In this February 2010 issue I talk about the start of Lotusphere 2010 and the following:

IN THIS ISSUE #55
* From the Editor: Chris' 0.0518 XCD
* From the IdoNotes Mailbox: ICM and iNotes Return
* Directory Independence has Been Pulled From Domino Plans
* Quick Tip: Multiple Attachments In iNotes Showing Incorrectly
* From the IdoNotes Mailbox: Which Domino Blog Template Should I Use?

Don't forget to visit CertFX from the banner above and use the coupon code "IdoNotes" to get up to 25% OFF YOUR EXAMS

Way back in Feb 2009 I mentioned the Pass It Along site that was in Alpahworks that I had tested and played around it.  Well today IBM had a webcast on Pass It Along meaning it has made it from Alphaworks to an actual possible product.

Pass It Along is about peer to peer training and knowledge sharing.  It is not document management, but more of a mechanism to build connections of people around the content.  Experts are expected to self promote and being the knowledge transfer process.  The whole project is deployed inside IBM on the W3.

• Topics are learning paths.  Short and to the point
• Content is the actual wiki, file attachment or web resource
• Knowledge paths let's you organize topics where they can be grouped for broader learning
• Teams are the people with interest or expertise in the topic in question

Now here the overlap and separation begins from the other social software Lotus has in place.  There is linking, a more formal community that Lotus Connections offers, Q&A possibilities and the built paths.  The lacking parts is true profiles (that already exist in Connections), a true Activities area and loose document management.  You can invite others to participate in the topic via email with no directory integration.  You must comma delimit addresses to send invites.

Lessons learned on a subject are built in with the ability to describe the issue and the answers.  I can see the system being an advanced Q&A and even a helpdesk resource that builds over time.  Past that, having this as a stand-alone product would leave a large gap in content location, directory integration and activity management.  They mentioned hooking this to content in Learning Management Systems (LMS) yet the SSO and directory integration work still isn't there.

Case studies were given for companies using it to roll out education and training which would mean a large effort to get the Knowledge Path, Topics and content built into the system with heavy participation from Experts and Contributors for the learners.

A great rounds of questions today via Twitter from Mitch Cohen on some of the blog changes at IdoNotes that I began mading last week.  Let me run through them here and hopefully give a better feel for my thoughts in more than 140 characters

Chris, so this blog is now nothing more than an advertisement for your e-mail only subscription newsletter?

Not at all.  I have only mentioned the newsletter twice since announcing the change, giving an idea of what content will start showing up in the newsletter material.  There will be plenty for the blog itself, outside of the podcasts.  Also, the newsletter is free.  So there is no "ads" in that manner.

If someone finds todays post in a month and they are not already subscribed, how do they access the content?

Subscribers will have access to all the archive content.  More on that is coming.  But access will be there.

so if it is all free.. why not just blog it?

There is the million dollar question.  I have been running in this mode for over 7 years and found that I never know who is reading some of the content or what topics they want to see more of.  The newsletter also allows me to expand in editorial without some of the searches and others intermingling the technical documents with the pure editorial.  Also, I can target many of the exclusives that I get right to the readers that want to see it the most and make sure you can take part,.  Instead of blasting it to thousands and then first come first serve.  I have found this to be an issue in the past and I like the idea of the most faithful readers getting the most benefit from the content.

This isn't just an experiment, but an evolving change of many things that are taking place right now across my sharing, reach and futures.

I wanted to make sure I fully tested it before making any early comments on the performance and added support for more Blackberry version in Sametime 8.5 mobile.  So far the performance has been faster, the screen reacting better and overall, much more pleasing.  So we decided to roll it out to everyone that wanted the update before a big push through BES.

To read the story of the testing, results and the BES push planning, join the IdoNotes newsletter in the upper right of the blog.

Not only for internal usage, but for some outside publishing that some of us are doing, a wiki was needed.  We are trying to stick with Domino as the platform of choice, while comparing it to one or two others that can sit on various platforms and are paid and free.  We narrowed the list down fairly quick and began looking at the following choices:

• DominoWiki
• xspwiki (also on Domino)
• MediaWiki
• SocialText
• Wikidot

As I type of the rest of this, I will be publishing it in the next newsletter.  Subscribe to the IdoNotes newsletter in the upper right corner of the blog to see what we chose and why.

I am happy to have survived seven years, as of today, in the Yellow world of blogging and podcasting.  It all started somewhere in version 6, right after Lotusphere 2003.  I originally based it on a template by an individual developer in the UK named Steve Castledine.  Everyone with a Domino server now knows his work since that template became the DominoBlog template we know today.  Steve has moved along in the IBM world to be a driving force with OpenNTF. I thank Steve for everything he has done over the years to not only get all of this launched, but the unique challenges, my and other blogs have offered up.  I continue to run a highly customized old version of the template with no plans to do anything but enhance the design.

So what will be changing?

First of all, the way content is delivered to everyone.  The IdoNotes podcast became part of Spiked Studio Productions in 2009, and will grow more this year with increased exclusives, interviews and commentary.  New is the expansion of the IdoNotes and Spiked Studio family into the Zune Marketplace and even more syndication by other networks.  If you do not subscribe to the podcast and only stream ones you like, thank you.  If you subscribe, thank you.  If you have never listened to any of the 70+ episodes, I thank you just the same for even reading along.  

Blog content is the next big change.  The massive amount of postings coming through PlanetLotus and the feeds in general are becoming hard to consume for many of the people I informally surveyed at conferences and more this past year.  The IdoNotes blog will continue putting out some of what I hope is a standard for content and commentary, but with an added twist.  The in depth portions, high technical postings and raw commentary will move to a new newsletter format, by subscription.  You can subscribe on the top right of the blog

This will allow you to get content straight to your inbox on a weekly or so basis.  It will all be handled by your Google login so there is ease of joining and unjoining, a community built around it, and more.  I chose Google FriendConnect since Facebook does not have a true newsletter platform yet.  The IdoNotes Network will still be alive and well on Facebook, and I urge you to join in to see all the changes that go on across all the sites in my blog and podcast family.

Finally, the commenting system inside the database will be moving to Disqus.  This allows me a single point of control, viewing and management for all comment across all my blogs.  Whether they are based on Domino or Wordpress, it is all one global comment system.  You can log in with Facebook, Twitter and more.  It pulls real-time reactions and allows you to use text and other forms of media in response.  I have used it for some time outside of Domino and I have been looking forward to this change.

I wanted to keep this short and simple and hope you continue on the journey with me as I always try to bring you the freshest information with honest thoughts wrapped in. Don't forget the social media path I have been bringing you along the past few years, some of you kicking and screaming. TheSocialNetworker already has it's own newsletter as well, if you are interested in the social media side.

Lotus introduced the LinkedIn widget, that I gave my opinion on back in July 2009.  It was not any type of connector, but a simple web interface that sat in the Notes 8 sidebar.  They soon did the same with TripIt for the same result.  I, admittedly, was disappointed in the integration I had hoped would appear.  I am actually able to use the TripIt app on my Blackberry to sync to my calendar which then goes into Notes.  It should not have taken that much work.  Tungle is exposing this now in their integration.  This week some more news hit the web.  Here comes Microsoft. A screenshot for your viewing pleasure first:



Before you jump on the Lotus Connections bandwagon commenting, we are talking about bringing in social contacts seamlessly to provide an integrated experience.  Shortly, there will be hooks from the announced partnerships with Facebook, and (ugh) MySpace with the connector.  LinkedIn did a great welcome blog posting for getting set up.  

Lotus Connections bridges integration inside the firewall with profiles from the Connections system.  The benefit given from the OSC is when we start exposing the social data that people are sharing and placing on the web into our history of email, CRM and local contact data.  Tungle (listen to podcast Episode 71) now opens your calendar information from Lotus and Gist (Iisten to podcast Episode 72) is attempting to work with contacts.  

The question we need to ask: Is Lotus moving fast enough to keep up with the social changes needed for the sites not deploying Connections at this time?  Is the majority of Notes users a large enough demand to have them create this type of integration or are the social vendors not working hard enough to write against the Lotus infrastructure?

Osterman Research always has interesting results in the survey results I receive and this one page stood out.  With all of the talk to the iPhone and Traveler, it seems all of these respondents had something else in mind.



It seems RIM is still top of the charts as the mobile device of choice for enterprise deployments.  While the iPhone pops up in third, the over 3-1 ratio makes a huge statement in the impact it has on mobile access to corporate data.  To me this shows a simple answer, that the iPhone is pretty as a consumer device, but lacks much of the needed function to be truly effective to have mobile apps and secure, controlled connectivity at this time to things outside of email.

P.S also SaaS email took a beating too.  Way down the chain in terms of thought and planned deployment.

Speakers spend varying amounts of time preparing sessions for everyone to consume at Lotusphere.  Some spend weeks (or a month) making demos, perfecting slides, generating code and practicing over and over. The intent is to build the best possible session (length of the session does not matter) for everyone involved.  The end goal is happy attendees that take away tons of new information, fee tools or code and the feeling they learned something.  Some are even entertained along the way.

Now what speakers get back is the difference.  Speakers are normally nervous enough about the impression that was made and how they did.  They sit anxiously by and sometimes run right away to look at evaluations as people leave the room.  Others wait patiently for the evaluations to be entered, manually, into the system for review.  either way it is hard enough to digest.  Every comment, checkbox, compliment and concern are digested.  Some speakers take things to heart, and very serious.  Others glance and shrug.  The next points are very serious and where I am headed.

Evaluations are greatly appreciated and definitely wanted by each and every speaker.  Not just one or two, but in quantity.  If there are 100 or even just 20 people in the room, then I personally expect 95% of that number have an eval.  Even if you only quickly check the boxes and run out.  or go online and fill it out.  Spend the few moments to compensate for the weeks of prep speakers did.  it isn't much to ask and I honestly fore myself to make sure and do it out of respect for the session.  No matter if I liked it or not.

Now what gets placed on the evals has apparently become a game of chance.  From blaming speakers (not the conference producers on final evals) that the room is too hot/cold, that the projector didn't work to something I never anticipated.  From some recent Twitter traffic I submit the following craziness:

1.Oh and ZERO evals for (session removed) - yet people stopped me, emailed me, thanked me for it. Problem is getting feedback to IBM.
2. I did not fill any evals at #ls10 - as a way of saying 'could do better'
3. Didn't look at evals till today, disappointed (+ embarrassed) that people evaluate speaker looks.

Does anyone see a crazy pattern here?  Evaluations are not weapons of choice.  Not filling one out is of no help to anyone at all.  Simply state what more or less you would have wished to see.  If you are contacting the speaker with praise, please let IBM know in performing an evaluation there.  IBM does look at these and helps in getting your favorite speakers back and removing those you did not like.  But the last one?  Stating how a speaker looks is of no concern to anyone.  Heck, there is not even a section that asks you that question or ever would.  I am sure your job performance reviews do not have that type of section, since it would be against any and all companies Human Resource rules.  While we are all human and may notice such topics, evaluations are not the place to include them.

It seems now it is too late to fill out evaluations, we can only hope for better at any event that we all attend or speak at.  I am sure the yellow-verse can do better. Can't we?

Sit in with Rob Novak and Julian Robichaux of SNAPPS to cover the launch of SnappFiles (previously Project Jonathan that we covered in September on Episode 66).  This is the finest native Quickr for the iPhone/iPod/iPad application you will find.  You can get SnappFiles from the iTunes Appstore for free right here.



The entire IdoNotes podcast family is part of Spiked Studio Productions.

After the awesome feedback so far on this morning's post, an idea bubbled to the top that some liked.  Others may have had reserves, but I think the idea is sound enough to up the number received.  We will be using Lotusphere as an example (for those coming from other types of conferences).

Lotusphere has an online system that is not as clean and easy as some would like for filling out "on the fly" evaluations of session.  Lotus gives a conference T-shirt when filling out and turning in the final conference evaluation.  That is it.  From there the room monitors attempt to get them as people walk out the door, but many are never done by an overwhelming majority of attendees.  So here is what came up.

Offer a token for each evaluation turned in per session.  The room monitors would hand one back when they got handed the eval.  Attendees are a competitive bunch, as pointed out by one person.  They would go for these if the prizes or rewards were real.  Online evaluations could be verified at the Info Desk.  You walk up, show your id and they see the number you have done.  You are handed XX amount of tokens and then they mark those off.  A simple task since you use your registration number to submit the online on anyway.  The info is there.

Now what are the tokens good for?  Numerous choices are possible.  Discounts in the Lotus Stuff store.  Shirts.  More coffee.  Prizes from vendors.  A bigger giveaway with each token being an entry marker.  Hand in a few for some cool piece of Lotusphere memorabilia.  The possibilities can be mixed and matched with cost versus input.  There is a line there somewhere that could be met by all.

While actually handling tokens sounds crazy, people respond better to the physical side.  This could be done virtually as a bank with a scan of your ID.  But being able to trade, share, group and pool them is just as important.  Think collaboration here people.  You are short 3?  Here I am not using them.  We want the big prize?  Let's pool our tokens.

I would suggest reading the comments from the previous posting as well as they offer some great feedback.  No system would be perfect to gain more evaluations.  But there has to be some movement to make the response better.  Also, using a business partner solution, such as Ben's, for the session database makes perfect sense.  It has grown into such an amazing tool and needs to be recognized.  While IBM needs to and wants to keep you in the little lsonline bubble, that goes away, bridging the collaboration gap they so much promote would be awesome.

As I stared at a clock I was given at a past Lotusphere, shown below, I noticed something strange.  The date was right but the day of the week was wrong.  I glanced higher to see the year showed '90.  I thought the battery died.  No.  I went in to settings and changed the year.  It went form 1990 to 2009 and then flipped back to '90.  While this clock does tell multiple timezones and temperature, making it a nice desk edition, I would think any digital clock would go farther than 19 years total when I didn't even get it until late 90's for sure.  Damn Lotus calendaring.

I sit with T.A. McCann, the CEO of Gist, about the Lotusphere announcement integrating Gist as a plug-in with Lotus Notes.  We cover what it offers, how it integrates, futures and more. If you are serious about using the technology, they are looking for your input on the beta and have extended a special offer to get in faster.  Become an early adopter!  If you want some good background, see my previous screencast from TheSocialNetworker first.

For my listeners, we have some special links ready to go.

• First, sign up now and get a free account quick with that link.
• Then head over here to get on the short list to get in on the Lotus Notes beta.  If you aren't serious about providing feedback and exploring the functionality, please leave the spot for someone else!

I would listen in and get excited about a way to manage your connections and see more information about how you connect as Notes integration blends as much as you wish with the public streams of social networking.



The entire IdoNotes podcast family is part of Spiked Studio Productions.