Lotusphere 2007, to infinity and beyond!

Well at least to R8 and beyond. I should have used it in my session.
Anyway, a great show, very much a Lotus focused event, with very little IBM referencing. Nice in light of the last few years where anything not IBM branded was tossed out.
Where to begin.

UX Lab (User Acceptance)
1st of all if you never did a user experience, they are great but take time, so plan ahead and sign up for a time that works for you.
I did 2, one on R8 collaboration and one on the Dogear product.
What can I say about R8 that many haven't? It's cool, it's advanced, it's a portal/dashboard, it can detach "pieces" like calendar or activities or sametime.
Downside, well, good luck getting some older employees used to a million things blinking and popping up around their screen.
Dogear is interesting, to a point. It is about sharing bookmarks and tags to better search or compare information. Maybe you think I know what I am talking about and like my bookmarks to update yours. Maybe not.
While I enjoy the online sharing of information, sometimes my internal interests should not be shared. Also I found it odd why I would want to include someone else's bookmarks into mine(making a few dozen to a few hundred) when I could just as easily search the system or web for the information as well. I was confused and still am on this point, but as the product was still being UI completed, even though it has been running in IBM for 2 years I was told, it is far from unintuitive and I consider myself technically adept.

I did not make it to too many sessions, but then there are really only a few I ever want to go to since the majority is either about the future (R8 which I still can not touch) or application developement. Damn if I missed the worst practices session, probably the most enjoyable one.

GURUPALOOZA
Yep, fun, but seriously lacking in admin people, HELLO! not everyone cares about appdev. Wait Nathan just threw something at me, it's a flyer from openntf.org.
Seriously, it was great to see so many up there, and put names to faces. The combined experience on the dais was amazing, although a brief name or intro on each person would have been helpful to those of us that just know people by their blog or reputation.
But the email problem questions could and should have been answered in a better way. Well maybe next year I can obtain Guru status or at least I can have it as a goal for this blog and my self over 2007.

Sadly I missed Ed Brill's BoF for bloggers on thursday, overslept, big bummer. And then missed the dinner with them all Thursday because of family things. Well there is always next year.

I was impressed to see all my EMEA friends there, were there any US Lotii down at the show?
Edited names to protect everyone.

And thank you to the IBM partner pedestals that gave out network travel packets (with phone charger connection ends too for USB) and usb hubs, they came in VERY handy in a pinch.

I think in another post I will update my list of required items for Lotusphere.

And as always if you have a Domino emergency, do not hesitate to call. We are open for business.
Edited to protect the innocent!

Lotusphere 2008

I can say, for perhaps the first time in a decade, I want to sign up as an early attendee for next year. I am sure many people would agree the future is bright and yellow and at an early fee of about $1500 it is well worth it.
Now how do i get more hours in my day and days in my week to do everything here.
And oh yeah, everyone is walking around on tuesday saying its been a long week!

ed brills session on selling notes

had a whole blog done, hit send, no go. Evidently pocketpc and my blog do not work well together.
I had done it all on my phone.
Bummer.
Ed and Julian's sessions was great, SRO.
Superman looks the same as in his R5 days but Julian substituted.
10 steps to selling clients and some anecdotals upfront go along way.
And for everyone's benefit, ROI means "Rely on IBM".
Everyone is ecstatic about R8 and the future although for me it will be rough, i am not a developer and eclipse will make my life slightly miserable while I learn some of it.
I also did some user testing on the R8 client, more about that in a different post because, well, it's cool, great, but some issues arose which when i look at it from a corp perspective nothing show stopping of course, just a hint to Iris to create some good help files.

Lotusphere 2007 is here

Not leaving until sunday night, but preparing everything to go.
Full agenda, up very early all week, BP work to do, client work to finish.
Business is good, but business should pick up at the sphere.
See you in Orlando!

Lotusphere Fun

Lot's of fun out there to be had over the next week. Rocky's got his 12 Lotusphere Attenders as reported by Ed Brill.

My entry for the Haiku was:
Microsoft is bad,
Borat makes them look okay,
Lotus is Brilliant!

I have something just for the Ed Brill lovers out there, Ed Brill Bingo!

Was gong ot have a t-shirt made up but you know how it is sometimes, getting waivers signed, etc.. Names are listed just in case....

No I don't have too much time on my hands, this was done a few weeks back over holiday vacation.

Never turn down clients

Sure my main project disappeared last week.
Bummer, "I love this place", well i do and did, but you know how it is.
So I had lined up a small Domino setup for a law firm, Sametime, Domino, Document Manager, the fun and simple stuff.
Now one of my recycling clients has called, last minute, to get 100 pieces of equipment. Good money but I am short on time, with Lotusphere coming up and being out of town.
We should all have such problems. :-)
I am busy editing my corp. website for the Sphere and it is taking WAY too long.
But business is business and business must grow!
See you in Orlando, I'm the simple man with a yellow "Boca Beanie" you can't miss it.

Nomad NO GO on PocketPC

Bummer of a birthmark. What looks like Windows, talks like windows, acts like windows but isn't windows?
drum roll please.....
PocketPC or Windows mobile 5

I copied the nomad over to my minisd on my phone click to run and error says this is not a pocketpc app.
DUH!
So now my friends in the development world, help me to help all lotus fans everywhere. How can I get Nomad to run on pocketpc?
On the bright side, all 3 notes clients work fine.

NOMAD ROCKS!

This is cool, sorry i did not get around to doing it sooner.
Forget the laptop, just plug it into your phone and go.
Will move my mail dbs and stuff tonight.
Sadly it did take an hour to install and a few minutes for setup/config info to get sorted.
Mine installed admin and designer too so I am slowly dropping pieces I don't need.
So far got notes down to about 350MB.
Pretty cool. And if my theory holds on connecting it to my phone, then no laptop for me.
Damn, I should make tshirts for orlando, go Nomad and leave the laptop at home, clothes optional.
:-)
As Chris W. pointed out, who knows if IBM will lock out USBs on the kiosks, but I don't care :-)

NOMAD and Lotusphere

No idea what is in store for us in orlando as it relates to NOMAD, but I got my 1GB usb drive installing as I write.
As the docs state, it may take a while to install, and it sure does. Mine will take about an hour.
Should be worth it though.
I am not taking a laptop to Orlando, no need to carry excess baggage.
My Cingular 8125 handles any emergency browsing, note taking or emails I need to reply and the NOMAD should handle more email at a kiosk, pedestal or friends laptop.
Still hunting for sponsors and promotions for my BoF so let me know.