Bloggers summarize Lotusphere 2005

February 13 2005

OK, OK, this might finally be the last entry I post about this year's Lotusphere.

Ambuj asked me to gather some of the key comments from the weblogs following Lotusphere 2005.  The table below is by no means meant to be exhaustive or complete... I just gathered a few of the comments that really resonated for me as I reviewed all the various blog activity about this year's conference.  If I've missed some that you like, let me know...if you are on the list, thank you.

A special shout-out to a similar article that isn't featured here -- Jonvon's efforts with SearchDomino.  John will be pleased to know that the article was featured front-and-center on IBM's w3 intranet.  Ambuj & company have seen it already, so I didn't duplicate that effort.

Lance Spellman: "Excellent Lotusphere, maybe the best I've been to" "Wow. The message is strong, clear and aggresive. The vision for a new paradigm in collaborative work is close to being realized. And in comparison with Microsoft's delivery and direction, IBM seems positioned to take control."
Jens Polster: "Lotusphere's over :-( " "More than last year "the direction is clear" as Ambuj Goyal stated.  Notes and Domino are an integral part of the Workplace architecture and our customer's investments in Notes and Domino applications are protected. Even more these applications can be leveraged and extended to become part of Workplace solutions.... The Activity Explorer looks very promising, I can't wait to get my hands on it."
Paul Mooney: "Heading home" "Lotus did a great job of putting most minds at ease in relation to Notes. ... The Workplace message made more sense then ever, and the workplace client, tied into ND7 really impressed many people.
Turtleweb: "Lotusphere gets good reviews" "We are pretty pumped up and excited after the show too. In fact all of the Business Partners we network with were really pleased. They liked the upbeat and strong messages from IBM."
Jerry Carter: "Lotusphere 2005" "The future, IBM Workplace, looks amazing. It has a design interface that is lifted almost directly from the ND6 Design Client source code. It also includes a new utility known as the Activity Explorer."
Peter O'Kelly: "Lotusphere 2005 impressions"
  • "IBM is playing offense rather than defense in communication/collaboration market segments -- for the first time in a long time."
  • "The tone at this year's Lotusphere was focused on innovation instead of the less compelling tone of recent years"
  • "IBM is clearly competing with Microsoft at a portfolio level -- platforms, tools, applications, and solutions."
Matthew White: "Another busy day" "The standout sessions today were the panel with Esther Dyson and Ray Ozzie, and the OpenNTF BOF....eventually there was a really good discussion about the future of computing and the divergence between the corporate and personal needs which people are going to have and how, possibly, they may converge or collide in their requirements. I hope that this sort of thing is tried again in future, inevitably it will be a hit and miss affair but if the panel is of the quality that we had today then the chances of a valuable discussion are greatly improved."
John Roling: "My Lotusphere 2005 technology overview" "I'm geeking heavily about Workplace. I think the portal framework (especially when coupled with the rich client) really points to a good future for Domino shops. You don't lose Domino, but do gain portal capability, all in a standards-based platform. Excellent."
Jack Dausman: "My feet are tired: More LS05 comments" "Flush with the success of an expanded market share, great technical reviews, strong analyst results and many, many win-backs, Lotus is pushing forward."
Jess Stratton "Lotusphere - The Sessions" " I finally understand. For years, it always seemed like everyone was so *informed* about things like release dates, what's in new versions, what was fixed, how products work, etc., and I never knew how everyone seemed to know all this. Now I do. You have to be at Lotusphere."
Keith Nolen, "A Lotusphere Summary, Part 1"
  • This was the first Lotusphere in about three years where I felt not worry and fear from the crowd, but optimism. As Ambuj Goyal said in his opening speech, "Lotus Software is back!"... Now that we've seen some of that vision and had time to grow more comfortable with it, the idea energized the crowd."
  • Marketplace Gains: ... As Ed brill put it, "We're not on defense any more." I love that attitude, and I think a lot of us will pick it up. I know I sure did.
Andrew Young (on developerWorks: Lotus) "This year, from the opening general session, Mike Rhodin and Ambuj Goyal repeatedly drove home key points with strong emphasis on long term Lotus/Domino presence and enhancements, continued support and development, and overall product integration"
NSFTools: "Lotusphere wrapup"
  • "Activity Explorer Is The Killer App For Workplace"
  • "Workplace Designer Is Cool"
  • "I've been to other tech conferences before, but never one where there were so many groups of people moving around together, excited to be talking to each other."
Bruce Elgort: "Well I had to get this off of my chest" "Remember, Lotusphere is a marketing event. Good marketing makes us believers. :-) Wait did I just say that Lotus has good marketing?"
fmc@Lotusphere 2005: "Summary of Lotusphere 2005"
  • "The IBM Workplace strategy was a key story.  Any confusion or doubts that people may of had, should be history now."
  • "IBM were much more aggressive towards Microsoft and their offerings than usual!  IBM believe they have a far stronger strategy, technology and vision and will welcome disenchanted MS customers with open arms! "
Ed Brill: "Best Lotusphere ever" (ok, so this is a ringer :) -- comments from my readers
  • "The clarity this year was great to hear.  Remember, we ARE on the offensive now!"
  • "i've only been to four of them now, but from what i can tell it WAS the best ever!"
  • "Of the 6 spheres I've been to going back to r4 days, this was the best of them all. I not only sense that IBM is on the offensive, but that it's on the verge of creating the next transformation in the way we work, ala Notes of the early days."

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Lotusphere 05  Add/View Comments [11]

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  1. 1  Richard Schwartz http://smokey.rhs.com/web/blog/poweroftheschwartz.nsf | 2/14/2005 6:59:02 AM

    Here's the beef! ;-) { Link }

    -rich

  1. 2  Richard Schwartz http://smokey.rhs.com/web/blog/poweroftheschwartz.nsf | 2/14/2005 7:02:16 AM

    "Activity Explorer rocks! It is a breakthrough product. It will sell IBM Workplace." { Link }

    -rich

  1. 3  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 2/14/2005 7:25:57 AM

    odd, I read your second posting there, Rich, but I guess since the thing I took away was the interaction with Adam, I forgot to highlight the overall points you made. I'll get that in V2

  1. 4  Christopher Byrne http://www.controlscaddy.com/ | 2/14/2005 12:12:04 PM

    I knew I should have had a quoteworthy posting:-)

  1. 5  Duffbert http://www.twduff.com | 2/14/2005 12:15:59 PM

    You had *plenty* of quoteworthy posts, Chris... just not about Lotusphere! :-)

  1. 6  Scott Good http://www.scottgood.com | 2/14/2005 12:20:33 PM

    For what it's worth... { Link }

  1. 7  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 2/14/2005 12:25:47 PM

    Scott, thanks for that -- didn't even know you were blogging!

  1. 8  jonvon http://jonvon.net | 2/14/2005 1:43:17 PM

    wow, that is way cool, i had no idea about the ibm intranet. thanks again to rich, andrew, rocky and linda for helping out with quotes for the article. it was pretty neat to do something that was a collaborative effort instead of just my own thing.

  1. 9  Sally  | 2/14/2005 3:22:05 PM

    YES! It was like totally the best Lotusphere... EVVVERRRRRRR! Like, oh my god... after 2004's L'Sphere I thought they were going to have to rename Lotusphere to like WorkplaceSphere... and that would have been like... gag me with a spoon... totally....

  1. 10  David Bell  | 2/15/2005 1:13:18 AM

    So now we're all hooked on gizooogle, JonVon's column about LS2005 is a scream.....

    { Link }{ Link }

  1. 11  David Bell  | 2/15/2005 1:14:37 AM

    Ooops that URL got broken into two links.....combine them...should be "{ Link }{ Link }