Lotusphere 2010: Lotus knows something about chainsaws

It’s probably no surprise that Lotusphere 2010 is all about what Lotus knows whether that be on badges, at sessions, on Twitter or on my room mirror. The Lotus knows message is really all over the conference and is becoming the meme that binds it all together. Lotus knows a lot. Maybe too much sometimes. The fact that Alistair Rennie is good with a chainsaw is probably one of those things…

(for the uninitiated there was a video at the OGS where people had to mention what they were good at and Alistair Rennie said he was good with a chainsaw)

I really like the message and was happy to hear that the campaign is coming to Europe. It will start in Germany in connection with Cebit (March) and will move on from there. Whether it reaches Denmark or even Scandinavia is too soon to tell.

Lotusphere 2010: Conference underway

So Lotusphere is finally underways – well sort of anyway. Officially it wont start until tomorrow morning but Business Development Day, JumpStarts and Bootcamp still feels like we’re of. And we’re of to a good start. The energy feels right and it feels like it’s going to be a good Lotusphere. As Alistair Rennie said this morning in the BDD OGS: “Lotus knows sleep is for February!” That has to be the quote of the day of not for the week. Oh and knowing that Alistair thinks himself handy with a chainsaw!! 🙂

Besides that I was happy to hear that Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino will also go into controlled distribution in 2010 meaning that you have to be certified to sell it. I find that a very good, although bold move by IBM. This is a decision that will help us tremendously in our business. Having to be certified (both technically and sales wise) means that you cannot simply sell licenses without delivering value. That’s great and wise move that will benefit both the partner community and the customers.

Lotusphere 2010: Improvements to the web app

Based on the overwhelmingly positive reception of our web application for planning your Lotusphere 2010 attendance (see Lotusphere 2010: Check out this killer Lotusphere planning web app!!) I wanted to update you on the application and the suggestions to functionality you have made. Based on feedback from YOU we’ve added the ability to navigate between days in the “tracks”-view, made sure that all the BOF sessions are imported and that sessions with multiple speakers list all speakers and not just the first speaker. Since BOF sessions start at 7AM a small change to the timebar was also necessary but that should hardly be visible.

As shown below we’ve also added a menu item on the frontpage describing the different ways of reaching us while at Lotusphere. On this page you’ll see e-mail addresses, mobile phone numbers and of course Twitter handle for those of us on Twitter.

As always keep the suggestions coming.

Extending DDE – creating custom context menus

Part of my new LotusScript.doc release is of course finding ways to make it even easier to use and use the API that’s now supplied as part of LotusScript.doc. Central to all this is extending DDE to make LotusScript.doc accessible in a variety of ways. Today I’ll show you how to add context, i.e. right-click, menus to the DDE navigator on the left as you can see below.

Doing this is actually very easy and only comprises of an IViewActionDelegate (the code; implement org.eclipse.ui.IViewActionDelegate) and a entry in plugin.xml to indicate where to stick the action. In this case it’s an objectContribution to org.eclipse.ui.popupMenus:

<extension point="org.eclipse.ui.popupMenus">
   <objectContribution adaptable="true"
      id="com.lekkimworld.dde.navctxmenu.objectContribution"
      objectClass="org.eclipse.core.resources.IFile">
      <action
         class="com.lekkimworld.dde.navctxmenu.MyContextAction"
         enablesFor="2+"
         id="com.lekkimworld.dde.navctxmenu.action"
         label="DDE context stuff (select min. 2 design elements)"
         menubarPath="additions"
         style="push">
      </action>
   </objectContribution>
</extension>

The above should be pretty much self-explanatory.

The example code is available for download as an Eclipse project: com.lekkimworld.dde.navctxmenu.zip

Oh what a xmas card

Today I received a xmas card from Abeish Babu who is a regular reader of this blog and who I’ve helped a little during 2009 with some plugin development for the Notes 8 platform. It’s always very nice to receive these kinds of cards so Abeish, thank you very much.

What was also nice was the commotion in the office over the address label of the envelope (see below). Seems like I have been elevated to a saint like status. How nice is that! 🙂



(click the picture for larger version)

Lotusphere 2010: Check out this killer Lotusphere planning web app!!

Since we in IntraVision are not having a booth at Lotusphere this year we thought we would spend our time and resources a little bit different and what’s better than helping YOU get the most from YOUR Lotusphere experience. So one of the things we’re doing this year is an iPhone web application to help you plan your Lotusphere schedule. You can find the application here: ls2010.ontimesuite.com.

And yes I know the Turtle partnership has an iPhone application as well but we really wanted a different approach to planning the Lotusphere attendance so one of our senior developers created this solution. Also note that just because I say it’s an iPhone web application doesn’t mean it doesn’t work on other phones. It works perfectly on an Android based HTC phone we also tested it on. A standalone browser will also work just fine.

About the application

At IntraVision we do group calendaring and meeting management software so we like to think we know how to do planning. We think that it should be easy to see what you’re doing, when and where. The iPhone application lets you do exactly that using a straight forward interface. Oh and as you can see there’s also a drawing for a number gift cards… 🙂

From the main menu you can choose to see the sessions by date, by track or you can search. The search is a very powerful feature as it allows you to easily, and in sorted date order, do a listing of all sessions on a particular topic. Here I have searched for “sametime” to easily see all sessions having to do with Sametime.

Once you have starred the sessions you would like to attend you may use the “My Schedule” to see, again in sorted date order, the sessions you have chosen to see.

Additional screenshots (click for bigger versions)




Signing of from 2009 – looking back at a great year

2009 is drawing to a close and in less than 10 hours I’ll be in my tuxedo and drinking champagne. What a year from a personal and a professional perspective.

On the personal front the highlight of 2009, by far, was on 22 August where I got married to my lovely wife. 4 months into our marriage we’re having a blast. Not much have changed in our relationship which I take as a good thing. I’m looking forward to January and once again bringing her along for Lotusphere. I think she’s growing used to staying in the Swan and the fact that return guests get some good deals at the spa… 🙂 Apparently some sun and warm weather (crossing my fingers) in January doesn’t hurt either.

On the professional front it’s been a year of both many changes and new challenges. As previously the year really got kicked of at Lotusphere and it was very nice seeing all of my “collegues” again and hooking up. I’ll remember BALD, being part of the blogger program in those yellow bean bags, frost in Florida in January and the associated state-wide “panic”, giving a session with good reviews though having a high fever and missing 1,5 days due to sickness as the highlights of my Lotusphere 2009. Of couse being in the US for the inauguration also made it special. Being “on location” in Florida bar for Superbowl was also a very nice experience.

The rest of the year has been filled with a lot of consulting on Notes and Domino, Lotus Connections and other related Lotus products. It’s been very nice being able to share experience and consult on a wide variety of subjects. 2009 was also the year where I started doing a lot of teaching and we started doing Notes 8.5 Application Development workshops. I’ve been giving the workshop a number of times across Denmark during 2009 and it has always been a good experience. Of course some workshops has been better than others but I have always felt that I’ve given the attendees what they signed up for and all attendees have gone home amazed at the potential of the new Notes releases. If only more would take the time to learn Java – that’s still the Achilles Heel of IBM Lotus…

Towards the end of 2009 I have also assumed the day to day management of some of the developers in the company. It’s been a big change from billing out 40-50 hours a week to mostly managing and planning. It’s also meant spending far more hours in the office which has been weird. I set a personal record this winter by having lunch in the office 12 days in a row. That’s a first in my 2+ years at IntraVision. The change of role has been fun but also a big change and challenge and something that I’m finding myself enjoying very much. I’m looking forward to the new year and getting more into that role.

In 2009 I have also enjoyed still being part of the Design Partner programme with IBM. It’s fun, educational and inspiring to be part of these conference calls and getting the inside story. The calls are something I look forward to attending and the debate is good and lively. Of course it’s also frustrating sometimes when IBM Lotus do something that we design partners just don’t get but that’s part of the deal. All in all I still find it very positive that IBM Lotus listens and lotusknows it makes a difference! 🙂

On the whole lotusknows thing I find it very positive that IBM Lotus finally got the message and starting being offensive. We still haven’t seen much, if any, of it here in Denmark but hopefully it’s coming at some point. There’s still a big need for air cover.

In November this blog turned 5 years and it was a milestone that were reached. As I wrote on that day, this blog is something I cannot imagine not having today. The blog and way it connects me with the community is amazing. Of course more and more communication moves from blogs to Twitter these days but it’s all good.

2009 was also the year where I finally got to finish LotusScript.doc version 2. It’s been a long time coming and it was very nice finally to get the new version out there. Expect interesting stuff to be coming your way in 2009 when I start leveraging the LotusScript.doc Java API in other contexts.

In three months TwitNotes turns 2 years – wow! Has it already been that long? Besides, of course, being my Twitter client of choice it has also served as a very good example in all of my speaking gigs as one of those new applications that are possible in the “new” Notes client. TwitNotes is an application that builds on the Notes foundation but reads and writes data in the cloud. Showing it as an example always raises some eyebrows until people “get it”. I used it as an example for the big IBM Software Day event here in Denmark this fall.

As 2009 draws to a close I’m doing another sidebar application that I hope will be useful for many of you out there although I’m mainly doing it for myself to increase my productivity. I hope to be able to reveal it by Lotusphere. It’s again a cloud-based application that integrates into the Notes experience to showcase just what’s possible with the “new” platform. Stay tuned…

Before I write too much I’ll wrap it up by wishing you all a very happy new year – see you on the other side. For those of you going to Lotusphere – see you there!

Bye, bye 2009…

Lotusphere 2010: OGS predictions

  • Some demos done on Mac and/or Linux
  • Floating the idea of a DDE without Legacy editors on Ubuntu
  • XPages rendering engines for mobile devices based on user-agent
  • Continued emphasis on Notes as a platform instead of an e-mail client and emphasis on it being an open platform that encourages developers to move to the platform
  • Announcement of stronger 3rd party integrations such as other major ERP system providers and web 2.0 services such as Facebook
  • Much focus on lotusknows, twittering and social computing
  • Revealing what’s in store for Notes 9 on a concrete basis
  • XPages, XPages, XPages…

Also had “A lot of focus on XPages in the client as the next development paradigm for the Notes client – forms/views only maintained for “backwards” compability” but this has already somewhat been delivered for Notes 8.5.1 (despite saying that forms/views will be deprecated at some point).