The lotus.com audience

June 5 2004

OK, a few polite gripes that I was too far off-topic yesterday; I get it... busy day around here.
Today, let's combine some related topics into one.  First, I posted a "quick take" story about the lack of roadmap for Microsoft Exchange on the lotus.com news and homepage.
Not surprisingly, the first feedback that came into lotus.com about it criticized me/us for taking a shot at Microsoft from the homepage.  My reponse - too bad.  Far too often,the feedback more generally is that Lotus and IBM choose the high road when a street fight is needed.  It always sounds good to "let your product compete on its own merits", but that's not the way the market plays out.  I've seen much much much more aggressive tactics from my competitors (and their partners), so there you go.
But what is the right kind of content for the lotus.com audience?  For a few months, I've been getting occasional feedback on the lotus.com/weblog criticizing its mere existence.  It doesn't happen often -- once every three weeks or so -- but it is enough to make me wonder.  The last one said, "I am looking forward to seeing the former Lotus administrator Ed Brill stopping his weblog aka waste of bandwidth."  Now, really, who cares?  Is this some weak attempt by my competition or their proponents to intimidate me?  Is it someone who just gets their rocks off trolling?  [Aside: IBM privacy policy is very very strict -- lotus.com doesn't capture any information about those leaving comments on the lotus.com/weblog except their self-provided e-mail address.  So I can't IP track these comments]
The reality is, with some upcoming site and other changes, I may well be either shutting down the lotus.com/weblog or finding another way of accomplishing the same thing on the Lotus website.  But in the meantime, I'm not real sure why anyone would object to it?

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Lotus  Add/View Comments [23]

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  1. 1  Dan Juarez http://www.danieljweb.net | 6/5/2004 9:03:44 AM

    Keep the blogs comin'. :-) I may not say much, but I read a lot.

  1. 2  Ed Maloney  | 6/5/2004 11:05:22 AM

    I don't see how removing your blog from the lotus.com site can be perceived as anything other than one more reason to believe that IBM is deemphasizing Notes/Domino.

    I'd hate to see your blog removed since it provides valuable information to people who are not monitoring the Notes blog scene.

  1. 3  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 6/5/2004 12:14:17 PM

    so if I got hit by a bus tomorrow, and stopped writing my weblog on lotus.com, it would be evidence of a lack of IBM support? :-o

  1. 4  Mike Lazar  | 6/5/2004 12:34:27 PM

    Because if IBM REALLY cared about Domino, they would have you clustered/cloned with Alan or a reasonable likeness to seamlessly fail the blogging over without any visible traces to the end users... :)

  1. 5  Doug  | 6/5/2004 2:39:35 PM

    I never visit the Lotus homepage anymore. News articles don't get on my "to read" list unless they have an RSS feed. There are good articles there. Get them in a RSS feed so they will get noticed! ...the same goes for the LDD Today (Iris Today) articles.

  1. 6  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 6/5/2004 2:42:48 PM

    I was in a meeting earlier this week where it was discussed...soon...

  1. 7  Doug  | 6/5/2004 2:43:15 PM

    This is a good non-technical overview on RSS.

    http://www.eevl.ac.uk/rss_primer/

  1. 8  Heini  | 6/5/2004 2:56:38 PM

    Not that the Lotus.com blog is that bad but,

    - although this is your personal blog there is a lot of Lotus stuff already posted here

    - I really miss comments, I miss controverse discussions on some topics, I miss comments from "the other side" and the blog rate is much lower than here.

    A total different story if edbrill.com would not exist.

  1. 9  Bruce Elgort http://www.BruceElgort.com | 6/5/2004 5:51:00 PM

    Why isn't all of the great IBM/Lotus/MS stuff you post on this blog put onto the Lotus.com blog? While the current community knows about this blog (maybe many don't) the Lotus.com page seems like the more logical place for this type of content.

    I think from IBM's perspective your content would have more visability on Lotus.com. If the Lotus.com site added a comments facility that would help as well.

    Just my 2 cents.

  1. 10  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 6/5/2004 7:08:29 PM

    I want someplace to be able to blog about topics beyond Lotus and IBM. It seems I'm getting away with that less and less here, though you all seem to indulge my travel and occasional marketing-related blogs. Further, the competitive stuff I publish here wouldn't all be considered "acceptable" content for the pages of ibm.com. The one big difference is that here on edbrill.com, because the site is my own, I can enforce copyright and not be quoted in the press for what I say here.

    I have had some good ideas from the comments so far, along with those in vowe.net's thread on this topic. Keep them coming.

  1. 11  Read my comment here:  http://vowe.net/archives/004599.html | 6/5/2004 7:16:07 PM

  1. 12  bonj http://bonj.blogspot.com | 6/5/2004 9:58:46 PM

    I believe this is edbrill.com and not lotus.com. Does it not say "and more".

    I also believe you commented on the dilemma of double posting in the past and what might be best as you didn't want to have those hitting both blogs get a double dose.

    If the blog on lotus.com were to go away then for the lotus.com followers you may want to put up your own site dedicated to your corporate view and keep this one for your views on Lotus, etc...

    If there isn't one already available, maybe you or someone can come up with a handy template that would allow you the option of posting items to both sites via a checkbox, lessening the burden of trying to add things to both sites, thus those only interested in the corporate take can get it there and those interested in the corporate take, your take and trivial observations, can get it here.

    I think it would actually be beneficial for Lotus to expand the blogs on the corporate site and have a single page listing those available. Of course, that is coming from a soda guy, and I can't speak for all of the soda population and am not sure how someone from the pop or Coke population might feel. :-)

  1. 13  Steve  | 6/6/2004 4:02:21 PM

    Ed,

    I think it would be a shame if your blog was removed from Lotus.com. It is rare (IMHO) to find something so personal on a major website such as Lotus'.

    On the subject of Coke vs Pepsi - the readers here don't have any right to criticise you straying "off-topic" as, after all, this is YOUR website. It's not some "child" of the Lotus.com blog - it is your personal musings on the industry, which I often find useful. One of the few IT sites I visit daily along with El Reg... :-)

  1. 14  Eric Mack www.ericmackonline.com | 6/6/2004 9:19:16 PM

    Ed, I'll echo my sentiments and say that I enjoy your blog and I read it far more regularly than I check the IBM site. Often, it is your blog (and other blogs I read) that take me to pages on the IBM site as needed.

    I agree with Doug, that IBM ought to be using RSS to reach its technical audience. IBM should be at the forefront of this paradigm shift. I know that I would subscribe if they did.

    I recently posted my first 4-minute video blog on this topic. It was intended as a wake-up call for nontechnical clients, and I have been receiving excellent feedback. Feel free to share the link with IBM. :-)

    http://www.ericmackonline.com/emo/emonline.nsf/dx/really-simple-syndication

    Eric

  1. 15  Geoff Mether  | 6/6/2004 11:21:51 PM

    This is your blog, I like the mix of Tech Stuff, Travel and Marketing. So blog the way you want to and people can quickly skip the blogs that aren't Techy.

  1. 16  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 6/7/2004 2:20:43 AM

    my lotus.com/weblog was one of the first IBM websites to offer an RSS feed; the web team had to go learn RSS because of my request to implement it (and they did a great job, mind you). DevloperWorks is adding more and more RSS feeds, and "LDD" "notes.net" whatever you want to call it will be adding some very soon as well.

  1. 17  Kitty  | 6/7/2004 5:20:32 AM

    I read edbrill.com for several reasons: It keeps me up with my partner's world of work in a manner I, as a non-lotus bod, can understand, but I also like the personal marketing and travel stuff as it marries with my social science world of Higher Education.

    I know Ed walks a fine line in his posts, and IMHO think he does a good job of it, but I am not so close to the issues as others here. As has been said, this is your site - with the inevitable parameters - please keep the mix of posts.

  1. 18  Mike Schmitz  | 6/7/2004 7:24:28 AM

    I read the Lotus homepage once a week or so, including the Ed Brill weblog. I also look at this weblog, and several others periodically as well. I find it interesting to see the difference between the "scrubbed" corporate message and what other bloggers have to contribute. For a number of reasons, the Lotus site does not go into near the detail OR speculation of some unofficial sites, and I enjoy the different view points.

  1. 19  jonvon http://jonvon.net | 6/7/2004 12:03:58 PM

    without reading all of the comments in this thread, i just want to say this is one of my favorite blogs. i check it in the browser regularly.

    also, i'd like to say that the lotus.com blog is cool as well. it is a very forward thinking kind of thing for a corporation as big as ibm to be doing. even though the content there is generally pretty close to squeaky clean, it still brings a more human face to the community than practically anything else that would generally be considered marketing communication. a rather appropriate thing for lotus to be doing when you think about it like that.

    i think it would be a mistake to trash that site (or this one). both are useful. this one is a lot of fun.

    don't let the bastards grind you down! opinions are like...

    :-D

  1. 20  Heini  | 6/7/2004 1:31:09 PM

    I am not a native speaker and my former comment should not sound rude (indeed the subject could be interpreted like that). I would suggest that your lotus.com blog opens itself a bit more to other people at IBM Lotus. I think you liked the concept of LNDCentral and I think this might fit perfectly for your lotus.com blog too. Not that I think that you are not able to fill it on your own.

    You could then call it something like e.g. "Inside IBM Lotus blog"). The information that is on Lotus.com is useful, especially for people that do not come here.

  1. 21  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 6/7/2004 2:13:47 PM

    for a lot of different reasons.

    Great ideas, everyone, keep it coming! What -kind- of group blogs would you expect from Lotus...different from lndcentral.com and e-pro's new Lotus Informer?

  1. 22  Rob Witte  | 6/7/2004 3:53:05 PM

    Ed,

    I really enjoy both blogs. I especially like the edbrill.com weblog, as it does have a nice mix of travel and personal along with the technical. It also seems to generate some great discussion. The Lotus blog is a good source for the "Lotus Message", but frankly I find myself more interested in your considered opinions.

    Personally, I would like to see IBM open up and encourage more IBMers to communicate openly via RSS ... much like we're seeing Microsoft do right now. I think this type of exposure to the incredible IBM resources would really benefit IBM's image. If outsiders really knew the depth and breadth of technical resources as well as the amazing social diversity within the company, they would see a different IBM than I think is generally perceived today.

  1. 23  Patrick  | 7/2/2004 6:47:39 AM

    My pet peeve is context.

    Data is meaningless unless and until it is given context -- then it is information and maybe even intelligence.

    My pet peeve is the structure of ALL blogsites is one of a continuous stream of consciousness. Try finding something that someone wrote a few months back on ANY site when you don't recall the exact terminology used (title / subject / memorable phrase). It is a nightmare.

    Some sort of classification needs to be done UP FRONT. (RSS can lead to this by giving XML structure to the data. RSS is good.)

    Otherwise the main task of us readers is to data mine for the information we are looking for. Ad nauseam.