Ed Brill

Wow what a day.  I've just completed a scan of the Lotusphere-related blogs, looking for feedback on sessions (good and bad), the opening session, and anything else from day 1.  All good stuff...

Clearly, one of the highlights from this morning's Lotusphere opening general session was the appearance of Ray Ozzie.  Almost every blog about the OGS mentions his appearance, and that he received the only standing ovation of the morning.  All true, and deservedly so.  I did promise last week that we would have some "magical Lotusphere moments".  When I talked to people after the OGS, I learned that some of the attendees were emotional and even crying (joyfully) at Ray's appearance.  That's the magic, folks.  

Some of the blogs and comments in the hall seem to make much of Ozzie's appearance here.  I'm probably oversharing a bit, but it's not hearsay as I was involved in the preparations that brought Groove to Lotusphere this year.  Basically, we were all aware that the 20th anniversary of Iris Associates, and the 15th anniversary of shipping Notes, occurred last month.  Given that, it made perfect sense to celebrate those rarely-achieved software milestones at this Lotusphere.  The Groove team was up for a celebration too, and as most will recall, Ozzie did a number of public interviews and guest columns at that time.  That same week, the two organizations had a number of conversations about what we might be able to pull together for Lotusphere.  

The idea for tomorrow morning's "innovator's panel" was the first to come out of the discussion.  Then Sandra or Kristin (the "queens of Lotusphere") proposed a cameo for Ray in the opening general session.  We decided to build a retrospective video (how cool was that?) to go along with the cameo.  Thus was born what you saw today.  (For those wondering if I can work anymore magic, Sandra and I have discussed digitizing that video... I hope we can make it available for download).

Groove also has a pedestal in the product showcase, focusing on Notes integration.  I'll be mentioning this in the morning, but they also have a very special Notes memorabilia giveaway at the ped.  

I want to put to rest some of the editorial comment and innuendo that some of the blogs and hallway conversations have said about Groove's presence at Lotusphere.  There seems to be some perception of a rift or past issues between IBM/Lotus and Groove.  There is nothing of the sort. We are all pieces to the same puzzle -- as Ozzie described this morning, a lot of really smart people working on how to make technology that helps people work together better.  The rate and amount of innovation in this space is staggering, and will continue to be in the decades to come.  The more the merrier, I say.  I hope we'll have some good discussion about that future in the morning.  See you there.