Ed Brill

I almost missed this among the video treasures left behind by Lotusphere 2010.  During the opening general session, the action started off with a great musical act called "Nuttin' but stringz".  Behind them, on the 100 foot screen, was a video montage -- of a whole bunch of Lotus and Lotusphere videos from the past.  There are R5 ads, work the web videos, Lou Gerstner appearances, and more.  It's a great video, and in my opinion, too good to leave behind after only two minutes of background attention.

So, I posted it on YouTube.  The backing track is the same "Nuttin' but stringz" piece they played live, so if you dig it, YouTube is being kind enough to recognize the copyright and offer the track.  Much easier than me finding a way to post the video without sound, which wouldn't be that much fun, anyway.

After four international trips, it will be nice to finally be going a short hop within the same time zone for Tuesday, at Lotusphere Comes to You in St. Louis.  I will be delivering the keynote as well as the Notes/Domino strategy presentation, and yes, I'll remember to do it in English this time.

Looking ahead into April, I will be doing the same pair of presentations at the LCTY in Toronto on April 22nd.

There are many more dates and cities out there for LCTY in North America, and my team will be among the presenters at most of them.  Be sure to check out the full list on ibm.com.

I know I've been quiet on the blogging for a couple of weeks -- so much going on yet no time to write about it -- hoping to get back into that starting tomorrow!

There has to be at least one joke in here.

A story that will surprise from down under...

The University of NSW Faculty of Medicine has developed an in-house student management system, dubbed eMed, which has remained cost competitive with commercial software for seven years and is now being extended into the Web 2.0 paradigm.

As the core internal undergraduate application for some 1500 students across six years, eMed has iterated through several major releases.

IT manager Luc Betbeder said there was nothing that "spoke our language" available in the market in 2003 to 2004 that supported the undergraduate capabilities the way the faculty needed and "those systems are just gaining credibility".

"It has handled re-skinning, Web 2.0 style refreshing, user-consumable content and just iterated along as the platform gave a lot of flexibility," he said. "The apps has a lot of Java views and great use of Javascript."

With the application designed to be service-oriented from the start, the faculty has been able to extend its functionality by integrating it with other internal and public systems.
eMed ties into the university's authentication system for single sign-on, and the general practitioner placement app is tied to Google Earth, so students can choose placement based on selection criteria and location.

And what is the great mysterious flexible integrated and open application written on?

The application is developed with Lotus Domino and consists of individual databases with specific requirements all "loosely tied together".

Betbeder says the Notes development environment has been good for mixing open source and commercial products, which add to the flexibility of the application. ...

The Eclipse development environment is used and objects can be plugged into it and the faculty also built its own Dojo-like JavaScript frameworks.

With the equivalent of one full-time developer working on it, Betbeder says the cost to maintain it is minimal and: "Part of our toolbox of skills is Lotus development skills and Notes admin skills."

Success stories like these are extremely powerful.  Almost every Notes customer has one.  The more you share -- through ibm.com case studies, IBM references, business partner success stories, and/or the press -- the more the market awareness of Notes/Domino's incredible application engine is raised.  We all almost take it for granted, since this has always been a core strength of Notes/Domino.  But an article like this serves as a powerful reminder of ways to amplify the message, starting with a solution and then describing how to get there rather than other way around.

Link: Techworld: Home grown eMed app gets Web 2.0 refresh > (thanks, Marty)

Lotus Education is trying something new -- in-depth, detailed training classes delivered as live online webinars.  The cost to attend is fairly inexpensive, yet the benefit is direct access to the experts and practitioners from across IBM Lotus to capture their real-world experiences.  Four such webinars are scheduled, follow the links for details:

STM01 -- Demystifying Sametime 8.5 Webinar

When : Thursday March 25th, 11am -- 2:30pm EST

Speakers : Wes Morgan, Michael Herring, Frank Altenburg

Price: $249.USD


D8M02 -- Creating Xpages Application in IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.x Webinar
When : Wednesday April 28th, 11am -- 1:00pm EST

Speakers : Martin Donnelley & Tony McGuckin

Price: $149.USD

D8M01 -- Building Composite Applications in IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.1 Webinar
When : Thursday April 15th, 11am -- 2pm EST

Speakers : Hunter Medney

Price: $149.USD

D8M03 -- Upgrading to IBM Lotus Notes Domino 8.5.1 Webinar
When : Thursday April 29th, 11am -- 3pm EST

Speakers -- Tim Speed, Joseph Andersen, Barry Rosen 

Price: $249.USD
 

It's all over but the frequent flyer mile posting -- I'm back from a very quick tour of Lotusphere Comes to You in Madrid and Barcelona.  Family commitments drove me to rush right back from Barcelona, one of my favorite cities in the world, but it was still a great week and only makes me want to return sooner rather than later.

The IBM Spain team put together two excellent LCTY events this past week.  Both were well-organized, professionally-run, and had great food and venues.  More importantly, the speakers were excellent, the customer case studies resonated, and I met some really interesting colleagues in person for the first time.  In the process, I had a little bit of fun and some great food (see my Twitpic stream for some tapas).  I also enjoyed hanging out with some people who I hadn't spent enough time with -- my IBM colleague Luis Suarez, in his home country, and Vitor Periera, who made the super-human effort to drive to Madrid from his home in Lisbon, Portugal (and won a Plantronics headset giveaway in the process!).  Tuesday night in Madrid with them was magical, and I am really happy to count them among my friends.

I'm sure Twitter readers think I was mostly in Spain to eat -- tapas, el museo del jamón, churros, and yes, pig's ear (no, I didn't like that one) -- but really I was there to build relationships.  It was great to meet many of the ESLUG members  -- the Spanish Lotus Users Group -- in person.  You can see several pictures and a wrapup on their website and on some of the individual blogs.  ESLUG is a little different than the other Lotus user groups I've encountered.  It is a small group, everyone is friends, and while they collaborate and are even developing a number of interesting technology projects, it is also quite clear that this is a social club as well.  ESLUG is a community, and as such represents the best of what the Lotus software world is all about.  It is precisely because of the ESLUG members, specifically Albert Buendía, that I ended up at the Spanish LCTYs -- he asked my IBM colleagues to invite me to the event.  I then had the pleasure of working with Lotus marketing manager Valeri Illescas to build my presentation and participation.  She also translated the slides into Spanish, and cleaned up my broken Latin Spanish into clean Castillian Spanish for presentation.

It wasn't a perfect week.  I again didn't have any 1:1 sit-down customer meetings, and while I tried harder to introduce myself during breaks and lunch, still did not get to put several faces with names in both cities.  My presentation in Madrid, while well-received, was relatively flat and robotic -- as I said in the previous blog entry, I was incredibly nervous for my first public speaking endeavor in another language, even with an improvised teleprompter to assist.  In Barcelona, the nervousness was gone, and I had already done it once -- so the presentation went much better.  I still choked on the big words, but the audience was just as nice as in Madrid about it, and I had many compliments from IBMers and customers through the day about how fluent I sounded.

As a result, I think I fell back in love with the Spanish language this week.  It's been 20 years since I studied it, and I really don't have a daily occasion to use it.  But in Spain, it pulsed through my veins, stronger by the day.  Comprehending what was said to me was still tough, just due to speed and accent, but another week or two in-market and I'd feel really good about it again.  Especially if I could get those darn verb tenses right.

There was no sightseeing this week, but there was a reminder of how Spain is an incredible and unique place.  I hadn't visited for seven years (ten years for Madrid) yet it all came back so quickly.  And was over just as soon.  I hope the occasion to return will come soon, professionally or personally -- hasta pronto, España.  Y gracias a todos por una buena semana.

Some useful tips on configuring Lotus Notes Traveler in your 8.5.1 environment, and how well it works...

This article reports IBM® Lotus® Notes® Traveler 8.5.1 performance results for Microsoft® Windows® 64-bit operating systems. In addition, it compares the performances of Lotus Notes Traveler 8.5 (64-bit) server and IBM Lotus Notes Traveler 8.5.1 (64-bit) server.

Link: ibm.com developerWorks: IBM Lotus Notes Traveler 8.5.1 performance > (Thanks, Jan)

OK, one last update on the issue that Erik Brooks brought up a couple of weeks ago.  Chad Scott, who has worked this issue diligently in Lotus Support, reports:

A new Technote has been released to document the history and fix for the issue Erik Brooks blogged about last week. In short, there was a regression caused by a fix in recent releases that could cause existing code to return an error where it previously did not. With the new fix, this no longer occurs and the fix for the original problem with future-dated views is preserved.

I have heard directly from a customer that the fix is not only good but better, and Erik Brooks alludes to this in his Thursday night "8.5.1 unfail!" update.

Link: Chad Scott: LotusScript and Java functions can return "The collection has become invalid"... >

OK, mark another one off the bucket list.  Today at Lotusphere Comes to You here in Madrid, I delivered an entire 45 minute presentation en español.  The presentation, "Smart Collaboration", was essentially a slightly higher-level version of the keynote Kevin Cavanaugh and I delivered at Lotusphere.  In fact, it was the comfort of knowing that this was my presentation, my words, that gave me the confidence to deliver those words in a different language.  The times when I stumbled were mainly those where I tried to use someone else's words, for a few slides that were borrowed from here or there.  Otherwise, according to reports, the message got across.

Here is the presentation -- for IBMers, I'll even post it along with the entire script (not just speaker notes) on my Lotus Connections files later tonight.

Speaking in Spanish had its challenges, clearly.  While I routinely read Spanish-language documents, my daily use of the language is fairly limited, and it has been 20 years since I was a student.  The situation was improved last night when we realized I could use my Mac as a teleprompter -- yes, despite the criticisms of Lotusphere reliance on same -- and then it was more about pronunciation than about word choice.  That was a HUGE help.  I struggled with pronouncing a few words, especially large ones or those that looked suspiciously like their English equivalents -- try saying desarrolladores three times fast (in the end, I resorted to "developers, developers, developers", but there was no monkey dance.  The way I knew that things had gone well -- the owner of the "lotuspherecty" twitter ID, who I did not meet, tweeted several times during my presentation, highlighting the key messages.  Clearly, the message came through correctly.

Both in person and on blogs/twitter, many in the audience thanked me for making the "titanic effort" to present in Spanish.  Really, it shouldn't have to be that big a deal.  Unfortunately, in the culture in my country, being fluently bi-lingual is not common nor a requirement.  I am in awe, and somewhat embarrassed, when I meet people who can speak four (or more) languages easily.  So, such is not mi vida.  For me, today (and of course, Thursday in Barcelona) are the best effort I can make to truly bring Lotusphere to "you".

After my presentation, I later joined IBM's Luis Suarez on stage to discuss social software.  Luis's presentation was excellent, and I understood most of it.  Interestingly, the Spanish are among the most prolific users of social software, but it is mainly market-facing usage.  Many in the room use LinkedIn and Facebook, but not so much for (or from) their jobs.  Luis asked me to discuss IBM's use of social software and how it has affected my business, and (after holding up my Spanish/English dictionary as a reference), I provided some basic answers about how you and I are now having the direct, market-driven conversation instead of hiding behind market research reports and consulting studies.

The IBMers have run an excellent event here in Madrid, and I expect more of the same on Thursday in Barcelona.  Until then, ¡hasta luego, otra vez!

Alistair Rennie has been the general manager of Lotus software for about sixty days.  In this podcast, recorded last week, Alistair debriefs on Lotusphere, talks about Project Vulcan, and looks ahead in the collaboration and productivity market.  Well worth a 20 minute listen.

LotusUserGroup.org caught up with Alistair Rennie, General Manager of Lotus Software at IBM, and we recorded the whole conversation for you to hear. Listen in to hear what he finds matters most in his new position and what he took away from his first Lotusphere as GM. He talks about where Lotus is with their announced plans for expanding enterprise mobile messaging.

Link: LotusUserGroup.org: Interview: Alistair Rennie, General Manager of Lotus Software at IBM >

Near as I can tell, it has been more than seven years since I was last in Spain.  Madrid, more like ten years.  I barely had discovered blogging at the time of my last visit. As such, I can't wait to get there tomorrow morning and start the day with some churros y chocolate.

The Lotusphere Comes to You events are on Tuesday in Madrid and Thursday in Barcelona.  I agreed, as blogged earlier, to deliver my presentation en español.  While I studied Spanish in high school and college, it has been a very long time since I really used any of it, other than in a restaurant at any rate.  I ended up writing out my entire presentation -- like having a teleprompter, but on paper instead.  I hope the customers/partners in Spain will be forgiving of my scripted approach and Latin Spanish.

The ESLUG community has been wonderful in encouraging this trip, and I am looking forward to in-real-life meetings with so many of the people I've met online over the last few years.

Twitter followers know that I am, of course, looking forward to food as well.  Already discussing plans to visit El museo de jamón, not a literal museum, but a shrine to all things porcine.  The real question will be my stamina..."dinner time" is a very different concept on the Iberian peninsula.

Hasta luego and see you from Madrid!

A few days ago, Erik Brooks wrote a blog entry entitled, "8.5.1 FAIL. Your code may just break."  Unsurprisingly, that blog post got a fair bit of attention, from many of you as customers/partners as well as within IBM.  I received a number of emails and pings from people who were worried about the issue, even though some said they couldn't reproduce it.

At any rate, a few of you opened PMRs and SPRs, and I quickly escalated them from my side as well.  I didn't "turf mark" the conversation on Erik's blog, but our best people were in there already and I knew the issue was getting needed focus.

This morning, Chad Scott from our support organization posted an update in comments on Erik's site...if you aren't monitoring his comments, you might not have seen it.  So, here it is as well:

IBM understands the implications of this issue and has put a concerted effort into identifying a resolution. The development team has investigated the GetDocumentByKey and GetAllDocumentsByKey issue that was first introduced by the fix delivered for SPR AJMO7LHMK9. A plan has been defined that will change the way we fixed the issue in SPR AJMO7LHMK9 to avoid the problem. This will allow code to execute without error or going into an infinite loop. The fix will not require a developer to edit their LotusScript or Java code nor will it require the use of a Notes.ini parameter. Customers seeking the fix to this issue should refer to SPR CSCT836HFL (see my post above for key SPRs). We plan to have this fix delivered by March 12th. 

Note: The current issue does not affect XPage server-side JavaScript.

There are some good reasons why the feature was coded in 8.5.1 the way it was, but in the real world, things sometimes play out differently.  That's why we have a support organization, and some really great people in the labs.  They've worked hard for the last few days to find the right solution here.  But I want to thank all of you for helping the process along with your reports, ideas, and tests.  Fix is coming soon.

This is so cool.

At Lotusphere, Tungle announced that their connector for Lotus Notes was in beta.  The Mac version wasn't ready until a few days ago, though, so I hadn't yet really started to tell people to "tungle me".

Last week, I installed the beta plug-in and didn't really think anything further about it.  Earlier today, though, a colleague used Tungle to schedule a meeting between a few of us IBMers and an outside party.  If you haven't tried this, what happens is that each party invited to a meeting specifies when they are available -- the person setting up the meeting can use Tungle to find some times to start with if all parties are on the service -- and when all parties have responded, the meeting is booked.  Before the plug-in, what would have happened is that I would have received an iCalendar invitation to process onto my Notes calendar.  Now, with the plug-in, I simply received an email indicating that the meeting had been scheduled, and voila -- the plug-in automatically put it on my calendar.

Tungle is a great way to set up meetings outside your organization, where free-time search is not possible.  With the Notes plug-in, the process becomes seamless on both sides.  My customized Tungle page shows when I am available, and my Notes client keeps it updated in the background.

We are looking forward to announcing the formal availability of the Tungle plug-in for Notes soon.  Meanwhile, if you want to check out the beta, find the details and sign up information here.

Link: Tungle.blog: Tungle.me for Lotus Notes -- Beta Connector Now Available! >

Note: Wrote this on Saturday's flight home....sounds a bit ASW-ish but I am definitely interested in discussing perceptions.

I had a great week in Germany, once again.  My 26th visit (I think) was just as good as the previous 25, and I start to feel more and more "at home" in Germany every visit.  I still would love to learn the language some day, though oral comprehension seems like it would take a very, very long time.  At least for now I consider my "restaurant German" to be very solid, and hey, for a foodie that's probably the most important skill anyway :-).

However, after appearing at four Lotusphere Comes to You events during four days, I am starting to feel slightly overexposed in the German market.  I measure this more by what didn't happen than what did.  The sessions went great -- in Munich and Dusseldorf I did a modified version of the Lotusphere "Oral history of Lotus Notes/first 20 years" session, and in Hamburg and Cologne I delivered a Notes/Domino family strategy update.  All events were well-attended and feedback from the organizers was extremely positive.  However, other than an excellent (and at times, apparently comedic) question/answer session in Munich, moderated in "good German" by Herr Weber, I encountered relatively little direct interaction with customers who attended these events.  I try -- at least I think I try -- to engage, by hanging out during coffee breaks or meals, and saying that I am available for questions.  However, both at these events and otherwise, I did not have a single sit-down customer meeting all week.

There could be any number of reasons for this, but it is hard not to examine whether the issues lie within.  One factor I am acutely aware of is that I have had several different roles within Lotus over the last several years, and in many cases am better known as a "Lotus blogger" than for my business accomplishments anyway.  I was introduced on one email a couple of weeks ago as the "Lotus competitive guy" (which hasn't been my full time assignment since early 2004).  Even this week, I saw several references to my previous title as Director, End-User Messaging and Collaboration -- which changed five months ago to Director, Notes/Domino Product Management.  Maybe the right title for me is as vowe says, "Mr. Notes".  With all these different, admittedly sometimes too-vague external descriptions, maybe it's not clear which customer discussions would be useful and which ones would seem more like courtesy calls.

At the conclusion of my German winter tour, I am wondering if I have done something either very well or too much.  Do my sessions communicate all the answers?  Does my blogging and tweeting mean that customers and partners feel they already have the vehicles needed to connect with me, outside of the formal face-to-face meeting?  Do I need to "work the crowd" more in the social/offline times of these events?  I am not sure what the right answer is.  Of course there is a balance issue as well.  This past week, I did not stay at any of these events for the entire day.  Why not?  Well, I don't speak German, so sitting in other sessions would only be pretending, and of course the reality of a globally integrated enterprise is that there are plenty of conference calls available at all hours to dial into, with physically location less relevant than ever.

When I travel out to these events, I am doing so precisely because I want to learn what is going on in local markets.  I could clearly stay at home, sleep better, do e-meetings, and worry less about "Up in the air" status cards. Instead, I have committed to Spain, St. Louis, Toronto, and San Francisco in the next 60 days.  The key is to make the next set of travel worthwhile.  I am open to your ideas on how to do this even better going forward.  In Germany, I believe the next such opportunity will be DNUG, in June in Berlin, followed by Pavone's Powersphere event in September.  There is no question -- I will be back, but I want to make all those upcoming trips as useful for all as possible.  Your input as to what I can do differently would be very much appreciated.

This is a great video showing several of the hottest OpenNTF.org projects for Lotus Notes and what their end-user benefits will be:



File navigator, status updater, and XTalk discussion forums are shown.  Niklas Heidloff demonstrates the actual end-user experience for each, in this short video that shows exactly what Notes is capable of.  Nathan should be happy :-)

A few weeks ago I was asked, what can *you* do to help get the word out about Notes.  We had some videos like this submitted for the Lotus Knows website last year.  I would happily take more or be happy to see more on YouTube -- these kinds of videos do exactly the right thing in highlighting how end-users can be more productive with Notes.