Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Lotus for Small Businesses LinkedIn Group is Online

At Lotusphere 2009, a number of business partners including myself were discussing how BPs who focus solely on the small business market ( small not medium) can collaborate and discuss our needs which is different from BPs who focus on the mid-market and enterprise. Bernie Leung from Mesa Technologies suggested that we start a LinkedIn group as a starter. I also have many others ideas. The new "Lotus for Small Businesses" LinkedIn group is now online. If you are a BP that focuses on the small business market come join our group.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=1775798

Friday, January 23, 2009

Lotusphere 2009 Decompression

Today was the first day to relax and decompress after a week of intense 14 to 16 hour days. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend many sessions with booth duty and meetings that I had with IBM. I finally can get more than four hours of sleep per day.

One of the great things about Lotusphere that I enjoy every year is meeting the developers face-to-face. The opportunity to talk to them is worth the cost of the event. I was able to also meet with other BPs and customers that I have communicated by email or phone. Some of the customers came as far as Australia and South Africa. It was great to see them face-to-face. Lotusphere is definitely as global event.

One important announcement at Lotusphere 2009 for Taishan Works is the new Branch Office version of Lotus Foundations. I have been asking this for a long time and I am glad it is finally coming. Lotus Foundations will finally meet my minimum specifications.

One great session that I was able to attend was Lance Spellman's Jump Start session on Dojomino. They are doing a great job. I did not get a chance to attend sessions on Xpages. I figure that there will be more discussions on this topic in the future.

I was frustrated by some of the arrangement that they did at Lotusphere. For exhibitors with the blue badge why did they put the username and password for Lotusphere 2009 online on their badges if they were not allow to have access. I tried three times before someone finally told me that the exhibitor badges did not work. Why not give everyone with an exhibitor badge access anyway. It is not as if it will cost IBM any more money especially since a large portion of the event is paid for by us the exhibitors.

Ben Zanders' closing presentation was incredible. I plan to get his book. I know my wife would have love to been here to listen to him. It is amazing how much energy he has.

Tomorrow, we will venture back to Chicago which I believe will be at 15 F. I am looking forward in seeing the family but sadness prevails considering the temperature in Orlando on Saturday will be 75 F.

As in previous years, we will be bring back more than we brought over to Lotusphere. Our annual collection of goodies for our GRANITE Lotus User Group giveway has been very successful. Unfortunately, that means that we will lug a huge and heavy bag back to Chicago.

See everyone back in Chicago. Remember, the GRANITE Lotus User Group is on February 9.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

GRANITE Dinner at Lotusphere 2009

I had as great time at our GRANITE dinner get together at Lotusphere 2009 tonight. We did not get as many who originally signed up for the dinner but everyone had a great time. We were join by a couple of others business partners. There were many who were thinking, who is that crazy guy in the Dolphin lobby fountain walking about with a sign attached to his badge.





It has been another very busy days with hours of booth duty and meetings with partners and IBM. This has turned out to be a very good show for us. Many more announcements coming for at Lotusphere 2009 so stay tune.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Lotusphere 2009 Opening Session

After a quick breakfast at the Dolphin, we are here at the start of the opening session. The theme this year is "Resonance". The attendee is up 2%. The surprise guest speaker is Dan Akroyd.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Lotusphere 2009 Sunday Party

It was a beautiful evening for the party, unlike the past few years where it was freezing. The food was better than last year. Based on my food barometer as a gauge on how IBM is doing, IBM is doing well, crab cakes are on the menu. So far from what I have seen, a greater number of attendees are from Europe and Asia. Unfortunately, with the recession, a number of companies were not able to go.

There are a number of great sessions on XPages, Symphony, and Quickr coming up and there is a number of new announces about Lotus Foundations that I am excited about. It addresses some of the issues that I have with Lotus Foundations. IBM is making a good effort towards addressing the SMB market. Still need improvements but they are slowly heading in the right direction.

Need to get ready for a long day tomorrow.

Since Blogger does not seem to get updated correctly on PlanetLotus.org, blog was created on 01/18/09 11:46 PM.

First Day at Lotusphere 2009

It is a beautiful day at Lotusphere. Got a good night sleep and ready for a full day at Lotusphere. As always too many sessions that I would like to go to but not enough time. Big focus for me is X Pages and web development.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Anti-Social Effects of Technology

Technology makes it too easy to avoid the basic skills of verbal coummunication. I was in Panera Bread a few days ago and saw one of the saddest things I have seen. There was two girls on their laptops instant messaging each other on their laptops though they was sitting next to each other. Rather than having a one-on-one conversation, they opt to have this non-social conversation. What is this world coming to. This does not help teenagers develop the social skills that are necessary as they grow up.

Off to Lotusphere 2009 and Warmer Weather

It is another freezing day in Chicago, but finally we are off to Orlando for Lotusphere. See everyone at Lotusphere. Stop by our booth, #418, to say hi.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

New Sametime and Quickr Training from ReCor

We are please to announce our new training for Sametime 8.02 and Quickr 8.1. It has been a very busy past couple of weeks getting ready for Lotusphere 2009. We will be demonstrating these two new courses plus the rest of our Lotus courses at Lotusphere at booth #418. Hopefully the weather cooperates. It is so cold here in Chicago and we are expecting more snow for the entire week on top of the 16 inches that we have on the ground. Considering how cold it is, I was hoping that it was too cold to snow.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Quickr 8.1 Fixpack Installer Frustrations and Anger

You would thing that IBM with all its engineers and developers would be able to come up with an fixed pack installer for Quickr that would work seamlessly. After, trying to run the fix pack installer for two hours which keeps hanging up, I had to revert to copying individuals file. Of course, I made a mistaking in copying a file into the wrong directory and overwrote another file with the same name because the directory was named the same in many different locations!!!! Now I have to redo the Quickr server. Am I missing something. This whole process is a simple file copy and replace. Why is it not possible to write code that works. 4 hours of time down the drain.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Downloading Notes and Domino 8.5

I have tried all day to download Notes and Domino 8.5 and still no luck. Did not work with the Download Director or Http. I guess the too many are trying to download it.

CollabSphere 2022 Presentation: COL103 Advanced Automation and Cloud Service Integration for your Notes/Nomad Applications

Our presentation for CollabSphere 2022. Learn how to quickly add workflow automation into Notes/Nomad applications using No-code tools that ...