Sessions and gurus

January 26 2006

Ah, tradition.  Sitting in the "Ask the developers" session which preceeds the Lotusphere close.  It's been a great show and a great week.

I moderated/hosted the "Gurupalooza" session earlier this morning, where the 25-ish speakers from the Lotusphere best practices track assembled to take on any and all questions.  We went about ten minutes over time, with a number of really good questions on a diverse set of topics.  Libby Ingrassia live blogged it on LotusUserGroup.org.  One thing I didn't point out was the number of IBMers in attendance during Gurupalooza -- that included VP of Develoment Craig Hayman, Notes client lead engineer Jeff Eisen, and Domino Designer developer Andre Guirard..  If you've ever wondered how much passion the IBM Lotus team has about our product and customers, there should be no question when these guys (and many others) allocate hours on the last day of the conference listening to detailed technical Q&A.

As for my sessions yesterday... "The Boss Loves Microsoft" drew a crowd of about 900, the largest of the five years the session has run.  Mr. Mooney procured one of the two prizes of his day -- I gave him a pair of Lotus yellow boxing gloves for his uppercut at the beta Microsoft application analyzer tool.  The session went well, and Sara L Nagelvoort did a great job helping round out the competitive landscape story by covering SharePoint and OLCS.  Tons of comments and discussions offline and through e-mails following the session.  I'll post a PDF of the presentation here on edbrill.com sometime next week.

"How to 'sell' Notes/Domino inside your organization" was a surprisingly popular session.  I didn't know until much later that not only were there about 300 in the main room, but we filled an overflow room as well.  Considering it is the third time that Libby and I have run this session at Lotusphere (though we've revised and updated the content each time), I was intrigued at the attendance.  And it's not like that was a slow time slot -- John Head's session in the same block also was packed full.

From the tremendous volume of e-mail I received in the last 24 hours, I can tell that both sessions resonated.  I can also tell I have more work to do.  Like most of the IBM Lotus team, I'll leave Lotusphere energized to get busy on this, but I am going to take tomorrow off -- if you e-mailed me, look for me to catch up on replies early next week.

The closing session awaits.  I'll live blog about Surjit Chana's comments during the closing...but will shut down to laugh my @ss off at the entertainment.

Ed Brill | Lotusphere 2006 Category:  Lotusphere ’06  Add/View Comments [11]

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  1. 1  Sean Burgess http://www.phigsaidwhat.com | 1/26/2006 2:33:00 PM

    I would love to get some more competetive information with regards to Sharepoint. Too many "people" talk about moving Domino apps to Sharepoint without ever thinking about whether it can actually be done.

    Sean---

  1. 2  Twotonetommy  | 1/26/2006 3:15:37 PM

    Ed... Since I was unable to make it to Lotusphere this year, will you be posting "The Boss Loves Microsoft" presentation on your website and if so when?

    Thanks

  1. 3  Alan Lepofsky http://www.alanlepofsky.net | 1/26/2006 3:48:34 PM

    Hey Ed, glad to hear you hosted the Guru event. Did you wear the shirt I sent you! :-) (people who attended last years session will understand!) My flight home from Oz (ending my two month sabatical) is in 3 hours, so after reading a lot of email and Lotusphere content when I get home, hopefully I'll be back up to speed with Lotusland.(and will start up my web site again)

    Alan

  1. 4  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 1/26/2006 4:48:51 PM

    @2 See main body: "I'll post a PDF of the presentation here on edbrill.com sometime next week. "

    @3 was a bit of a last minute deal, and since Bob Balaban was in a tux, I'd have been outclassed, regardless.

  1. 5  Christopher Byrne http://www.controlscaddy.com/ | 1/26/2006 11:35:53 PM

    Hmmm, giving Paul a pair of the gloves...I thought you did not take suggestions like this from people?:-)

    Excellent move!

  1. 6  Lars Olufsen  | 1/27/2006 8:23:21 AM

    Re: My boss loves Microsoft ...

    Ed, somethings you mentioned during that always inspirational session got me thinking (no propellerhat warning, people ... don't worry). You've probably considered this already, but whatever ...

    The Notes shops are being pressured by people claiming outlook is a better client, because - as you mentioned - they are familiar with this client from using it at home.

    At the same time, you are toting the 16 years of "no security patching of the Notes client".

    That just makes me go: "So why isn't the Notes client FREE FOR PERSONAL USE?"

    It's perfectly capable of functioning as a POP3 e-mail client on top of "traditional" internet mail servers.

    It's way more secure and much less a victim of viral attacks and similar.

    "Giving it away" as a free download from Lotus.com would cost IBM nothing, and the FireFox/Thunderbird download rate definately proves the need and want for alternatives to the "free" Microsoft clients. More than 100 million downloads has been served. That is leverage. That gives influence.

    I don't know ... I'm finding it hard to come up with reasons for NOT making Notes free for personal use.

  1. 7  Travis Retzlaff http://www.compures.com | 1/27/2006 1:28:45 PM

    @6

    IMHO, even more important that being free, OE is the email client of choice on consumer pc's because it is pre-installed and set up as the default email client.

    I think even if there was a free Notes client for personal use, the adoption rate would be relatively low, unless IBM could strike a deal with some major pc manufacturers to have the client pre-installed for consumers. At this point would it really be a cost effective way to try increasing market share?

  1. 8  Tim Latta  | 1/28/2006 9:08:02 PM

    Ok, what was with Bob's tux all week long?

  1. 9  Chris Bordeleau http://www2.itec.suny.edu:81/chrisbordeleau | 1/29/2006 6:35:21 AM

    Don't forget... he also had sneakers.... I think he said when you go back to IBM you have to dress up :)

  1. 10  Lars Olufsen  | 1/29/2006 5:13:20 PM

    @7

    how about { Link } ? ;o)

  1. 11  Danny Lawrence  | 1/29/2006 9:27:15 PM

    @7 The problem is that any PC maker that set up Notes as a the default E-mail client would get screwed over by MSFT. And to those of you who say "They agreed not to do that in their last consent decree with the DOJ", I'll only say "Come back from Cloud-Cookoo Land"