Commitment (LS06)

I'm still trying to recap the Lotusphere 2006 week in my mind. On Thursday morning, I was thinking to myself that if there is one thing that we should take away, it is IBM/Lotus' commitment to the Lotus software products. This word was re-iterated in the closing session. If it hasn't been the case in the past when we have said we're on the offensive, we should know without a doubt that IBM is in this for the longhaul!

Session Evaluations (LS06)

I was able to review the evaluations from our session. It was great to see all of the positive things that were said. It makes all of the preparation worthwhile to see that people find the information helpful and implementable.

Here are basically all of the written comments:

- More before and after
- links to Redbooks or tech center (There were some links at the end of the slides.)
- "excellent for even experienced iseries shop" (This was great to hear! We were hoping that newbies and experienced admins would be able to get something from this.)
- wanted more time for material (We wanted more time as well - that's why there was less before/after and no mention of disk.)
- "best session I have been to in years" and this was from one "considering iseries" (WOW - thanks!)
- should mention disk next time (We will definitely try to update this and hopefully present again together!)
- "can be taken back and put in place" (Great to hear that you can start using this!)

SeaWorld Was Great! (LS06)

I had a great time last night. I rode over with Christopher Byrne and Deborah Latter. They are the compliance and change control gurus! We had a blast hanging out. Other than Christopher running from the impending soak from Shamu, it was awesome. We actually didn't get soaked.

Well, I'm in an Activity Centric Collaboration session that's just starting. This is something revolutionary that IBM is working on for users to "organize the work around activities." Think of being able to have an activity in Notes and easily organize and share (via RSS) the activity and dropping files, emails, IMs, etc... Awesome stuff!

Bloggers' BOF (LS06)

I believe I may be the first post about it - sorry I didn't make the JamFest tonight. I don't want to get sweaty before dinner tonight! I was going to email my Blogspot account to post directly from the BOF, but decided not to. There was no wi-fi there, so the rest of the bloggers couldn't post. It was a really good BOF - especially being able to meet some new people. Ed Brill was the moderator and there were some great comments and questions.

The main thing that I would echo is that if you're not currently blogging, go ahead and start. You should also not hesitate to comment at other blogs. This at least gets your name out there and helps to make friends (or enemies...). I can really attest to something that Ed said.

He mentioned that blogging is a very good way to not only get your name out in the community, but also that it can help you get noticed by those who approve sessions (he pointed out that many of the people in the room were also speakers) and provides a means for them to see how well you communicate. While I generally will post techy items, you don't need to have a tech blog to "get noticed." Like Jess said at the BOF, you just have to post about things that others will find interesting. Even if it's just that you saw some strange shape made by your Cheerios. I would definitely say that being active in this community aided in the approval of the session I co-presented.

I look forward to staying active and hopefully being able to add feeds for some new bloggers who may have been inspired at the BOF!

Who's going to JamFest Tuesday Night? (LS06)

Just wondering who's planning on coming? I'm up in the air on it... Comment if so.

Day One (LS06)

Okay, so this is a little late as I'm waiting for the 2nd class on Day 2 to start. It's on DDM - which as you know is something I'm really liking about Domino 7.

Anyway, Day 1 went great. As I've previously posted, Kim Greene and my session went very well. I also checked out Lance and Dwight's session on AJAX and DXL. I'm looking forward to getting their application. I spent some time on the showcase floor too. Got my LotusUserGroup.org shirt (can't remember her name, but the LUG lady knew me as "The iSeries Guy"). I also got my "I'm a L.U.G. NUT!" pin. It's fitting because my nickname is Nut (short for Whisonant) and I didn't want the "Sametime Stud" or "Domino Diva" pins!

I also went to a session on Web Services but it wasn't what I was hoping for.

Last night was the JamFest also. It was cool but I didn't even get up to play. There were many more "eager" players... But it was great to meet and hang out with people. After the JamFest was karaoke at Kimono's. It was the first time I had been. I didn't sing, but many did and some were good. I left way earlier than the ones who stayed to close it down...

Our iSeries Session At Lotusphere 2006 (LS06)

The IBM Lotus Domino for IBM iSeries Administration and Performance Best Practices session that Kim Greene and I did went really well. Kim was great to work with, and maybe we can try this again next year with some updated information. If you attended the session, THANK YOU. If you didn't attend (B.E.) just remember that I can now heckle you at your sessions. We were in a fairly small room, but we probably filled around 85% of the seats. Kim and I also enjoyed hanging out with a few of the attendees afterwards answering some questions. This was a really great experience and I would like to thank IBM (especially Rocky's Best Practices team) and Kim for the opportunity to present.

Here is a link to the Color PDF of the presentation. I will also be placing a link on the menu over on the left.

Prepped for Session and Sametime News Story (LS06)

I just finished reviewing my part of the BP406 session. I'm really pumped about it!

Also, I've already had one power user from back home send me a Yahoo! news story about IBM integrating AOL, Y!, and Google IM platforms into Sametime 7.5. The word is getting around!

On that note, IBM really was pressing the point that they are the innovators in this arena during the Opening General Session.

Opening General Session (LS06)

This thing is packed!! Word is that the entire front section is just for the press. Some major announcements - just see these highlights:

* Jason Alexander speaks! He's hilarious...
* DWA and Notes with Sametime for Mac - live demo!
* Over 1500 Notes wins over Exchange!
* GoodLink for Lotus
* Wanda - Portable Notes on USB stick
* Notes/SAP integration next quarter - prior to MS/SAP integration
* This was the feature Rocky was talking about
* IM on BlackBerry - in Message window not separate chat app
* Web Services on BB
* Connectivity with AIM, Y!, and Google Talk!! WOW! With no additional purchase.
* Sametime 7.5 - emoticons too! Voice Chat, built on Eclipse! Screen capture to put in chat
* Better UI for Web Conferencing too
* 15 Million users of Sametime
* IBM Workplace Forms - very nice!
* Domino builder for Eclipse?
* Shipping WCS and WMC today!
* IBM Productivity Tools
* Activity Explorer for WMC 2.6
* Domino "Next" - Websphere Portal integrated to Domino (Lotus Domino 8?)
* Hannover - The richest Implementation of activity centric computing, improved mail threads, ctrl-click to select multiples
* Hannover Demo was awesome! Way to go Lotus!!
* Oh yeah - NO CRASHES from these major demos (remember the infamous MS BSoD with major announcements?)

The Shirts! (LS06)

While you're at Lotusphere, don't forget to get these shirts from the showcase floor!!


Get this from Workflow Studios (see Lance Spellman)


Get this from OpenNTF.org

Jumpstart Day (LS06)

Today has gone well. As others have said, the numbers have increased this year about 15% (almost along the lines of Lotus' growth too!) I went to two sessions today and met with Kim Greene to go over our presentation. I also saw on Chris Miller's blog that iCollaborate for iSeries was announced. I'm anxious to see what this is. Hopefully it will be among the announcements tomorrow. It was also really great to start putting faces with people!!

The first session I went to was the Java Jumpstart for the Domino Developer from Tom Duff and Julian Robichaux. This was a great session!! As Julian posted last week, he had a demo of a Pie Chart and Bar Graph all from within Notes. It was a great session, but I didn't win a prize. This session was packed out in a fairly large room. The highlights were Julian squirting Tom with a watergun (as part of a coding example) and also Julian's laser pionter (a.k.a. Red Light Saber!!)

Speaking of prizes, though, I did get two t-shirts. Bruce Elgort gave me an OpenNTF.org shirt and Lance Spellman gave me the coveted "Take Your Exchange Server and SHOVE It!" shirt. Also, John Roling gave me an "I'm A Sicko!" button. Awesome - thanks guys...

The second session I went to was An Introduction to All Things IBM Lotus Domino Clustering by Gabriella Davis. To be a strictly admin session, there was a packed room here too. It was a good session and I have some notes on some clustering things I would like to implement. However, I disagree with her statement that clustered unread marks are fixed as of 6.5. I know I've seen these still get out of sync. It is true that there is now a setting to control this, but with server and/or client crashes this number can be skewed across replicas.

IBM Announcements Monday (LS06)

I was reading Ed Brill's blog on the ride down to Orlando, and he mentioned that "IBM is indeed making a number of important, wide-ranging announcements on Monday."

Looking forward to what they may be - I'm guessing they will be made during the Opening General Session.

Finally On The Road (LS06)

Decided to meet my manager closer to the interstate. When my wife dropped me off we realized I didn't have my hang-up shirts and pants. Well we're now on the road after picking them up!