My IQ has gone up thanks to Engage

Engage just finished. The first one is under new management, and it is in safe hands.

I don't think I have ever seen Theo so happy with a big grin on his face the whole time. Tom and Kris did really well for their first time out. And they told us next year Engage will be in Belgium.

I had to miss last year's due to the timing and circumstances of the war at home, so it was great to talk to everyone. Thank you all for asking about the situation and the family. It means a lot.

The star attraction was Domino IQ, which adds AI to the core product. As an Admin, all I can say about this is that you will need to spend time building this out properly if you want to move beyond the basic regurgitation of your knowledge base or other internal documents. Also, IQ needs some extra hardware and configuration, so be prepared and read the what's new and requirements docs. Your developers will be busy.

It will be available starting with v14.5, which is coming out June 17! IQ is part of your license if you are under CCB Term(I believe). If you are a perpetual license org, this is your incentive to change licensing plans.

I was happy to see friends from past Engage shows, and in some cases people I hadn't seen in many years. Yes, we all got older, but we still have fun together.

There was a tease of Notes.Next but it is far from prime time ready so don't ask about it yet.

Roadmap sessions were broad with partial timelines for new items.

One thing that also stood out is the added accessibility to all the products which need to be up to certain laws soon and so that is taking over a lot of dev time.

As an Admin, I want to let everyone know to go get Cormac's slides from his session. His session was filled with great ideas and details about cleaning up your administrative items, and as he said, even old admins can learn something new, which I did about SMTP failover routing.

His blog is here, and hopefully, he will post his slides there or at the Engage website.

Lastly, the Lotus brand might return for at least one product. Or not. While this was from Richard Jefts' opening keynote, later on, other HClers implied the name may not stay.
I will leave the debate about the brand to others, as both sides of the argument have their validity.

I was also in some partner/ambassador/HCL Roundtable sessions, which I can't say much about, but there are plans that will help the partners in the long run, which in turn will help you, the customers.

I think my own session scared a lot of people, but I hope it also helped them rethink how they and their teams interact with upper management and budget committees. My slides will not be posted, and I don't publish my Competitive Intelligence info. I will probably make a second blog post about it over the weekend.

Safe travels home everyone, talk to you soon or see you, at least virtually, some time soon.

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.

Welcome to NOT Orlando

IBM Connect, or Lotusphere, as us old people call it kicked off last night with the welcome reception and today with the Opening General Session.

This year we break from tradition to visit San Francisco instead of Orlando. Many traditions may not return, but thank God for Ephox and Aussie Night, and Mat. Disclaimer, IBM Champions are invited in advance and are loved by Ephox.

The usual cast of characters exist, like a Thanksgiving dinner, your business cousins, uncles and aunts and everyone in between are here to make the event entertaining, bewildering, shocking and er, imbibe a little too much at times.

Sponsors, exhibitors and attendees have a decent size space to work with and the estimated 2,000 people make everything seem full without crowding. Hopefully for the exhibitors it is a good show.

We saw and heard quite a few things today, many I will not get correct but here goes:

Badges? Yes, no more certification requirements from IBM, but now you need badges of the virtual kind. No news how many badges it takes to be able to sell licenses, but I am sure IBM had thought of these things. Hope my New Way to Learn badge does something.

Lotus IBM Notes and Domino we were told are road mapped through 2021.

Evidently Sametime is getting a  life extension as well but details were less definitive.

IBM Connections 6.0 will be out in a quarter or 2.

Pink, is the code name for Connections NEXT and it looks to augment and extends on where the platform is today, but without the Websphere and other things, Keep watching this space.

The UX lab is all about Connections and Verse, go give them your input in exchange for some tickets to win prizes of your choosing.

Julian Robicheaux was named the third Lifetime IBM Champion and him and Theo and Gab were part of the musical mix of live dj/musician and Watson song make up.

Some cool Oblong video meetings which showcased the drag and drop functions in Watson Workspace.

Box Relay was on screen in a demo. Described as a "workflow solution", gee I wonder where I might have heard hat term previously.

Unlimited mail sync is now or will be an option for search purposes on phones.

Watson Workspace is growing, expanding, look for a new app store from IBM (I think) as Business Partners write apps for it. In my discussion with some IBMers it appears the technical part is not the problem, the ideas or workflow plans or just applications that are business necessary are the key. SO get thinking people.

Saw many friends, a few customers, met new IBMers and other people that I only knew online and good thing we all wear badges so everyone knows each other.

I agree with Wes Morgan, The Lost art of Troubleshooting is troubling issue in modern times.

The demo crew, led by Chris Crummey did all their own stunts live. Brave souls and a much better way to demo over past years with fake names, apps and such.

The Moscone center is nice, the staff are great and the wifi has been excellent.

Lots of partner solutions were shown in the OGS rather than just mentioned.

I registered as a client this year, I was surprised there were no invitations to talk or see anything from partners or vendors.

Only draw back is a dearth of charging stations and electrical outlets. Even the sun came out a bit today.

The other thing is, it is not Orlando. There is no one place everyone is hanging out. There is no running into people once you leave the Moscone center.

Yes you can follow people on various social media but that is not the same. Again on the plus side, the community is the community, even if we end up in 3-4 different locations in the evening.

Wednesday is my session at 1pm Room 2011 on Our Journey to a Cloud, see you all there.

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.

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.

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

I Love Admins that want to learn here is my SUTOL Session

Having a great time in Prague, last time I was here was either the I AM tour or an LCTY in 2000/2001.

Martin and the SUTOL team did a great job with the event. It was really nice to get to see people I either never met in person or have not seen in a long time. And some of us had been at #soccnx 9 last week in Stuttgart.

It was great to speak to and meet so many admins that really know what they are doing and what to learn and know more. These Admins make it easier to present topics from new viewpoints and appreciate the time we all spend in the trenches.

As it turns out, the night before SUTOL while we are at the local bar we discussed some things around DDM and we agreed things changed, but could not at the time find good details about what and when. Luckily, when we collaborate we find conclusions.

Thanks to Ben Menesi for not only pointing out Domino DDM changed types, but having a screen that shows the changes which I added to my presentation.

I also found a reference to what happened, it changed in 8.0 and this link had this to say:

To view an event message that was generated by a pre-IBM^® Lotus^® Domino^® 7 event generator, open the Monitoring Configuration database (EVENTS4.NSF), and then open the view Advanced -- Message by Text to view how that event message is categorized in DDM. The information on the Basics panel shows the name of the new Event Type and the Old Event Type. In DDM, there are 10 event types and in pre-Domino 7, there are 22 event types. You use the information on the Basics panel to see how the old event types are incorporated into the new event types. For example, this event message has Server as the Event Type and Mail as the Old Event Type

My slides from my session, "DDM, Letting Admins sleep longer and stay at the Pub Later Since 2005" is available on Slideshare. I touch on how to manage non-Domino things and how I get my server and DDM to Tweet me when there are problems, like email is not flowing.

Domino Domain Monitoring, Letting Admins Sleep Later and Stay at Pubs Longer Since 2005 from Keith Brooks

Thank you everyone and hope you enjoyed the session.

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

Got all your DUCS in a Row?

This was a draft of a post which for whatever reason I never published. Might be useful to someone out there. DUCS was discontinued but if anyone needs some legacy help....

Don't know what DUCS is?

Domino Unified Communication Services (DUCS)

This has dragged on for 3 days now while I wait on the Cisco BP to figure out what Lotus Domino and Sametime are all about.

Poor guy never seen one before, Domino server that is. Wish clients would ask us before doing these silly things, we could have pointed them to the new Lotus Foundations Reach solution.

So I set up LDAP and Sametime Standard for him and figure my work is done.

Well, 3 days later I had to do it all over again since we couldn't get Cisco's Call Manager to work.

Suddenly all starts working. In either event it has been an education to me on something which is rarely seen or used in the open.

What have we learned? Plugins require extra work upfront, but no work afterwards, except when updating them of course.

Haven't installed plugins? Can't see the Install? Follow this Wiki:
Learning Plug-In for IBM Lotus Notes - New and improved installation! Oh and the Lotus Learning pieces are great stuff too!

WebSites for your benefit because this stuff is hard to find:
You may have to register at Cisco's website to download some of this.
Unfortunately the plugin files are not free to download unless you have a contract with Cisco. So much for planning ahead.

Release Notes for Cisco Unified Messaging with IBM Lotus Sametime Release 7.1(1)

Install and Upgrade Guides of PDF's (Note: This really about the plugins and NOT Call Manager but helpful anyway)


Securing LDAP Directory Integration with Cisco Unified CallManager 4.x

Troubleshooting DUCS (this may be the older version)

Configuration Guides

MWLUG Report

It has been 2 years since I attended and presented at MWLUG and I have missed it. The core group of about 200 customers that can just drive over for the event and the vendors and partners and IBMers that fly in all come for the same reason, the community and knowledge.

And beer.

Beer is a big part of MWLUG and always has been, probably because the idea was hatched while the founders were having one. Isn't that when the best ideas are devised?

The event location was the old Union Station filled with beautiful architectural reminders of an era long gone. The stained glass window is from the North facing window of the main room which used to be the entrance to the station.

Sadly, I missed the opportunity to go to the Indianapolis Speedway tour but waved to everyone from my flight above the track.

Saw friends, both near and far, and even some customers who knew me when they were business partners and consultants.

The first day I got in late and missed the classes going on but did pop in to fellow IBM Champion  Bill Malchilsky's session on Linux enablement which if you want Linux or need it or are thinking about it, Bill is your man.

We made our way to the first evening event, the microbrew tasting. Which knowing some of the people involved would produce some interesting ideas. You can see the mix of offerrings from this picture I took.

The winner turned out to be a distributor of someone else's finest but that did not stop everyone from having a great time.

We then moved to the main room where we had the event sponsors peddling their wares and we had time to chat up customers and friends.

Thursday morning found us eagerly awaiting the OGS where we heard from Josh Bleill, the Indianapolis Colts Community Spokesperson. Josh just wowed everyone with his determination and positive outlook on life. Nothing is insurmountable.

After Josh, Scott Souder, Program Director, Messaging and Collaboration Solutions for IBM provided some sneak peaks at what is coming in the future. Notes/Domino 9.0.1 due out late October. Scott talked about how at this point of the year IBM already has more renewals from customers that have not renewed in prior years than they did last year. In other words, customers are upgrading again and there is business for all of us Business Partners!

Scott also brought some secret things to share like Project Hawthorn, more on this in a different post, and a new unnamed product which will knock the socks off you when it comes out. Come to Connect 2014 for more details is all he said we could say about it. Scott also introduced everyone to Kramer Reeves who is his boss. Kramer is Director of Product Management, ICS and has plans to help not just customers but business partners as well to sell and support everyone the way they need it.

After the morning sessions off to lunch and then the daily sessions.

I was working on my own demo and session but sat in on Chris Miller's excellent session on the web, social life and privacy. Get his slides and think about it, hopefully he posted them someplace. Of the people in the room only a few do everything and there is much to think about. Save your wallet and headache and go get his session.

My session, The Boss is Anti-Social ..HELP! which I already posted the slides here, had at the core of it people who work in a non-social atmosphere or have managers that do not understand them. The session was a mix of older thoughts and information coupled with literally the night before ROI cases that I received via email that highlight the sales benefits of being more social in business. All links are included in the slides so enjoy. No matter what your industry is, you can be social on the outside and interactive with your customers and vendors. Yes, some will complain, but they just want your love otherwise they will just leave and you will never hear from them again.

The evening event was spent in a brewery and billiard hall where everyone could focus their time and get to know each other better. Questions about certification, Sametime, Connections, Notes and Domino, competitive information and more all took place.

Friday saw Karl Lawall, an IBM Program Director for Collaboration Solutions, Social Communications and Sametime Worldwide Sales showing off Sametime 9 which will be coming out shortly. The video integration and revised mobile clients and device functionality will make life so much better for the A/V jet setting people. 

And then I had to go home which was an all day journey it seemed, sorry I had to leave early on Friday.

Thanks to Richard Moy, Sam Bridegroom, Gregg Eldred (sadly was held back from attending),  and Ray Bilyk for a great event and I hope everyone returns for next year when it is in Grand Rapids, Michigan. For all my friends and customers always nice to see you and let's meet up again in Orlando in January 26-30 at Connect 2014 if not sooner.

Hyper Smash

Free Competitive Discussions at MWLUG

It was 3 years ago when I last posted this on my blog. and the conversations we had then went well into the night and days. Sadly due to scheduling conflicts I had to miss out on the last 2 years. But I am back and looking to see everyone again.

And I am happy to say I will be doing it again at MWLUG 2013. Which if you are near the area, you should definitely be going to this can't miss event. Where else can you attend a charity brewfest competition featuring your fellow administrators and developers?

I will be enjoying the Crowne Plaza Hotel Downtown Union Station in Indianapolis, Indiana during MWLUG where it all takers place.

If you will be attending MWLUG or are around Wen afternoon or evening we can discuss how to handle objections, executive decisions, political turf and other routes to unrest which may cause you or your organization or clients to question their future directions.


So email me, send me a Tweet, G+ me, Skype me.

I will be around until Friday morning and looking forward to seeing everyone.

SnTT - Traveler 9.0 IF1 In Case you get This Error

Sorry old picture, no new one for Tuesday.

While updating my IBM Domino server from 9.0 to 9.0HF328, I also saw an update for IBM Notes and Lotus Notes Traveler.

Just been busy and did not get to these yet and Domino and Notes went fine.

Traveler update however it seems was a corrupted download. Given it has been posted for 2 months I presume it is not IBM, but my download.

In any event, for those who like me end up seeing these messages after they ran the installer, which said it was done properly :

07/22/2013 08:28:52 PM  Notes Traveler: SEVERE *system Unable to open database C
 /IBM/Domino/data/traveler\map\CalMap.nsf.
07/22/2013 08:28:52 PM  Notes Traveler: SEVERE *system IBM Notes Traveler server
 could not be started.  The exception was com.lotus.sync.util.ComponentNotStarte
dException: Unable to open database C:/IBM/Domino/data/traveler\map\CalMap.nsf..
 Exception Thrown: com.lotus.sync.util.ComponentNotStartedException: Unable to o
 en database C:/IBM/Domino/data/traveler\map\CalMap.nsf.
07/22/2013 08:28:52 PM  Notes Traveler: SEVERE *system 14 records are pending to
 be logged, so they will be logged now.

You will find, if you try to open the files in the Domino Admin client that they are either corrupted or waiting to be configured or just not available and truncated.

So what to do? I tried fixup and that worked for the .nsf files. Trying to run it against the EsmMapDirTemplate.ntf file failed. I checked the downloaded update and sure enough when I went to look at the .JAR file it was inside, the .jar file threw an error at me and said it was malformed or corrupted.

Back to traveler 9.0, reinstall and all is good again. Now back to download a new 9.0IF1 and see if we can get this upgraded again

And for the record updating my Android client from the Appstore, which is now not in synch with the server client version. Either the way of the future, client side or going to be a problem in locked down companies perhaps?

Info below from http://ibm.com/support/fixcentral

	1.	interim fix: NTS_9000_IF1_WIN Traveler 9.0 IF1 for Windows More Information	May 10, 2013

Passover - The Lotus Way

Slavery in Egypt or slavery to your money/PC/Phone/Twitter/Email/Internet/TV? Something's never change.

For those not familiar with Passover, go learn about it on the web.

If you are vaguely familiar you will know that there is a song at the end called Chad GadYa which is allegorical in nature and usually sung by everyone at the table who is still awake and closes the Seder, it is the grand finale.

As I will be mostly offline for much of the next 8 days, this is for everyone, Friday's posting is already done, so don't think I am online or something. I won't be. So here is my Chad Gadya...the Lotus way.

Won't bore you with all 10 stanzas, will just cut to the chase, Stanza #10 includes it all.

And came the Domino Admin that dropped the annoying users from the server, who went over quota or never archived, that had asked for Webmail and never used it, that was setup with Sametime, which integrated to Quickr which replaced Quickplace, that replaced the Team Room that your server came with for free for all these years. One Domino Server, One Domino Server.

Or for computer geeks:
And came the Mainframe, or As/400 or AIX or Linux which trashes Windows server which had killed off Novell Netware, which beat the VAX which was replaced by PCs which ran DOS that bit the MAC which ate the TRS-80 which we bought for like $3,000. One little TRS-80, one little TRS-80(or whatever your country may have had back in 1980 or so)

Started the 4 Questions but only got this line :-):

Why is this (Domino) server different from all other servers?

Chag Kasher V'Sameach to all and for my friends celebrating Easter, Happy egg hunting.

Google Joins Mozilla vs. Microsoft

In what will be a defining moment, sometime in our children's lifetime at this point, the EU will listen to Google and Mozilla discuss why Microsoft should not be allowed to include IE with Windows in the future.

This discussion could take place in the US, but unfortunately the vast majority of Capitol hill is non-technically inclined and wouldn't know the difference between sms,smtp,ssl or ssh let alone UML, XML, HTTP to name a few items. My own rep argued against digital voting, Florida does have its problems.

Read the ZD post here.
Thanks to Guy Kawasaki for posting it and saying this to go with it:

You have to almost feel sorry for Microsoft about this--or at least see the irony of Google's efforts

Now if IBM had a browser to go with Symphony, Notes, Sametime imagine a true Linux world.

Lotus Won an Oscar!

As far as I know, this is a first.
Andrew Stanton, ex-Lotus now at Pixar accepted the award for Wall-E.
I believe as a writer, perhaps now director?

I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't work at Pixar, aside from my kids loving me for it, how often can you say you created something which lives forever in a kid's or adults eye?

Congrats to Andy and it goes to show you there is a whole world out there waiting for you if you have the drive.

Fud Buster Friday #28 - We're a Cutting Edge type of Company

Riiiiiiiiight!
Sure, whatever.

So you don't use windows then? A cutting edge company would not use a 5 year old OS nor Vista of course.(personal note I use Vista on one laptop and it is fine, really).

So you don't have some old routers from Cisco which still haven't been patched?

You aren't using 2-3-4 year old laptops or desktops running older software would you now?

You run Outlook 2003 as your mail client? In 2009?
And it is of course tied in to Exchange 2003, a 5 year old email server and it still doesn't format for HTML properly.

Maybe you are a Lotus shop and your Notes clients are R6,R7 which is 2-4 years old now, you could update them AT ANY TIME. Your servers are of course up to date, see below.

You can't move to Open Office, Star Office or Lotus Symphony, because you need to be tied to some legacy Office Suite from a company that still can't get table formatting correct?

You still make all your employees go to the office instead of telecommute? How 80's of you.

You run Ethernet cabling everywhere because you are afraid of Wi-Fi security breaches. It's okay, we know your cables are faster....NOT!

You make sure your servers are up to date with the latest patches, even at the risk of some down time, right?

You tossed all the Windows servers in favor of Linux, iSeries, Zseries or some other server type or grid computing platform. Okay, you can keep the BES Windows server, RIM is a good company and you can't live without your Blackberry.

Which brings me to your phones. What no Bold or Storm? Ah but you have iPhones right? Yes neat, cool, but really why doesn't everyone have new phones that are under a year old and take advantage of memory and security enhancements.

Right, I forgot, you are a cutting edge company. Sounds it too. Wake me up before you go home tonight so I can get all your Domino servers upgraded to 8.5 in under 15 minutes.

You may not believe it but Lotus lets you stay on the cutting edge, and people like your admins help it happen because it really does take less than 15 minutes to be on the cutting edge.

Oh and if you wanted all your users to be on webmail, running 8.5 gets them to the cutting edge, NOW.

Lotus Runtime Update..Because NOMAD isn't the answer

Well, not every time at least. I am fond of Kiosk mode going back to some R4 days.
Seems my posting on ideajam is not making a hit, so far at -4. Not surprising, but I am interested in why you say no to it.
I understand the need is not common, after all if you are a Lotus BP or customer or developer or anything of course you have a Lotus Notes client to demo with.
I in fact have 6, not including multiple iNotes/DWA and mobile clients or NOMADS.Probably have almost 15 ways in fact.

Yes, NOMAD was the way I was able to help my friend with the demo.

However, I still feel that I should be able to runtime a DB if that is what is required. Think about a Journal runtimed into a google gadget as one idea.

Naturally this is not very practical for heavy apps or even Notes email really, but there are times when we or our client may not want to see a Lotus, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Java demo then what do you do?

If any of my gifted developer friends read this, have you come up with a better way?

Should I expect Lotus to resolve this? No. A browser demo should resolve this usually, it just so happened I am not a developer(see next post later today) and so was out of time to code the web side.

NerdGirl: Women in Lotus, Part 2

Apologies, I did not get to the BoF. Part 2 was never meant to be about it, just I wanted to break up what was becoming a long post.

In response to the perceived male way of life, some of the panelists expressed how they viewed their way to work through the male work process, sad but true, they were right in many of their opinions on how to do it.
Mary Beth Raven put it best when she said "act like a guy, just do it, don't ask for consensus".

Gabriella discussed the idea that men enjoy arguing, but women shy away from it. Not sure I would agree entirely, but if, as some panelists said, they "feel", rightly or wrongly, that they aren't always sure of their own knowledge and in those cases would defer, in their earlier careers but now know better. It's better to express any opinion, right or wrong, then not to at all as it can be viewed in a subservient way and repeated outcomes like this can lead to further detriment in the workplace.

Jess Stratton discussed her road racing and how until she won an event was ignored for the most part. Presumably because she hadn't proven she knew enough or was good enough to the male society of racing.

In parallel, I experienced much of the same when first going to work for Lotus in EMEA as an American. And until I could validate I knew technology, wouldn't be accepted in various countries.

Lastly, my interest was in trying to understand what we can do to go forward to encourage new women to IT/Lotus technologies.

In addition what should IBM/Business Partners do to encourage more women or hire more women? What is anyone doing on this topic?

We are looking into working with some local social service groups by retraining the women and then providing them positions and helping them grow in their respective areas.

If you want to be part of the solution, step up and help us figure it out.

NerdGirl: Women in Lotus World, part 1

Yesterday I attended an open session Geek102. A concept from Kristin Keene about women in Lotus. Or as its subtitle said,
NerdGirl:Making Geek Chic.

EDIT: forgot to say Libby Ingrassia, Notesgirl was the Moderator.

The panel session included some well known bloggers and IBMers.
Gabriella Davis from The Turtle Partnership
Irene Greif of IBM
Maureen Leland of IBM
Kathleen McGivney, the Domino Chick of Sakura Consulting
Mary Beth Raven of IBM
Jessica Stratton of Solace Consulting and the Momelettes site

So what was I doing there?

I, along with Jess Stratton, had submitted a BoF to the powers that be for Lotusphere 2009 on helping women get into Lotus and what can we do to help and what should I, as an employer and well, a guy, know or think about in pursuing this line of thinking. How can we interest women to pick up the Lotus world?

As we learned, women make up a minute amount of attendees at Lotusphere, yet it is still more than you will find at almost any other similar event.

The panelists each discussed their progression to where there are today, along with the detours imposed and obstacles (teachers/organizations/managers) which can occur along the way. Also the luck of being in the right place at the right time to get exposed to Lotus Notes and Domino or take on something new that hadn't existed before. Some opined that they always liked the idea of developing and when finally given the chance, and the right tool, Notes, they never looked back. It also helped that their parents let them know they could do anything in this world, if they wanted to do so. Something not every parent imparts to their children unfortunately even today.

Interestingly a few panelists also shared similar backgrounds in English, Writing, Rhetoric and Reporting. Communication and sharing or consensus of agreement were mentioned quite a bit as well.

SO...What did I learn?
All men read /. (slashdot.org for those who don't read it...like me),lie about their technical prowess, try to one up each other with technical geek details or obscure Star trek references. Additionally, men seem to have the latest and greatest code/device the day available.

Stereotypes for sure, yet how the panelist choose to work with these items was more telling. Tune in to Part 2 to read more when I have free time soon.

All BES Support Calls Should Be THIS Easy

You may have seen my tweets about this, if not, follow me on Twitter.

Friday, the day after Thanksgiving I have a message from the support line about a user that can't synch their Blackberry and their personal address book or contacts database.
They are on R6.5(soon to be upgraded to 8.5 when gold) and it works for everyone else.

Figured some corruption or something in the service book. Did the usual BES push and checks and left a vmail to call me on Monday if it didn't fix it self.

Monday was busy and I never heard from the user. Tuesday morning emailed/vmail again and received a response.

The call can be closed, the device was lost over the weekend, something about a rafting trip or some other excursion involving water.

Thank you and have a great day was all I could say before falling over laughing after hanging up.