Episode 28, recorded Friday 26th November 2010, discussing reasons to be thankful, Connections 3.0 GA, Transformer demo, ‘classic’ applications, XPages performance in the Notes client, the new XPages URL Shortner and more…

Please note: we have started to put times in the show notes for when we start to discuss each topic, in order to make it easier to fast-forward through the show to the topics that are of particular interest.  If you would like us to produce an enhanced podcast (AAC format) version of the show with multiple chapters to cover the individual chapters, please do let us know.

Also, we have made the decision to move to recording this show on Thursdays from this point forward, in order to allow additional time to get the podcast produced and still release on a Friday in time for the commute home (in Europe and America at least). Hope this meets with your approval!

Hosts

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

Guests

Tony McPhail (twitter) is IT Technical Manager with The Salvation Army, Southern Territory, responsible for Enterprise application and infrastructure, including CItrix, VMware and Lotus Domino portfolio. Domino, Notes and iNotes clients, sametime, quirck and connections.

Pim van Wetten (blog | twitter | lotuslive) has worked with Lotus related software for over 11 years. After finishing his studies in Management and Information Sciences in 1999, Pim van Wetten (1974) started working at e-office. e-office is a Dutch IBM Business Partner that consults organizations about the way they can use technologies to collaborate more efficiently independent of place or time. During the first six years of his career Pim has taken a deep dive in technology by programming in Lotus Notes, WebSphere and WebSphere Portal. Then, he broadened his activities with project management and consultancy. The last three years he specialized in enterprise social media consulting. Pim is a regular speaker on this topic and has hosted several Lotus Connections sessions at the Dutch Notes User Group (NLLUG).

Tim Clark (blog | twitter | lotuslive) is an IT Specialist working in IBM Lotus Technical Sales in the UK and Ireland. Tim has been working for Lotus since 1994 and still loves it. The last few years have seen Tim focus on XPages, but now that focus is shifting to help customers understand how they can improve their collaboration using Lotus Software products. Tim is also a founding member of the XCast, an XPages podcast, which will be re-launching for Lotusphere 2011 with new hosts.

Topics

Thanksgiving week – what is your ‘reason to be thankful’? (04:52)

Lotus Connections 3.0 GA (07:43) 

  • First available to customers, then partners – what were they thinking? 😉
  • Lots of useful resources, not least a checklist for the upgrade
  • Demo video
  • Several HowTo video’s
  • Installation worksheet (would this be appreciated for other Lotus products? Would it scare people off?)
  • Side-by-side upgrade – makes you realise how good Domino upgrades are
  • Wiki-based documentation – how do we feel about this? Should there still be a straightforward Infocenter?
  • CMIS demo of Luiz Benitez showing integration with Lotus Connections
  • Is there a pilot version of Lotus Connections 3.0?

Transformer demo on LotusUserGroup.org (28:41) 

  • What do we think?
  • Is automated process the way ahead?

“Classic”- phrase du jour (37:52) 

  • Developers are affecting the messaging side with this jihad to create a nomenclature to separate out XPages
  • Mail is still a Notes app (composite and all, people think it is just LS and forms)
  • Would you invest in a messaging platform dubbed as “classic”or “legacy” by the very people who’d sell it to you?

On a related note Jake Howlett’s “Are You A Domino Developer?”survey (41:06) 

XPages in the Notes Client Speed – Sean Cull (43:25) 

  • aka XPiNC
  • A 80 fold increase in data transmitted to the client over a regular Lotus Notes app

XPages URL Shortner (48:12) 

What happened to the XCast? (50:01)

Lotusphere 2011 only 65 days away (51:59) 

  • No sign of session confirmations yet
  • Who’s attending? Submitted abstracts?
  • What is the Lotusphere Solutions Developer Lab?

Traveler for Android out by the Holidays (58:01) 

Tips

(1:02:18)

TimKeep an eye out for the new book “Mastering XPages Development”(Amazon UK US) due out in time for Lotusphere 2011 and should be on the bookstall. Written by Martin Donnelly, Mark Wallace and Tony McGuckin with technical review by Maureen Leland and John Mackey.
PimMy tip is about social software. Focus on collaboration, on improving your daily activities. It’s about business value, not a social cool tool.
TonyUse Lotus Sametime.. awareness to see if people are available, send message to see if they can accept your interruption.
DarrenThis has been said before in TWiL, but Evernote is amazing. I’m using it to sync “notes”between several Windows laptops, my Galaxy S Android phone, my BlackBerry Tour and my Galaxy Tab Android Tablet. I store things like wifi passwords, etc and have them accessible no matter the device I’m one.
Stuarta) Need to know more about Social Collaboration (and specifically Lotus Connections)? Join the Collaboration Matters/Applicable webinar series, starting on December 6th.
b) SSDs rock.  Expensive but worth every penny/cent/dime etc