Sametime Instant Messaging - Simplicity, One Year Later

Working for a company who's a relatively new adopter of all things Lotus, I really see the benefits of something simple as Sametime Instant Messaging.

In 18 months we installed all sorts of software, from Lotus Notes/Domino to Quickr to Sametime Standard and soon Sametime Unified Telephony Lite. 

All great tools.  But Sametime IM is special.  Sametime IM gives us something we never had before: simplicity and awareness.

When I say simple, I'm not referring to the software.  I'm sure developers worked very hard to build and maintain such a great product.  What I mean is that the Sametime Community Server installation, client configuration using policies and subsequent roll out to users is incredibly simple. 

That simplicity is just gravy for an admin. 

The awareness power of Sametime lies with what many may possibly take for granted in companies who've used it for years.

Our users aren't wasting time making phone calls that don't get answered because people are away from their desks, or in meetings, or don't want to be disturbed.  Sametime lets us know when a person's available again.  We don't have to keep checking someone's status.

Those seconds add up to minutes and hours.  Well, they used to. 

The virtual business cards with photos have also helped us to create more of a corporate community.  We have many branches across Atlantic Canada, and I can walk into any of them and people know who I am, although we haven't met.  Smiles are warmer when you shake someone's hand who you feel you already know.  That familiarity immediately brings down big barriers.

I'm quite sure I couldn't pull IM away from our users even if I wanted to.  It's now ingrained as a necessary business tool.

Thanks, IBM.

"Our Software is Platform Agnostic" - Don't Be Fooled

This was another oddity I heard at the vendor showcase at Lotusphere 2012.  I heard from a good few vendors that claimed their software was "platform agnostic," and therefore will run on any platform. I thought this foolishness died out a few years ago, but it's rearing it's ugly head again; probably due to the increasingly growing number of now-public atheists/agnostics in recent faith polls.

This is just another example of language designed to pull the wool over the eyes of potential customers.  It's otherwise known as a load of marketing malarkey.

Challenge the next sales guy who gives you that line with a few questions.  We'll call it fun with marketers.

Does it mean that your software:

• doesn't know if a Platform exists?
• doesn't believe in a Platform because there is no proof of the Platform's existence?
• believes in a Platform, even though there is no proof of the Platform's existence?
• is limited in function because since your company knows that many Platforms exist, and your company built your software, shouldn't your software know that many Platforms exists, whether your software believes it so or not?

Wouldn't your software be more accurately classified as polytheistic?  Your software:

• believes in the existence of all Platforms, and will run on all of them.

If you're going to use language to make something seem much more special than it really is, then use more accurate language.  Platform polytheism sounds about right.

My Thoughts on Lotusphere 2012

First, I had the good fortune to meet and talk with a lot of people, many for the first time:

Hai Bo Yu and Shuang Hong Wang (two very awesome IBM i developers from IBM in China).
Kim Greene and Amy Hoerle from Kim Greene Consulting
Sharon Bellamy
Lisa Duke
Femke Goedhart
Stuart MacIntyre
Darren Duke (who I'm convinced is my UK double in terms of a dry sense of humor)
Bill Malchisky
Kevin Mort
Alistair Rennie (who I ambushed on my last day but was gracious enough to spend a few minutes talking with me)
Marlon Machado
Angela Caruso and David Clarke from IBM Canada
Wes Morgan
Roxanne Reynolds-Lair
Tim Rowe
Mat Newman (a truly nice guy.  Anyone who shakes your hand, looks at your name tag and recognizes you...then lights up with a genuine smile to give you a big hug is alright in my book)

There are so many, many, many more.  If we chatted for a few minutes about sports or picked each others brains about technical matters then forgive me for not tagging you. 

Second, the content.  A good few people were joking about the conference was all about "social" or "Xpages."  It's no secret that social business was the focus.  The OGS had so many mentions of the word social it was like an indoctrination session.  I found the biggest applause was the web browser plugin that gives you Notes functionality.  In a room full of tech heads, the demos were what counted the most.  Social is a concept, and people are really starting to get it especially when seeing the practical applications of it.  Outside of the OGS, the technical sessions I went to were fantastic.  Looking forward to Lotusphere 2013.

Third, I heard from many IBM'ers that a good number of customers were approaching them about Connections support on IBM i.  That's fantastic.  The more vocal we are, the more IBM will understand how big the Lotus on IBM i community is. 

Fourth, Canada night wasn't Canadian enough.
Not a maple leaf in sight?  No red and white arm bands?  No Molson Canadian beer or Tim Horton's coffee anywhere?  Even the stickers they had for the badges were green.  Alistair Rennie is Canadian...you'd think that would be reason enough to have poutine or Montreal smoked meat from Schwartz's on the menu.  :)  I did like the "crabonera" though.  Very tasty.  But next year, throw a little Canadiana into the mix, eh?

Someone mentioned that I "made a big splash" at my first Lotusphere. I was barking up every tree and meeting everyone possible.  Is there any other way?  What good is it to just "be there?"  Get involved.  Pick your position and advocate.  Stick up for the interests of your peers and the guys who couldn't be there. Be big, brash, bold and get noticed. Meet people to make your opinions heard. That's how you influence a tension for change.

A Bit of a Push

I've got a bunch of meetings at Lotusphere 2012 justifying Connections and Sametime Media Server on IBM i. 

I really want to bring us over the 500,000 user license mark.  200,000 was the original goal.  Half a million is a statement.  We're at 406,551 right now.  On stage, at lunch, or in the hallways I want to tell people there's 500,000 licenses.

http://spitcher.wufoo.com/forms/make-ibm-i-your-social-collaboration-platform

There's currently 400,000 "i" systems worldwide.  Many of you run Lotus software.  Please make yourself heard.  Business partners, please speak on behalf of your customers.

Connections on IBM i: Not Supported...But Will it Work?

I had a thought today after perusing Frankeni.com.  I check the site every few months or so to see what Larry Bolhuis has been up to.  You see, Larry has been doing some fun stuff over the years with old AS/400's all the way up to current systems.  Essentially, he'd take a system and break support rules by installing all sorts of components that aren't "allowed."  I've never met Larry personally, but I'd equate him to the Eddie Van Halen of the early 80's who'd take a guitar, literally take a chainsaw to it, paint it, and install proper pickups and a tremolo bar.  It still works...maybe even better.  And it looks so cool.  My favorite "system" of Larry's would be the System/34 turned into a workbench (check out the system gallery).  That's a fun way to spend a week off.

Perhaps I was a little inspired.  Here's the deal...

IBM i has a lovely feature called Portable Application Solutions Environment (PASE).  It's a no charge feature that ships with the OS.

PASE allows you to run AIX (and other) packages natively on IBM i, even without a recompile.

I say to myself: "Hey Steve...doesn't IBM Connections run on AIX?"  Why, yes.  Yes, it does.

Potentially, IBM Connections could run "as-is" with no modifications under PASE.  

Now, I don't want to install anything unsupported on a production machine.  As fortune and good timing would have it I'm replacing a System i model 520 running IBM i 7.1 with a new Power Systems 720 this Wednesday night.  I figure while doing the restore to the 720 I'll have a bit of downtime. If not, I'll find time over the next few nights afterward to load it.  The 520 isn't doing much as it's not our primary box, so once it's out of commission I can turn it into a test machine anyway.


Best case scenario is that Connections will install and run without issue.  Worst case...we know PASE is not an option.  At least in my simplistic test.  But perhaps my install logs and running server logs would show very simple problems to fix.  Who knows?  I don't believe any customer has tried this and no one from IBM has told me they have as of yet.

Since I'm only entitled to the Files and Profiles components of Connections under Notes/Domino 8.5.3 licensing, my testing will be limited, even if it's successful.  If anyone else is out there running IBM i who is entitled to all Connections components wants to lend a hand by loading it on a spare system, it would be much appreciated.  Shoot me an email at stevepitcher at scotsburn dot com.  Please do not install this on a production server and compromise your support.

I plan on turning on all logging features so that I'll have a clear picture of what, if anything, fails.  I'll gladly share that information with IBM or any other customer who wants to do some trail blazing.

PASE is as "native IBM i" as it gets.  IBM i administrators could potentially manage it via Qshell, similar to the WAS components of Sametime that run on IBM i.  If this works as planned, it certainly makes porting much easier.  Supporting and developing for future releases or fixes is also simplified dramatically, in my opinion.  Reason: if IBM is developing Connections for AIX, and Connections for AIX will run through PASE on IBM i without any additional coding or compiling, we now have a low cost and low maintenance option for providing IBM i customers with IBM Connections.  Perhaps IBM would need to do some work in the quality assurance area to ensure everything translates perfectly, but that is much less effort than a full scale port.  I offer IBM nothing but enthusiasm for their products here, along with as much information I can give them to help a lot of IBM i customers get on board with Connections.

By the way, our petition has over 167 customer/partner responses, showing interest in over 405,000 potential licenses.  I ask you to tack your name on if you haven't already.

Perhaps getting Connections on IBM i is not as daunting a task as everyone thinks.  We'll see...

Happy New Year! 2011 briefly in review...

 I wanted to quickly reflect on 2011 as I've had a heck of a year, both personally and professionally.

• At the tail end of 2010, my twin girls (Madeleine and Abbigail) were born.  Close enough to 2011 and so life changing I had to mention it first and foremost.
• After eight years with Minas Basin Pulp & Power, I resigned in March of 2011 and joined Scotsburn Dairy Group.  Scotsburn had just adopted Lotus Notes and there was so much potential in terms of collaboration solutions.  It was a great fit and a role I could really dig into.
• I was selected as an IBM Champion for IBM Collaboration Solutions.  Whoa...really? 
• I've done a number of webcasts promoting ICS and social business
• My writing for MC Press was pretty steady, but I decided to only put out about 6 articles in 2012. 
• In December I signed my first book publishing contract.  Look for iSocial – Leveraging IBM i on Power as Your Social Collaboration Workhorse in spring/summer 2012. My mom promises to buy a copy so you should too. ;)
•  I started a petition to get IBM Connections (later adding Sametime and Lotus Notes Traveler) on IBM i.  The tally right now is 167 customers and business partners representing 405,000 potential user licenses.  I have to thank Gabriele Spaszewski from a company called Dachser in Germany.  I'd like to think of Gaby as one of the strongest advocates of the petition through IBM in Europe.  Keep at it!  We'll get there!
• I totally should mention Kim Greene and Amy Hoerle for the above point too! 
• I've been very fortunate to meet a number of people at IBM and other customers whom I've read their blogs and articles for years.  Meeting a number of other IBM Champions and Lotus gurus in Boston in October was also a treat.  Lisa Duke, Rob Novak, Sharon Bellamy, Handly Cameron, Carl Tyler, Darren Duke, Bill Malchisky, Theo Heselmans, Chris Miller, Francie Tanner, Bruce Elgort...just to name a few. 
• Speaking of Boston, being one of the few people on Blackberry (it seemed) during a 2-3 day outage really stamped the importance of bringing other devices into our environment.
• Again, about Boston...I love that town by the way...I drove an hour or so to Plymouth and visited the Cabby Shack.  I had a 16 oz prime rib for $16 and a bowl of their world famous "chowda."  The chowda alone is worth the drive.  Hell, it's worth moving to Plymouth for.  Best chowda evah!
• My son started pre-school.  He's all grown up.
• Built a house!  Well, not personally...contractors built it. 
• Got an iPad.  For some, it's no big deal...but I've been Apple-ignorant my whole career.  I'm slowly liking it...like olives for people who never liked olives.  I love olives so the analogy is weak.
• Made a big effort to change my thinking about the perceived IBM i naming "issue."  There isn't an issue at all.  It's not iSeries, System i, AS/400 or anything else.  It's IBM i on Power Systems.  Trevor Perry sums it up pretty well here.

IBM Collaboration Solutions on IBM i - LinkedIn Group

I've been using LinkedIn very much in the last 6 months or so.  In drumming up support for our "Lotus on i" campaign it's been incredibly helpful.

With that in mind, I started a group in LinkedIn specifically for IBM Collaboration Solutions running on IBM i.  I was surprised there wasn't one already given the amount of i (IBM i, iSeries, System i, and even AS/400) installations out there.  The biggest congregation seems to be on the Domino400 mailing list on Midrange.com (which is great, by the way).

Anyway, if you're running ICS on IBM i (no matter what flavor) then please feel free to join our little group and discuss items there.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=4195843&trk=anet_ug_hm