With the hype announcements around LotusLive I am still surprised to see no changes to the function or UI except the name migrating from BlueHouse.  One thing that I still find interesting is the Sametime IM integration.  Instead of working on a rich web client, they require (not option) that you add the LotusLive Engage community to an existing Sametime Connection 7.5.1 or higher client or download the stand-alone Connect client.  The idea of the cloud side is not to have local items to manage. But here we are installing one.  Make sense? Nope.

If I use LotusLive Engage as my primary community, what policy settings will I get?  What controls are in place?  Who is allowed to modify these for my users?  I cannot even connect to http://im.lotuslive.com via HTTP to get any information.  Plus the page for the client does not specify if I should use the native Sametime port (1533), port 80 or some other variant.  This will make a huge difference on firewalls at numerous client sites.

Hopefully Lotus hears this and adds the feature and functions necessary to do some true cloud work in the IM portion of LotusLive.

Day 3 started out a bit better.  I could not immediately get the Blackberry version of the Sametime client working, so I went with Sametime Mobile 8.0.1 and that seemed ok.  There are some issues with the keyboard size overtaking the amount of the chat you can see, but it worked overall.  The new OS has made a difference in the touch screen response, to me that is.

I added a couple more minor applications and found how to organize the screen to my like, well some.  Disappointing that there are still not more themes out there.  But they will come in time.  I found a couple.

As for working with the keyboard for mail, well it worked.  Mainly when you trust the pop up choices for guessing words to interact.  It made typing messages quite easy.  You get used to not rolling over keys with the full qwerty keyboards, but it is an effort to make the switch.  Clicking down on the screen is fine, just wondering how long it will last.  The device should come with a screen protector until I learned that even cold fingers will not work right.  So a screen protector might be as bad.

One downside driving me nuts is the ability to turn off the 'ding' for new messages when it is not in a holster.  I like ti to be silent unless a phone call comes in.  Heck, it didn't even come with a holster in the box itself.  For such a premium device I would expect more.

Another bummer is the different pin setup for the mini USB cable.  Now all my other chargers and cables everywhere do not work.  That is pure insanity that a new cable set is needed from the same manufacturer in the mobile space.

lastly a small config issue on my part I am sure.  The camera keeps taking pictures like it should, but they are nowhere to be found on the device or the memory card as I set the preference.  I am investigating further.

Oh, the lack of wifi sucks based on the size of the device.  Imagine apps to connect up and stream content via wifi?  Now that would rock.. But no.

So yesterday upon arriving back from Lotusphere, a shiny device in a box was calling my name to test and see what it can do.  I was weary of it after reading many postings  But after much cajoling from certain admins (*cough* Troy), he did the switch.  Ok, here we go to what happened.

Day 1

• Upset it had no case that came with it like other ones
• Didn't like the total weight at first
• I had played with one sooner so the keyboard was not a huge shocker
• Limited amount of themes (one isntalled), but I went with the default
• I was able to easily type, send mail, use the keyboard in landscape or portrait.
• Great integrations with Flickr, Facebook and many IM clients
• I am not sure what some of the things do yet, but I am getting there
• The speaker was cool and videos were nice on the larger screen
• I didn't like not being able to turn off the dings when it was out of the holster, pet peeve of mine.  Just blink dammit
• Reception seemed very low
• But something was amiss

Day 2

• I loaded OS 4.7 and the interface got smoother
• Sametime 8.0.1 worked finally
• Reception got better, much better.  More bars all the time
• Loading new apps was a breeze, same as yesterday
• I still am taking pictures and can't find them saved anywhere
• I started playing with the camera and other apps
• I still didn't like the weight but you get used to it like anything else

Al of my Lotusphere2009 stream on Flickr put to the music of Ambient Teknology from Magnatune.  Pay close attention to about 2:15 in when you get a coupon good at CertFX.

If you don't subscribe to the podcast, shame on you, but I uploaded it to YouTube also.

Umm, why is this blog of A Smarter Planet, a major push by IBM we were told and shown through the sesisons, sitting on Typepad and not some IBM software like Domino or Connections.  heck even the Roller one they use for Developerworks would be ok.

The January edition came out right before everyone headed down and got lost in the mix.  You can read it online here if not subscribed to the monthly email.

THIS IS LIVE CHECK FOR UPDATES:
Way too much info on these slides to begin with.  Charts, tiny words, bullets everywhere.  More charts came and then by slide 5 we are getting a sales pitch for "Business Value Assessment" by IBM.  In the Best Practices track?!?!  They have:

• Business Value Alignment Workshop
• Process Modeling Review
• Architecture Assessment Review
• Day in the Life demo
• Business Value/ROI case
• then the presentation on all the data

We finally break away and get back into the listed best practices:
2 - business value assessment
3 - phased "soft launch" which includes early assessments and small microcosm groups
4 - having a measurement scheme that apparently involves huge amounts of small charts and # signs
5 - develop a center of excellence (COE) to build competencies and link to business strategies.  Have a bunch of people that run reports and look at the growth by doing Social Network Analysis and gathering metrics.
6 - develop an approach to governance.  Basically policies that should be in place but most sites don't have them yet.  email, IM, blogging policies.  Then on to items like proper etiquette which is normally under Internet Usage and Conduct Guidelines.
7 - locating your subject matter experts and advocates using Social Network Analysis (SNA).  How can you find these people if you don't have a social network yet?  They want Mavens, Salespeople, Connectors.  You measure and graph based on density, distance and centrality.  But what does that have to do with adoption?  They showed a sample questionnaire but it seems to be huge work to perform as an employee and also correlate the data.

Change in speakers---  new speaker reads the slides and pages and pages of notes that are printed out

8 - Communications should employ "big seed" viral marketing tactics.  t-shirts, email, lunches, contests and whatever to get people informed and involved.  Lunch and learn results also.  You can do this top down or bottom up techniques.  Have leaders makes blogs and lead by example.
9 - formal training program to teach users how to use the technology.  Provide relevant education, why blogs make me productive versus how to blog.  Teach why this is a business tool.

change back in speaker
10 - Address culture change by "living" the vision.  Basically help people change their basic assumptions coupled with the external factors that drive them.

Social Network Analysis (SNA) apparently has a cousin called Personal Network Analysis (PNA).  Users have their own analysis done as well as the network.  Their model they are proposing for building the SNA is broken.  They naturally assume you follow the prime source and that builds the model.  That doesn't count the person with the 100 followers whose content is reshared to thousands.  make sense?  I might reword that later.

Final slide is ISSL consulting, training and support options.  A partner session in this track with that content would be pulled.

www.flickr.com IdoNotes' Lotusphere2009 photoset

After finishing all my sessions with a bang, and nerf ball shot to the back of the head from Gabriella, my eyes opened wider and I started seeing clearly again.  I don't need to run you through my day and all the session to express that the passion the business partners that speak have is only overcome by the amount of fun we have in getting together throughout the week at all times of day and late into the night.  One other speaker/blogger/friend even apologized this evening if they came off too strong or argumentative sometime during the day while we were attending something or another (I don't even know what).  I quickly pointed out that A - I had no clue what they were talking about and B - that is what we do since we all have agendas while here and thoughts on where Lotus should focus attention.

If we spent time arguing with another, nothing would get accomplished and Lotusphere would suffer.  What other major, large scale conferences do you know that have deep technical sessions, allow you to directly interact with product developers, hunt down Lotus executives (via IdoCheckin I might add) and then party into the night like nothing happened to start over again tomorrow?  None I say.

We are a rare breed here at Lotusphere that bleed much yellow while fighting to keep it as pure as possible and the coolest software you have used.  I think the eye opener for me was what you are about to see at Lotusphere Idol from one of the winner's on Thursday.  I got the chance to talk to them this evening.  They actually wanted to meet and talk to me, but when I heard what they were doing, I wanted to hear more about them.  Two college kids, sponsored by IBM in ticket only to be here, making some of the best plug-in work for Symphony I have seen/heard.  Wait till you see their energy and what they are doing.  Watching the new generation we are fighting to get by deploying corporate social software (whatever that is, a different posting) and learning they are working on our core products instead revitalizes some thoughts we had that Lotus was the 20 year old man in software.

• Ed Brill: Twitter already covered the ActiveSync support in Lotus Traveler, but they are putting it in there.  Looking to ship in 2009.  License agreements were not available for comment.  A public beta date is not set yet.  They have to decide which active based devices will be supported.  The session today that introduced it used the native mail application on the iPhone for example.  Android testing has not been done yet.

• David Marshak: Sametime 8.5 is second half of year, enhancing the meeting server.  It will be Websphere driven for the expanded meeting services.  Meetings are persistent, so presentation materials may be stored.  The new meeting services will be faster and richer with zero footprint, all Ajax and HTML.  Java and JVM issues go away.  Improved audio and video.  Websphere versions will finally be the same across Sametime 8.5 meetings, Advanced and Gateway.
  
  The new Sametime web client is also announced.  Zero footprint with functionality the same as the client. Still no Skype due to their lack of integration.

• Caleb Barlow: Lotus Foundations news..  IBM branded appliance worldwide.  The first announcement on Foundations is version 1.1 with suport for VM Hypervisor on top of Foundations.  This will allow any image to run on the server.  Single click deployment from an image you drop on the server.
  
  The second announcement is Lotus Foundations Branch Office running Domino version 8.5.  Basically a Domino server in the domain.  News on running native Domino HTTP and also migrating in an existing domain is not sure yet.

Over to live demos from Xerox Corp for Foundations

You can watch the stream right here in this posting built on Domino and Sametime technology or click this URL to set your own refresh preferences.  You may also utilize the iPhone interface here.

I am recording this as usual for a later podcast.  Excuse the typing noises you will hear.  But here we go.

• Ads will continue globally with more marketing push.  A past weakness Lotus had.  Expect to see more online and tv soon
• Jack Dausman asks:  we are seeing growth in Microsoft customers moving over to Lotus, Bruce Morse from UC says
• Nathan Freeman asks:  Alister joked about legal and lawyers that had interfered with releases due to processes.
• John Head asks:  Small 1000 person shops putting up items like Sharepoint/Office and doing it cheap (not well necessarily).  But where is the rapid development and document management moves from Lotus.  Jeff Schick brings up ECM integration and Quickr movements.  John reminds that the competitor has s single solution where you build your website, host your documents all in one.  Kevin Cavanaugh brings up Domino does well under 1000 employees, even with Foundations.  Plus xPages and extending Quickr further. Alister brings up Sharepoint is inadequate in many scenarios, past just a website.  Using social software and more.
• Mitch Cohen asks:  What about the disparity in versions of backend systems required , like WAS.  Alister responds this is in discussion in the next iteration of Quickr and Connections.  This will grow over time to run across the products including WAS, DB2 and more.
• Tom Duff questions: His company politics wants Sharepoint and he finds it frustrating he is fighting the battle and lost.  Lotus wasn't fighting it.  Kevin Cavanaugh brings up the attempt to have more coverage in the practice.  The coverage is about a pace now, now just around events.  it isn't just press releases and being on CNN as an ad at the bottom.
• Jess Stratton asks: For LotusLive, as a small business owner, it might almost like a local chamber of commerce.  How do you plan on reaching this market?  The SBA has talked to Lotus about this type of offering and capability with small businesses.
• Bob P joins us to cover the question that Notes 8 is not just an email client.  It is a major jump into enabling productivity.
• Alister feels that xPages is a game changer in the future of building modern web apps on top of Domino.
• It was brought up that Lotus should not just evolve and make a better product, but invent something new.  Bob P makes an interesting joke I will leave to the podcast.
• Nathan continues to have his hand up and might be reaching explosion. He brings up how Lotusphere has been a case study in cloud computing.  How will Lotus evolve with non persistent connection?  Shawn makes some good points about lack of connection.  Alister brings up appliance/cloud integration.
• I asked about Saas and Foundations and clouds.  I will type long answer later from Shawn, Alister and Kevin.
• Alan Lepofsky brings up phenomenal to hear about Linkedin, Skype and etc.  No more purple icons for Portal.

Here is the PDF from last years hands on session!

While reading feeds in Google Reader, this popped up a bit early I think.  I cut the highlights to here..

Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- International Business Machines Corp., the world's third-biggest software maker, will release an online version of its Lotus programs, a bid to attract new customers by tapping into so-called cloud computing.

The company said last week it would buy e-mail software assets from Hong Kong-based Outblaze Ltd.  That will let LotusLive users access their e-mail from any computer via the Web, similar to the way Google Inc.'s Gmail works.

LotusLive ties into software from Salesforce.com Inc., the maker of customer-management program, and LinkedIn Corp., a social-networking site for professionals.  It also works with Research In Motions Ltd.'s Blackberry phones and software from SAP AG, the world's largest maker of business-management programs.

The test version of LotusLive, called Bluehouse...

Some say this is day zero, well with all of the events it is day 1.  Jam packed with jumpstarts, preliminary customer meetings, people close to scuffles with the law, business development day and then a long evening of seeing everyone and parties.  Why else is this being written so late.

So the summary of news.  Nothing we can say.  While I was not at the entire keynote for BDD, the message was clear.  There will be some mesage this week as it resonates a lot like last year with some more flair added in.

We are sitting live on the vendor floor as part of the blogger program, able to follow the judges as they visit each booth to judge these onsite and highly coveted awards.  While the wifi is not up, pictures will be a few minutes to enter the stream.  It is interesting to see the nerves that the partners have as the unknown general public is not browsing their products, but a select few of judges are in your face asking questions and viewing live demos that better work.

www.flickr.com IdoNotes' Lotusphere2009 photoset

With a prompt arrival and easily checking in the buzz was apparent.

• New attendees running around with badges on and bags on shoulders, even before the conference began.
• Bob Balaban handing out the new annual button showing off how long you have been making the trip to Lotusphere
• After retrieving the badge and bag I immediately strip the fluff content from the inside.  Does anyone really read the ads the cram in with the notebook and conference guide?  We should option paperless on checkin to save on all that stuff with all the agendas online in iPhone and Blackberry format.
• Bill Buchan sunburned from his Harley ride around Florida.
• The smart ones getting into Kimonos tonight for food since the next nights will be totally packed
• Everyone crammed into BALD and then ESPN

IdoCheckin started taking off.  I spent more time explaining features and functions that anything else I think.  And I am damn happy to see it..

Carl and I have put LotusphereLive together again with his amazing design work against a Domino 8 server with Sametime 8 loaded.  He made a great video and posting about it right here.  If you want content from the OGS, this is the only place to get it in real-time.  Even on your iPhone and Blackberry

Join Gabriella Davis, Kristin Keene, Libby Ingrassia, Jess Stratton, Maureen Leland and Mary Beth Raven as we discuss the NerdGirl panel and BOF at Lotusphere.  Then the big surprise as we announce the new podcast series to join the IdoNotes podcast family


The IdoNotes podcast family is part of the Techpodcasts network.

The Rules:

• I am not turning on auto-follow to prevent spammers.  So it might be a minute before you are allowed to post,  But you can follow right away
• Anyone that sends explicit content or becomes a nuisance (as voted by many not just one of us) gets removed from being followed
• Anything you send will be read by MANY, keep that in mind.  Typos can hurt
• I personally don't mind a small one time shot to promote your booth or giveaway, but I will let the people decide that one

If you do not agree with a rule let me know, we may very well change it.  If you just don't agree, don't participate but you miss out having 'instant' communication with as many people as sign up while there.  Lotusphere Online does not offer this, Lotus does not offer this and we couldn't think of a way to let everyone have their own identity and use multiple devices. (ie: SMS, web browser, instant messaging, handhelds).

This is in additon to IdoCheckin, of course.

• Get over to http://Twitter.com and register if you have not
• add Lotusphere as someone to follow and turn notifications ON for it
• go to notification settings and choose your poison.  I suggest your SMS (check your provider for charges or unlimited texting options), an IM alias of some type or even email notifications.  You can always use a browser from laptop or handheld.  I mix the way mine are done.
• To send a message to everyone you simply type  "@lotusphere  "   up to 140 characters.  Make it to the point
• If you see someone you wish to talk to directly, replace "@lotusphere " with their username or simply type @username to send a public , but directed at them message.
• You can turn off following for a while if you need some silence or whatever by following this Twitter help page.  It will stop notifications but still leave it in your web browser views.  http://help.twitter.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=5
• Alternately you can simply text 'off lotusphere' to Twitter to do it temporarily and then 'on lotusphere' to turn notifications back on!  We are making life simple here folks.
• Lastly, if you need help with this, ask!

The idea is to communicate, collaborate and have fun.  If you see an awesome giveaway, let us know.  If you find the best hidden snack area, let us know.  If there is an open vendor party, lets us know.  If you are headed to lunch and want someone new to eat with, ask!

Please see the older posting for further info or go to Twitter help for short phone command and such.  And here is the whole Twitter helpfiles

I jumped in for a quick LotusUserGroup podcast the other day and it is posted and ready to stream or download from here

The best way to see live blogging from the OGS?  LotusphereLive is in it's 3rd year running with more enhancements and features as a true realtime Domino based way to stream commentary, pictures and now video from the Opening General Session at Lotusphere2009.  We are under 18 minutes in length for this episode with Carl Tyler (Epilio) and myself.  We also cover making Carl part of Blueman Group and his sessions and announcements

The IdoNotes podcast family is part of the Techpodcasts network.

Thanks to Rob McDonagh of CaptainOblivious, he came up with an easy way for the iPhone users to keep checkpoints ready to go:

At least for iPhone users, by far the easiest way to checkin to a place at Lotusphere is to placemark those spots you pre-defined for us.  Just search for them on the website and when they come up, hit the Placemark link and give them a name.  If they're placemarked, they show up in a list on the iPhone, which makes it pathetically easy to use them (you have to touch More first, which I wish they would change, then Placemarks, then pick the right checkin button from the list).  The only annoyance (other than the extra "More" touch) is that the locations are listed in reverse order from when they were added.  That probably makes a ton of sense in most scenarios, but in this case it winds up being reverse alphabetical if people use the list you posted on the blog.

Gabriella Davis and myself are putting this session on but needed some viral video effect to get everyone excited.  Here is what it is like to be a Websphere admin compared to a Domino admin.  We decided instead of standing in front of cameras we wanted some virtual people to stand in.

Many of you have asked how will I know what places to log into.  Well I am working with Lotus to get signs placed in the checkpoint locations.  But no matter what, look for this logo and you know a Checkpoint is nearby.  Or ask anyone wearing a shirt with this how it all works:

OK, so we have covered SMS, email based, the iPhone app and now you need to see the mobile browser interface.

I originally posted this almost a month ago and so many of you were generous.  But if we want Carl to continue to dress up as part of the Blueman Group at Lotusphere, then I need some more help this week!

Some people do not like to use SMS or maybe do not have that ability but do have email.  Guess what? You can still do this over email too:

• You will be assigned a personal address to email in for check-ins
• You can then do all your updates that way!

to: your_code@bkite.com (your personalized Brightkite email)
subject: 
body: @2911 Walnut St, Denver CO (or what ever placemark you've defined)

See the email guide right here for those that need it

I know many of you have iPhones and want a native app for it instead of just SMS, email or browser based, which all rock.  So Brightkite has an iPhone app ready to go from the iTunes store.  The link is right here

Need I say more than this image?

Many have asked, ok what can I do besides check myself into an IdoCheckin checkpoint at Lotusphere.  What benefit does using a Checkpoint give me?  Let me start with the easy things.  If IBM approves the signs, checkpoints will be identified with the name of the checkpoint and the commands to always get help if you get stuck.  But I wanted you to understand some of the cool things you can do at any of the checkpoints (previous blog post listing checkpoints):

• Where username - sending this command gets you the last checked in location for the person's name entered
• Who place name - using this command gets you everyone currently checked into a specific place, like DolphinDining
• Join username - This checks you in at the same place as someone else, let the gathering begin
• Leave - this is what it says, you are leaving the checked in place
• ! - this lets you post a comment or note to the place you are checked in
• POSTPHOTO - you can upload a photo from your phone for that place

Without going through them all I wanted to get the key ones out there.  For the complete listing or SMS based ones (you can always use the web people!), just visit this reference page.

It might just be me but I like new icons, except when they are fuzzy

Don't like talking to your users and want them to reset passwords?  We like self service

While in a small conversation this morning, it was brought up that there were fixes available for 8.5 already on Fix Central.  I was stunned, could it be true?  Yep!  There is an Adminp rename and delete issue that needs an IF fix for all platforms it appears

Since this is the first year, we built checkpoints for all of the main areas around Lotusphere.  If something is missing I apologize and might be able to get one or two more done, if the need is there.  But here is the list:

• BigRiverGrille
• DolphinBar
• DolphinDining
• DolphinHemispheres
• DolphinRotunda
• ESPNOrlando
• FlyingFishCafe
• JellyRollsDisney
• LSVendorFloor
• Spoodles
• SwanEntrance
• SwanKimonos
• Y&BConferenceCenter
• Y&BLobby

I tried to keep them all as one word for consistency.  I am working with Lotus to get signs placed around Lotusphere, but I bet the bars/restaurants will be off limits for signage.

Look for a bunch of commands you can use in the next posting.  Such as the ability to look someone up and get their last location they checked in

This year over 8,000 Notes professionals are attending Lotusphere2009.  With all the social networking technology, from Twitter to Facebook to LinkedIn, you are still in the dark on the location of people and finding new contacts.

IdoCheckin (website launch this week) will allow everyone to better communicate and locate each other around Lotusphere and other events.

Remember the first time you went to a conference when you did not know anyone or could not find anyone?  Imagine you are one of those new people this year.  You wander around with no way to easily be in touch or locate another attendee.  You will be able to communicate and locate anyone that participates, even total strangers through IdoCheckin.

IdoCheckin allows you to broadcast your location via SMS or web browser where you are around Lotusphere and be able to see everyone that checks in at different areas.

I partnered with Martin at Brightkite (an incredible location service) to make this happen.  We knocked out a nice listing of key areas for this first year launch.  While I realize there are even more locations we can list, I created the majority of prime places, even ones like Jellyrolls.  I will blog the full listing of locations and more detailed instructions tomorrow.

So here is how it works:

• you do NOT have to register with Brightite if you do not want to, but I would strongly suggest it
• your phone number is NEVER exposed at any time.  You could always just use the web interfaces
• if you choose not to register an account, you get almost all functions and assigned a jdoeXXX name until you set one
• you will simply send a simply formatted SMS to their service and it "checks you in" at that location
• you are able to see who is at locations through notifications (if registered) or on the public 'wall' through a browser.  I will cover the wall this week
• if registered, it can also link your location to Twitter for your followers, as many of you often see me do.
• standard text messaging (SMS) rates will apply based on your carrier and phone plan if using the SMS interface.  IdoCheckin has NO fees associated with it.

Look for more postings starting tomorrow outlining all the spots established around Lotusphere, more instructions and videos.

I apologize the last posting locked discussion.  I wrote the posting over weeks and the open discussion expired.  So this thread will allow a full Q&A until Lotusphere time for everyone with questions like I saw on Twitter today.

Q. Stuart McIntyre - you can't leave comments on that post - seems a great idea. Will the usual BrightKite interfaces work - I assume so...
A. All the usual Brightkite interfaces will work.

Q. Olufsphere - Looks exciting. Will it work for us 'foreigners' as well? (Unlike twitter, where we are bound to PC-clients)
A. Yes there is an international code for sending text but while in the US the code for here should work unless I am wrong.  I am checking this

Q. MattWhite - Very cool, hopefully it will cut down on lots of shouted "I'm by the rotunda" phone conversations :-)
A. That is the goal for sure and to be able to quickly scan for large groups as well as find those people you only known names and not faces or how to find them