HCL Domino 14.5, Fix your iNotes Redirector for Verse

By now, if you have updated your Domino server and relied on iNotes, you have found that it no longer works.

HCL was clear about this, and there is no workaround, so if you want iNotes and not Verse, better keep a server on 14.0 and point everyone there.

For the rest of us that move forward with the times, we will have seen that logging into the iNotes URL gets you to a pop-up which looks like this:

It states that iNotes is no longer available, and you need to open HCL Verse. If you click on the link, it directs you straight to Verse.

The URL for verse is something like https://companyname.com/verse, and you change your bookmark, but that doesn't work exactly. When you hit that URL, you will get the framework of Verse but this message:

So, you try the manual way, https;//companyname.com/mail/brooks.nsf, and that lets you in, via the 1st pop-up as above..

The next morning, you open your browser, and the /verse URL is not working with the same error about recent contacts.

What is going on here?

iNotes required the iNotes redirector. Well, there is no new redirector, but it did get renamed to Verse redirector(same template name), but it does include some options you probably hadn't considered, and this is how you resolve the problem.

If you haven't changed any settings in a while, now is a great time to update them. The redirector has been updated periodically along the way.

These are the ones to change or review:

Server Settings Button:

Do you wish to force SSL for the entire session? Yes

UI Setup Button:

Your company logo should be there, so your users know it is a legitimate site.

Enable Personal Options: Set to No, they were really about iNotes anyway.

Enable HCL Verse: Yes, you need this now.

Enable SAML options: If you use SAML, enable this option, which displays a secondary option for the Default Mail Application. Select Verse.

When you have finished all your changes, click Save & Exit and then test to ensure everything works properly.

And no more weird error messages about recent contacts.

This tech doc can help those who want more details: https://help.hcl-software.com/verse_onprem/2.0.0/admin/vop_configuring_server.html

Update June 30: I found that I now see this error the next morning.

Googler search shows up this Technote: https://support.hcl-software.com/csm?id=kb_article&sysparm_article=KB0089441

Which leads to this: https://help.hcl-software.com/verse_onprem/3.1/admin/vop_configuring_server.html

Step 19 is what you want.

Which leads to this: https://help.hcl-software.com/domino/12.0.0/admin/secu_creating_the_credential_store_application_on_a_single_domino_server_t.html

In my case, I already had a credstore created, and this new key would not get added to that credstore.

I went back to the original technote, vop_configuring_server, and added a new entry in my domcfg for DWA, but that now redirects me to a different domain on my server, which has TOTP.

Also verified that the 'inotes/verse' tab in the configuration document met the proper configuration as per the document.

As it turns out, my secondary domain was set for SAML instead of single server in my Internet Site document, Domino Web Engine tab. Probably because I was testing something. Changing that back to single server now allows me to log in correctly with https://companyname.com/verse. With my erse redirectpr in place and everything now correct.

SMTP BlackListing, WhiteListing and Log and Reject/Tag

If you rely on your Domino server to handle all your mail, you probably have had numerous attacks on your server over time or even lately, as I did last week.

My personal Domino server is a mix of real code, websites, and active email, with various half-coded things and weird templates or customer testing.

However, I started getting harassed by sites looking for open SMTP accounts recently and figured something was amiss in my configuration document.

The official blacklist servers worked fine, but some of these rogues were missing.

Looking at my log file, I found a few domains/IP addresses and put them into the deny access group known as the Private Blacklist Filter found in the Servers Configuration document, as shown below.

But that wasn't enough to stop them. They kept coming. 

I wondered if 12.02.FP2 had some problems, so I opened a ticket with HCL.

Turns out the problem was on my end, but I still have some questions, but first, what was the problem?

I had a default configuration document, which was fine, but I  also had a separate one for my server explicitly named a relic from a test issue.

The explicit one took over the default one, and so while I thought I was maintaining one list, I was wasting my time.

I deleted the explicit one and just focused on the default document, it is my server after all.

And all was good, sort of.

I wanted to understand why I was still getting a few spam emails.

I had set the server to Log and tag instead of Log and reject. 

Here is where the problems got worse.

I decided to block all spam and set all fields to Log and reject messages. You probably can guess what happened next.

My inbox was very clean. Very few emails came through.

I thought I would whitelist what I needed, like bank mail, and HCL support mail (not so simple, someone at HCL should look into their SMTP issues that have them on a blacklist).

Still not getting lots of mail.

Next, I looked at what else was set in the doc and saw the verify domain lookup option was set, and rightly so as this does a great job.

However, I have learned that many organizations don't have good, clean SMTP/DKIM/SPF entries, and thus, they are getting blocked.

Sadly, I had to revert back to Log and tag to interact with customers and business partners.

Customers of mine with issues were notified, as was HCL, but if you have been playing with SMTP, something else always pops up. It needs babysitting.

While my mail is more stable now, I know I lost a few entities that got the denied server message and probably will not resend anything in the future. Which is a problem as some are bills and other items of usefulness.

If you are a new Domino administrator be careful with how you edit your Configuration document.

Email, and Email Services, are not a Commodity

Do you think Email is a commodity, but SMTP service is not? If you think it is, have you planned for what happens when your primary mail service, including SMTP goes down?

I doubt it, because most people do not even realize how email is broken down into parts that only a small bit are the responsibility of your own IT team.

When you have in house email, everything, except the ISP providing your bandwidth, is your own world. You break it, you fix it. You do, or do not, plan for business interruptions. Maybe you have a secondary ISP, even if it is some lousy DSL line, you have something, anything. You do, right?

What about when you get to cloud apps and you have a LDAP in one service or server, your app on one server, your mail transport on another, mobile site on another, your company website on yet another one.

When any of those parts fail, most of the rest fails and you have zero capability to resolve it. Zero. You are at the mercy of whatever Cloud provider, Host facility, kid with an iPhone controlling your VMs and whenever they get around to fixing your problem they will.

Utility? Commodity? Sure, but so are cars, yet many people will not drive a (fill in the blank for your country) because of the lousy service record or safety. Why is your Cloud provider any different.

You may ask about clustering, fail over, etc.. but that does mean you will get an answer that makes sense to you or to them sometimes.

Email is still the #1 business tool because so many rely on it. Do they have to rely on it? Not at all, but they have not made the leap yet to extended applications that notify via other methods. Maybe they did take the leap, but our customers have not yet. The customers expect to be able to interact with us through an old medium which is so easy even the term used, SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, makes it sound easy. Can you plan for every contingency? No, sometimes stuff really happens you can not work around easily. But if you believe all your IT services are just commodities, then you will get what you pay for and should not expect better.

Running a mail server, and related services is not so simple and takes people that truly understand what they are looking at when they get RFC codes in reply and other "errors" as users report them.

I know, I have been doing it for 20 years, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Novell and so many long gone that it is hard to really believe anyone when they say they have a new email app. Email is an app, a huge one, and though you may argue it should just do email, we both know it does so much more and can do so much more. The problem is when the other services, which most people take for granted, stop working and your commodity or utility is unable to do anything.

Makes for a really different work day. or maybe you should spend the time thinking about how to get off the email drug and move to a better way to work.

Explaining the Mixed Mindset of a Social Organization

If you were not at my session at the Social Connections conference in Boston 2 weeks ago, you can still see and download my slides, but I don't think you will quite get the gist of the message I expressed.

A catch-22 of great magnitude that while your outside persona is free to post,  your "business" head is confused or full of fear.

Let me explain.

Email vs. Status Updates, or Single vs. Blended, is a metaphor for the way your organization works.

Collaboration or as the marketers call it, social business/media comes in many forms. Companies, or rather, executives, are trying to understand how to integrate this into their sales or internal efforts of transforming their companies into something new. Is email the old world or just a part of the new one? Are status updates the new way or just email by a new name?

One one hand you have a handful of people that "get it" and are always sharing, open and looking to help others be it via email or some other methods.

On the other side you have the opposite. The same employees want to help people, and they are Facebook active, but when it comes to work, they are not so forthcoming.

Why? What is the problem? If they share outside the office, why not in the office? Do they send one line emails or explanations regularly? are their status updates more like blog posts or just time stamps for their billing hours?

Setting aside the need to set goals for people (every employee should post once a day or twice a week,...) in order to prove to the executive that you are now a corporate social media titan, let's discuss the people factor.

People naturally share information with friends and family, some more than others, but inside all of us is a need to share, to bring people closer to us, or to help others understand us, and our unique worlds.

Facebook, Twitter, support forums, photography sites and numerous other examples are just some of the ways one can share their experiences. And it is great, usually for fun, but also for sad times as well and you do it from your home or while at a party or dinner.

Then you leave your home and go to work, your commute probably is not short or fun, and you arrive at the office and in some cases are told, by your immediate management, NOT to post anything about your work or the teams, even though the company itself is a strong proponent of social and collaboration.

Maybe this is a bit harsh of me.

Let us say instead, you believe that by posting a bunch of information on your company intranet or ESN (Enterprise Social Network) your manager will think you are not doing your work or billing enough hours. True, you are probably posting great content, or details that are needed, but that is not how some managers see it.

The corollary is the same, if you do not post anything, people think you are not working at all or maybe even left the company. And if we take the target/goals idea  you have not met your quota of posts!

There is also a numbers problem here. The data shows that about 15% of the people are posting over 85% of the content. Take a different view of numbers, direct marketing works on a 1-3% hit rate.

Before your company starts turning everyone into social drones, realize that it will never be an all or nothing effort. Are you prepared for this "failure"? Have you decided to congratulate those that would be social anyway, over the ones that are breaking out of their shells? How will you know the difference? Will there be different expectations? In the age of personalized everything, can you be so granular inside your company? If not, why not? If you need help, contact me to discuss it.

Many people will not post, tweet, update, podcast, video message or whatever you ask of them for many reasons and that is okay. Really, it is. It does not mean they will never do it, just they have not been exposed to the right thought process to help them along. Time of course is a big issue and we have so little of it but everyone can forgo something for 2 minutes to post a simple update or comment or to vote or like something posted.

Baby steps.

However, what if you are the only one who has certain information and you are part of a team or organization that should you not be able to work or be missing while traveling, could your team survive without you? Of course, some may say, if you have provided all this information, they could survive without you and fire you all because you were collaborating.

Yes, the corporate world does work this way sometimes, but also has greater need and respect for those that provide the data. Usually. But not every time.

Just like the first time you tell someone you love them. Maybe they love you back, maybe they don't, maybe you are 5 when you say it, maybe 18, maybe 25. The outcome and expectations are different at each age and level. So it is in the corporate world.

In the US where capitalism has reigned for all of our lives, it is very hard to suddenly change that mindset of me, mine and 1+1=1, to yours, ours and get to 1+1=3. A friend of mine suggested collaboration is the ultimate capitalism. I am not so sure, but I am willing to bet that a shared culture will be evolving over the next 10-15 years more so than we have seen in the years since 9/11. Post 9/11 we have seen some drastic changes that enable us to be more global, more open, more reliant on others for information and sharing more information while also becoming more insular at the same time.

This schizophrenia of the Enterprise will continue until the current levels of management evolve or get pushed out. The newer companies maybe better at sharing, while smaller, but the jury is still out if they stay the same or revert to Enterprise ways as they get older and larger.

I believe organizations can be more open and collaborative but we need to hep them realize there will be a mixed bag of engagement from within for a few years to come.

Email vs. Status Updates, my slides from today

My slides from today's Social Connections VIII conference in Boston.

Single Malt vs. Blended, The Email vs. Status Updates Game


 

Email vs. Status Updates as presented at Social Connectiosn VIII Event from Keith Brooks

Captain Kirk, to the Bridge! No! Wait, Go to Engineering!

Apologies to +William Shatner (@williamshatner) for the title but let's talk about V'ger (@_vger), I mean The Cloud.

Cloud discussions may not come from IT, in fact, it seems IT is the last to know about the idea sometimes. While asking some fellow consultants and Business Partners, we are seeing an interesting situation arise and hope this example helps you to not find yourself in the same predicament.

Business leaders are making choices, then telling IT. The opposite of the way things have been done in the past. Not a bad thing entirely.

Is this a step forward for business and one back for IT? Have we finally reached the tipping point where the next generation of business leaders are technically proficient enough to make their own decisions? (If your decision makers at your company are not including you, that is another blog post.)

Let's presume you get included in a decision making meeting about moving email, IM, collaboration or whatever to a Cloud. But you are not invited to provide options and ideas, rather to be told,  "we are moving to this vendors Cloud".

Huh? What? You are knocked across the head like a hangover the morning after drinking some Saurian Brandy. Questions come to your mind, ideas fly from your tongue. All you can say is "Is this a done deal"?

Sound familiar? Is this how your company is going to The Cloud for mail and collaboration? Around you entirely?

When did the business leader get all technical? Or is this a case of someone handing you a carburetor and saying you need one of these because they heard cars have them? When did the leader become Captain Kirk? Let me explain.

Kirk, as many will know, could often be found doing engineering work on the ship, or patching a rocket launcher out of sticks and stones. I did not attend Starfleet Academy, but from my reading, it seems that a Captain does stints in all types of areas of the ship. They also get  class room training time, not just the Kobayashi Maru simulation, and first hand knowledge about other areas as time moves along once the cadet was shown to be captain material. Once you are a captain, evidently you know every Jefferies Tube in your ship and every panel/wiring circuitry in case you need to do some amazing things and save your ship, usually, all withing 50+ minutes. 

Surprisingly, the business leader is not a captain, although they may have the ability, does not have the depth of knowledge of all of your infrastructure to know what is or is not running. Making a decision to go to The Cloud should not exclude your trusted and knowledgeable IT staff or partners/vendors. Each situation is different but moving your email, may or may not break numerous applications.

How can moving your email break applications? Many ways! Here is just one example. 

If other applications rely on a specific directory of your employees for security, how will you access it once it is in the Cloud? If you can access it, what will happen to the application, if the Cloud is down? Or your ISP is down (Spock says this is statistically more probable) how will people work? Is there a size/usage limit for the number of requests sent back and forth before you get charged some exorbitant fees? It is not always about the money, sometimes a little planning goes a long way.

All we ask of you business leaders is you keep us in the loop and work with you.

Let us help you reach your goals without causing problems to your services.

May your company live long, and prosper.

I am speaking at Social Connections VII in Stockholm

After a few years of trying to get to the event, I have finally made plans to not only attend, but speak at the IBM Social Business and Connections User Group meeting, referred to as Social Connections VII (#soccnx) which is in Stockholm, Sweden November 13-14th.

Event and registration details here.

The event has had about 200-300 customers attend previous meetings.Vendors and sponsors are of course welcome and want to help you with your business.

The topic of my session is “Didn't you see my Status Update!? Accountability and the Modern Employee".

Trying to avoid this after you have entered your details in whatever software:

The pros and cons of email, ESN (Enterprise Social Networks), Instant Messaging, SMS among other items will be discussed. How to best leverage what you have and provide some purpose to how you get it done. Management's efforts to increase productivity do not always come out the other end as planned. Helping management and helping yourself is the key.

Expect an interactive discussion. You are encouraged to post your questions so we can cover all types of aspects.

Accountability and the ESN

In this Golden Age of social networks that pretend to be burying email servers like Rod Stewart goes through wives, we have a black hole that is not discussed.

Email is not perfect, but better than most countries normal postal services.
IM is great for awareness of who is online, but just because I show up online does not mean I really am at the machine, phone or browser.
Twitter is awesome....when you are connected to the internet.
SMS is far from perfect, as anyone who travels can tell you when they get messages days later, if ever.
RSS feeds do, um, something for some people. But really, do you ever catch up on those feeds?
Faxes are, wait, you don't still use those do you?
Phone calls work well, but not when you are on 12-14 hours of different time zones.

Why do I bring these up? Because if you work any place on Earth, your life is ruled by email.You may say it isn't and for a handful of people, this may be true.

For the rest of us, email is the "certified and return receipt" way of knowing something happens.

Now comes along the Enterprise Social Network (ESN) and the status updates. A new inbox, so to speak. Some call it a waterfall, others call it the river, but what it all leads to is a big flooded lake of information.

Inside that lake lies missives of information that you may need to get your work done. But your job now is to go find it. Just when you thought you may have figured out the Inbox Zero thing, along comes another place to check and take you away from important work.

The early adopters will gesticulate so their Google Glass picks up their excitement about getting used to checking in multiple places. For IT people, we are used to getting information from all types of places like our Wii or Xbox not just our phone, laptops, ipads and watches.

Our normal employees, and executives, may not appreciate needing to check multiple places all day long. They can choose to check in every few hours maybe, but then what if they missed something? Those sneaky IT people are always making changes in the background and not telling people what they changed.

Yes, you will say that all the status updates COULD be setup to go direct to people's email. And maybe this is one way out of this mess, but maybe a better way would have been to just integrate email into the ESN properly so there were status updates that were really email? Why have another method or name for what really is just more email? I understand, the ESN sends updates to people that follow you, so the onus is on me to care about you. But what if I don't know you exist yet?

Or better yet, why is there no send update to SMS, Twitter or for the non_IT crowd, Facebook? Why is the default to use their email system or nothing else? Of course, why would a company want their information to get published publicly? For that matter, why would a company want to make their employees lives easier? Isn't that the whole point of the ESN? Helping everyone to know what is going on...in the ESN and hopefully in the company at large? The company values its privacy and security. This reminds me of when companies used to maintain multiple email systems because they could not agree which one to standardize on and for some crazy reason they think maintaining duplicates of everything would be a better solution.

Now we have the ESN where ideally we may be led down a path to drop our email systems.

Except for one little thing. ESNs have no way to talk to each other. They do not have SMTP servers nor gateways to other networks, even their own internal company ESNs in some cases can not talk to each other and they are from the same vendor!

IFTTT.com (If This Then That) should be expanding their reach to help fill some of these holes, but I doubt it will work for enterprises.

If you create a Status Update and no one sees it, now what? What if my stream is so filled with items, and you did not tag me in it, that I just miss the very item I need for my project or deadline? Who's fault is it? How do we work around this problem? Email crush should be the game everyone plays, not candy crush.Your inbox will now be at zero, but your ESN notifications page is massive.

How do you solve this dilemma? Will it be solved? When? How? By Whom? Do we even see the end in sight yet?

Everything is Just in Time (JIT), well almost everything

Have you ever been working at home, or the office, when you get a phone call from a sales person who is just dying to send you their latest white paper?

Ever hang up directly, if you even took the call? I normally talk to the people and try to understand the logic of what they are doing. Obviously this is their job, however, if they could open the mind of the company they work for, they might get further in their efforts.

Usually I point out to them that calling me, when I certainly did not ask them to do so, is not likely to be helpful to their cause. That aside, I then ask, if you were going to email it to me anyway, why not just email it to start and not waste your time calling? Either way, my spam solution will probably block it because it should know by now, I do not like emails with the words found that include "free white paper".

Decades ago when I was in college and hating my economics classes, JIT was discussed and technology has truly brought us to a world where everything is JIT. Outside of customization for something, or having a baby, everything else could be done JIT. Education could be, but that is a whole other post. We all want that Matrix like power to just know how to do something we never did before.

A friend of mine had questioned about the benefits of a newsletter or even blogging in general over some other formats. My feeling is the former is like blogging and I do believe in blogging. Do I expect you to read this blog post or any other when it is posted? Some of you will, but next week or month or year more people will find it. Maybe for a report, maybe for a presentation, or just because I tagged it with something that brought you here. You will find it when you need it. My technical posts are written for long term searching so everyone can benefit from the things I found earlier on in my career. One of my most hit posts is about the iNotes Redirector and is from 2009 which gets viewed daily. That is Just in Time help.

I am not a white paper person. Like many others, I trust my friends recommendations, not some paid for document produced by a company selling something. If I need your white paper for a client, I would hope they already found it but if not I will certainly use Google to find it.

One thing you can not do JIT is create an audience. Got a new app? How will you push out to the world? Have something to say to the world, how will they hear you? Building your audience takes time and then once you reach a critical mass stage, it then becomes a JIT plan. Apple now has millions of devices sold JIT on day one for whatever device is newly available. We all want to be like that, but think about this, it took Apple just under 25 years to get to this level. How long do you have?


JIT tools or data can only be found once someone else has put in the time and effort to create it or create something to provide what you seek. We all need a little JIT but how often do we create information for the next person in line? Collaboration, social business or just plain communication only comes from someone else who went first to clear a path for the rest of us.

My posts are for the JIT person, searchable and helpful when you need it.

Friday Findings #1 - Messaging in the Enterprise

I love Visio. I do and have since it came out in 1993.

Sure some competitors are out there but with over 15 years of Visio charts I am embedded to them, probably forever.

Similarly many customers feel the same way about their email servers, although rarely the same when it comes to application servers.

Why is that?

Could it be because applications change as business changes?

Maybe email, like a telephone, can be a commodity while applications, usually, are not.

Perhaps the uniqueness of something new or different provides some answers.

Email, for better or worse, hasn't changed in the 20 years I have been working with it. Sure it has come along way from dumb terminals and green monitors (or has it if you see the latest touch screens and browsers?) and this is usually why one sticks with the original one you installed.

Now compare that to your telephone/cell phone provider and how people change vendors every few years. The ease of change is relatively easy as long as your phone number is portable all is good.

Not so easy with email.

Your email address and naming stays the same of course, but changing 10/100/1,000 or 10,000 people is NOT an easy undertaking. So many pieces of the puzzle can be involved from calendar appointments, mobile device reconfigurations, personal contacts, archiving and many other issues can arise.

Almost as bad as changing bank accounts. Just a big pain in the ...

Is it any wonder when an organization doesn't leave their software, it's just so much better to stay where you are. Pay the renewal and maintenance fees and keep that email flowing, even if 85% of it is SPAM.

Now imagine if you could expand that email inbox so it could not only handle your email but your instant messaging discussions, online meeting events, applicational workflow, authorization notices, travel plans, detail awareness within your emails to provide background information on a client or location or their Linkedin details?

Changing email servers should never be about getting email for giving up email. Doing this, is a blatant disregard of your company standards, policies, financial guidelines and line of business decisions.

I can trade in my car for another car, but if that new car doesn't lower my payments or get better gas mileage or sit a family of 5 comfortably or doesn't have a convertible top or some other way to make a difference(unless my car was totaled) then why have I bothered?

So if you are looking, or your customers are, at a new email server you should point out to them the truth which is email is just a transport mechanism. What do they/you want to transport through the system is more important and how that information is accessed and stored is even more important.

Where did you go wrong?

Ever wonder why companies move to Exchange or Gmail for email? I often ponder this as well. I also deal with it weekly, sometimes too late in the game to save the poor souls.

I can understand the feeling that "it's just email", which we all know is not the way to keep a company on Domino. If they really only use it for email, they will leave Lotus eventually. Shame on me, you, IBM and others for not encouraging more workflow and application solutions in their earlier days of the network.

Maybe it stems from politics. A new CIO,or more likely a new CEO. They want "Outlook". Notice they never say "Exchange". DAMO (Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook) allows for your users to have Outlook and run a superior server on the back end....Domino. The CXO will never know. Yet rarely does this get done.

The admin left, got fired, the server is in the middle of nowhere and thus it is difficult to find a Domino admin. A lame excuse if I ever heard one, yet also commonly put out as a reason for dropping Domino. If you are reading this and this is your predicament, call me NOW! Because of a similar situation we have hired 3 people around the country to cover these types of situations.

Server crashes all the time. I don't think so. Not if you have set it up properly, maintained it properly and of course cluster it which would mean you have 100% uptime.

The Client crashes all the time. Not on every one's machine. Just like Windows, Java or any other program if you have a problem, fix it. When your car gets a flat tire, do you trade it in for a new car? Again, if this sounds like you, call me NOW!

The UI is ancient. Really? So a tabbed interface is ancient? which is why Microsoft and Apple and Firefox use it? Show me another mail client you can manipulate what you see and move things around, not to mention dock or undock pieces and parts to anyplace on your desktop. Sorry that is the R8/8.5 UI. You probably have an R5 or R6 or R7 client which your IT staff has failed to upgrade in years and thus you are stuck in an old client.

And Outlook 2003, going on 6 years old now, is really new, isn't it.

Yes, if this is the case call NOW and we will help you, against your IT staff's wishes move to R8. Hang on, you can do it for yourself, go download it from IBM's Lotus site.

"Sharepoint is our strategic direction". Excuse me while I fall on the floor laughing. I had someone recently give me that line and I asked if they could elaborate on what that meant or quantify it in a value and ROI way. Received a nasty look and they walked away. Next time I should not ask about the ROI I guess.

What should you be doing more regularly with your customers, especially the ones only using Domino for email?

Talk to your clients, but listen once you have them in a discussion and let them lead you more to a solution they envision which will be much easier to "sell" to them afterward.

Show them. Try pointing them to an app on your website, encourage dialogue to find how an application can fit into their world. Xpages apps, even simple ones will go far.

Communicate with them. Send them links to openntf.org and ask them what they want to try to use.

Show them again, planetlotus.org and your favorite developers blog posts.

If you really get stuck, skip over your contact and go for the CXO directly so they can't say no one ever tried to talk to them or show them what is out there for them. After all you have nothing to lose at this point.

Nothing but the net or is it the RIM of the net

Let's suppose RIM bid on the unused wireless spectrum. What would it gain?
TV capacity to your phone in an efficient way? Perhaps.
A stronger presence for remote areas and consumer usage, possibly.
A private network to kill off At&T, verizon, et al? Definitely.

Does the Cloud need RIM? Not really.
Do you need a Blackberry? Why?

What does it do that you can not do from almost any other device?
Not talking about iPhone right now.

What does BES do that the Good server can not?

What do you really need from your phone?
Voice dictation for sending emails would be nice.
A 3d holographic view of web pages or text would be helpful as the tiny screens we read are slowly going to kill our eyes.
Intelligent controls on the device. If I am pulling mail from a site without a spam control at the server side like my ISP, thanks Comcast, why can't I run one on my phone? Maybe this exists, haven't checked, sorry.

What about elderly people that need bigger keys or larger screens/fonts?

Also why can't my blackberry, or any other phone handle multiple streams of BES/Traveler or Good? That would be helpful in this day and age when the average person has a 1/2 dozen accounts, even if they only read 2-3.

I have the following (leaving out all my business clients that I have email with and forward to my main corporate email):
Comcast NEVER checked
Yahoo in use
Gmail rarely used
MSN very rarely
Netscape forgot password
corporate daily
personal daily
kids they are just learning to type
wife's
This blog's email
previous personal domain
previous business domain

But can I get more than one of these on my phone via BES, Traveler or Good's usage of PUSH email? NO. Even if I had a BES or whatever server to handle them all, the answer is still no.

So we are almost there...but not quite. And as more devices are internet connected does it look better to have a phone or a web device with a built in speaker and mike for VOIP?

Some questions I have been thinking about as I am in search of a new phone and look for a realistic answer to my dilemma.

Anyone from RIM, Google, Nokia, At&T or anywhere have some inputs I 'd like to hear them. otherwise if you know a VC I have a pitch to make.

Microsoft Lies, Lotus Laughs, Support Rules

Ed Brill quotes from an email he received:
"I was just in a Microsoft presentation where our company's decision makers were told that the Microsoft share in email has grown from 52% to 86% here in the [sub-region of the USA], and that while companies are constantly converting "from Notes to Exchange" there has never been a conversion in the other direction."

Now I am not privy to the sales of either company let alone sales to a region or state.
But it's an interesting usage of statistics.

I am however interested in which region it is. Surely MS would like everyone to think they own the messaging world, and maybe they do, but why do so many companies admit to not liking Exchange but not liking Domino either?

Is there a better soluton out there? Yes and no.

Simple answer is yes there are always other possibilities. And depending on your size business some may make sense for you.

But the reality is NO for most companies. Why? Because of one word, Support.
Love 'em or hate 'em, Microsoft and IBM have robust and excellent support for their products, until they end of life them, and then us business partners come into play.

But let's talk about the other support. Personnel resources support.
Doing a simple search on Dice.com for Lotus Notes Administrator gets 26, Domino gets 15, Exchange gets 73, Outlook gets 2. Total for their database just now.
So a total of 41 vs 75. Or in statistics terms(stats lie?!) 35% for Lotus and 65% for Exchange.

Some discussions have centered around the lack of jr admin available for Domino. And others argue in a similar light that the senior people move on and leave an organization without a proper evangelist or just move on for greener pastures.
Some argue long time professionals ask for too much money for work that could be done cheaper, IF you can get someone.

So what is happenning is eerily similar to the Mainframes. Now you can't find younger staff to code to it, so IBM made it accessible to Linux and other OS's. Brilliant by IBM, really it was. Saved a whole business line and gave younger coders an opportunity to possibly do more.

What can Lotus do for software? R8 is the answer, today. Based on the Eclipse platform and clients which can/will run on Mac and Linux, browsers and phones makes a push to the younger generation. BUT the younger generation still does not care about Lotus. Or do they? I look to Lotusphere 2008 for some insight.

Where's the love? What's in it for them? Do they like learning new languages every 2-3 years or prefer a stable platform? I would guess they prefer a stable platform as they get older but only time will tell.

They do want a fully customizable experiencee, note to car manufacturers, get with the program if they want black seats and black paint with a yellow lightning painted on the hood, you better be offerring it to them, price is what it is, they don't seem to care.

So, for instance, why is it so difficult to change the grey workspace background?
Why do I only have a choice of which pieces to look at it from my start page instead of SIMPLY setting them up?
No one wants to code their email client, well most of us don't.

So help the jr admins grow, find them and train them and ge them interested.

But the bottom line is if you are in a company that has Notes and you hear the MS guys are coming, call IBM or your Business Partner now. Why roll over for them? It will only hurt productivity, waste money AND put you out of a job(possibly).