NCUG Session on Admin Hacks for Users and Your Sanity

Admin Hacks for Users and Admins Sanity from Keith Brooks

Aimed at New and Old admins. Focus on the Rooms and Resources database changes we have made over the years and ideas for the future of the template.

The Download of the RnR Template is here.

UPDATE: Paul Withers (Lifetime IBM Champion) let me know there is an Xpages RnR template on Openntf.org,
https://www.openntf.org/main.nsf/project.xsp?r=project/ResX%20-%20Resource%20Reservations%20Extended
It mostly added functionality for multiple events and other items including a longer than 24 hour meeting, for those asking about it.

My Flame Broiled Admins .png or the file itself is here.

ISBG now NCUG My Session "Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me Notes Could Do That"

ISBG / NCUG Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me Notes Could Do That from Keith Brooks

This session was about how to make your case to get changes pushed through to end users.

How to talk to management and other teams to give users a better experience and in turn provide happier customers and fewer support tickets.

Collaborate on a Boat! Come to Engage in Rotterdam With Me

The best way to start your summer vacation is to attend Theo's #1 European Lotus/ICS event. (Click on the picture to go to the website)

As the sign says, I will be speaking at Engage and I hope to see you there.

About my session:

ADM09 - "Pointing Fingers? DDM to the RescueWednesday, May 23 | 09:00 - 10:00 | B. Guadaloupe
Cloud Hybrid? Mixed domains? Gmail, Microsoft and Notes coexisting? Domino DDM (Domino Domain Monitoring) to the rescue. Ok, maybe not rescue, but at least you will know who is down and what service is downBEFORE your users. Old School gets a new lease on life, or for those who never use it, this is your chance to learn about it.

Look forward to seeing you there as well as numerous IBM Champions like myself that are presenting and attending.

Domino 10, The Early Game is Afoot

Notes is dead they say.

Domino is passe.

Who uses this thing?

Why do you (meaning me) bother?

Yes it is a tough life one leads when they go against the grain.When you believe in something so strongly you pursue it until a better pivot comes along. So far nothing I have used outside of Salesforce makes me want to pivot away from ICS, but I always have a soft spot for CRM apps, see my history with SugarCRM.

IBM did a webinar yesterday and due to the holiday here I could not be on it live but I just finished the recorded version (only some slight redactions of a few screen shots) and want to report about it. You can watch/listen to it here.

Bob Schultz the recently crowned GM for IBM Watson Talent and Collaboration Solutions opened the call.

Bob then handed it over to Richard Jefts who is the GM/VP Collaborative Workflow Platforms for HCL and Andrew Manby Director of Offering Management for ICS. 

Jason Gary of the ICS internal Pink team, now with HCL, also snuck on the call and did a quick Node.js discussion and demo. Leaving Connections to work on Notes and Domino is a loss for the Connections team but a big win for the Domino one.

So what did they actually tell us?

I am skipping the dev items because I am not a developer and would not explain them well at all. Aside from the Node.js inclusion that will be built in, not bolted on, please go read some other blogs from my developer friends like Paul Withers and Hogne Pettersen and the Red Pill team.

The list is in no particular order includes the following and feel free to provide more details or comment:

• 256GB NSF sizes - Currently we have a 64GB limit so this is nice but why in a world of unlimited cloud storage and massive mail files is there even a limit of under 1TB? Performance and function. The larger it is the harder it is to maintain it properly and the resources to manage it efficeintly. My guess is IBM has some data to work from and notices database sizes are growing and this is an acceptable compromise.
• Leveraging Microsoft Word as an editor - Not sure I like this idea given every single version of Word not only handles regular text and rich text differently it also messes up HTML and XML and O365 is not exactly efficient especially when run from the Cloud. But I understand IBM's reasoning and understand the option should be available.
• Team Calendar Enhancements - They were kind of vague about what was new and it was a fast screenshot/demo. Presumably making it easier as the speakers said the loudest voice was to make functions easier to use.
• 3rd party invitations to a meeting - That you don't own which would be great instead of just forwarding an email or entry but adding someone to a meeting you don't own.
• Group forward mails - This we already had so I was not sure what was so new. Sometimes our own people don't even know the 1,001 things we can do with Notes and Domino. Anyone feel free to provide me some edit for this one.
• Scheduled email - All I can say is FINALLY! This has been one of the top things I always get from Outlook users that they need. Personally I could use it maybe once in a while so never a big need but i understand why people want it.
• iPad app is coming. - I know because I was on the beta until my iPad was no longer included in updates from Apple and thus I can not leverage it anymore. But I have grown apart from my iPad and so while this may be needed, it may have jumped the shark already.
• Version 11 and others in pipeline  - which means items they could not do for 10 or items which were questionable get pushed forward to what I hope internally the beta will be called Spinal Tap "it goes to 11" edition.
• NSF-2 - NSF is getting updates and the future of NoSQL looks to be in good hands.
• OAuth support via REST API - which will allow Domino to interact with so many apps and websites that will be exciting to see how this works out.
• Domino apps on the Cloud - is a needed service and sounded like it will be coming out.
• SAML support is being extended - Not much details provided yet, come to Think is the mantra for more information and SEE it in action.
• Elastic search - or just better, broader search is coming.
• Active Directory integration - continues because why should you run two different directories.
• Client AutoUpdate - Yes, been asking for this for years. Of course big customers with tweaked environments will turn this off, but for the rest of us out there just Thank the team. This presumes they do not just mean an update to SmartUpgrade and a real polling and downloading from a "store".
• Automated Database Repair - More proactive database monitoring and automated fixups or whatever goes a long way to letting Admins stop putting out fires and be more proactive in expanding their users worlds of collaboration.
• Docker - I am on the fence if this is really a genius idea or just another VM type option. But for companies who want it, it is coming. You can already make use of Domino and Docker in 9.0.1FP10.
• Destination Domino - SME and IBM Champions and IBMers will be more proactively writing useful and detailed information in what sounded like a newsletter or another DeveloperWorks community  for admins, developers, security people and business owners. As they said on the call communication is key and they have planned many routes to inform everyone about what is going on. 
• 3rd party mail integration - "At THINK" more will be known, shown, etc.. Being a mail person I am very interested in what they have in mind.
• Verse and Desktop client parallel development work - going on because large groups exist for both currently.

ETA for Domino 10? 2018 which is a vague way of saying 2nd half of the year.

6th Time IBM Champion Thoughts

I think last time I pretty much laid out everything I wanted to say on being a Champion and what one can do to become one. Turns out it was a very popular post.

Thank you to my customers from other partners and projects, my clients, my friends (inside and outside IBM) and family for nominating me or voting for me. Especially like to thank everyone in the various forums, chat groups, bloggers that help me succeed in my day to day world as much as I hope I have helped them in theirs with my support and posts and archival code :-).

More details on the 2018 champions from Libby here. 

The IBM Champions program recognizes innovative thought leaders in the technical community and rewards these contributors by amplifying their voice and increasing their sphere of influence.

An IBM Champion is an IT professional, business leader, developer, and educator who influences and mentors others to help them innovate and transform digitally with IBM software, solutions, and services.

1400 nominations

650 Champions Elected

62% renewing

38% new Champions

38 countries represented

6 business areas, including Analytics (34%), Cloud (25%), Collaboration and Talent Solutions (24%), Power Systems (9%), Storage (1%), IBM Z (7%)

If you are going to IBM Think find me and my fellow Champions on User Community Day / IBM Champion Sunday.

If you go to any IBM events this year and see someone in IBM Champion logos or jackets or backpacks or whatever it might be, stop and say hi and meet some awesome people from the sales, technical, marketing and business world. 

Me? At a Hackathon? Lead a team? What?

I submitted a topic for Alan Hamilton's IBM Connect Hackathon which takes place the day before the event. It was accepted, my team "Domino Tweets" is good to go!

Our Motto : Stay at the pub longer, we'll tweet you if we need you, love your Domino Server!

Why? Because I have wanted one thing for a while, a DDM (Domino Domain Monitor) notification via Twitter.

As an admin DDM is my top inside the box tool. Notifications are usually in the database itself or in my case sent via emails. Emails can not be received when there is an SMTP issue or spam appliance failure. How do you get notified then? 

My answer is Twitter.

But it could just as well be Slack, IBM Watson Workspace, IBM Sametime, What's App, Google Hangouts or Skype, maybe Facetime (Ok, maybe not Facetime, unless I can use The T2 Arnold as the sender) to name a few variations.

Maybe we will do some of these, maybe only one, but whatever it is, this will be a giant step in moving DDM notifications forward with how admins work today.

The link to sign up and be a part of it is here. See you at the IBM Building Monday the 20th!

Mission Tools: Lotus Quickr to IBM Connections Cloud

Welcome to the 3rd installment of my migration project.

I am happy to say that we moved everything over, now we are verifying everything came over and cleaning up all the orphaned and misc. files that were found and cross linked at one time.

So, how did we get it all moved I bet you are asking.

There is an automated way, via IBM and their partner in Europe T-systems, which is part of T-Mobile it seems, they can help and their pricing is really for the bigger companies. They have a process and methodology and will then get working on it....but you still have limits of bandwidth and time although they claimed they could get this done in a week.

Our problem was, we could not have any down time, but also not have any duplication of data which they made it sound like they offload the data first then do a second synch afterwards.

If you want to go with them, contact me and I will connect you.

After weighing the pros and cons we decided to do it in house.

These are the tools I used, you may have other preferences.

IBM: IBM Connections Cloud Plugins for Windows and the plugins for Notes clients. You will also need the Quickr Places Monitor.

RPR Wyatt: Quickr Essential File Extractor and Essential Place Catalog. There are some fees with these and you need to ask for it as it no longer sits on the website. I previously worked with RPR Wyatt and was loaned the tools. I owe you drinks Jim! 

Microsoft: Windows Explorer

Lialis: MAC people this is for you, File Jockey, to have a plugin that doesn't cost you anything. As they state on the site:

"We also supply File Jockey for all IBM Connections Cloud users. It's 100% free, no limitations and no signup. Feel free to use it now by pressing the button above to read the how to guide."

And there you go. Nice and simple right? Off you go.

Not so fast. You will find a few things along the way that you also need this cute tool I found called  Bulk Rename Utility. It does exactly what it says and makes changing, say 800 folders that had an added _Folders added to them, magically disappear in seconds. No command line knowledge required. Ask me if you need help.

Why do we need this tool? Because the RPR Wyatt tool extracts all the attachments and maintains the folders layout but adds _Folder to everything, My main gripe, but a small one. The developer did not return my messages, hey it is free without support, I just wanted to make it a better tool. But since these posts are capping out at 200 views I figure no more than 200 Quickr shops exist and maybe it isn't a big enough group to warrant the effort. So if you still have Quickr and are thinking of migrating let me or RPR Wyatt know. There is safety in numbers.

The steps of my process was, after backing it all up someplace first:

1. Use the RPR Wyatt Place Catalog tool first and review what we had and how much of it existed.
2. Use the RPR Wyatt Extractor tool to extract the files from one place at a time. Why not all at once? 100's of GB and you know there will be issues, you want to progress, even if it is slowly.
3. Once extracted and you installed all your plugins, login to IBM Connections Cloud and manually start making all of your Communities. If you read my post on automating this process you will think, cool I can load them all at once. Sorry to burst your bubble, but no. IBM in a PMR I raised outlined that you can only create 1 community at a time and only with one owner. Thus, the actual time it took me to create a community and configure it the way we needed and have all the proper owners and members was approximately 2-3 minutes each. Not so bad, but I really wish IBM had fixed their API.
4. Next step is to add the Communities to the Windows Explorer plugin.
5. Now copy and paste from one Windows Explorer window from the drive on teh server where you extracted the files to the other which has the Community list.
6. Once done, delete all non admin members from the Place within a browser so users do not accidentally add or delete files that are needed.
7. Continue until done.

The Lialis File Jockey was for the MAC people to start using Connections files the way they needed to for every day work. So technically I did not use it to do the migration, but I give them kudos for being there and were it NOT for them, the project might not have started as the office is moving over to all MACs.

Sounds easy, but what we found was rather dismaying.

1. Cross linked files were everywhere. This was from various crashes over the years and while we knew we had some, I was not expecting the 100's of folders linked.
2. Orphan files. The extractor tool was great about files and folders but sometimes random files just in a place did not get migrated. Always verify what you see is what you got.
3. Hidden folders and other anomalies. Probably some bad drag and drop by someone left some folders in the oddest places.
4. Size matters. What the Quickr server and the RPR WYatt tool showed us was not what we found when we extracted the data, In fact, we found we had about 60% of the data once extracted. As an example if we were told there were 10GB in a place we usually had about 6GB after extraction. SWEET! But left me wondering what was wrong. See cross linked files and you start to understand.

Thus while the project was completed by the time everyone started work today, I still have many folders and files to clean up, VERY manually eye balling everything. And I am sure I will get some panic call about a missing file or two, but at least to the employees, everything is moved.

There will be one more post in this series about what I learned about IBM Connections Cloud along the way, stay tuned.

So now that I am done with this project, anyone else need me to help migrate them to IBM Connections Cloud?

Mission Worries: Lotus Quickr to IBM Connections Cloud

Who knew so many people still had Lotus Quickr? See IBM I told you people love it still.

There are many things to think about during a migration of data, most of which you as the client will not think about, or even know about, until you have moved and find it out. Do you know why? Because not very many companies, people, or Business Partners have done these migrations like I have over 20+ years. 

These "Mission" posts are meant to help you in this process.

Last post I gave some basic information, now we can dig into some details.

The client uses a plain and out of the box Lotus Quickr so we did not have to worry about meta data or odd forms or whatever else dreamed up by some developers or over eager Admins. I know because I am their Admin.

We did worry about some things and here are some of those items:

• My name for the most part is tagged to all the files and folders NOW which is how IBM Connections and IBM Connections Cloud works since I am the one uploading the files.That is the down side, however, once you get into the folders and find the files, you can see all the document details and it shows all the past information. Not a bad thing, but not perfect. Client accepted this as a good monetary trade off.

• MACs lack of a Notes sidebar plugin. No comment. I am not a MAC user so I am not justified in arguing this point but the Windows Notes plugin is helpful....BUT not for the migration itself. Afterwards it acts like the Quickr Places sidebar app and drag and drop and such is fine plus you get Files, Activities and Status Updates in your sidebar to better leverage the rest of Connections.

• Training users. Actual training is minimal, updating the Notes clients on machines and then the plugin installs and configurations takes about an hour a person on average. If you leverage SmartUpgrade or my friends at Panagenda's Marvel Client you may just need the plugins updated and that is quick.

• Where is the ROI? Mobility! iPad access in front of a client meeting or potential client meeting is crucial and even better, IBM handles the backup of our data. 

• Which brings me to backups. IBM doesn't really backup the data, this is an issue to be addressed by me going forward, but IBM does synch data between their data centers and in IBM we trust, so again a trade off. Not to worry the Quickr server running on VM will just be sitting here if we need data prior to January 1, 2017. Just like the Domino.Doc VM server sits waiting for something we lost from the previous migration. For those keeping score, I have NEVER run that VM to find any files that went "missing". 

• Multiple Folder levels. It is this one item which has prevented the client from moving until now. Promised by IBM over a year ago, and it was delivered, just not the way the client wanted it to work(it also only now lets you edit and create folders from the plugins and mobile which also did not come out last year). We had patience in IBM and since I am an IBM Champion and part of various beta teams for IBM and advisory councils, I pushed for it all to get done, as did quite a few fellow Champions. So if this is what you have been waiting for, you have no reason not to move forward now. January is free for me, let me know when you need your migration done by and I am here for you.

• Timing. Start testing as early as possible as you need a lot of testing scenarios. Keep in mind that uploading speeds are usually MUCH slower than downloading speeds. So that Terabyte of data will not get uploaded overnight, I don't care who you use or what they promise you.

• What if they hate using the Cloud? Said, no. one. ever...who knows what they are doing.

Are there more issues? Sure, every environment is different and I am happy to discuss them if you comment or tweet, call, skype or email me.

I forgot to mention this was a Windows server customer, and I could complete the migration no matter what operating system platform you are running Lotus Quickr.

Looking Back on 5 Years and Forward as an IBM Champion

"We've got five years, what a surprise

We've got five years, my brain hurts a lot"..David Bowie, Five Years

IBM has granted me another year as their ambassador. Well, me and 122 other friends and colleagues. You can read the announcement here. Congratulations everyone!

This will be my 5th year as an ICS Champion and I was a Websphere Champion for 3 years.

I was not part of the first class. A friend told me at the time, "the people elected in the 2nd year are the ones to watch, so stick with it, your time may come". He was right, in time I was elected.

The people from that first year, 16 are still Champions today, are the pillars of this community. When someone asks me how to become a Champion I point to some of the 16 or any of the 100s of past and current Champions as guides.

It is interesting to note that IBM said there were over 630 nominations for over 170 unique nominees. Think about that for a minute. On average each nominee had just over 3 nominations, no doubt many had more, as well as some who had only one.

Looking at this from a world view, we represent many countries, see this post.. I think I am part of EMEA so we make up 52% of this year's Champions. In some cases, IBM Business Partners have multiple IBM Champions on their team and there are also many customers represented as well.

To be upfront and honest, I am still in disbelief I was reelected. I appreciate it and hopefully, some clients wrote me in and said some nice things. I felt this year was a weak year for me. I need to get cracking on 2017.

I get asked by many friends and family what is an IBM Champion? How does one get to be one?

Here for your review is my "maybe don't follow my lead entirely" examples and my thoughts in the hope it gives people some insights. Keep in mind much of this is the same no matter what vendor you have in mind to reach such status. I have no idea what really determines the judging and if you read the post referenced above, many IBMers voted so it was not just "knowing some people".

So here we go:
My blog posting last year was all of 4 posts. 4! Although I have over 1,000 posts, so if you search for me, a long tail of posts travels well I guess. Hint, blog more than 4 times a year especially if few people know you.

Speaking events, I was limited in travel so had to make do with attending only one IBM event ICON UK. Although I did speak at various other business events, mostly here in Israel, not sure this won it for me this year. However, I did speak at several IBM related events in Q4 in 2015 which counts to this year. Moral of the story is to get out there and speak and you shall be found(and post slide decks to Slideshare, your blog, on SocMed).

I did help IBM with some webinars, internal ones and for Business Partners on messaging migrations and Cloud Migrations for the #newwaytolearn sessions. So if you are a Business Partner, help IBM, it goes a long way. Here is a hint, DeveloperWorks has a search and I found numerous references to things I have posted, like my Sametime 9 Spreadsheet for documenting your environment referenced by other people. This post did get updated in 2016. So IBMers read things we post online and it helps to get your name seen inside.

No tests, for the 2nd year in a row I did not get to create any tests for certification. But this, I felt, always helped.

Social Media. I cut back on retweeting every IBM message and focused on what was important for me and my clients. Whatever SocMed you use, keep in mind there are gripes and there are legitimate complaints. Choose wisely how you do it is all I will say, as I have over the years said and posted a few things that bit me and hurt some people, which I apologized for afterward. However, over 10 years of it has 98% of the time gone well, and brought me quite a few clients, so think about your posting.

User Experiences, Beta codes, Council Memberships, Advisory Meetings. If you don't participate then the people who need to know you, never will. IBM is huge and time is precious for them so if you are not on one of these, if not all of them like I am and other Champions, you are missing out on another angle.You do not need to be a Champion to be part of these, all you need to do is ask and watch for announcements about them. User experience labs used to be at Lotusphere IBM Connect.

But Keith, isn't being an IBM Champion about public displays of affection for IBM? No, it is about PR yes, but we don't have to love all their choices and as I said at ICON UK, Domino is cooler than Pokemon Go to me. Laugh all you want, but in the room at the time it made sense.IBM, like any other company, need all the help they can get on the public side, so while internal things are helpful, external are many multiples more important.

Take a "public" stand. I don't care which, but love Connections or Cloud or Watson or whatever development coolness and make it your own. I spend my time fighting off Microsoft, Gmail, Jive and numerous "messaging systems" ESN and also do the same for CRMs. Some people think I am Don Quixote but it is what I love and enjoy. I think it works for me and if you look at many Champions they have their stake in the ground. What's yours?

Help everyone. Skype, Twitter, Hangout, Forums, Slack chats and posts are there to ask and to help. Do I help everyone? No, I know what I know and offer help where possible. As do almost every Champion I know. We all give our time, for free, to help everyone else. It is called Collaboration, among other words, and if you are not in the discussions, you are not helping IBM nor your clients.

Podcasts, Webinars, Live support tips and other similar things always get you noticed. Why? Easy, IBMers, and anyone else, can take those and reuse them in front of potential clients and existing customers. You don't have to be prolific, but you do need to be consistent. If you think the rest of us cover everything, then you have no place as an IBM Champion. There are so many things to cover, find your niche and just do it! Hint, if you can do it in your native language other than English that goes pretty far as well. Just make sure your local country sales and execs know about your efforts. I posted this in 2015 it has over 800 hits, in Hebrew for the Israel market where IBM Domino is not so strong but IBM Connections is recognized.

Clients. Help your clients, renew their licenses, expand their worlds, make them IBM references. And maybe, get nominated by them. My gut instinct says IBM prefers to see non-related nominations like a client submission, but again, just my thinking. It helps if you ask for the referral once you delivered your project on time, under budget and without a hitch.

Start and run a User Group, known as LUGs (Lotus User Groups) but nowadays go by many names. if you can run an event and bring in clients and speakers and it goes well, you are way above me in credit to being a Champion. I help a group or two in minor ways. Every bit helps. Start volunteering if you are part of one and again, put a stake in the ground.

If you are in sales or a customer then IBM knows you and probably loves you more than you can imagine. BUT that doesn't guarantee you to be an IBM Champion. You have to do all the stuff above, but inside your organization. You can do it. Others have, and it is much easier than you may think.

If you read this far you may say, but I was a Champion, I did all of that, and now I am not one, what went wrong?

I can not tell you anything except the bar, especially this year, is raised pretty high! People I have known for years finally are Champions and although I nominated some, others I really need to apologize to when I see them for not thinking of them.

If you travel frequently, you may see one of us, Champion luggage or backpack or shoulder bag or jacket. We are free billboards for IBM, but if we didn't love what we do, we wouldn't be Champions and we are proud to be out there. Introvert, extrovert, ambivert we are all of you, and more, so no matter what you think is holding you back, it is only in your mind.

So in 5 years it has been fun and filled with great memories and a few failings on my own which in retrospect I should have gone after the lost chances. It happens. Keep doing the public side whenever possible because that is what helps you the most.

At times our discussions, which are verbose, get geekly technical even when not discussing IBM things. As a non-developer I glaze over much of the dev talks but knowing even in general terms how or what to do with the tools and code is worth the feeling like a kindergartener in a University lecture.

And you need a strong sense of humor and not take yourself too seriously, once you are a Champion. We all have our hobbies and preferences of culture and country and generally have a great time when all together.

Don't be afraid to come to talk to us, we are just normal people(very loud normal people when together) and it never fails to warm our hearts to know someone read a post of ours or we helped solve some issue for you because of our efforts.

One pro tip for you, no time to blog or video or social media? Book your own time in your calendar. It works.

So what does the future hold? How will I see 2017 when it comes time for nominations?

I want to be a part of an organization that understands all of the above, is not afraid to try something new or work on ways to make IBM products easier for users to adapt and manage and let me be that front line of engagement. As a non-developer I have the luxury of knowing or at least understanding security, mobility, analytics, CRM, user psychology, executives psychology, architecture and watching the next generation of collaboration come to fruition. And it is cheaper for me to go to Europe, even the US, than some of the places people live in Europe.

If I can find this, then my nomination for next year will be so much more rewarding, and easier to believe I can get reelected because when you are doing great work, it shows in all your efforts.

Thank you, IBM, Amanda and Libby and the Champion program for another year of great opportunities!

See you all next year and hopefully in San Francisco at IBM Connect 2017.

Mission Accepted: Lotus Quickr to IBM Connections Cloud

My last Lotus Quickr customer is moving off of Quickr by December 31st.

I love Quickr, still do, but time marches on and maybe you found yourself looking at Quickr wondering:

• How do I secure this box? You have options, and hopefully have used them, but the server is trapped on an 8.5 server which is basically an unsafe server to run at t his point especially if it has access to/from the outside world.
• Accessing your data is getting harder as browsers advance but the code on the server does not recognize all the updates of course.
• Mobile needs, never really got a working Mobile client for Quickr
• Java, yeah well it was good while it lasted

The thing is, if you are solely using it internally it can just sit there for years on end, some of you out there know exactly what i am talking about too.

IBM does not provide a tool to migrate data from Quickr to Connections. IBM Global Services relies on a tool from a Business Partner and you can go that route. It is priced accordingly.

However, in this case my client is not that large and only has about 300GB of data in Quickr so we decided to move it using the tools available to us.

I did many tests before it was agreed to move to IBM Connections Cloud, the client already owns and uses Mail and Sametime there so the move to it would not involve new licensing. 

In fact, we saved money by not needing to renew our Lotus Quickr, now called IBM Connections licenses and support.

Once it was shown we had viable functionality, which basically meant many tiers of FOLDERS that could be created and edited via Notes, Plugins to Windows and MACs, we were ready to go. 

Sorry taxonomy and search people, but when you need many files quickly, search is not your friend especially if you have no idea what the file is called. This is a religious argument to have at the next LUG or IBM Connect event.

So if I didn't go with IBM, how did I do it? Same way I have done migrations for over 20 years, ask around and build and leverage what you have to work with and it should save the client about 40% of the Global services price. 

Your mileage may vary, but if you are in need of this, my January is free now so call, email, tweet, skype me to help move you to IBM Connections Cloud from Quickr.

Next post will be about the process involved, for those interested let me know so I can provide more details to help you.

See the Future You Want to See

IBM recently announced the continued support for Notes and Domino through the year 2021. As we transition to the Cloud, and Verse becomes more prominent, it is not surprising that we reach this apex.

Remember cc:mail? What about the IBM Notes Server? How about Microsoft Mail? Windows for Workgroups? Palm Pilot? Apple Newton? Yes, the technology landscape is filled with artifacts that were stepping stones to the great products we have today. Every generation leads to newer, faster, leaner (physical disk space size, ok, in this case quite the opposite!) improved products.

While it is still in beta, Verse on Premises is that next giant step forward. Does it include Domino? Just as much as Windows clients and servers rely on DOS commands. Built for the future it is the direction IBM is leading us. It is an exciting adventure filled with unknowns. Remember how Domino, the beta Web server, became THE Domino server and brought us into the Internet realm? 

Well Verse is doing exactly this and bringing IBM and its customers to the Cloud realm. So we drop a name or two and stop point releases, outside of your admins and devs, who need to know to support the system, does any user care what version they use? It is all about the Pokemon Go integration! Seriously speaking, it is about being up to date with security and integration points with tools everyone needs to get their daily lives and jobs accomplished.

Ok, maybe some older products will fall by the wayside, just like Domino.Doc led to Quickr which led in some ways to IBM Connections. Will Toscana replace Sametime? Will the new deals IBM made with Box, Cisco and Genband bring an end to the Sametime product line which I have been playing with since it was in beta back in the mid 90’s? I can’t say for sure, but I can see where the next generation needs to break free.

But life carries on, and so do we, as IBM customers, Business Partners, and IBM Champions eagerly await the next generation of products. Will they be based on SoftLayer and Bluemix? Maybe a new platform not yet announced? Will Watson really know all about your projects and needs and take care of them before you get to the office? I don’t know, but it sure is fun guessing isn’t it? It would be nice to know that when you start a new job your favorite candy is waiting for you? (Watson, remember, Candy Corn for me, thanks!)

I am currently attending, and speaking, at the ICON UK event in London held at IBM Southbank. Here, surrounded by the Big Blue Lovefest crossed with the Yellowverse of Lotus fans we are producing that green with envy feeling from people who wrote off IBM and Notes, to their sometimes regret. Haters got to hate, and as an Enterprise your choices are few, is it really in your interest to NOT look at what IBM has on offer today?

Box integration is nice, I am a DropBox user, but it is just storage in the Cloud. I see no difference between them for my purpose. I prefer to think that online storage will have a specific guideline so everyone can universally use it, similar to how SMTP works across all servers. Many people say “mail is ubiquitous”. If so, then why not use IBM Verse? Is it so against your mindset to be open to the fact that the IBM fresh out of school whiz kids are creating some future mail clients? In return people ask me why I don’t use O365. I answer, I have, and on a personal level, I may one of these days, but as a business, I don’t want an app that “just” does email and nothing else. I prefer not to have the chaos of 20 mini apps to do what I could get from one client and one solution. Now with the Cloud side this is getting harder than when everything was on premises. This is the conundrum the developers and futurists think about, how we achieve the full client experience, from a browser. Indeed we will come full circle and that new generation of client and integration is just starting to see the light.

My crystal ball is cloudy and the next few years, as the last few, are steeped in random acts of genius crossed with WTF theories. The end result will be smart, practical and integrated and anyone’s guess which product or solution will be the winner. I hope it is IBM. As I watch the IBM of old get younger and younger, they are working towards a better future for everyone and not just a Smarter Planet.

2016 IBM Champions for ICS

For the 4th year in a row I have been named an IBM Champion. It was extremely unexpected and I thoroughly believed my 1,000th blog post would be a farewell post. For the record this is post #997 of this blog.

It seems the judges have other ideas and intended to keep me going for another year. This is not something you win by being voted on by your friends or ballot stuffing on Facebook, it is a process in which, I hear, over 25 IBMers have votes. 300,000+ people in  company and 25 or so vote on us!

Ecstatically pleased some of my friends who are Champions were renewed including some one I nominated was accepted this year.

Some great friends are also now included, as are many of the people who organize some of the world wide user group conferences. I don't want to single any of them out because honestly, I feel bad I did not think to nominate some of them. Thank God other people were not so forgetful.

There are probably dozens of Champions, past and present, I would love to be with at every event, listening to their wisdom, sharing stories over drinks or just helping with problems they get stuck on and I hope many feel the same way about me.

My recent trips to Social Connections 9 and SUTOL brought me to meetup in person many Champions (and some we didn't know yet would be announced today) and friends I so rarely get to hang out with that it is like a family reunion when we do get to hang out. I got to know some people a little better than prior years. It helps to have an open mind and be respectful of each other to appreciate them even more because maybe at one time I, or they, were not in a good place or state of mind and life is too short to not be happy for everyone.

We work hard, some of us travel non stop, some of us work with multiple clients and projects, some of us are dedicated to one client or employer, some of us are not able to get to too many events or even one, some of us even find time for our families too. Some have hobbies, some do not, some brew their own beer, the rest of us just drink it, some prefer the cold, others the heat, some are artists, some play musical instruments, some run, some bike, some hike, some are administrators, some are developers, some are business partners, some are IBM Customers, and some are in sales or marketing for their organizations.

Our aim is for a better and more collaborative world for all of our current and future customers.

Sadly, this is also the end of my three years as an IBM Champion for Websphere and I appreciate all the WAS Champions I met over the years, some of whom I wish I could see more often.

Here's to the Class of 2016!

May we all enjoy the fruits of our labors and share a drink some time this coming year.
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/ibmchampion/entry/Announcing_the_IBM_Champion_Class_of_2016_for_IBM_Social_Business?lang=en

Breaking Out of The Bubble

What an amazing day I had yesterday! So full of life and learning, every day of work should be this great!
How did it get to be this way? What did I do? Who did I meet? Where was I?

My day started out like any other day, get up, wake up the kids, walk the dog, drop the kids off at school and then head East for about 15 minutes to the nearby city of Modiin. Modiin is about 10 km east of Ben Gurion Airport, 35 km southeast of Tel Aviv and about 30 km west of Jerusalem and 20km from Rehovot where I live.

In Modiin some people I know set up a shared work space called MESH, the Modiin Entrepreneurs Startup Hub. There are hubs like this across the country. If you have never been to one, they are a reasonably inexpensive way to get work done outside your house. You get the basics included like network and wifi, desks, chairs, open spaces and offices, meeting rooms, printers and a fax (don't ask, but many things here need it)and drinks. There is even an onsite chef who makes lunches for those who want to pay for it.

I headed out to MESH for 4 reasons. First, having never been to it I wanted to see what it was like as each of these work spaces are very different form each other. Second, to see and meet my friend Daniel about an idea I had for camp for the kids. Third to catch up and listen to my friend Alan Weinkrantz a fellow technology evangelist who works with RackSpace, that I met early on when we moved here. Alan was having a breakfast discussion on PR for startups, his slides are here, I love slide #6, Above The Code: 10 Principles of Startup Communications. Lastly I wanted to see, and hear, what other people, there are about 30 companies there, are doing and thinking about as ideas work better when you collaborate with others and gain insights form them.

If you read Alan's slides, (you did right?) you would see that PR is a process which can be enhanced by having content accessible for your business. The focus was on blogging which many startups do not get around to doing for many reasons (an upcoming blog post). I volunteered, to those gathered, that this blog is just about to reach 1,000 posts and discussed how it has helped me, and others, in business.Someone asked how often they should be updating their website. I pointed out that if your blog is posted to your homepage, and your website, you are updating the site automatically. SEO problem partially solved. Thanks Alan for reminding me why I blog and to get back on track.

After the discussion, Alan gave out the gapingvoid  t-Shirts which everyone wants to have, and we posed for his scrapbook. 

Me and some of the MESH Startups

Yes, I got the t-shirt but also had some great discussions. While comparing marketing and developers with user specs and needs I suggested CRM apps suck because who wants to fill in dozens of fields when it should be a 2 or 3 field entry and finished. That discussion led to my tweeting another friend, Jon Ferrara of GoldMine fame and now CEO of Nimble. Jon and I occasionally get into deeper CRM discussions and while I really like Nimble, I do not use/need a CRM right now. I really recommend everyone look at what he is building at Nimble. Anyway, Jon agreed that the app should scour the Internet for what you need and not make you do all the work and reminded me that Goldmine was the first to populate fields for you when you entered your zip code.

Note to startups, why could we do this 25 years ago and you can't do it now? A small thing to a user maybe a big thing to a developer but it tells me the UX may not be so great. Hey it's my M&Ms tell.

Looking around the room I could see some business opportunities with everyone that are outside their comfort zones and more in mine and so a side business may get started.

My discussion with my friend Daniel and some others at MESH about camp was interesting and while it may not be feasible for this summer, I think we will do it for next year. More on this at a later time.

MESH is a great place, happy to see it was not as claustrophobic as some of the work spaces in Tel Aviv I have visited. If I had some clients there or in the nearby area, I can see working out of their spaces more regularly. The interaction everyone has makes the 30 companies feel like one big company with many divisions. While many are developers, there are sales and marketing people too and a mix of global, local, profit and non-profit companies. This is probably the one thing I miss working remotely, the open discussions that just happen and people join in. Skype chats and Twitter threads are good, but I don't always get the same excitement feelings.

After MESH I went by to see an old friend of mine from college that I found out moved here 8 years ago and since she is not a tech person basically was out of site for a long time. It was a Facebook post that we were both "Look! It's you!". Since moving here this happens quite a bit, so many people from my ancient history are here and I will get to see you all one of these days.

Went home, picked up the kids from school, they are done at 1:45 and started to catch up on emails and messages. I saw two different emails returned with good news for me. One was to meet with a company that might need my advice and the other a conference owner which I hope to help out with as an IBM Champion effort.

While I had a bunch of work to do in the afternoon and watch over a server migration at night, we had time to get out and party with our friends over bbq and drinks, which is really how every day should end.

How was your day?

Going to IBM ConnectED...ME TOO!

So you, thought you, might like to, go to the show. The annual Lotus, IBM show known as Lotusphere IBM Connect now IBM ConnectED. Well, you got lucky today. I am going to give you some insights to this year’s edition.

Whether you have a room at the top of the world of the Swan or Dolphin or just out on 192 or by the Downtown Disney area, you are getting ready for what will be a condensed, packed schedule of mostly hard core development and administration related topics across the IBM spectrum.

So far, the weather looks good, and no one will need to seek shelter from the storm, as we did in past years. Just the same, please if you are coming from a warm dry place, remember to take the weather with you, so we can all enjoy the time in Orlando.

There are unofficial activities starting Saturday, or so I heard, but since I will not be there till Sunday. I will trust you have read other blogs, websites and emails to know abut them.

If you are new to the show, just go to the Dolphin bar, ask where it is if you need to, people will gladly point it out to you. Once you find it, realize all your friends are there, you just haven’t learnt all their names yet. It’s just like going to the Cheers bar, you want to go where everyone knows your name.

The stars may be in your eyes, SMEs, IBM Champions, IBMers, Business Partners from all over the worldwide pop in for this event and odds are you will recognize some names or faces from Twitter, Facebook or however you get your ya yas out in the Lotus/IBM world.

Almost everything, except the Dolphin bar, will take place just down the road from the Dolphin at the Swan Hotel. Less walking, more talking than past years. From the beginning you will start at the Registration desk where you will receive your golden ticket known as “The Badge”. You do not want to lose it because the last thing you ever want to hear is “where is my badge!”. There are no do-overs, you would have to pony up for another ticket.

Classes start the afternoon on Sunday, so if you never went to Sunday school, now is the best time of your life to start. The schedules have been posted, but always check the room you are going to in case of any last minute changes. In the heat of the moment room changes occur, it is not a communication breakdown, you just can’t be expected to read everything that is posted. BUT, maybe the class is more what you want anyway. It’s okay to be in a state of confusion at times, in fact, some people say it is the only way to walk. So walk this way, if you can, and experience some accidental serendipity.

Sunday night is the welcome party which is usually on the beach between the Swan and Dolphin hotels. If it is not there this year, just follow the crowd, don’t go down the rabbit hole or a road less traveled, you want to be part of the herd in this case. Awaiting you will be food, drinks, people and discussions. This is a social event, even all of us introverted exhibitionists need to get out and shine at times. There is no shortage of opportunities to talk to people. One caveat, try not to say “I’ll talk to you later” because sometimes you may not see that person again. It happens when you have 1-2,000 people or more hanging about.

The fanfare starts Monday morning with the OGS. The Opening General Session sets the tone for the whole show. Try not to get trampled under foot by everyone looking to get a good seat. There are large TV displays and great sound systems in place so don’t worry, be happy. Usually everything kicks off in a blaze of glory and the pace for the rest of the week is like a New York minute. Take your time, do it right, you do not have to go to 6 sessions all in a row, no matter how enticing they seem. Breaks are provided and you should stock up on drinks and munchies. Also remember to visit the vendor area as the partners are here to help you and advance your careers at work by making you look like a shooting star, because that is what you are, otherwise you wouldn't be at the show.

Lunch time is for meeting people as well. IBM and Disney try to give the people what they want by making it easy to just sit anywhere and provide the infamous Lotusphere Cookie. Find a table, sit down and find out where people are from and how you can make the show a better place for them. It is not easy being green but you have the advantage of not knowing anyone. Yes, I AM also going to be there and still manage to meet new people even though I have been going to the show for many years.

Developer or admin, business line or executive, there is something for everyone. It’s amazing, it’s a long road, it’s the start of a new year and a continuous journey. Everyone have fun, but not too much fun, even if there is good rockin’ at midnight, which is early by the way. I’ll be seeing you in a few days and until then always look on the bright side of life.

PS - I can be found, aside from my Twitter and Swarm/Foursquare tweets, on Monday night at 6pm in the TechOasis doing SpeedGeeking. For those that don't know, SpeedGeeking is 12 of us (admins, developers) doing 5 minute "demos or talks" of something cool, unusual or just outright brilliant as you move around the circle every 5 minutes. Best hour of knowledge you will get at the show!

My topic is How to Manage your Exchange Admins Using Domino see you there!

Didn't you see my Updates?! Slides posted

On Slideshare are my slides from today's Social Connections VII session from Stockholm.

Off the cuff speaking and the ONLY session at #soccnx that was done in Lotus Yellow.

If you need help with adoption, please let me know, I am in Europe and happy to help your organization.

http://www.slideshare.net/kbmsg/accountability-rocks-soccnx2

Accountability rocks soccnx2 from Keith Brooks

It Is Official, I am an IBM Websphere Champion too

"Congratulations and Happy New Year - you have been selected as an IBM Champion for WebSphere software! "

I am stunned and amazed at this recognition, what can I say beyond thank you to the selection committee and my friends, especially Dave and Sharon, for all their technical help when Websphere got the better of me early on. Okay, it still gets the better of me, but I am more on top of it now.

The official announcement is here. Looking at the list, I am more humbled, because in no way do I represent that deep technical side of Websphere some of the people represent. One can only imagine it was because my clients helped me get here. Thanks to Bob and Jorge who nominated me.

Hopefully I can make my presence in the Websphere community stronger over time with Daphne's and Justin's help.

For the record I am not the first dual IBM Champion. But am the first to also be a Redbooks Thought Leader.

Better blog now that I am an IBM ICS Champion

I heard from some friends before I received the official email from Joyce that I am now a 2013 IBM Lotus ICS Champion. I was on a PMR call and missed the Community meeting.

You can see the entire list of the 2013 Champions here.

I have not blogged in over 40 days which means the flood is finished and I can venture out again.
Not muchtweeting either, my Klout score dropped by 5 points and is under 60 now. Ok, that i can ignore, but it shows what happens when you fall off the Earth.

Been working on projects that can't talk about in public, sorry about it, thus my quiet efforts.

Have also been in London and Dublin last 2 weeks for work and family.


Have been working on Connections quite a bit and will post some things I have found out.

Hope to see most of you in Orlando in January.

Sorry to be so simple but still amazed to be listed as a Champion.

Congrats to all the other Champions!