Ed Brill

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1. 1  Mika Heinonen http://www.siipi.com/mika | 9/28/2007 12:37:03 PM

   Can we see the full list of all 200 submission?

1. 2  Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.com | 9/28/2007 12:51:51 PM

   /me tries a DoS attack on John Head's 'sphere session. :-)

   "Hey Ed, what about John's submission?"

1. 3  Christopher Byrne http://www.controlscaddy.com/ | 9/28/2007 1:09:03 PM

   Let me take this one Ed...

   @1 Mika - NO!

1. 4  Mika Heinonen http://www.siipi.com/mika | 9/28/2007 1:19:01 PM

   @3: Why not? The list would be valuable information for ISVs what customers really want. They could start programming tools and applications which provide solutions for the requests, and of course there will always be some things which only IBM Lotus can do.

1. 5  John Head http://www.johndavidhead.com | 9/28/2007 1:31:00 PM

   @4 How many customers submit Lotusphere Sessions for the Infrastructure track? Probably very few, and those that do are part of IBM customer story sessions. And I believe those are not in the track Ed is reviewing.

   This is not session preferences, this is session submissions. This information is never public. IBM picks the sessions from the submissions and then publishes the session list. That is when it is public.

1. 6  Christopher Byrne http://www.controlscaddy.com/ | 9/28/2007 1:36:10 PM

   @3 - Because it is nobody's business except for the people that submitted the abstracts and IBM. And from your comment, it is clear you have NO CLUE what the abstract submittal process is.

   And I will leave it at that!

1. 7  Mika Heinonen http://www.siipi.com/mika | 9/28/2007 1:42:29 PM

   Ok, I assumed already it would be too much asked. I guess I have to write my own "What do you want from Notes/Domino?" web page for that purpose.

1. 8  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 9/28/2007 2:02:26 PM

   @Ed - That's about 10% less than last year: { Link } . Not that that makes it any easier to filter. :-)

   @Mika - I'm truly baffled how you could be so confused about the purpose of Lotusphere abstracts. It's not an opportunity for customers or end users to provide suggestions for what they want to see. It's for subject matter experts to provide suggestions for content that attendees might like to see. Lotus then matches that up to what customers say they want to see, coupled with their business objectives.

1. 9  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 9/28/2007 2:36:51 PM

   @8 good catch, I was going to go back and look at LS07 but got distracted. For some reason it feels like more, perhaps because there's no "Workplace" ones to immediately filter out :-O

1. 10  Mika Heinonen http://www.siipi.com/mika | 9/28/2007 3:01:50 PM

   @8 I don't think I'm confused, or maybe I am confused that the LotuSphere sessions are organized in a different way than how I would think they should be organized.

   I don't honestly understand what this "abstract subject submission" is good for. I understand simple things like: maximum server and workstation performance, minimize manual work, automatisize everything, satisfy customers 100% and more, do what people want, not what you want or what you think they want (although sometimes that's good also, since sometimes people don't necessarily know what they want before someone shows them what is possible).

   I don't go every year to LotuSphere, because I know there is not enough new information since last year. I go to LotuSphere because I want to see new developments of Notes and Domino, to upgrade my principal exams, and also to learn about technical details, especially the C API sessions and the Domino Performance optimization sessions were very useful. But that's about all, those reasons are kinda not enough, but they will have to do, and what can I do since customers can't submit their own wishes and then see if the next LotuSphere covers their special wishes.

1. 11  Mika Heinonen http://www.siipi.com/mika | 9/28/2007 3:13:12 PM

   And yes, I know there was this: https://www-926.ibm.com/events/lotus/lsph2008.nsf/cfpstart

   But it gives no quarantee that what I suggested would be also chosen. I want information, feedback, just a simple view done in Domino to show which session proposals will be held and which not.

1. 12  Rock http://www.lotusgeek.com | 9/28/2007 3:48:46 PM

   Mika, I think it is not fair to those who are not chosen to share that information with the world. It may be a source of embarrassment to them, and in deference to them we will not share that information. Sorry.

   The content team strives to put the best content possible on the Lotusphere stage each year. We strive to hit the widest audience possible - from the newbie to the uber geek, from the admin to the IT executive. It is a broad audience and a limited amount of time and space with which to reach them, so we can't be all things to all people - but we do try.

   So no, Mika, we're not going to share that information with you. And no, we're not going to reorganize the event. We have a way that we do this that seems to work - we are one of the highest rated technical shows in the country, year-in and year-out, and I don't think it would be prudent to change that now. Sorry.

   --Rock

   Best Practices Track Manager

   Lotusphere 2008

1. 13  Christopher Byrne http://www.controlscaddy.com/ | 9/28/2007 3:53:05 PM

   @10/@11 Mika,

   I was going to post a testy response here, but I emailed it to you instead. But I will ask how you possibly came to the conclusion that the call for abstracts was about what you wanted to see? It is about what you want to present.

1. 14  Mika Heinonen http://www.siipi.com/mika | 9/28/2007 4:29:39 PM

   @12 Rock, I understand that some people don't want their request to be public, and some don't mind them to be public. I have a simple solution for that: make a radio button which says "I want to share this request with all people in the world" and "I want to keep this request secret". Done.

   I also understand that it's impossible to fulfill all requests in one LotuSphere for all customers. But what I don't understand is that the customers who pay big money for the LotuSphere don't even know the exact contents what it has to offer. I need all dirty details of information to justify the expenses of LotuSphere.

1. 15  Christopher Byrne http://www.controlscaddy.com/ | 9/28/2007 4:52:34 PM

   @14 Mika...PLEASE READ...the abstracts are NOT want customers want to see (i.e. "Requests"), but what individuals have proposed as sessions that THEY (the individuals) want to PRESENT at Lotusphere.

   And the selected abstracts are published in enough time for people to make a decision about attending, or needing a justification to attend.

1. 16  Mika Heinonen http://www.siipi.com/mika | 9/28/2007 5:32:24 PM

   @15 Chris, "Now until November 2, the early registration fee is US$1,895". Where can I see the exact contents of the sessions, hey I might still join LS2008, if I KNEW for sure what's going on. Domino 8 is getting old, I'd only count Domino 9 as a reason for now (as part of those general reasons I listed before, but I'd like to see some real additional content).

1. 17  Ian White http://www.ianwhite.net | 9/28/2007 6:04:41 PM

   I suppose you could add a couple of days to LS2008 - ;-)

1. 18  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 9/28/2007 9:10:41 PM

   @16 - You can't. Session information won't be available until sometime in November or possibly even December, based on past history. Bitching endlessly won't make Lotus suddenly decide to do things the way you want. Give it a rest already.

1. 19  Mika Heinonen http://www.siipi.com/mika | 9/29/2007 5:15:55 AM

   @18 I'm not bitching, I'm just giving improvement suggestions :)

1. 20  Bruce Elgort http://www.takingnotespodcast.com | 9/29/2007 10:00:15 AM

   @All,

   "Your communication is the response you get"

1. 21  Volker Weber http://vowe.net | 9/29/2007 3:11:16 PM

   Holy cow. I think it is a pretty innocent question whether one can see the session submissions. It has never been done before, but that does not mean, it's a stupid idea just because. If you always do thing like you have done them before, it's kind of hard to improve or innovate.

   Maybe we can discuss this just on the merits of the idea, without any ad hominem attacks?

   If you run a company like China, you always want to control information: who may see what. A lot of effort goes into controlling access to all kinds of data. But you have to ask yourself what is the benefit of access control. Where does your company, the conference, ... benefit, if you keep things a secret. Or the other way around, who would benefit from seeing this information.

   Mika says the session submissions would be helpful when deciding whether to attend Lotusphere. I don't think that is the case. If a track manager has to boil down submissions by a factor of four or five, you are more likely to not find the particular session made it into the agenda than not.

   I think it would be interesting to see with what kind of ideas people come up with. As Ed says, there aren't any obvious sessions to exclude. So there is must be a lot of interesting ideas which never see the light of day outside of IBM. It may be a good thing for IBM to keep these ideas for themselves, but that is not the case for the community.

   I also don't think that it would be bad for those speakers whose submissions don't get accepted. It only means, that the track manager (or a larger team) did not like them as much as other submissions. If you can see all of the submissions, you can be your own judge.

   Wouldn't you find it interesting to see which submissions made it, and which did not? Would you really think bad of those speakers who did not make it?

1. 22  Flemming Riis  | 9/29/2007 3:24:42 PM

   -Would you really think bad of those speakers who did not make it?

   posting a submission is still alot more work than most people do , so off course not , the fact that people take the time to do it is news worthy alone.

1. 23  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 9/29/2007 5:35:27 PM

   So before the idea goes too much further... IBM's privacy policy prevents us from posting session abstract proposals publicly. In fact, access to the submissions is very strictly controlled, because we do not ask any permissions around external publication of submissions (accepted sessions is a different story).

   In -some- tracks, there are some less-great ideas submitted, and this year, we seem to have attracted a large number of commercials in a few tracks. So, across the board, there would be risk of some unintended consequences by publishing all submitted abstracts.

   The other issue is that we as track managers would almost certainly find ourselves second-guessed. We certainly do by IBMers already, and making selections in the public eye would only increase such examination. I, for one, find the internal pressure almost too much (and considering my role, time, and success at IBM, that's saying A LOT).

   We are in fact publishing Birds-of-a-Feather submissions publicly as was done for Lotusphere 2007. The top vote-getters amongst BoFs will be those that actually run. It makes sense for BoFs, since they are community forums.

   Oh and one other thing about the public eye and second-guessing -- it also leads to sour grapes if sessions aren't selected. Right now, that's between me (or whatever track manager) and the submitter, and I'd prefer it to stay that way.

1. 24  Keith Brooks http://lotustech.blogspot.com | 9/29/2007 10:24:18 PM

   Volker brings up a good point, unfortunately Ed pointed out the IBM legalese about it. An interesting idea would be if the person clicked "publish" versus "private" for the submission.

   Or at least a list of titles without names attached would be of interest to the BP community for sure, perhaps as a session with the BPs in Lotusphere the Partnerworld staff can give us a headsup of what was submitted so we can see the future so to speak of interest?

   Any thoughts on this for the BPs?

1. 25  Ian Randall  | 9/30/2007 12:05:42 AM

   Mika said that he would like to see the full list of submissions partly in order to help justify his trip to Lotusphere which I understand, however if a session is rejected by IBM then who would be responsible for that?

   I feel that the downside of this idea far outweighs the upside.

   Also, while I ackhowledge that IBM/Lotus has developed a unique level of public candour with the broad on-line community of business partners, customers and other interested parties. I feel that IBM/Lotus still deserve the right of privacy in this and other matters.

   If Volker and other disagree with that basic right, perhaps they can lead by example and change the veto rights in their own blogs first.

1. 26  Carl Tyler http://www.iminstant.com | 9/30/2007 9:06:22 AM

   I have only one request with regard to improving the submission process. When someone submits a session proposal, the system emails the person letting them know it has been submitted, in that email please include the session abstract description etc.

   Thanks

1. 27  Wild Bill http://www.billbuchan.com | 9/30/2007 2:05:26 PM

   @26 - Right there with you on that Carl..

   I'm not organised enough to capture the blinding inspiration that I type (raw, usually) into the submission box on any one of the dozen of machines I might use.

   Or it might help that I dont post abstract submissions from the pub...

   ---* Bill

1. 28  Stuart McIntyre http://www.collaborationmatters.com | 9/30/2007 2:33:33 PM

   @26 Absolutely Carl, even on the ones captured locally before posting, they tend to get edited down to make the very tight limits on character length that are imposed...

1. 29  Mika Heinonen http://www.siipi.com/mika | 10/1/2007 11:43:56 AM

   @25 I don't really see the problems other people see in that. Like I said earlier, I would just like to have a simple list with all suggestions, and a Status column which shows some nice red/green icon if it's accepted or rejected, and in addition a response document from IBM why it was rejected or accepted.

   Privacy policy is also not a problem, since the user had a chance to select the "make this public" or "make this secret" radio button when he posted his suggestion. Secret posts should be rejected in first place anyway, to make people learn to be more righteous, honest and open to the public. It should be of course mentioned on the Form that all secret submissions will have a lowered chance of beeing accepted, since other people will feel cheated if the reasoning for some decision was not made public.

   Long live the freedom of choice and freedom of speech/public opinions!

1. 30  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 10/1/2007 11:50:18 AM

   @29 Mika, I explained why such a process is unreasonable for Lotusphere @23. There are good reasons for "secret" submissions, like new product announcements or whatever. Are you saying we shouldn't select those?

   We do use a process like you suggest for birds-of-a-feather sessions, starting with LS07. I think that's quite enlightened, and more than most conferences do.