Beyond Xpages

Beyond Domino development?

by with No Comment DevelopersIBM Notes/Domino/XPages

Peter Presnell of Red Pill on the future of Domino development ‘Beyond XPages‘:

That made me wonder…. why would IBM suddenly only provide a commitment to fix-packs instead of taking the opportunity to remain committed to a new release, something customers and the community continue to push for? I may be wrong, but I suspect that having already gone three years without a release, should IBM decide to have a 9.0.2 release of Notes/Domino, this could potentially reset the clock for how long IBM would be obligated to support Notes/Domino moving forward. I am sure they will ultimately determine an appropriate length of support once it is clear to customers there are no new releases coming, but they probably want to leave as much wiggle room (legally) as they can. After all, they do employ one or two lawyers!

Back in March I suggested that new ICS GM Inhi Cho Suo was likely to make significant changes to the direction of ICS. The Road Map presented at Engage also was missing any reference to Notes/Domino Next. Perhaps a faster end for Notes, Domino, and XPages is part of that change.

Really insightful thoughts on where XPages and Domino stand as technologies, how far they’ve dropped beyond the latest releases of their supported frameworks, and where enterprise customers should invest their development budget for the future.  No guarantees that Peter’s assumptions are 100% correct, but I do think he’s barking up the right tree…

Meet Obie

No Slackin’ when it comes to integration

by with No Comment DevelopersSlack

One of the most notable aspects of the rise of Slack as a the business communications tool of the moment has been the success they’ve had encouraging third parties of all sizes to develop innovative apps and custom integrations for the platform.

Just as an example, this is a new one that came to my attention today, combining machine learning with social communications, Obie:

Obie Flows

INTRODUCING “FLOWS”

Spoonfeed, don’t firehose. Deliver knowledge and information when your team needs it — not all at once.

Obie delivers content to the platforms you spend your day on. Information conveyed in an existing workspace is relatable, engaging and more effective.

Obie offers a familiar, conversational user-experience you’ll actually enjoy. He can answer questions and send bite-sized knowledge to the team.

Obie is a quick-study — the more you use him, the more he delivers relevant and accurate content.

Certainly looks interesting, doesn’t it. Innovative too. There are new apps live Obie being released daily, and they’re very easy for even non-technical users to deploy and activate.

Slack App DirectoryWhatever one feels about Slack’s features/UX and the impact it has on personal productivity (and there’s certainly a hefty degree of Slacklash being felt right now across both traditional and social media) it is clear that Slack has powered past more established brands and products in terms of developer adoption.

I would love to see the more established vendors in the space take a similarly open approach – start with the APIs and build the product, rather than considering the APIs as an afterthought.  Also, treating developers as an open, welcoming and transparent community, versus requiring registration, paid licenses/subscriptions and the like.