Image:Lotus Notes makes it to Engadget...

Lotus Notes makes it to Engadget…

Vowe may say it’s just Notes- and Mac-fanboys getting all excited about a vague announcement, but if the Domino integration with the iPhone gets Notes onto consumer sites like Engadget then that has to be a good thing…

Engadget writes:

Image:Lotus Notes makes it to Engadget...
If you’re looking to gain respect for your gear as a serious business-class tool, there’s no better way than to infiltrate those Big Four accounting firms still using Lotus Notes. According to a piece carried by the Associated Press, Lotus Notes eMail is coming to Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch. We kid you not. The announcement is expected as early as Sunday the 20th, the day IBM’s annual Lotusphere conference kicks off in Orlando. The software is free for those with existing licenses which means IT is going to have a hell of a time keeping it out of users’ hands. If true, the application would presumably be the first official, third-party app developed with Apple’s new iPhone SDK. IBM is also expected to announce their free Lotus Symphony flavor of OpenOffice for the Mac at the same time. An IBM spokesman seemingly confirmed the announcements by saying that Apple and IBM have, “a lot in common. We’re going to cross-pollinate.” Let’s just hope they manage to untangle that jumbled Notes UI for finger-friendly navigation during the mating ritual, eh?

I’ll even forgive the author his “jumbled Notes UI” reference…. Let’s just hope IBM develops a simpler UI than Engadget’s mock-up, eh?

We asked, they listened…

What a great intro to Lotusphere this is…  Ed says:

Looks like the first of many pre-Lotusphere stories to hit the streets…
E-mail software from IBM Corp. will be available on Apple Inc. iPhones and iPod Touch devices under a new partnership that brings together two big rivals of Microsoft Corp.

IBM plans a formal announcement of the Lotus Notes e-mail package for Apple’s portable devices at its Lotusphere conference in Orlando, Fla., next week. The software, which requires use of IBM’s Domino e-mail server program, will be free for users who already have a Lotus Web-access license and start at $39 per year for new users.

IBM also plans to release Lotus Notes and the free Lotus Symphony “productivity” package — which includes documents, spreadsheets and other Microsoft Office-like software — for Apple’s Macintosh computers.
Link: Associated Press: IBM to add software for Apple devices >

Lotusphere – no use crying over spilt milk…

Let’s get this out the way….

I will not be at Lotusphere 2008, despite all my best efforts and those of IBM.  

Whilst I can understand the rationale – we have a lot of business on the go at the moment which really needs my attention – it doesn’t stifle the huge disappointment that I won’t be there to hear the latest news, make and enhance relationships, and to catch up with all of those in the Lotus blogosphere…    I’ve missed the ‘Sphere in the past, but never has it hurt this much.

So, to all who are there, hope you all have an awesome time, and that the huge buzz is more than matched by the announcements made and the event itself.  To those that aren’t, I will be doing my very best to capture what goes on and to present it via the blogs and our Webcast scheduled for 7th February.

Now where’s that bottle 😉

New Year Gnats

Shannon sums up the way I feel about January –  well the period before heading to Lotusphere anyway…

I like to make a list of “Gnats.” You know, those things you didn’t get to, but they always seem to be buzzing around your head and bothering you? I like to list them and spend January getting them out of the way.

Scaling back…

I was beginning to think along these lines anyway, but Matt Wood over at Merlin’s great 43Folders productivity site says it really well…

This is the time of the year for everybody to make lame, half-hearted resolutions about how they’re going to lead a better life in the new year: lose weight, stop smoking, eat less fried cheese, take a ceramics class, etc.

[I]t is a new year, and it’s not a bad idea to at least try to alter some of your bad habits, pick up a new skill, or do something to make yourself happier. My suggestion for this year addresses a problem I suspect many of the people who read this site have: the sheer number of online commitments—that is, blogs, social networks, message groups, IM accounts, Flickr, Twitter, and any other online time sink that ends with an R—that we try to maintain.

A couple of my posts in the past few weeks dealt with the problem of trying to consume too much information. What about how much we try to produce? At one point last fall, I realized I was trying to run five blogs, two Flickr accounts, and a del.icio.us page, all the while keeping up a constant patter on Twitter, IM, and email. Only two of those things were strictly necessary for my work; the rest just made their way into my life somehow. Sure, I was doing a lot of it because it was fun, but I knew I had to scale back or else I was going to end up speaking only in 140-character, hyperlinked sentences.

My problem, and I suspect this will resonate with many of you, is that I felt like I needed to do many of these things to keep up with the techno-jonses.

Well, my tally is currently 6 blogs, Twitter, Jaiku, Facebook, del.icio.us, Flickr and numerous others… I think it’s time to cut back.  I’ll let you know what gets dropped…

Image:Lotusphere 2008 tagline "Emergence" - a follow up...

Lotusphere 2008 tagline “Emergence” – a follow up…

You may remember that I recently posted the graphic for Lotusphere 2008 that included the tagline:

“Emergence. Get Ready. Your concept of collaboration and communication is about to change.”
Image:Lotusphere 2008 tagline "Emergence" - a follow up...

Well, Neil Burston mentioned to me that he had managed to get round to reading a fascinating book entitled “Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software” by Steven Johnson during the Christmas break, and that perhaps the theme for Lotusphere might be linked to Emergence theory?  It’s certainly an interesting thought, and ties in very nicely with the Web2.0 / social software theme.  I’m certainly going to do some reading up of both this book a similar one from John Holland entitled “Emergence: From Chaos to Order” before the trip to Orlando.

Amazon.co.uk Widgets

Any thoughts?

GoDaddy.com coupons

Just in case any of readers have domains held with GoDaddy.com…

The coupon code HASH3 will get you .com renewals for just $6.95 rather than the usual $9.95.  Well worth having in reserve for the next time your domains come up…

The best coupon I’ve found for new domains is 10% off with the code COMMAND10 – does anyone know any better discounts?

Great post on why Twitter is important to IBM

Super post by David Tebbutt, entitled “To Twit, to who?“:

Like blogging, Second Life, instant messaging, Facebook and all the other social computing activities before it, at first glance Twitter looks a bit mad and potentially very disruptive. It is, essentially, mini-blogging. 140 characters to say what you like when you like. Your posts appear on your followers’ screens or on their phones.

You can be certain that companies like IBM and Microsoft are watching with interest. And, no doubt, many of their staff will be participating enthusiastically. As with all the previous social activities, they’ll mine value out of it, if there’s any value to be mined. Then they’ll try to either replicate it within their own collaboration suites or, if they have to, make sure that this stuff can be surfaced within their own offerings.

…

So what about Twitter? Time-wasting nonsense was my predominant reaction to it for several months. I made the same mistake that I did with blogging, predominantly that I thought I had to keep up with everything. It’s not possible. I thought the posts were largely pointless. Many of them are. Just like blogging, some are silly, some are irritating while some deliver direct value. Some Twitterers do all three, depending on their mood. The best ones are of the ‘hey look at this’ variety. If someone you respect enough to follow says this, then you’re probably going to welcome such a tip-off.

David makes some great points so if you’re at all interested in what all the Twitter fuss is about, go take a read.

New Redpaper – IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 8 Reviewer’s Guide

A useful new Redpaper published yesterday:

Abstract

With Lotus Notes and Domino 8, world class business e-mail and collaboration take an exciting step forward, offering new approaches to enhance efficiency and creativity, while extending the value of current investments. This IBM Redpaper will guide you through all the newly released innovative and open features of Notes and Domino 8. It is a must-read for any existing or potential user of Lotus Notes and Domino, from the casual user to the administrator or application developer to the line of business executive.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Changes for the user
Chapter 3. Changes for the administrator
Chapter 4. Changes for the application developer
Appendix A. Lotus Notes 8 client feature requirements
Appendix B. Lotus Domino 8 server feature requirements
Appendix C. Lotus Domino Web Access Client comparisons

Definitely a recommended download if you need any assistance in convincing others in your company to upgrade (or migrate) to Notes and Domino 8.

Merry Christmas to one and all

Luke 2 (NIV) says:

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

I wish you all the happiest of Christmases and hope you have a peaceful and prosperous 2008.

Image:Twoosh!!!

Twoosh!!!

Image:Twoosh!!!
So says Snitter when you send an exactly 140-character long tweet!  The music that plays is rather cool too – such a nice touch!

And if you have no idea what I’m blathering about, you really should be on Twitter, twittering yourself and following my tweets. Go there now!

Spot the obvious omission….

A revised software announcement from IBM today:

Title
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Microsoft SharePoint V5.4 delivers data protection for your Microsoft SharePoint environments

Overview
Customers are increasingly depending on Microsoft SharePoint Portal and Windows SharePoint Services to store, manage and access documents across their enterprise. With this growth of business critical data and content within the SharePoint evironment, customers want to manage and protect this data. IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Microsoft SharePoint, the newest member of the Tivoli Storage Manager family, allows you to quickly and confidently restore your Microsoft SharePoint business data and content due to a business interruption of almost any kind.

Highlights of V5.4:
Backup and recovery of Microsoft SharePoint Portal 2003 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 environments

Granular item-level backup and restore capability

Ability to restore portals, top level sites, subsites, and individual document libraries, attachments, lists, folders, areas, and sub areas

Schedule full, incremental, or differential backup at the site-level, subsite-level, and item-level, and preserves all meta-data versions

Yep, you’ve guessed it…

No “TSM for Lotus Quickr” or “TSM for Lotus Connections”…  Now to be fair, I guess that it would be possible to use “TSM for Mail” to backup the Domino version of Quickr, or “TSM for Application Servers” to backup the WAS-based Connections or Quickr/J2EE, but that really isn’t the point…  If IBM feels the need to publicly offer support for MS products before its own then what does that say to the customers that are currently evaluating Sharepoint vs. Quickr?   Grrrr….

Actually, I can remember standing at Lotusphere 2004 asking the Workplace guys when Tivoli Monitoring or TSM would properly support WSE and WCS and got a shrug of the shoulders – it wasn’t something that the Lotus guys could influence, nor did they really see a need for it – looking after the infrastructure once it was deployed was someone else’s problem.  However, it is a BIG issue for those on customer site’s managing the products, and for those in partners like mine that have to advise our customers and to design the architecture.  The phrases “absence of” and “joined up thinking” spring to mind…

Lotus Symphony hits 250,000 downloads

From an IBM Partner newsletter:

IBM Lotus Symphony exceeds 250,000 registered users
IBM Lotus Symphony has been downloaded by more than 250,000 registered users in its first two months. Lotus Symphony software offers word processing, spreadsheet and presentation applications available at no charge to anyone and everyone. The latest version, beta 2, offers a simplified, single click installation process, a single launch icon, a “Getting Started” page for launching Lotus Symphony applications and many performance enhancements.

Whilst not huge figures, I think that Lotus Symphony is making progress – certainly Beta 2 is much improved over the first release…

Image:IBM Web Highlights - new Web2.0 note-taking app...

IBM Web Highlights – new Web2.0 note-taking app…

This came through the mail today:
Image:IBM Web Highlights - new Web2.0 note-taking app...
Looked interesting, as I have always had a problem working out the best method of taking and sharing notes from meetings.  So, to the application:
Image:IBM Web Highlights - new Web2.0 note-taking app...
Not really had a chance to have a proper play, but it seems to tick all the boxes….  Will report back later in more detail…

So where’s the support for Domino mail on the iPhone?

Volker quotes AppleInsider, suggesting that Apple is working on improved support for MS Exchange-based email:

Apple is working on improving the iPhone’s support of Microsoft’s Exchange email platform, which could finally deliver true syncing capabilities, a new company job posting has revealed. The undated listing seeks a “motivated, highly-technical Exchange test/sync engineer with excellent problem solving and communication skills.” … Thus far, the iPhone’s official support of Exchange has been limited to IMAP functionality under certain conditions. The lack of full support for the Microsoft platform is commonly cited as one of the primary barriers to adoption of the Apple handset by businesses, as Exchange is widely deployed as the email solution of choice amongst the corporate world.

Though speculative, Apple’s reference to sync engineers may indicate that work is being done to deliver support for ActiveSync, which would allow the iPhone to synchronize email, calendar items and contacts with Exchange servers. Potential iPhone buyers who rely on Exchange in the workplace have have singled out the omission of ActiveSync support as the limiting factor in their decision to hold off on purchasing the Apple handset.

So, where is the improved support for Domino-based email? Come on Apple/IBM…

Image:Off topic, but important... The Golden Compass -- A Briefing for Concerned Christians

Off topic, but important… The Golden Compass — A Briefing for Concerned Christians

As a father of four, I am always on the lookout for films to take the family to see, and indeed to try to be aware of the ones to avoid…  The Golden Compass is a film that, on first glance, seems to tick all the important boxes – great cast, awesome special effects, gripping plot… However, as Albert Mohler details, the underlying story is somewhat more sinister.
Image:Off topic, but important... The Golden Compass -- A Briefing for Concerned Christians

The release of The Golden Compass as a major motion picture represents a new challenge for Christians — especially parents. The release of a popular film with major actors that presents a message directly subversive of Christianity is something new. It is not likely to be the last.

Having seen the movie at an advance viewing and having read all three books of His Dark Materials, I can assure Christians that we face a real challenge — one that will require careful thinking and intellectual engagement.

…

This is not just any fantasy trilogy or film project.  Philip Pullman has an agenda — an agenda about as subtle as an army tank.  His agenda is nothing less than to expose what he believes is the tyranny of the Christian faith and the Christian church.  His hatred of the biblical storyline is clear.  He is an atheist whose most important literary project is intended to offer a moral narrative that will reverse the biblical account of the fall and provide a liberating mythology for a new secular age.

Well worth reading the rest of the article…

Lotus Web2.0 Developer Kit

This looks to be a useful package of information to digest, or to pass onto your developer teams:

Lotus Web 2.0 Developer kit

Putting Web 2.0 to work
27 Nov 2007

Ideas plus collaboration equal innovation. It’s a simple formula, but how do you leverage ideas and how do you better enable collaboration in your organization? Using Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis, and social bookmarking, Lotus software offers several solutions to help you collaborate, communicate, and innovate. Find out how Lotus software brings social networking to the enterprise in this Lotus Web 2.0 Developer kit.

In this kit

Web 2.0 podcast series:

  • What is Web 2.0?
  • What is Ajax?
  • What is REST?
  • What are Atom/RSS feeds?
  • Using Web 2.0 in IBM Lotus Domino
  • Using Web 2.0 in IBM WebSphere Portal

Plus a developerWorks interview with Tim Berners-Lee

developerWork articles

  • Using Ajax to add document preview functionality to your IBM Lotus Domino site

Demos

  • Lotus Connections product demo
  • Lotus Connections business demo
  • Lotus Quickr product demo

Webcasts

  • Introducing IBM Lotus Quickr – The Fastest Way To Share Content With Your Teams

Link: Lotus Web 2.0 Developer kit

Lotusphere 2008 – Salon2.08

Ed Brill tells us all about the plans for Salon2.08 – the alternative OGS at Lotusphere this year…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu-j8aFndv0&rel=1]

Not so sure about the idea of watching oneself on video up on the stage at Lotusphere… Very cringeworthy I am sure!