What Happens at Lotusphere...

...Should NOT stay at Lotusphere!

Sure, there was no heavy announcement about Rnext or even with regard to some products any details on their futures, at least in the main sessions. Some specific sessions on topic did include roadmaps but let's see what did come out of the 'Sphere and what you should be bringing to customers all year long.

Project Vulcan? no, not a product yet, more an idea and while we can discuss it, I prefer to see it as a truly universal inbox for email, videos, sametime, twitter and more with internal and external feeds seamlessly integrated. I may be wrong and it may turn into something completely different.

Traveler, especially for iPhone users, and soon Android, remains a key reason why customers are upgrading from R6,R7 even R8 (I have one going from R5 even)! My discussions with some IBM execs showed that IBM really does see the future is mobile and will work very hard to be more up to date with the latest and greatest toys, I mean phones.

Mobile is not only critical but cool too. Finally.

LotusLive is the future and IBM is really expanding the offer for LotusLive Notes to include a full Notes client with sameitme, calendaring, etc.., and even BES options and dropped the minimum down to 25 from 1,000 users. This should stop any customers looking at going to Exchange or Google, if for no other reason than the fear of migration and the lack of infrastructure required to have it this way. The Cloud may still be a ways off for some, but others I think will jump at this chance and they probably should.

Websphere is out in the public and IBM did an excellent job of not making a big deal about it. It should be this way. You as the customer want a solution, the back end should really not matter. Besides that is what we as business partners are here for.

Quickr is evolving further, 8.5 is in beta and I have it up and running but I can't tell you where without NDA from IBM. So if you have questions let me know. The plus side RIM has made a client available for Quickr and Connections which will cost a little money and looks really good. I still don't have a copy so don't ask, I will review it once I get a copy.

Windows Mobile as a device OS is dying so don't get it unless you have no choice.

Linux is growing, my netbook is solely Ubuntu as is a server on the rack. An excellent idea from Joe Litton and Bill Machilsky to help people go to Linux was done on the last day of Lotusphere and hopefully will become something bigger next year. My personal view of Linux has become much more favorable since using the Ubuntu version. Not my primary device but it is really nice to do everything there just like on Windows, but it's all free and for those non-IT geeks, mostly graphical.

So Lotusphere is done, but you can carry it on all year long. Attend events, comment on blogs, post requests, answer questions, host a proof of technology or a lunch and learn at your office, do a webinar on how to use the Notes client for the other 85% of what it can do aside from email and calendar/scheduling.

If you need help, just ask, some Lotus user groups have asked me to speak or submit sessions for their events this year and if I can help you with yours, I will too.

Blog Muse an idea from The Innovation Lab

On my travels at Lotusphere I try to get into the Innovation lab to see what is coming down the road. One program I saw was Blog Muse. Expertly presented by Casey Dugan of IBM.

Blog Muse provides a way for someone to submit a request for a blog post on a topic, to no one in particular or to a specific person.

There is also the ability to vote on an idea, in a way, for those who use it, it's like Ideajam but for Bloggers.

And the results which were measured, not surprising, showed those blogs using the Blog Muse system had more readers and comments than those not using Blog Muse. Also more postings were posted by those using Blog Muse.

Hopefully someone in IBM will let Business Partners test this out....or Elguji could you provide Blogjam? hint hint

It's not that as a blogger I need ideas to post, but the ability to have readers or employees suggest topics is very appealing. Or on the flip side I can post an idea and get feedback on it. Something we all could use sometimes.

LotusLive Executive Interview

I was invited with some other bloggers to interview Susan Oblak, Program Director of GTM Strategy and Satwik Seshasai.

One of my questions was around Quickr and LotusLive and Quickr is not part of it but if you can compare private communities to places and that works for you or your client then this might be the way to go for you.

There are some new offerings coming:
Labs - for testing, playing and other apps sort of like the sandbox
Integration of a full notes client and other pieces like traveler and BES

Great news about LotusLive Notes is the only one with 50 minimum, down from 1,000 users. This will certainly speed up adoption as it prevented many BPs from offering it.

The other LotusLive offerings start from 1 person.

I asked about the uptake on Meetings vs. installs of Sametime 8.5 and IBM feels it is complementary in such a way that some customers want the different options in each package. It should be noted that Sametime works with LotusLive so you can create an efficient hybrid. And some of our customers are doing this already.

The goal is to provide a way to work in context more in the future than the way most organizations work today.

In some cases IBM suggested LotusLive Connections might be an option for those not willing to invest in a whole infrastructure but want all the benefits.

LotusLive Notes with admin interface is to be generally available in 2nd half of 2010 and for an open API to come out in beta in Q2 2010.

Skype is being added to enable click to call with it, Prolific and Silanis are the 1st 3 partners and premier global will be a reseller as well.

Lotuslive is available to all Business partners free of charge for 12 months when registering at the site as a BP. Go here to do this.

What will you get as a BP?
LotusLive Engage Trial
User Accounts: 1 Admin Account (can add up to 99 more)
Meeting Size: Up to 14 participants per Web conference
Term: 30-day no-cost trial (Really 12 months don't worry, they know to fix this typo)
Storage Space: 1.0 GB per user

LotusLive Labs is ONLY available to LotusLive subscribers. It is free with your subscription. Labs will allow you to experience and use code coming out of the IBM labs that should enhance your experience as time goes forward.

It was an interesting discussion and one which to be honest as a BP I have reservations about. However after today the future of LotusLive looks much better than before and after all 18 million users can't be wrong.