An oral history of Lotus Notes: The first 20 years
November 19 2009
Lotusphere as a conference celebrates a community, and from time to time, we have offered special sessions recognizing the Lotusphere "magic". For Lotusphere 2010, we've created a session -- well, we've created the shell of the session at any rate -- called "An oral history of Lotus Notes: The first 20 years".
Now, if Ray Ozzie is still reading my blog, he'll probably get angry and defensive -- it's really been 25 years since the development of Lotus Notes began. The first release, though, was December, 1989 -- two weeks shy of 20 years ago. I don't pretend that I could tell the story of those first five years of development, thus, the session is conceived to start with when Notes first was released and move forward from there. At any rate, this session is designed to be a celebration -- of where we've been, and where we are going. If all goes right, we'll have a bit of fun along the way.
My personal involvement with Notes started in 1993. I didn't join product management for Notes until 1998, though. So, even though this is my Lotusphere session, I know I can't do this alone. The first step to ensure the story is complete is that I've recruited a co-presenter -- Scott Souder. Scott works for me in Notes product management. More to the point, though, Scott was part of the original team of 12 that sold Notes/Domino starting with V1, twenty years ago.
Scott and I are just two guys, though. You all have lived the first twenty years of Notes as much as we have. To make this session really special, I am going to open it up to audience submissions. No, I don't want your well-worn Notes R4 "Release the Power" T-shirt (though you are welcome to wear it to the session!). However, I'd love to get some graphics of Notes apps through the years, marketing materials, videos, quotes from reviews and white papers, and the like. I'm not a professional editor, but a montage of all of this seems appropriate to include in the session.
Start thinking now about what you'd like to see in this history chapter. No, I'm still not likely to talk on a public stage about why we killed "Garnet", or why we can't decide to use or stop using product names like iNotes, but there are clearly some anecdotes from over time that would be fun. Also, I want to make sure the session has an eye to the future -- what are we doing now and what will Notes look like in 2030.
You're welcome to post comments on this blog, or mail me, or riff on this on your own blog. Scott and I will be building our session over the next few weeks (using a Lotus Connections Activity, of course). With the right input, this should be a great session -- and we're looking forward to it.
Oh -- as for the "regular" Notes/Domino roadmap session at Lotusphere 2010, Kevin Cavanaugh will be doing a mini-keynote during Lotusphere to cover Notes/Domino, Alloy, Symphony, Protector, Foundations strategy. I'll be part of that session, too.
Post a Comment
- 2
Ulrich Krause http://www.eknori.de | 11/19/2009 6:20:01 AM
You can add for 2000 - Ulrich Krause added functionality to a Notes database in v4.6 to detach, edit and attach attachments. This feature was first introduced in Notes 6.
This was only possible, because Lotus Notes had LotusScript and LotusScript works perfectly together with the Windows API.
- 3
Brian O’Curran http://www.doingmorewithless.biz | 11/19/2009 6:33:40 AM
Oh man, I wonder if I've got the screenshots from those R2 apps I did in the early days. I just pitched about 20 Jaz drive disks out (mostly because I couldn't find the cord/adapter for it anymore), I bet there we're some gems on those.
I'm going to wear my R4 "Release the Power"
- 4
Carl Tyler http://www.iminstant.com | 11/19/2009 6:39:23 AM
You guys suck :-) I submitted that as a BOF!
- 6
Turtle http://www.weightlessdog.com | 11/19/2009 7:04:07 AM
This might be tricky, but some talk about early, non-Internet attempts to extend Notes as a "cloud" could be interesting. I'm thinking specifically of the long-gone Compuserve Lotus Notes Information Service and (cough) AT&T Network Notes. Just to show that "cloud computing" ain't nothin' new...
- 7
Pete McPhedran | 11/19/2009 7:56:17 AM
Ed,
As a Notes user since the Summer of '89, I'd be happy to contribute some tales, code and maybe a screen shot or 12...
--Pete
- 8
vlad | 11/19/2009 8:06:16 AM
O tempora o mores! Oh the times! Oh the customs! and a link about what Lotus Notes used to be: { Link } Can we say it today?
These days IBM has given up even the { Link } domain... fortunately it belongs to lavatech, a lotus notes company...
We should also look at the failures we might learn something
- 9
Keith Brooks http://www.vanessabrooks.com | 11/19/2009 8:55:14 AM
Sounds like fun, shots of old apps are easy, we all have them still because they just run. :-)
I have the original packaging from LN:DI will get you a scan of it.
If you have to ask what it is, you were never there :-)
- 10
Mike Robinson http://www.invcs.com | 11/19/2009 9:11:18 AM
Hmm, maybe it would be fun to jab at the marble workspace was a complete accicdent (but obviously took off), or how we had things like "Phone Notes" "Video Notes" and other variants like that (back in the R3 days)
- 11
John Vaughan http://jonvon.net | 11/19/2009 9:32:14 AM
I think more than anything this session is a very strong statement about the future. You wouldn't be looking back if you were not moving forward. I think it's a fantastic idea.
- 12
Lubomir Hornak | 11/19/2009 10:17:35 AM
Ough!! 20 years of Lotus plus my age when I started to use it - Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll, Too Young to Die :-)
- 13
John Foldager http://www.izone.dk | 11/19/2009 11:20:32 AM
@Ed, Sounds like a great session!
Damn... I have cleaned up our basement and send a lot of oooold Lotus stuff (Domino Fax, cc:Mail, Lotus eSuite, ...) for recycling. Those stuff could probably be used for that session. Sorry guys... I know I probably should have kept it all...
Anyway... if you need an IBM PC XT or an IBM PC AT from 1981 (anyone remmeber true 80x25 greenscreen PC monitors, CGA or EGA?) and IBM DOS 1.0 on 5 1/2 inch floppy disks with pink(!) label then I can still deliver (though the XT have been upgraded from 16kb RAM to around 640kb) and it has got a hardisk of 20 MB instead of the one 5 1/2 inch floppy drive.
:o)
- 14
Almar Diehl http://www.domino-weblog.nl | 11/19/2009 11:44:15 AM
Great plan! Here is what I remember of my early days with Notes.
In the early '90's I worked for Coopers & Lybrand (PwC nowadays) and I was asked to implement Lotus Notes in the Netherlands. I got a pile of 3,5 inch disks from the US with Notes 2.0 and a certifier- and server.id. I didn't have a clue what to do or what to use it for but I learned that along the way (read approximately 10 attempts to install and configure the server ;-)).
The Notes client was rolled-out to a bunch of pilot users (accountants) who all got a modem and dialed in to the Notes server to replicate. However, we soon found out that while an audit team was at a customer site it was quite a hazzle to let them alle replicate the customer data to/from the server while they were working in the same room.
That's when I earned my nickname 'Mr. Parallel Replication'! In the Notes 2 and 3 client you were able to replicate 2 databases on the same disc. So we installed Interlink on all laptops and gave all users an Interlink cable. Now when on site one laptop would act as Interlink server and the other laptops as Interlink client. This way the users could easily replicate the customer data between their laptops.
Man, a lot has changed since then. Nowadays I have a lot of collegues that do not even have local replica's anymore....
I wonder what Notes/Domino will look like in 2030.
- 15
Gary Devendorf http://interoptips.com | 11/19/2009 11:56:54 AM
funny story:
Sometime around R5 days, an executive was asked by the press “With Java and JavaScript being added to Notes, does that mean LotusScript will be going way?” He not say no. This started a PR storm that LotusScript was disappearing. So for months, the poor LotusScript product manager had to, over and over again, answer the same question with a correction. Then while on a worldwide tip, the question came up again and again. Finally I pounded the table and said “LotusScript is going nowhere!” Well the reporter quoted me in a print article and when I got back to Westford, the LotusScript developers had cut out the quote and taped it to my door.
In truth the article went on to say I was reaffirming the future support for LotusScript.
- 16
Richard Schwartz http://www.poweroftheschwartz.com | 11/19/2009 1:20:30 PM
You should mention Scott Adams speaking at the ViP Developer Conference in... '95, I think. I believe I still have the yellow Dilbert mouse pad from that event.
Also, an oral history of Notes would not be complete without a mention of modem wrangling, and of Scott Brown, author of the Modem Survival Kit.
Then there's WALNUT -- the original worldwide user group. I might still have some of the newsletters on a shelf somewhere in my office.
The early books -- Lotus Notes At Work ({ Link } and The Lotus Notes Idea Book ({ Link } I have copies of both of these.
- 17
Kit Davis | 11/19/2009 2:32:27 PM
I would think that the original New York Users Group and the NYUG database would be an important part of any story. That database went "viral" long before the internet and was replicated from partner to partner and business to business. I sadly do not have a copy of it anymore - but within a very short period of time you could enter a question and get an answer from someone half way around the world - although since all replication occurred via dial-up, it often took a day or two for a question and response to replicate.
The earliest issue I remember (early 1990) was that the original discussion database only had document and response forms - there was no response to response document. I spent many hours figuring out how to create a resp-to-resp document and we used this new form for a couple of months until a new production version incorporated a much better version. Then we discovered that discussions could only go 8 levels deep - when you reached the ninth level of response, the documents didn't show up in the view. I still have a few archived databases, including the original DC Users Group database that used a flat view and a computed numbering system to get discussion documents to show up.
I have a couple of old support databases that were used to communicate technical issues to the local DC Notes reps and they have all sorts of problems that certainly haven't been issues in many years: The cc:Mail gateway turned attachments over 20K in size into files with no names, Someone asked if the file viewers from Magellan could be converted for use with Notes, Changing the path variable so the Notes doesn't load the Ami-Pro dictionary and fail doing spell checks. etc. Its easy to forget just how far the product has come over time.
- 18
Ian Scott | 11/19/2009 4:19:34 PM
@16 - Your mention of ViP is a real blast from the past. I just dug out a box containing v1.0 and found a still shrink wrapped version of the LotusScript Release 2 Language Reference while I was at it. It just seems like yesterday.....
- 20
Chris Castellani | 11/19/2009 5:02:00 PM
@6 - There's a good history of WorldCom (later Interliant) on co-founder Eric Sachs' homepage here: { Link } . It contains some details on the competition with CompuServe and AT&T.
- 21
Bill Geimer | 11/19/2009 5:31:20 PM
Yes, I (sadly can still) remember the development of Notes on Plato at U of I in the 70's, before personal computers, before the internet was invented. Had to do bug annotation somewhere. Great way to play (star)Trek with the folks in NZ and Australia all night, or learn Physics, or spare live frogs in Bio 110/111.
Not sure if Ray Ozzie (one of the developers) is as angered by that as he seems to be of Notes now, but, it was a good tool way back when. Notes did look good in neon orange.
No sure what the oral history of that would be. All I ever heard from the Plato terminals was the air pressure activated slide projector. I suppose a fan too, but we tune sounds like that out.
But then, I remember Notes 2 applications, cc:Mail 8 to Notes 3 conversions, and a really good support contact I had in those days.
- 22
Peter Presnell | 11/19/2009 6:59:50 PM
How about a Lotus Knows memory stick giveaway with the Notes 1.0 install files so we can all go away from the presentation and install the original Notes somewhere to see (or remind us) what it was like to be a Notes 1 user. It could be Notes 1.0 basic or standard I don't really mind which.
- 24
Carl Tyler http://www.iminstant.com | 11/19/2009 8:38:03 PM
I've shown those old versions of Notes in VMware in the VMWare session I give at Lotusphere.
Sadly I can't share them cos they're running Windows, and don't have a license to distribute that.
- 25
Adam Brown http://www.isw.com.au | 11/19/2009 11:51:02 PM
It would be great to get the very early versions of Notes. Would be great for a presentation that shows how far Notes has come and what the roadmap for the future is.
- 26
Brian Labelle | 11/20/2009 2:23:33 AM
I'm a newbie. Version (4.6 +), but I would LOVE to see/have Notes V1... V2... V3...
I'll be attending your session Ed..
- 27
Nelson Morris | 11/20/2009 8:10:21 AM
I started with R3 and wrote my first LotusScript to swing dbs onto a R4 servers running on Novell. What I loved was the fact that ToolRefreshSelectDocs was no longer a menu item in R4. Then is gets fuzzy, I think I recall some guy zip lining over a lake and REM.
- 28
Sjaak Ursinus http://www.socialsoftwareblog.nl | 11/20/2009 8:55:55 AM
Ed,
Here I just found a R5 Ad on youtube
{ Link }
- 29
Sjaak Ursinus http://www.socialsoftwareblog.nl | 11/20/2009 9:02:52 AM
And an other nice video
{ Link }
- 30
Handly Cameron http://handly.blogspot.com | 11/20/2009 11:03:32 AM
I think it was Lotusphere '99 where the Developers Lab had a set up of Notes 1 through 5 servers all running and replicating the same application. It was great to see the earlier versions as well as have a real example of the commitment to ongoing value with the Notes platform.
I still use this example today in sales calls to convince customers on how committed IBM is to making upgrades smooth and not requiring rip and replace.
As Ed says in @23, this would be hard, but I would love to see a 1 -> 8.5 system running at Lotusphere 2010.
- 31
Emilio Penedo http://www.absystems.biz/news.nsf | 11/20/2009 11:15:55 AM
@30 and Ed. What would be cool is not only show Notes Server 1 through Domino 8.5.1, but a custom application running on all versions, that will show once and for all Domino's backward compatibility, and investment protection.
- 32
Randy Davison http://www.matrixresources.com | 11/20/2009 11:51:51 AM
Wow, what a blast from the past you've provided me. Ask Scott Souder if he remembers the day he and Susan Thompson met with Steve Flatt, Ray DiCasali, and me at MSA when Ray said, "This is very interesting, how do we get started?" Susan replied, "The minimum purchase is 100 seats for $65,500." Ray responded, "No, you don't understand, I just want to set up a server in a lab, get five or ten people connected so we can see what we can do with Lotus Notes." Susan responded, "The minimum purchase is 100 seats for $65,500.", this exchange happened twice more with Ray becoming increasingly frustrated. I looked at Scott and said, "Scott, how do I get this installed on my desktop?" Scott promised me he would "lend" me a set of install disks (there were twelve at the time, I think) if I would work with him to develop even a simple application because, "Notes is not what it is, Notes is what you do with it." I'm not sure that was an official marketing phrase but I still used it when I joined Lotus in January of 1991. So, in June of 1989 after spending a Saturday afternoon in Dallas, on my way home from training in San Francisco, Scott and I developed a time sheet application and when I returned to the office I installed Version 1.0, server and client on my PS2 Model 70-A21, which was the most powerful PC in the company at the time. I believe it was a 25mhz 286. I have another great story about being successful with Notes "on purpose" as opposed to being successful "by accident".
- 33
Gerald Mengisen | 11/20/2009 2:40:02 PM
Remember the InterNotes ad with the monks? One of the best Lotus ads ever - and I still have the T-shirt :-)
- 34
Ports http://www.mrports.com/ | 11/20/2009 3:31:47 PM
My first brush with Notes was in 1988 - Vax Notes ({ Link } It is amazing how many of the features in Domino today was there in Vax Notes all those years ago. Admitedly on a green screen. When I joined Lotus in 1995 I had a distinct sense of De Ja Vue.
In my view Vax Notes was just as important a seed for Lotus Notes as Plato was. (Iris co-founder Len Kawell invented Vax Notes while working at DEC)
- 35
Richard Schwartz http://www.poweroftheschwartz.com | 11/21/2009 10:39:06 AM
@34 Len Kawell and Tim Halvorsen both worked on VAX Notes after they worked on PLATO at U. of Illinois.
- 36
Tony Austin http://notestracker.com | 11/21/2009 5:24:55 PM
Ed, for your collage here's an image of all the workspace icons for "Notes Suite" (or whatever that bundle of apps was called, from R4 days, and I wish IBM would rejuvenate maybe via OpenNTF and publish again, hint, hint).
Find it at either of the following mirrors: { Link } or { Link }
Click on the thumbnail on the right side to go to a larger image.
- 37
mike woolsey | 12/24/2009 11:16:14 AM
I was here from V2 on, with NYNUG (I vaguely remember a "nut" being the icon or acronym for it), and struggling with access controls there. Then Partner Forum became the viral app for us, figuring out and advancing in Notes back then.
I know we stand on the success of this product's ability to let us share with one another.
Some ancient phrases that might jog memories (in memory order):
"Dave's Cat"
"Carol Ogden, I presume"
"Wilfredo Formulas"
"King Richard"
"Penumbra"
"Garnet"
"... what other network software can't do at all"
um ...
"Ed Brill"
Who else has titles for a few springboards they remember from early on?
Oh that's an excellent Idea. I have seen a few old marketing videos on Youtube. Its fun to watch them.
I would like to see all those anecdotes and funny stuff like that. You can include some easter eggs ( I heard of some of those in old notes versions).
It would be exciting to see all those historic moments (highs and lows). You can add for July 2007 - Bhavya joined the Notes community... :-P hehe