77: Outside the Inbox

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:09:03 — 63.3MB)

Episode 77, recorded on Thursday 10th November 2011.  We discuss Social Business, the London Social Business Breakfasts, IBM Benelux’s new Outside The Inbox campaign and more.

Hosts

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

Guests

Rooven PakirriRooven Pakkiri (twitter | linkedin |  company) is a veteran of the dot.com revolution, social business evangelist, Head of Social Business at leading digital agency and IBM Business Partner Digirati. Rooven is an author and speaker on the way in which Social Business technology , adoption and usage will transform the enterprise.
 Marnix KemmeMarnix Kemme (linkedin | twitter1 | twitter2 | campaign) is former chairman of NL LUG and since Dec.2010 Marketing manager at IBM Benelux, responsible for Collaboration Solutions (formerly known as ‘Lotus’) like IBM Connections, LotusLive, Websphere Portal familiy, Lotus Notes/Domino, IBM Sametime etc.
Dale RobertsDale Roberts (twitter | company) is Client Services Director at Artesian Solutions.  Dale heads up Artesian’s implementation and consulting team implementing Performance Management solutions. Dale has been involved in Business Intelligence and Performance Management for over a fifteen years, initially specialising in financial services data warehousing deployments for major global banking and investment institutions. Prior to Artesian, Dale was with Cognos for over 7 years latterly as European Services Director. Dale has collaborated with many global businesses to help them achieve real and incremental business value from their businesses intelligence initiatives.

Topics

Lotusphere 2012

  • Abstract deadline extended until Friday 11/11/11

Social Business – overview

  • What do we understand by ‘Social Business’?
  • Where do we think the market is?
  • Is this still about the technology, or are we onto the cultural and business-focused discussion now?
  • What offerings do IBM have in the Social Business campaign? Is it just Connections, or are Portal, Quickr, Sametime etc all Social Business solutions too?

London Social Business Breakfasts

  • What are they?  Where?
  • Why did you start them?
  • What was the format?  Why so little slideware?

Outside the Inbox

  • New campaign by IBM Benelux
  • Why ‘Outside the Inbox’?
  • What’s the discussion you’re trying to start?
  • Luis Suarez features highly, tell us about his campaign?
  • Do other IBMers need to join the move to leave email?

New backup and recovery tool for Connections Communities

  • Good first step from the team. Kudos!

Tips

Darren:
If you’re interested in getting started with XPages and RDBMS then check Amy Hoerle’s blog post on how to set it up.
Rooven:
Get your Social Business strategy right before thinking about technology
Dale:
Explore activity templates in Connections for decisions.
Marnix:
Leave email behind today!
Stuart:
Lemon – expenses/receipts tracker for iOS. Free, free, free

76: Connecting at the Jam!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:05:17 — 59.9MB)

Episode 76, recorded on Thursday 3rd November 2011.  Kathy Mandelstein and David Robinson join us to discuss Lotusphere 2012 and Connect 2012, the W3C Social Jam, RIM’s new music service and more…

Hosts

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

Guests:

Kat MandelsteinKathy (Kat) Mandelstein (aboutme) is currently oversees worldwide marketing programs, web and events as the Director for IBM Collaboration Solutions in IBM Software and for Social Business for all of IBM. Kathy is a regular contributor to BtoB Magazine’s BtoBlog. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Social Media Club and is the Vice President of the local Austin Chapter. Previously, Kathy led the IBM Rational marketing team focused on the business value of effective software delivery. In the spring of 2011, Kathy served on the IBM Executive Corporate Service Corps in Rio de Jainero.

Kathy has been a pioneer in launching successful web and social media marketing efforts, as well as developing dedicated web communities dating back to the time that she led developerWorks and alphaWorks in addition to marketing programs to developers for IBM. Her past history includes leading various marketing, channel and Web development teams in IBM. Before joining IBM, Kathy managed one of the earliest successful retail Web sites at JC Penney. Kat holds a B.S. in Advertising with Minor in Marketing from the University of Texas at Austin and a Global Leadership MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas. She lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and pomeranian, Luna.

 David RobinsonDavid Robinson (twitter) is a software engineer at IBM, currently focused on emerging social standards, including security standards. He is a former chief programmer for a global development team and has worked with customers in a variety of industries from manufacturing to banking.  He holds a B.S. in Computer Science and an M.B.A. from Duke University.

Topics

Lotusphere 2012

  • Major details for the unititiated
    • January 15-19th, 2012
    • Disney Dolphin and Swan, Orlando (is the Yacht Club being used this year?)
  • What’s the theme this year?
    • ‘Business. Made Social’
  • What are the costs of attending? Early bird deal etc?
  • How many years constitutes an alumni  “past attendee”?
  • What has changed from previous years?
  • Social Media
  • Will students be back like last year?
  • If I want to speak, what do I do and when is the deadline?
  • When will the agenda (days, tracks, sessions) become available?

Connect 2012

  • What is it?
  • When?
    • Monday and Tuesday
  • Who’s it aimed at?
    • People on the business side that aren’t technical – all levels
  • How many do you hope to have attend?
  • Can those with a full LS12 pass attend?
    • $995 to attend just Connect
  • Will my abstract be considered for both Lotusphere and IBM Connect 2012?

W3C Jam

  • Why does social business need open standards?
  • What is the impact for a business when they use open standards?
  • What is the role of the developer when leveraging open standards?
  • Why are open standards important to IBM?
  • What is W3C?
  • What and when is the W3C Social Business Jam?
  • W3C has a great line up of special guests and moderators for the W3C Social Business Jam. Tell us about that.
  • What are the W3C Social Business Jam discussion topics?
  • Why would a business person be interested in participating? Is this going to be a technical discussion?
  • What output do you expect to see from the Jam?
  • What will be done with the Jam results?
  • How do our listeners get involved with the W3C Social Business Jam?

BBM Music announcement

  • Enough to save RIM with the cool kids?
  • Slightly odd benefits – 50 songs for $5/mon, can share friends’songs

One in three young workers priortises social media and device freedom above salary

  • Would you be the same?

Tips

Darren:
#1 The Delta airlines app is a very useful app to have on your phone. I never know what time I land (unless the pilot tells me) so this little gem now lets me know. As well as when to check in.
#2 (as there are some Apple fanbois on….) If you have not yet upgraded your iPhone 4 to iOS5….DON’T. The battery life is atrocious.
#3 I was first!!!
Kathy:
If you want to speak at Lotusphere or Connect get your abstract submitted by November 6th – THAT IS TONIGHT!! (Tip: sharing customer stories and real life examples gives you a better shot at being selected) and if you just want to attend, be sure to register early for savings.
David:
We want to encourage everyone to sign up and register for the W3C Social Business Jam happening next week – Nov 8 – 10.  Registration is free and you can find the link by checking the Events calendar at http://w3c.org.
Stuart:
Even if not attending the BP day or sessions on Sunday, fly into Orlando on Friday or Saturday.  Saturday evening events are not to be missed. (and stay Thursday too….Blogger Open – DD)

75: Don’t mention the noisy neighbours!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:09:06 — 63.4MB)

Episode 75, recorded on Thursday 26th October 2011.  We discuss IBM’s new CEO, Lotusphere 2012 abstracts and news, the London Social Business Breakfast earlier this week and more…

Hosts

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

Guests

Carlos CasasCarlos Casas (twitter | blog | rockteam | leonline | aboutme) is an IBM Champion and Managing Principal of RockTeam and Lotus Education Online (LEOnline.Net). RockTeam/LEO is an award-winning IBM Advanced Partner for ICS as well as an authorized training center for IBM Software.
Handly CameronHandly Cameron (twitter | blog | company) is an Enterprise Software Architect at Softchoice and an IBM Champion
Simon VaughanSimon Vaughan (twitter) Deputy IT Director at Cardiff University and IBM champion (and TWiL Virgin)

Topics

IBM announces Sam Palmisano moving to Chairman, new CEO named (IBM taps Virginia Rometty to succeed Sam Palmisano as CEO)

  • Thoughts on Virginia?
  • Is gender significant, or are we past that now?
  • How about her background in Services and Consulting?
  • How about Sam’s reign?  Positive for IBM? Continued good work of Lou Gerstner? How will he be viewed in history?
  • Do we think Steve Mills stood a chance of being CEO?
  • Where does IBM stand in terms of brand right now?
  • Good example of succession management?

Lotusphere

  • Call for abstracts open
    • Slight confusion over fields on form
    • Thoughts on tracks?
    • Two weeks to get abstracts in (November 6th), sounds ok?
    • Will you be submitting?
  • Connect conference (was Social Business Symposium)
    • Over in Y&B
    • 2 days
    • Aimed at LOB
    • Will this one day be the bigger of the two conferences?
  • Ed queried future of Ask the PMs, put back on agenda.
  • Anything we are particularly looking forward to?
  • Wishes for LS12? What would we like to change or improve?

Social Business Breakfast (IBMSBB) event in London on Wednesday

  • Discussion-based breakfast briefing
  • Mostly vendor neutral
  • Almost no slideware
  • To be run every couple of months in the City

New Connections ECM offerings announced at IOD

Tips

Darren:
MS broke Skype MP3 Recorder. Download the new version 2.1.1 that allows it to work again.

Carlos:
KM Camp Philly is on Dec 2 and I will be presenting a session on the impact of social software with regards to knowledge management and specifically IBM Lotus. KM Camp will be held at DeVry University in Ft. Washington, PA (just outside of Philadelphia) Register here

Handly:
1) ATLUG (Atlanta) is November 10th at IBM, who is providing free lunch. I am presenting on WebSphere 101 for Lotus people, Michael Brown on the new 8.5.3 entitlements, and Lisa Duke on Quickr.
2) Take advantage of the new step up licenses for Connections!

Simon:
1) If you are a Social practitioner or want to learn from others, Join the Dachis Social business council
2) If you use Connections, join the Connections user community on Greenhouse. A great resource to influence what we want to see if future versions + a chance to connect with other users and share experiences
3) Come to Cardiff on December 9th for Social Connections II – it promises to be a truly ‘Exceptional Welsh experience’
4) If your Soccer team lose by a large score, do not poke fun at rival fans and control your noisy neighbours!

Stuart:
1) Social Mythbusters presentation by Louis Richardson
2) How to fill in fields on abstracts form! Register speaker profiles first…

[Music this week courtesy of the Stone Roses who announced they are reforming last week. Go buy their music on iTunes!]

74: The X-Rated Show. XPages, XSnippets and Xtensions – what have OpenNTF and IBM done to Xtend Domino Development?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:11:15 — 65.3MB)

Episode 74, recorded on Wednesday 19th October 2011.  We discuss the latest release of the XPages Extension Library, the IBM XWork Server offering, the XPages Contest, DANNotes and more…

Hosts

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

Guests

Niklas HeidloffNiklas Heidloff (blog | twitter | OpenNTF blog) is is an architect in the IBM Lotus Domino development team and leads IBM’s engagement in OpenNTF including XPages.info.
Martin DonnellyMartin Donnelly (linkedin) is a software architect and tech lead for the XPages runtime team in IBM Ireland and has worked on all three XPages releases from Notes/Domino 8.5 through 8.5.2, Prior to this, Martin also worked on XFaces for Lotus Component Designer and on JSF tooling for Rational Application Developer. In the 1990s while living and working in Massachusetts, he was a lead developer on Domino Designer. Now, once again based in Ireland, Martin lives in Cork with his wife, three daughters, and two greyhounds. When pressed, he confesses to playing soccer on a weekly basis, and salmon fishing during the summer when the opportunity presents itself.
Chris ConnorChris Connor (company | twitter | blog | linkedin) is a Consultant / Developer in XPages, Mobile, Eclipse, Java. Worked with Lotus Notes and Domino for 16+ years. Based in Hamilton (just outside Glasgow) in Scotland. Works for customers throughout the UK.

Topics

XPages Extension Library update 

  • What is the Extension Library?
  • Why did IBM release this as an extra library?
  • What’s new in the release?
    • Mobile controls
    • Social Enabler
    • Extlib tooling plugin for Designer
    • New discussion and teamroom template
    • Upgrade to support accessibility and localization
  • What version of Notes/Domino is required?
  • What happens to the Mobile Library?
  • How does the Extension Library get deployed and how does support work?

Reflections on IBM XWork Server launch 

  • What has the reaction been like from customers?
  • Beyond the 4×4 and 8×8 restrictions the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Uplift parts for Connections entitlements announced 

  • Just 60GBP list price
  • Effectively discounts Connections sales into N/D customers by ~40%
  • Difficult to know how to handle customers where only some of the users need the uplift

XPages Contest 

  • Goals: Mobile apps or social applications
  • Awards: 3 iPads/iPhones/vouchers and 1 Lotusphere 2012 ticket
  • Deadline for submissions: 12/02/11

XSnippets – Next Generation of the OpenNTF Code Bin 

  • Contributors: Frank van der Linden, Serdar Basegmez, Bruce Elgort, Niklas Heidloff
  • Other goal: Document how we do things, not only the results

DANNotes coming soon 

  • Niklas, Chris and Stuart all speaking there
  • 23-24 November, 2011 in Korsor, 75 minutes West of Copenhagen

Tips

Darren:
Lose hours and hours (via twitter, sorry can’t recall who) – http://www.drawastickman.com/
Niklas:
http://xpages.info/videos has 10 hours of free XPages videos
Martin:
New books:
XPages Extension Library – ETA April 2012 (Amazon US | Amazon UK)
XPages Portable Command Guide: A Compact Resource to XPages Application Development and the XSP Language – ETA January 2012 (Amazon US | Amazon UK)
Chris:
Look at building XPages apps more around java instead of SSJS.
Stuart:
SocialNotes – fixed price deployment of Connections Files & Profiles for Notes/Domino customers

[Music this week courtesy of the Stone Roses who announced they are reforming yesterday. Go buy their music on iTunes!] 

73: Interviewing a star

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:20 — 31.5MB)

Episode 73, recorded on Friday 14th October 2011.  We discuss the the role of an analyst, the state of the social collaboration marketplace, the new Connections entitlements for Notes/Domino customers and much more…

Hosts

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

Guests

Alan LepofskyAlan Lepofsky (blog | twitter | company) lives in Toronto and work as an analyst at Constellation Research where he covers the collaboration software industry. Alan plays a lot of sports, loves to travel on adventurous vacations and tries to take a few good photos along the way.  Prior to joining Constellation in Oct 2011, Alan was Director of Marketing at Socialtext (from June 2008).  Before that, he worked at IBM for 14+ years.

Topics

Just moved to Constellation Research Group from Socialtext 

  • Why the move to analysis and research?
  • What does the role entail?
  • What does Constellation do differently?
  • What did you learn from your time at Socialtext?
  • Did working for smaller software house give you any new perspective on working for IBM?

The state of the union 

  • First up, what do you call ‘it’? (Enterprise2.0, Social Business, Social Collaboration, Collaboration?)
  • Where do you see social collaboration today?
  • Where do you see adoption?  Who gets it?

Connections entitlements now available to all Notes/Domino customers on maintenance 

  • What’s your perspective on this?  Good move?
  • Do you think it will hit or help full Connections rollouts?

XWork Server 

  • Domino a good platform for Social apps?

Will you be blogging? 

Tips

Sorry no tips this week – they’ll be back in the next episode!

[Music this week is by Pomplamoose, taken from the track ‘Centrifuge’.  Get it and more from their site at pomplamoose.com or on iTunes!] 

72: That explains the pants!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:06:57 — 61.4MB)

Episode 72, recorded on Thursday 7th 2011.  We discuss the passing of Steve Jobs, IBM’s new XWork Server offering, the release of Notes/Domino 8.5.3 and its new entitlements, Lotusphere 2012 and more…

Hosts

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

Guests

Tim ClarkTim Clark (blog | twitter | company) has been working in the Information Technology industry since 1987 and has a wealth of experience in all sorts of areas. From September 2011 Tim became the Technical Services Manager for GSX Groupware Solutions. Tim is enjoying his new role immensely and gaining new skills, talking to customers and learning a new product set.  For the previous 17 years Tim was working for IBM UK in customer support, technical sales and business partner technical roles. Tim has specialised in Lotus technologies and has a gained a reputation for being the go to technical person for the business partner community. Tim is an accomplished speaker and for the past 2 years he has co-presented the extremely popular XPages session in the Lotusphere Show and Tell track. Since it’s launch Tim has been enabling business partners all over Europe on Lotus XPages. Tim is also a Lotus Certified Professional (Domino Administrator) and a RedHat Certified technician. When not working Tim is passionate about playing rugby, riding his motorbike, playing drums and spending time with his new family.
Julian WoodwardJulian Woodward (blog | twitter | company) has been working in IT since 1987. He started as a C and Assembler developer, moving through Clipper (remember that?!) to Lotus Notes 3 and all subsequent versions. He’s seen the world from the ISV, customer and partner perspectives, and has lived in London his whole life (so far). In 1995-6 Julian did a Post-Diploma course in singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London …but the lure of IT was strong, and he returned to work for a business partner before setting up Axiot in 2005. He’s still primarily working as a developer, in Lotus Notes/Domino and Microsoft C#, SQL-Server, etc. He is a member of the London Developer Coop, and Axiot is a Penumbra Group company. Julian is a keen Facebooker, a reluctant Tweeter, an occasional blogger and an on-the-fence GooglePlusser. He’s passionate about music, singing, real ale, real cheese, his wife, rugby (watching, not playing) and his children. Although not necessarily in that order.
Larry HawesLarry Hawes (blog | twitter | company) is the Principal and founder of Dow Brook Advisory Services, where he advises enterprise software vendors on product roadmap, positioning and messaging, go-to-market, and merger and acquisition strategies. Larry is also an internationally recognized expert on the application of information management technologies to drive high-value business transformation. His research and consulting work is focused on collaboration and knowledge management practices in the technology domains of enterprise social software, unified communication and collaboration, enterprise portals, document and content management, and business process management.  Larry’s previous work experience included three and a half years as an analyst and consultant at Delphi Group and almost five years as an IBM consultant and program manager. Most recently, he was Lead Analyst, Collaboration and Enterprise Social Software at the Gilbane Group. Larry holds a BA in Music from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and a MA in Historical Musicology from the University of Michigan. He earned the MBA degree, with honors, at Babson College. He lives on a beautiful property abutting the Dow Brook Reservoir in Ipswich, MA with his wife, two sons, a dog, and a cat.

Topics

RIP Steve Jobs

  • An incredibly sad day
  • What has Steve Jobs meant to us?
  • What did he do that has made a difference to our careers in tech?

IBM XWork Server released

  • Sans “Lotus”(Domino without the ‘Lotus’or the ‘Notes’?)
  • Good name?  Anyone else struggling with the singular?
  • Larry, any thoughts on how this competes with MS and others?
  • ISVs – will they show interest?
  • $2,000 per year every year

Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.3 released

Lotusphere 2012 Registration Open

  • Who’s going
  • Abstracts are MIA right now. Are they cutting it close?

Apple iPhone 4s

Tips

Darren:
Don’t take a week off. You really don’t want to come back 😉
Tim:
Don’t believe the hype. Apple is a prime example this week. Also OSX Lion is rubbish, but Apple will tell you otherwise. ;o)
Julian:
If you use OS/X Lion, you can implement the reverse scrolling direction on Windows using XMouseButtonControl freeware from http://www.highrez.co.uk/.
Larry:
Honor Steve Jobs’life by following his example. Believe in your talents and live your life on the edge.
Stuart:
Steve Jobs’ address at Stanford.  And my real tip… Notes/Domino customers – implement Profiles and Files now.  Perhaps even using SocialNotes offering!

[Music this week is by Pomplamoose, taken from the track ‘Centrifuge’.  Get it and more from their site at pomplamoose.com or on iTunes!]

71: Getting Bold with Sandy Carter

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:07:27 — 61.9MB)

Episode 71, recorded on Friday 30th September 2011.  We discuss Sandy’s new ‘Get Bold’ book, the adoption of Social Business, the role Lotus has to play in IBM’s Social Business strategy, how IBM has learnt from the Lotusphere 2011 OGS and much more….

Hosts

Stuart McIntyre (blog | twitter | company) & Mat Newman (blog | twitter | company)

Guests

Sandy CarterSandy Carter (blog | twitter) is a recognized leader in social business, a best selling author, and one of the most influential women in Web 2.0 technology.  As IBM Vice President, Social Business Evangelism and Sales, she is responsible for setting the direction for IBM’s Social Business initiative, a $200B market opportunity. Her numerous industry awards include: “Brand Leader of the Year” from the World Brand Congress, “Top 10 Women in Social Media” from Altimeter Group and Fast Company’s “Most Influential Women in Technology.” She is an avid social business evangelist, blogger, and twitterer. She holds an MBA from Harvard and a Bachelor of Science degree in math and computer science from Duke University.

Topics

Introduction

  • VP of Social Business Evangelism – What exactly does that mean?
  • What have been your highlights of the first year in the job?
  • How have you found it – specifically interaction with the community?

Get Bold adThe book

  • Why did you write the book?
  • Why ‘Get Bold’?
  • Is the timing right?
  • Who should read the book?

The AGENDA methodology

  • Can you outline the key elements in the AGENDA methodology? How did this come about?
  • How essential is it to have the ‘right’culture in place?
  • In the section on Gain Social trust, you write extensively on building relationships – what approaches would you recommend considering ‘internal’social compared with ‘external social’?
  • How does engagement work for B2B organisations?
  • “Business processes are the ‘soul’of your company – to truly be a Social Business, you must embed social into your soul.’ Is that the key, that an organisation needs to add social into their business, not try to change the business into a social business?
  • You mention 48 hours being too long to respond in a social world, does that mean businesses must plan for every eventuality before they engage in social to ensure they are able to handle any situation that arises?
  • What does ‘Return on Everything’mean?  Have businesses accepted this, versus a strictly financial ROI analysis?
  • Recognition of audience feedback during LS11 OGS – what part has this played in the organisation of this year’s conference?
  • Much of the focus of the book is on external social business, yet IBM’s most well known solution of Social Business is primarily an internal tool (IBM Connections).  What can internal social offer the business? How ‘big’does a business need to be before it needs to or can get social internally?

Future of email

  • Phil Salm wrote an excellent blog post earlier this week that pointed out the obvious and gained a lot of attention – Email is still ubiquitous, by pushing Social, could IBM be seen to be foregoing the email market too early?

Lotusphere

  • Sandy, you’re famous for your blue jacket – Now that Mary Beth Raven has departed, will you take on the yellow shoes?
  • Is the old Lotus brand (now IBM Collaboration Solutions) still core to the Social Business vision (as it was in 2010/2011), or is it more about Analytics and Business Intelligence now?

Looking forward to 2012

  • What are you expecting to be the major trends in Social Business to be in the next year?

Tips

Mat:
With the star of this weeks TWiL being Social Sandy how could I not mention WildFire! the Social Plug-in for Lotus Notes, post your status and get your activity streams from all the major networks, including IBM Connections, Sametime, Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin delivered right into your Social Dashboard – Lotus Notes, see http://wildfire.openntf.org for details and to get the latest download.
Sandy:
On Sandy’s behalf – buy the book! (Amazon US paperback | Amazon US kindle | Amazon UK paperback | Amazon UK kindle)
Stuart:
The Lotusphere Blog is back… We’d love to share your Lotusphere story, either via a podcast or in Q&A form on the site.  Contact us if you’d be interested!

70: What’s the link between glaciers and enterprise software?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:39 — 51.1MB)

Episode 70, recorded on Wednesday 21st September 2011.  We discuss enterprise architecture, the role Quickr plays in Social Business, new products from SNAPPS, the release of Notes/Domino 8.5.3 and Rob’s appeal for help with a very critical situation….

Hosts

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

Guests

Paul HobsonPaul Hobson (blog | twitter | company) is an innocent bystander. Former Glaciologist and Earth Observation Scientist who fell in to a world of IT through a single Sunday afternoon installing Slackware from 80 3.5”floppies. Also, he does Enterprise Architecture stuff on occasion.
Rob NovakRob Novak (blog | twitter | company) is President of SNAPPS, an Advanced IBM Partner for 14 years providing products, services, hosting, and business process consulting in the collaboration, enterprise content management, mobilization and business intelligence markets. We’re known for doing Quickr work like customization, support, and templates, although that’s really about 1/4 of what we do – lately we’ve been doing Notes client sidebar apps, working with iPhones and iPads, XPages, the works. Everyone on staff is a 15-20 year Lotus nut. We just did announce our first paid product in seven years (since we tend to give everything else away), some modules for Quickr that really enhance the user experience. Rob has 3.99 business degrees, has spoken at most of the industry conferences and user groups on both technical and business topics, and last but not least we – meaning SNAPPS with the amazing co-producers the Turtles in London – produce Collaboration University.

Topics

Paul has moved away from a big IBM customer to one that is more MS-centric

  • As Director, Enterprise Architecture at a major Canadian Uni, how do you see the social/collaboration landscape?
  • What does an Director of Enterprise Architecture actually do?
  • Do IBM products such as Connections and Quickr fit into the category of Enterprise Architecture, or it just large software platforms such as WebSphere, MQ and Portal?
  • From the outside, in academia the perception seems to be that free (e.g. Google) wins over paid (IBM) is that always true?
  • In your opinion, are large organisations (commercial and academic) getting into Social?

IBM’s focus is on Social Business (and thus Connections?) 

  • Does Lotus Quickr count as Social Business software?
  • How about QuickrJ versus QuickrD?
  • What are the use cases where Quickr is a winner?
  • New products from SNAPPS?
  • Moving back to having the option of ActiveX in new fixpack – how do we feel about this?

Notes/Domino 8.5.3 Release Date set 

Matthew Reimer’s illness 

  • What’s the situation?
  • What can people do to help?

Tips

Darren:
Traveler password security. Test it on your CEO’s device before you force out that 6 character iPhone password to all your users.
Rob:
Wear sunscreen. Brush twice daily. And never, ever try to trick me into thinking you have three Domino servers in a domain when you used three different certifier IDs with the same name. But seriously…FIXPACKS
Paul:
‘Foster the thinking, not the devotion’. It’s actually something I heard from Mike Rollings at Gartner (nee Burton Group)
Stuart:
Link Facebook Chat with new versions of Skype.  So much easier to keep tabs on conversations and contacts in Skype.

[Music this week is by Pomplamoose, taken from the track ‘Centrifuge’.  Get it and more from their site at pomplamoose.com or on iTunes!] 

69: Dude, always mute your labradoodle!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:25 — 40.8MB)

Episode 69, recorded on Thursday 15th September 2011.  We discuss Social Media Week, IBM’s use of social media to market its products and services, the difficulty of finding relevant and accurate technical information on IBM products, the state of the Domino jobs market and more…

Hosts

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

Guests

Colleen BurnsColleen Burns (blog I twitter I company) is the social media strategist for IBM Collaboration Solutions – where she is helping evolve IBM’s strategy around social media as it relates to Social Business. In a previous life, Colleen was a radio host and television news producer in New York.  She currently lives in Windermere, Florida — just minutes from Disney World — with her two children, Ryan and Caroline.  She is training for her first Half Ironman race in late September with the goal of crossing the finish line still smiling and standing on both feet!
Ray BilykRay Bilyk (blog | twitter) is a system administrator, collaboration engineer (and closet application developer) for a banking institution based out of Texas, but with offices in multiple states. He lives in Southgate, Michigan with his lovely wife, Jennifer and his two children, Kiara and Devin. He loves to homebrew, and almost became a radio disk jockey and an actor.

Topics

Next week is Social Media Week 

  • Follow #ibmsocialbiz for conversation re: Social Media Week
  • What is Social Media?
  • What about financial institutions – is SocMed as relevant there?
  • How is IBM (specifically ICS) embracing Social Media?
  • What Social Media efforts are ICS planning?
  • Do we have to move with as the networks change?
  • IBM seems to have a mix of employee/individual and corporate/brand/product accounts on Twitter etc. Is this a good practice we would advise for other orgs?

Trying to learn X-Pages …and fail by Christian Tillmanns 

  • Does this post identify a major problem with both wikis and blogs, tough to know the relevance of content to latest releases?
  • Amazing response from the commenters re: resources, many free and community-delivered
  • Matt White’s XPages101 materials, now 60 videos (250 subscribers). $60 discount available
  • Follow up post

Lotus Jobs market 

  • Seeing jobs market picking up in developer segment, particularly around XPages
  • Fewer positions around administration

Tips

Darren:
For the one man or small IT shops it is a real pain when the power goes out as you don’t know about it. Well most higher end UPSes have SNMP card slots. These cards are about $250 each but can be set upi to email you when the UPS goes on to battery (and lots of other things). We have “plumbed”Nagios into it and use SNMP to also provide visibility into the state of the UPSes. Cards are available for Tripp Lite, APC and others are available.
Colleen:
Social Media Week site – check out the list of city events. Follow @ibmsocialbiz
Ray:
When getting prepared for TWiL, whatever time you give yourself to prep… give yourself an additional hour! Also, work closer than an hour from home, especially when you’re on TWiL. (The drive will kill you!)
Stuart:
Zite – my favourite iPad app of them all. ‘Zite is a free, personalized iPad magazine that understands what you like and gets smarter every time you use it. Zite helps you discover what you’ve been missing.’

[Music this week is by Pomplamoose, taken from the track ‘Centrifuge’.  Get it and more from their site at pomplamoose.com or on iTunes!] 

68: Hope is not a strategy!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:19:48 — 73.2MB)

Episode 68, recorded on Friday 9th September 2011.  We discuss memories of 9/11, MWLUG, Social Connections II, the loss of the Lotusphere CULT shirts, two significant departures (Steve Jobs from Apple and Mary Beth Raven from IBM) and more…

Hosts

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

Guests

Lisa DukeLisa Duke (twitter | company) is Business Development Manager for Simplified Technology Solutions, Inc. (also known as STS), an IBM Lotus business partner specializing in collaboration, mobility, and virtualization.  STS also resells IBM System X hardware and related storage.  IBM Champion and friend of Mat Newman.
Sharon BellamySharon Bellamy (blog | twitter | company) is soon to be a Consultant at Applicable, working with Portal/WCM, Quickr, Sametime and Connections implementations. IBM Champion, iSeries fan girl and friend of Mat Newman.

Topics

9/11 – Memories from 10 years ago?

Wrap up from MWLUG & AUSLUG 

Social Connections II announced 

  • Cardiff Uni, Glamorgan Building
  • 9th December
  • Speakers from IBM, partners and customers, plus special guests

Lotusphere just 4 months away… 

  • No more CULT shirts
  • Will it still be Lotusphere?
  • What are our hopes for the conference?
  • Is the atmosphere changing over time as Andrew Pollack suggests?
  • Can Lotusphere serve both technical and business interests?

Steve Jobs leaving Apple 

  • What’s the impact going to be?

Mary Beth Raven leaving IBM 

  • What has MBR done for IBM/Lotus?
  • Will she be missed?
  • What do others need to step forward now she has moved on?
  • Does it put even more pressure of Ed and Joyce?

Tips

Darren:
MIB Browser help make sense of SNMP MIB files and find the OID you need. Great free tool.
Sharon:
IBM innovation centres – all over the world, 2 in the UK for use via business partners or ISVs
Lisa
Other podcasts:  Taking Notes, the 1352 Report, Dogear Nation, Social Geeks and Get Social Do Business.  Also STS events.
Stuart:
LotusLive meetings app for iOS – works great.  But IBM must retire the old 7-digit Sametime Unyte meetings that are incompatible.  Also, needs to offer audio through the app too.