48 – Connections 3.0.1 and the app that could spread like wildfire

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:15:47 — 69.5MB)

Episode 48, recorded Thursday 21st April 2011, discussing the new IBM Connections 3.0.1 release, potential for a Connections ISV community, the deprecation of the Lotus brand and more…

(Sorry for the poor audio quality this week – Stuart was clearly still in holiday mode and forgot to check his Mic settings – amateur!)

Hosts

Stuart McIntyre (blog | twitter | company) & Darren Duke (blog | twitter | company)

Guests

Adam BrownAdam Brown (blog | twitter | company ) is a Director at ISW, a focused IBM Premier Partner in Australia that operates across the full IBM Software Portfolio including Lotus, WebSphere, Rational, Tivoli, IM, and Business Analytics (Cognos). Adam is the Technical Director for the company and is responsible for helping our clients understand where IBM solutions can help them meet their business objectives. Specifically Adam is personally focused around Connections/Portal/Forms/Notes/Domino/TDI/TIM/TAM/Cognos
Joe RussoJoe Russo (blog | twitter | company ) is Senior Designer on Connections, focused primarily on Connections Communities. Joe works with user feedback in a variety of formats and groups of different development teams to continually improve and innovate social software at IBM.

Topics

Lotus Connections 3.0.1 

  • Announced on Tuesday 5th April, shipped on Thursday 7th April
  • So what’s new?
    • Ideation Blogs
    • Media Galleries in Communities
    • Community Moderation
    • Integration with ECM repositories (Content Manager and Filenet)
    • Closer integration with Sametime
  • Where did these requirements come from?
  • What was the reaction when the features were shown at Lotusphere?
  • Can you upgrade from 2.5 or do you have to go to 3.0 first?

How do we feel about Connections as a product now? 

  • Has it gained traction?
  • Integration with other IBM Products such as Rational Team Concert and Cognos 10.
  • ECM integration is first sign of Quickr-functionaility being migrated into Connections.  How do we see the Quickr product in the future?
  • Where are the ISVs? What’s stopping ISVs from developing for the platform?

More broadly 

  • As a designer for Connections, what are you principal influences?
  • Social Collaboration services are typically though to be intuitive and needing limited training
    • How do the design team make this a reality?
    • Is there more work to do?
  • Mobile access – web versus native apps
    • Connections has a pretty impressive mobile web UI, yet many users want and expect native apps for Android/iOS these days
    • What do we think about this? Is a Mobile web UI enough?
    • How about disconnected access to Connections and other Social Collaboration tools?
    • ISW has some exciting news here. Coming to an AppStore soon – iWildfire for Connections!

More on the Lotus rebranding 

Q1 numbers for IBM 

  • Lotus changes smidgen (+1%)
  • Vowe has an explanation as to why Lotus maybe constantly under-performing

Competition

Win a copy of Michael Sampson’s ‘User Adoption Strategies‘ book.  Simply blog about the This Week in Lotus podcast linking to our site.  We’ll pick one post at random, and send a copy of the book to the winner! 

Tips

DarrenInstall Lotus Sametime in your environment if you are entitled
Adam1) Look out for iWildfire for Connections on the Apple AppStore coming in May! First 20 people to message me with the hastag #iwildfire on Twitter can get a copy of the Beta!
2) Call out for AUSLUG and Lotus Week in Sydney – Monday August 22 – Friday August 26, 2011
Joe1) if you want to help direct and influence connections, come to http://synch.rono.us and be heard, we listen!
2) Integration with ECM repositories like FileNet and Content Manager have an added bonus – if you have the Quickr Connectors installed you get round trip editing.  This means that when you click on a document in the web browser it automatically opens with your preferred editor (PowerPoint, Word, Symphony, Notepad, etc). You can then edit the document and when you close it, it gets automatically saved and checked in to ECM
StuartStrongVPN – VPN client that allows you to set your location in 18 countries around the world. Allows services such as BBC iPlayer, Hulu and Boxee to be used wherever you are.  Plus a great VPN for using at airports etc.  Packages from $55 a year.

 

 

47: You like me, you really, really like me….oh and AusLUG

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:17:05 — 70.7MB)

Episode 47, recorded Wednesday April 13th 2011, discussing the IBM Champion Program, clouds and AusLUG

Hosts

Darren Duke (blog | twitter | company) and Mat Newman Mat (matnewman.com | matnewman | ISW) Director of Education at Australian Premier Business Partner – ISW.  A self proclaimed master of all things Notes and Domino who also happens to own #TheYellowSuit.

Guests

Joyce DavisJoyce Davis : (personal twitter | company twitter | company blog) I’m community manager for IBM in the Collaboration Solutions or “Lotus”division. I’ve “bled yellow”since 1983 when I used Lotus 1-2-3 version 1A for DOS to manage the WW Technical Education course schedule as an IBM co-op. (I was an infant, of course.) I joined Lotus full-time in 1993. I have a degree from Univ. of Texas in Sociology. All those who questioned the value of my degree can now SUCK IT thanks to the social business movement! 🙂 I’ve worked in MANY different roles at IBM over the last 18 years including technical support, people management, project management, communications, program management and now community management. I’m a mom, wife, flutist, Apple fangirl, and social network addict. Although I wasn’t born in Austin, I got here as fast as I could about 35 years ago. (I figure rather than go into detail on my job role, I’ll just answer that when you ask me about it.)
Mary Beth RavenMary Beth Raven Ph.D (blog | twitter) is IBM Senior Technical Staff Member in the Lotus User Experience Design team

Topics

IBM Champions Program 

  • What is this?
  • Where did the idea come from?
  • Carl Tyler blogged about this in 2008
  • How is one “nominated”?
  • Who is the target “nominee”?
  • Do we have thank our family, friends, manager and agent if we receive one?

Mat interviews Darren and Joyce on Social Collaboration

  • Joyce, you’re one of the ‘Social Adopters’within IBM, (a) how has social changed the way you work, and (b) how that that affected the people you need to interact with
  • …have their work habits changed to suit yours? HELLL NOOOOOO
  • Darren, you’re a Business Partner and ‘work’ CLOSELY with “Lisa – the Social Advocate – Duke”how has Social affected the way you interact with your colleagues and customers?

IBM Launch “Smart Public Cloud Platform” 

Reminder that all 7.x releases goes EoL on 4/30/2011 

  • What ratio of clients are still on it?
  • When was the last time only “one”release (8.x) was supported?

SocialText #1, Jive #2, IBM #3 

  • Comments, feelings?
  • Where is MS?

Tips

Joyce: 1)  www.livestream.com/ibmsoftware and www.livestream.com/ibmimpact offer some great videos from IBM events (and of course livestreams if you catch them). I use the iPhone app and it’s a great way to access the videos remotely. 2) Follow Alistair Rennie on Twitter at www.twitter.com/alistair_rennie.

Mary Beth: In Notes 8+ Standard right click on any name, in the sub menu is “Find Available Time….”

Mat: Tip, ‘Lotus Week in Australia’keep these dates in your Diary, Monday 22nd – Friday 26th of August because this will be the greatest Lotus event in Australia since Fusion!  Kicking off with the View’s XPages boot camp and ending with the inaugural Australian Lotus User Group conference, visit www.auslug.org, fill in the survey to ensure we can get The View XPage boot camp to Sydney, and to have your say on the content that we should focus on for AusLUG.

Darren: I have a useful one!!!! Microsoft RDC Manager (RDCMan) allow simple management of all those pesky 2003 and 2008 servers you have to connect too. Free download from MS. (Thanks to Ken S for pointing this out to me)

46: Dude! Is Domino still RAD? Dude!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:25:25 — 78.3MB)

Episode 46, recorded Wednesday April 6th 2011, discussing Domino as a RAD platform and more…

Hosts

Darren Duke (blog | twitter | company) and Mat Newman Mat (matnewman.com | matnewman | ISW) Director of Education at Australian Premier Business Partner – ISW.  A self proclaimed master of all things Notes and Domino who also happens to own #TheYellowSuit.

Guests

Matt WhiteMatt White: (blog | twitter)
Lead developer at Elguji Software, owner of XPages101.net and founding consultant with the London Developer Co-op. Basically I spend my life working with different aspects of XPages as an ISV, a trainer and a developer. Also I help out with the upcoming UKLUG conference in Manchester, England. We still have a few places left so go to http://www.uklug.info to register.
 David LeedyDavid Leedy : (blog | twitter | Czarnowski Exhibit Services)
Corporate Notes Developer since 1994. Producer of the NotesIn9 screencast with heavy focus on XPages Development for the beginner.  XPages shows are collected at XPages.TV which also contains a free 2 hour XPages Jumpstart.  I also compiled the XPagesCheatSheet which can be found at http://xpagescheatsheet.com.
NotesIn9 is about to launch a new series of videos.  “Build an App From Start to Finish”. This will be an example app using RAD with XPages.

Topics

Domino and RAD

  • What is RAD?
  • Does RAD always equal GOOD? (as in good development practices and outcomes)
  • Are RAD solutions single page apps?
  • What place does RAD have in the Enterprise?
  • Has anyone recently had a RAD challenge?
  • What did it (RAD challenge) prove?
  • The Spanner! Is XPages the only choice when it comes to web development on Domino?

Lotusphere Comes to You has officially gone …is this the precursor to the rename?

  • This years events have been less Lotusphere and more IBM marketing, is this what the people expect?
  • So what could LS12 be called?

Classic is back and getting some comments on Ben’s blog

SugarCRM buy iExtenstion CRM

  • I wasn’t expecting that!
  • Sugar6 has “Activity Streams”
  • Seems everyone is adding these

Darren’s Twitter Battle over support

  • Should new browsers be supported via hotfixes or am I a senile old codger?

Google GMail slow downs

  • Ah the whisp, white fluffy cloudness of it all
  • Clouds are usually slow…maybe we need a nomenclature for “speed”
  • LotusLive Tornado
  • GMail Cyclone
  • Give the user some expectation of speed

We’d be remiss not to mention the release of Connections 3.0.1

  • Renamed to IBM Connections
  • Added:
  • “ideation”blogs
  • Multi-media support (is that even a word any more?)
  • Moderation tools

Tips

David Leedy: Free LUGS:  Pac LUG, UK LUG, IamLug, MWLug. So for the people, networking and information.  This week in Collaboration?  “Stuart Translates the World According to Darren”

Matt White: The XPages Toolbox project on OpenNTF is a great tool for performance profiling your XPage applications: http://www.openntf.org/Projects/pmt.nsf/ProjectLookup/XPages%20Toolbox
Oh and…. This Week in Denial. Ben Poole on the LDC Skype chat also suggested This Week in <Prince Squiggly Symbol> as well

Mat Newman: WildFire! 😉 … AusLUG, there is a Lotus conference coming to Australia, details will be announced shortly, keep an eye on auslug.org and follow AusLUG on twitter  … TWiL, hmmmm

Darren: Go listen to the Get Social Do Business podcast from Lisa. We’re often a tad myopic in the Yellow Submarine and this is good, not necessarily Yellow view of the social world. And yes, she forced me to pimp it 🙂

This Week In Clofuscation?

45: Utility Server for LotusLive Notes – at least Stuart got that name right!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:36 — 49.2MB)

Episode 45, recorded Thursday 31st March 2011, discussing the new IBM Utility Server for LotusLive Notes offering, Connections 3.0.1 hitting the Greenhouse, WCM renamed yet again and more…

Hosts

Stuart McIntyre (blog | twitter | company) & Darren Duke (blog | twitter | company)

Guests

Scott SouderScott Souder (twitter) is a Senior Product Manager at IBM, presently the Program Director and Offering Manager for IBM’s new “Software as a Service” product, “LotusLive Notes.” Scott also shares product management responsibilities for “Alloy by IBM and SAP. Scott began his career at Lotus in 1989 as part of the original team focused on developing and selling the Lotus Notes product.

Topics

Utility Server for LotusLive Notes launch – announcement, Ed’s blog post, Stuart’s blog post

  • What is it?
  • Who’s the offering for? Why limit it to LotusLive Notes customers?
  • Is this ‘private cloud’or ‘shared cloud’? Does it matter?
  • How is it licensed – PVUs? How is this calculated for Amazon etc?
  • A customer is likely to already have Domino Enterprise, CEO or Domino Collaboration Express licensing.  How do they transition to this offering?
  • How much control does a customer have over their apps? ACLs, signing, port access etc?
  • Is client access allowed?
  • As new releases of Domino (e.g. 8.5.3) ship, when will the service get upgraded?
    • What if the app needs to stay on an older version?
    • How does the customer test their app prior to upgrade?
  • Is pricing available yet? (New licence $205 US – tradeup $102.5 US)
  • What comes next?

Connections 3.0.1 on the Greenhouse

  • Available now
  • Lots of shiny new stuff – ideation blogs, photo and video sharing in communities, support for Oracle 11g and SQL Server 2008
  • Now called IBM Connections
  • Seems much faster loading than before on Greenhouse

Web Content Management (WCM) renamed again

  • Loses the Lotus tag, as does Connections when 3.0.1 ships
  • What should Notes Next be called?  IBM Streams? 😉

iNotes and FireFox 4

  • Gregg Eldred links to the “new”technote indicating a 8.5.2 FP2 targeted hotfix is coming
  • Should IBM be expected to support new browsers at browser release time?
  • Surely if anyone in the iNotes team had tested FF4 they would have seen the issue and headed off a bit of a YPR (Yellow Public Relations) dust up

Competition

Win a copy of Michael Sampson’s ‘User Adoption Strategies‘ book.  Simply blog about the This Week in Lotus podcast linking to our site.  We’ll pick one post at random, and send a copy of the book to the winner!

Tips

DarrenDon’t buy a door smaller than the hole it is supposed to cover…now the real tip – if you’re rolling out Win7 or Win 2008 Service Pack 1 be sure to check out my blog to avoid making all your servers unbootable. Seen a couple of these this week, hence the post.
ScottConsultants are worth every penny – its amazing how having an external person in to chair a workshop can get internal teams talking.  Buy Michael Sampson’s ‘User Adoption Strategies‘ book – it is even better second time around.  Look out for new one in 2011 too, promises to be excellent.
StuartWatch out for OS X update 10.6.7, Java update causes problems with desktop sharing