Ed Brill

Missed it the first time around? Working with IBM business partner Optimus Solutions, we're taking another run at Lotusphere Comes to You here in the Chicago area. The event will be held on Tuesday, June 19, at the Optimus offices in Schaumburg. I'm covering the keynote, while Optimus staff takes...

My colleagues and I on the Lotusphere content team received a nice vote of confidence today -- the summary conference ratings from Lotusphere 2007 were incredibly positive. One particular highlight says that we picked the right sessions for the conference:"In addition, in 89% of the sessions (up fr...

Looks like they've been posted for three weeks, but I only found out this morning (thanks, Doug)... Find them here... Link: IBM developerWorks Lotus: Lotus Sandbox / Conferences...

Add Lisbon to the list of better than expected attendance for Lotusphere Comes to You. Here, the event is a full day agenda covering just about every component of the Lotus strategy. Partners have been presenting their plans for products like Connections and Quickr. And the attendees have been cr...

I've seen a number of reviews of Lotusphere Comes to You in the blogs...here are three from down under: Adam Osborne has travelled along with the show, and says:From conversations with people who sat through the presentations I can confirm that it was an overwhelming success for IBM. I had the p...

Tomorrow is the Lotusphere Comes to You event here in Chicago. I'll be presenting the Notes/Domino session at 10:30 and the Notes 8 breakout at 11:30. In talking with a colleague a few minutes ago, I realized that the Hyatt McCormick Place is going to be an adventure to get to. As if inbound rush...

The Lotusphere Comes to You website has a number of updates, with new cities and dates posted. The specific question from a prior posting about Paris has been answered, and there are now a huge number of additional European and North American events. As for my own schedule... Next week, I'm in Wa...

By now, many of the hundred+ Lotusphere Comes to You 2007 events have been scheduled around the world. Many cities and dates are listed, and for most, you can register online. The product and marketing teams are busy refining content for these events, with the first one kicking off next week! I h...

A few more good Lotusphere conference summaries have shown up in the last few days... Don McNally Julian Robichaux Carl Tyler part 1 and part 2 John Roling in Intranet Journal Bill Buchan Lance Spellman's Lotusphere mashup Sean Burgess Marc's Musings Chris BlatnickAlso, I noticed that my colleague...

More from Burton Group's Peter O'Kelly on Lotusphere...Lotusphere 2007 was probably the most upbeat and exciting event for Notes/Domino loyalists since the first two Lotusphere sessions (during December, 1993 and January, 1995). While the pressure is still on IBM Lotus to deliver a timely and robus...

It appears that the success of Lotusphere 2007 is resonating with Gartner, which is good news considering that they seem to have been relatively pessimistic for the last few months...IBM has addressed many of the lingering questions about Lotus's future direction and managed to inject a level of exc...

Thousands of blog postings have covered the news from Lotusphere 2007. The "Lotusphere2007" tag we established registers over 700 postings -- pretty impressive. It's been part of my routine for days to scan these posts and see what you all thought, especially with a few days to reflect. As I p...

A really good interview with Mike Rhodin. Two quotes worth highlighting:Five years ago, Notes did not seem to have a direction; what has changed? If you go back five years, by then most people had made their email decision, Notes or Exchange, so a lot of the focus in Lotus was experimenting in new...

...that one might even call it a Lotusphere hangover. Today's FAQ is "where are the presentations?" I don't yet know of a plan to post all presentations, externally or internally. Some can't be posted without permission -- non-IBM speakers, for example. For those who attended the conference,...

Burton Group's Peter O'Kelly shares some initial thoughts about Lotusphere. It was great to see how active the Burton team (O'Kelly Gotta, and Hobert) were throughout the conference -- they seemed to be everywhere, though I never had more than a few minutes to chat with them. Now I get to find out...

What must have been one of the best lines of the day.... at "ask the developers", the last question was about how Lotus could get into a different kind of social networking, promoting something like an online dating site. After the laughs subsided, Art Thomas stood up and said "we're planning that,...

Kathleen McGivney and I had a realization yesterday. Here we are at the last day of the conference, and there are still SO MANY people I have wanted to meet but I have not. Part of it has been my schedule -- hidden away in meeting rooms a fair bit -- but part of it is just that the conference is s...

As noted elsewhere, the Lotusphere 2007 keynote is now available for viewing on ibm.com/lotus. You can also watch it in Second Life until the end of this week....

It was great to see 300 of you in the Notes/Domino 8 customer panel today, which got mostly "excellent" ratings (thank you for that!). On Wednesday, I'll be presenting ID212, "How to 'sell' Notes/Domino inside your organization", with Julian Robichaux. Julian did a great job with this presentation...

It got but a scant few minutes in yesterday's keynote, but it's become a fair bit of buzz. The WebSphere Portal Express 6.0 announcement has captured a bunch of attention, including a sold out breakout session earlier today. Perhaps part of the reason is because it shows that IBM continues to focu...

Man, Stephen O'Grady is unbelievable. Talked with him a fair bit at the press/analyst dinner last night, and afterwards, he still had the energy to go write extensive blog articles on what he's seen here at Lotusphere. Part 1 is here, and part 2 covers Connections, Quickr, and Notes 8:There are lo...

It is definitely cool to see the breadth and depth of online content around Lotusphere 2007. Some interesting numbers: Over 9000 pageviews on edbrill.com yesterday (and that's with the bulk of my early content being on LotusphereLive) Lotusphere Live had 2-300 concurrent participants during the op...

Hope to see you in the audience at Tuesday morning's customer panel, CS101: The Notes/Domino 8 beta customers and partners, at 10 AM in the Dolphin Ballroom South Hemisphere III. I met the panelists today and can tell you that we're going to have a lively discussion. I don't think we need a replay...

I've spent most of the day directing or echoing comments from others. I listened intently during the press conference and blogger Q&A, I scanned the "lotusphere2007" postings, I read the media coverage. Now during a short breather, I would like to share my thoughts on what was announced and di...

Business Week focuses on the Lotus Connections announcement, but touches all of the news...IBM is in fierce competition with Microsoft (MSFT) in the markets for communications and collaboration software, and the Lotus Connections offering could give it a leg up--at least temporarily. Last November,...

Looking for the next level of detail on Lotus's announcements today ? Here are the new product "buzz" pages: Lotus Connections Lotus Quickr Lotus Sametime 7.5.1 Lotus Notes/Domino 8 Lotus Component Designer...

Five press releases on the wire... IBM Redefines Collaboration With New Lotus Notes and Domino Platform -- Announces Notes/Domino 8 public beta and indicates a mid-2007 ship date IBM Extends Industry's Leading Unified Communications Platform -- Announces Sametime 7.5.1 including Microsoft Office i...

Feel free to join us in the "Opening Session" room (NOT "Join Ed Brill") -- Come on over to LotusphereLive.com . Feel free to leave comments here! I will write a summary of the opening session at its conclusion and post that here, too....

If you'd like a little head start on taking a look at the announcements around Lotus Quickr, Lotus Connections, Lotus Sametime, and Lotusphere in Second Life, check out my Flickr Lotusphere2007 image set....

In-depth coverage in the Globe...For years, Lotus Notes has seen Microsoft's competing Exchange messaging software seize an increasing share of the corporate messaging market. But during an interview at IBM Software's Cambridge office last week, Bisconti scoffed at a recent report from the market re...

The press release is on the wire...I have pictures of all that I will add in the morning, as the general session proceeds.ORLANDO, FL -- (MARKET WIRE) -- January 22, 2007 -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today kicked off Lotusphere 2007 (www.ibm.com/lotus/lotusphere), a five-day conference with nearly 7,000 atten...

Looks like the advance coverage has started...Many companies have already discovered the benefits of bringing social networking into their businesses, but so far most of the tools available to them have focused on a specific element of social networking, like blogging. "I talk to corporate clients...

Well now we know -- advertise it as a five day conference, and people will plan to attend all five days. WOW. We had full jumpstarts, lines for hands-on labs that stetched out the door, and 250% of projected stomachs eating lunch in the Dolphin. So there's lots of people here -- in fact, we had a...

The Penumbra Group is an association of IBM business partners. Each Lotusphere, they've hosted a fantastic dinner attended by both their members and many IBMers and other guests. Since 2003, they've used the dinner to honor IBMers who have made a difference to their businesses, and I was honored t...

It looks like it will all start at O'Hare this year -- at least three customers are on the same Ted flight as I am going down today... but beyond seat 2C, here's where you can find me during this year's conference: Sunday the 21st I will be at Business Development Day much of the day, speaking at...

Disappointing to see an article on Lotusphere eve that has no balance to it, finding two partners to quote about how the lack of advertising for Domino is the problem for Lotus. Analyst quotes too:With Lotus about to launch Notes 8.0 later this year and set to announce new products at the conferenc...

You'll still get to see a lot of it. On Monday, there will be information on how to view the Opening General Session online, in addition to the live blogging already announced. Beyond that, I've been given the green light to announce that 40-plus Lotusphere presentations from the AD, ID, INV, an...

Now is this cool or what? Carl Tyler has built a way-cool live-blogging platform 100% on Lotus technology. A few of us will be using it for real-time updates on the Lotusphere opening general session on Monday, January 22. Carl says:The site has been built using 100% IBM Lotus Technologies,...

Either Rocky or Rob have too much time on their hands, or maybe we should just applaud their enthusiasm....seriously ROTFL funny on both sites.so I am announcing the First Annual Lotusphere Haiku Contest. Beginning today until THURSDAY night (Lotusphere ends on Thursday), let's see how creative you...

Chris Miller has been doing a series of podcast interviews with the Lotusphere content team. This morning he has posted a ten-minute interview with me about the show and the infrastructure track. Check it out... Link: IdoNotes Episode 19 - I interview Ed Brill about the Infrastructure track at Lo...

Lotusphere preview...Peter O'Kelly of analyst firm Burton Group said the user interface would be given its "most significant update since Notes 4" and added that the inclusion of the productivity applications would be a boon for companies with desktop estates spanning Windows, Macintosh and Linux....

Chris Byrne wonders what's going on with all of IBM's interest in the Lotus blogging community:Is your blog for sale? This is a completely philosophical question that has come to mind the past few days.IBM, recognizing the visibility and importance of blogs in the IBM Lotus Notes and Domino Communit...

With just a few days left for additional registrants, I checked this week's update on Lotusphere attendance with a bit of anticipation. Now, the actual numbers are IBM confidential, but I can report some interesting data points: First, yes, it's bigger than last year. More than 25% of the attend...

More pre-Lotusphere coverage....Attendees will get a sneak peek at some of the new features of Notes and Domino 8 with hands-on labs for customizing Notes, Web content publishing and dozens of other topics. These new versions will be of great interest to corporate users, said Peter O'Kelly, an anal...

DominoPower editor David Gerwitz looks forward to Lotusphere...And, as has been the case with virtually every Lotusphere I've attended (and I've attended all but the one that occured while I was getting married), someone will say "Notes is dead" or some such other drivel. For years, one of our own S...

I was asked earlier today if there was a tag being used by bloggers for postings covering this year's Lotusphere. Technorati doesn't have a mass of blog postings on any particular tag, but we need to change that. The flickr crowd has already established "Lotusphere2007" (no space) as a tag, so I...

Registered Lotusphere attendees can now access the online system at www.ls2007online.net. Check your e-mail for your user ID and password. Inside you'll find a fountain of information, including: The location of the Wednesday night party -- Animal Kingdom (cool!) An update on parking for Dol...

Mary Beth Raven updates on expectations for Lotusphere:I do want to let you all know that, to my knowledge, there are no plans to distribute CDs for a public beta at Lotusphere. I do not want folks being disappointed. IBM hasn't said we'd have one available at Lotusphere. You will, however, be able...

The Lotusphere content team is trying out a number of new tricks at Lotusphere 2007:We believe that one of the greatest assest of Lotusphere is the results of the networking and water cooler discussions -- sometimes evolving into session topics for future Lotus events, strategies, sometimes even evo...

The crew at developerWorks Lotus has their annual Lotusphere content home up and running. Really cool, right on the front page -- links to blogs that will cover Lotusphere, along with the blogger's conference session(s) and company information.Welcome to the developerWorks Lotus page for Lotusphere...

Congratulations to the 2007 Lotus Awards winners, announced yesterday. The winners are: Best Messaging and Collaboration Solution: Intravision / Denmark, 4IPT Phone Suite Best Contextual Collaboration Solution: Relavis Corporation / USA, Relavis CRM Best Portal Solution: Kryos Systems /Canad...

We're finalizing the schedule for birds-of-a-feather sessions at Lotusphere. Originally, I was given Wednesday evening as a time slot for BOF508: The Lotus blogging community (not just bloggers!). For a couple of reasons, I asked to change that time slot -- mainly because of a new content concept...

We've had beta going of Notes/Domino 8 for over a month, with a group of about 40 organizations as managed beta participants and another couple dozen design partners. That number is going to expand later this month with a wave of extended beta participants (which have already been selected, so don'...

Congratulations and thanks again to Ben Langhinrichs for publishing his 7th annual Lotusphere sessions database for Lotusphere 2007. Check it out and start planning your session attendance. I think it's going to be a fantastic show....

A few updates on the Lotusphere 2007 front. First, it's been great to see the enthusiastic blogging by speakers about their upcoming sessions. As both Rocky and I have mentioned, there are a lot of new faces among the 2007 speaker crowd. I encourage you to check them out. One interesting new old...

The complete list of Lotusphere 2007 main conference sessions and breakouts has been posted on the Lotusphere website. BoFs are being finalized along with customer panels -- you should see those by Tuesday. Take a look and see if we've delivered on the promise to continue to increase the techni...

In the last 24 hours, those registered for Lotusphere have been sent a link to the session preferences voting site...your preferences help us decide what time slots and rooms are appropriate for the hundreds of sessions that have been selected. I know that in the last 30 minutes, the official acce...

The final score -- 55 accepted sessions, 164 rejected. In one track. Yowsa. So what have we got in there? More sessions on the Notes client than the past few years, which only makes sense given "Hannover". Some great new sessions on the Domino server side, with a mix of advice and tips for curr...

Every week, I read an update on how Lotusphere registration is proceeding. This week's report showed a huge increase in registrations...perhaps people taking advantage of the early-bird discount before it passed. Any which way, the numbers look good. I'm especially pleased to see that the firs...

Ben Langhinrichs left a great comment here last week...I sometimes read your blog and wonder if others think IBM is struggling and trying to hide it, which I really doubt is what you mean to impart. Just at a time when the Notes/Domino market seems to be doing well, and Hannover promises great thin...

I know there was some speculation last week that when the deadline for Lotusphere 2007 submissions was extended, it was a signal that there weren't that many submissions. Actually, it was really designed to let people who had indicated an intent to submit have some extra time to do so. Now that th...

Just a reminder...if you are thinking about submitting abstracts for Lotusphere 2007, you have until the end of the week to get 'em in. See here on the Lotusphere website for both session and birds-of-a-feather submissions. The track managers are already hard at work looking at your submissions......

Mick Moignard thinks Lotupsphere #14 is worth checking out:What's really pretty amazing is that there's expectation that people will sign up even though there is practically no detail at all about the conference. All that's available is a summary of the tracks that will be offered, and that summary...

OK, so Rock, Alan, and I have been talking with the queens of Lotusphere today after reading Andrew and Greyhawk's postings. To be totally honest, I didn't realize the CLP discount had been dropped for Lotusphere 2007 until I read the blogs, so score another one for the Lotus community's passion an...

See www.ibm.com/lotus/lotusphere (and shhhh, they left the www.lotusphere.com redirect in the proper place, too). The call for abstracts is also open...can't wait to see what y'all come up with this year......