collaboration. Synchronous collaboration is the preferred method if you need instantaneous feedback.
Asynchronous communication refers to a mode of communication that does not require all parties involved to be simultaneously present or engaged. Unlike synchronous communication, where everyone must be available at the same time (such as in a live meeting or phone call), asynchronous communication allows people to send and receive messages at their convenience.
Asynchronous communication is an essential aspect of modern work communication, especially as remote and flexible working arrangements become more prevalent. It fosters a more inclusive environment where everyone has the opportunity to contribute, regardless of their location or schedule. However, it requires clear guidelines and expectations to be effective, ensuring that everyone stays engaged and informed.
Communication doesn’t happen in real time. You send your messages when you’re ready; your colleagues respond when they’re ready. For example, you can send a text message, a voice message, or even a video clip of yourself to your colleague. You’re not in sync when you’re communicating with each other.
Collaboration software refers to the suite of tools that aid teams in communicating and working together on shared goals and projects, often in real time and across various locations. It can include features such as the following:
The landscape of collaboration software is ever-evolving to meet the changing needs of modern workplaces. Some current trends in the industry include the following:
Collaboration software is employed across various scenarios to enhance teamwork, increase efficiency, and streamline operations. Typical use cases for these tools involve the following:
The need for collaboration software has surged with shifts in work dynamics and technological advancements. Various factors contribute to this growing demand:
Collaboration software plays a pivotal role in modern business, enabling fluid communication and teamwork, irrespective of location or device. As the landscape of work continues to transform, collaboration tools are adapting and innovating to cater to the new norms, facilitating a more connected, agile, and efficient work environment. Whether for global corporations or small start-ups, collaboration software remains central to achieving success in today’s interconnected world.
We have covered fundamental concepts of enterprise collaboration that will guide you on your Confluence journey. Now, we will discuss the types of teams that can benefit from Confluence.
You may wonder whether Confluence is the right tool for your team or company. Let’s now discuss how Confluence is flexible and can be efficiently used by teams and companies with different backgrounds and needs:
Confluence is a flexible yet robust environment that can fulfill the most demanding requirements of different teams. It’s not just a content creation platform but a solid collaboration environment.
In the previous sections, we mentioned that Confluence could be helpful for different teams. Now, we will see more concretely how Confluence can be used. It is worth remembering that what you can do with Confluence is much more than what is explained here.
There are some features common to all of the following scenarios. Atlassian has placed qualified templates for many different needs within Confluence. You can get effective results in a short time using these templates. In addition to these templates, you can create your own. You can even adapt Confluence according to your needs by using its plugin software.
In the next subsection, we’ve put together some real-life scenarios that might inspire you. These examples can be beneficial in building your team’s collaborative muscles. In this way, it may become necessary for your teams to be in the same environment, but only in some exceptional cases.
Confluence offers templates and features that can address some common problems that teams often need, regardless of their types of functions. With Confluence, you can efficiently manage notes, decisions, meetings, to-dos, plans, calendars, and all kinds of content.
Confluence can help you with the following use cases:
All teams can get started quickly with Confluence. Templates are one of the essential concepts that can speed up your work. We will look at the templates in more detail later in the book. Now, we're giving you a summary of the templates here to show you how many well-designed, ready-made templates Confluence has for different teams. Meanwhile, a significant portion of the templates found on Confluence has been prepared by Atlassian. However, there are many other companies besides Atlassian that offer templates such as Optimizely, Miro, and Figma.
The numbers of templates available on Confluence as of January 2023 for different kinds of teams are as follows:
Table 1.4: Template categories in Confluence
As you can see from the preceding table, there are many templates for different teams on Confluence. You can get a good start on Confluence using these, and later, you can create your own templates.
Sales and marketing teams are often among the most energetic teams within a company. It’s expected that these fast-paced teams have mastery over collaborative work.
On Confluence, there are 19 ready-to-use templates that can accelerate the pace of these teams. Some examples include the following:
Human resources teams are at the forefront of the teams that have the most communication with the other teams around them. HR teams must quickly and effectively manage recruitment, adaptation, performance audit, leaving the job, and many other processes, create a large amount of content, and bring together and organize that content. In addition, they can make the rules and procedures that everyone in the company must follow visible to the whole company using Confluence.
There are 17 templates for human resources teams in Confluence, which include the following:
Confluence can be very useful for agile project management, especially with Jira. It provides project managers with useful, ready-made templates and reliable features for planning, communicating, working with stakeholders, setting goals, and so on.
There are 32 templates for project management, which include the following:
Product management teams are highly specialized in knowledge management. Doing research, collecting requirements, designing, analyzing, interviewing users, making data-based decisions, making roadmaps, holding meetings, and so on, are among product management activities. A large amount of content accumulates while doing these studies. They can use Confluence to keep this content tidy, and they can keep all content in one place that’s accessible to both their teams and relevant stakeholders.
There are 18 templates designed for product management teams within Confluence, including the following:
Software projects can quickly become highly sophisticated. All the content stakeholders with different needs can be brought together on Confluence. If you start such a project on Confluence, you can create a world-class environment quickly by using ready-made templates. These templates cover essential topics, especially collecting requirements, planning, enabling meetings, and managing decisions. Confluence works in harmony with many different tools used by software developers.
There are 19 templates available for software development and IT teams, including the following:
We’ve discussed how different teams could benefit from Confluence. You can use these use cases to build your company’s knowledge management system. Now, it’s time to think about your Confluence team that will build, maintain, and develop this system.
We need teams that will prepare, develop, and update our collaboration environment where we can collect and organize our knowledge.
Although we can provide most of this platform’s maintenance and development work with automation or Confluence’s features, it is people who will do the actual work.
You can benefit from the following tips when building a team that will help you throughout your Confluence journey:
We recommend that you identify your Confluence team’s roles and responsibilities to ensure everything is clear. That’s where RASCI comes into play.
RASCI (responsible, accountable, supporter, consultant, informed) is used to identify all the roles and responsibilities within a project. We recommend that you use this technique while adopting Confluence within your company, as it will help clarify the responsibilities of each project team member.
A detailed explanation of RASCI is provided as follows:
The following is an example of a RASCI table that you can use as a starting point when identifying the roles and responsibilities within your Confluence team:
Table 1.5: Sample RASCI table
You should maintain your Confluence team and keep it healthy. The following are some tips that can help you when maintaining your team:
Atlassian University offers numerous, high-quality courses related to Confluence. Some of these courses are free, while others are paid. By studying these courses, you can keep yourself up to date with Confluence. Additionally, you can earn badges and certificates from this platform. We recommend exploring Atlassian University and taking advantage of the valuable resources available there. You can access the Confluence courses on Atlassian University at the following link: https://university.atlassian.com/student/catalog/list?search=confluence.
In the first chapter of this book, you have gained general knowledge about Atlassian, the developer of Confluence. This has provided you with the opportunity to more closely understand Atlassian’s thought process, products, and philosophy. Understanding Atlassian and its ecosystem will open the doors to a sound understanding of Confluence. In this chapter, we discussed many important concepts related to teamwork, such as remote, distributed, and asynchronous work. We then began to get to know Confluence and explored the templates available.
We also discussed how teams and companies of different types could benefit from Confluence. Lastly, we introduced insights on building a team that will plan, develop, and maintain an effective collaboration environment using Confluence.
In the next chapter, we will plan a fully working Confluence site and set it up.
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