Do Social Media Grassroots Campaigns Work? Have I Got a Story For You...

Since launching this survey on October 14, I'm very proud to say that we've hit the 100,000 mark in all 3 categories.  This means that you folks have pledged that if you were to run Connections, Sametime and Lotus Notes Traveler servers, then you would do it ONLY on IBM i.  All together, there is (so far) 100,000 potential licenses in your shops; from 20-user small businesses to 20,000-user giants. For solution providers and ISV's there's thousands in your customer's shops too.  This tells IBM that not only is the IBM i community passionate about their preferred platform (well, they KNEW that), but that we're more than willing to demonstrate that we won't "just run insert-product-name-here on a Linux partition."  

If it's not running on IBM i, many won't run that product at all. 

I know others out there have not moved to Sametime 8.5.2 because you can't run all components on IBM i.  They're sitting on Sametime 7.5 waiting for something to happen.

There are a good few of us (myself included) running Domino mail on IBM i and are handcuffed from using new Lotus Notes 8.5.3 social capabilities because we can't run Connections on IBM i.

There's 100,000 potential user licenses just waiting to get into the social game, or the mobile game or the audio/video conferencing game.  And I know it won't stop there.  200,000 potential users was my lofty target before I go to Lotusphere in January.  I figured if I convinced a couple of big guns (5,000-10,000 users is a big gun by my standards...I have 250 users) then I'd have something to work with.  Imagine my surprise.  200,000 doesn't seem that lofty anymore.  It seems very realistic because it is.


In just 2 weeks, you people have taken the initial steps of a loudmouth Lotus on IBM i advocate and ran with it.  You've been tweeting, tweeting and retweeting.  You've been emailing each other, discussing it in user group meetings, forums and LinkedIn and even promoting it on webinars. 

I believe, based on the feedback I've received from IBM, is that they're now starting to understand.  There is scuttlebutt.  They have noticed.  They are even engaging!  

So...

Please continue to keep this going.

I encourage not only IBM i customers, but Lotus customers running software on Linux, AIX or Windows, to get involved if you do want to consider running these products on IBM i.  Imagine the power and simplicity of consolidating everything on IBM i.  More platform options means an extension and greater overall footprint of the IBM Collaboration Solutions (i.e., Lotus) brand.  That makes the brand stronger which in turn makes it better for all of us.


Awesome job everyone.

Google Translate Widget

Hey, it's the least I can do considering the amount of traffic I get from Germany, Sweden and Denmark to just name a few.  Then you have a whole lot of Spanish speaking countries.  Only 40-50% of my web traffic comes from Canada, USA and the UK. 

I'm not sure how great a job it does, given it just does a bare bones text translation, but hopefully it works OK for you. 

Cheers.

RIM Gives Away $100 in Free Stuff? Puh-lease.

Last week I traveled from Halifax, NS to Boston, MA on Tuesday morning for the IBM Leadership Alliance gathering.  Like most Blackberry users, I use it much more often than my laptop which remained in my hotel room. 

For probably 75% of 36 hours or so, I had no solid data communication aside from basic SMS service.  No email, no calendar updates, no 5250 emulator to IBM i boxes, no VNC, and no real communication from anybody at RIM.  The other 25% was when the service appeared to return, only to find out it really wasn't.  Back on, back off.  Email works, email doesn't.  Access to internet services like BBM, Twitter, etc., had similar issues which put me in a state of purgatory of sorts. 

RIM is offering $100 in free software (i.e., mostly games)?  For 2 business days of pain?

I'd be more appreciative and supportive if RIM put all reparations towards redundancy.  It's best if you say your sorry and put money into your infrastructure so it doesn't happen again. 

Lotus Domino Administration Workshop

Amy Hoerle and Kim Greene are hosting a series of webinars that cover a whole lotta Lotus and more!

They're covering 8 hours of content over 4 days.  $149 for Common User Group members and $249 for non-members.  That's fantastic value for not only the educational content but for two presenters who certainly need no introduction in the Lotus and IBM i communities.

Below content source:  http://www.common.org/index.php/webinars.html#lotus

Lotus Domino Administration Workshop

Presenters: Kim Greene and Amy Hoerle, Kim Greene Consulting

October 18, 20, 25 & 27, 2011 - 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm Central Time
 

If you’re like many of our customers, you are responsible for not only your Lotus Domino environment, but a number of other environments as well.  This leads to the situation where you have an implementation you may not fully understand and therefore are not as effective at administering as you could be.  This workshop is designed to ensure you have a solid understanding of your Domino environment.  Additionally, you will learn about new features and functions that are available with the newest releases of Domino and how to implement the most critical ones.  You’ll also learn about some hidden gems that will make your life as an Administrator much more productive.

Learning objectives:

• Understand the Lotus Domino infrastructure
• Learn upgrade best practices
• Learn how clustering and replication work along with the benefits of clustering and how to set it up in your environment
• Learn how to properly secure your Domino infrastructure
• Learn about key features available with the latest releases of Domino and how to implement them
• Ensure you will be able to efficiently administer your Domino environment

Audience: This workshop is designed for administrators who are responsible for managing a Domino environment on any platform.

Syllabus:
Day 1 – October 18 (12:00 - 2:00 PM)

• Domino infrastructure
  • Server, configuration, connection, person, group documents
  • The administration process
  • Mail routing
  • Calendaring and scheduling
• Key features available with the newest releases of Domino

Day 2 – October 20 (12:00 - 2:00 PM)

• Making Domino administration a snap
  • Monitoring your servers
  • Keeping your servers up and running
  • Database maintenance
  • Managing the Notes client and desktops
• Securing your Domino infrastructure
  • The elements of Domino security
  • Checking for and resolving common security mistakes

Day 3 – October 25 (12:00 - 2:00 PM)

• Clustering and replication
  • How it can benefit your company
  • Implementing clustering
• A comprehensive look at implementing, using, and backing up DAOS

Day 4 – October 27 (12:00 - 2:00 PM)

• Upgrade best practices
  • Planning an upgrade
  • Preparing for an upgrade
  • Executing an upgrade
• Going mobile with Notes
  • BES
  • Traveler
  • What data synchronizes with the mobile devices
  • What data can be accessed

Considerations for mail template customizations and mobile devices

Click here to register online for this Webinar!

IBM Wants to Hear from You About Making IBM i Your Social Collaboration Platform

Well folks, IBM wants to hear from you!

If you're an existing or potential IBM i (or existing System i or iSeries) customer and you want to run all components of IBM Connections, IBM Sametime or Lotus Notes Traveler on your system, then fill out the little form on the left hand side.

Your responses will be forwarded to the appropriate product managers at IBM that are responsible for platform support.

Nice, But You Missed a Great Selling Point

There's a great article and whitepaper that offers a ton of great information on gauging the appropriateness of IBM i for your business. 

The one major omission, in my opinion, is that there is no mention of IBM Collaboration Solutions (i.e., Lotus) in this whitepaper.  I betcha there are thousands of IBM i on Power Systems (or the systems preceding it) that run Lotus Domino, Quickr and Sametime that already know this great secret.

The benefits of this platform combination are awesome selling points for both IBM i and IBM Collaboration Solutions. 

Sametime 8.5.2 and Domino 8.5.3

Nothing states so in the system requirements document for Sametime 8.5.2 but I have confirmation from IBM support that this configuration is supported. 

I Read Somewhere That Lotus Notes Is Not Social, Mobile or Easy to Use, Integrate and Administer

I was sent a link to Salesforce.com that had an interesting little table on the bottom of the page.  It essentially claimed five major drawbacks in Lotus Notes by putting little red X's next to them:

• Social
• Mobile
• Easy to use
• Easy to integrate
• Easy to administer

Wondering if I'm completely missing the boat here (wink) by continuing to use and promote my preferred collaboration tool, I decided I'm going to give those folks a call for clarification.  Should be a simple discussion with me notifying them of their website containing what I perceive as incorrect information. Right?

Now, the last three points are hard to argue either for or against based on they're being described in a fashion that could be debatable.  It's an opinion.  Who would find it hard to use?  Executives?  3rd graders?  Programmers?  Accountants?  People with no training?  It's very subjective.  Everyone's computer skill is different.  I could say it's easy to use Notes because I've done it for ten years, had some training and I'm a "computer guy."  Mine's as biased an opinion as theirs. 

With a little training, I'd argue that users can be extremely productive with Lotus Notes and have a very easy time with it.  I'm a trained administrator and I have no issue administering the product.  I managed my first year alright with no training actually.  Integration isn't an issue at all...at least in my experience.  Again, my experience. 

I'll ask two questions below because they're based on factually incorrect statements on the website.

How is Lotus Notes not "social?"
The definition of "social" itself is up for debate, but there's enough common ground that I'm sure you could very much argue Notes IS social.  With the Notes 8.5.3 announcement less than a day away with some enhanced social capabilities, and that cat is mostly out of the bag now, how can they claim Notes isn't social?

How is Lotus Notes not "mobile?"
Well, I can get my Notes email via iNotes and any Notes-built application on just about any web browser in the world.  From kiosks at hotels, to Blackberry and anything else that has internet access.  That's out of the box support with no special configuration done and no consulting dollars spent.  Is mobile something different than this?  Sure, I can make it look and function really awesome with Xpages, but don't tell me it isn't mobile out of the box.

Stay tuned...