B's Blog

So is anyone else suffering from the withdrawals of the frequent coffee breaks we got at Lotusphere? Boy, I guess you never realize how nice things are when until they are gone! I very much took for granted the free Starbucks Tazo Calm tea that was available everyday at the conference.......anyway, I managed to get a hold of some Tazo tea at Starbucks, but it's definitely not like having that extra 15 minutes to recuperate before the next session Anyone else wishing they were back down in Orlando? It's kind of cold here.......and if you haven't noticed already I like to write about random things sometimes Enjoy!!

Signing off,
B

So even though it's been close to a week since I've been back to the sometimes (yes, it can be interesting) boring work schedule, I've really been wanting to explore the world of Sametime plug-in possibilities and development. I've been exploring other public IM clients and what not for ideas of things that should be available for Sametime users, for instance a plug-in for checking stock quotes, or the ability to connect to Lotus Connections Profiles as well as the Profile card integration. All these things would be absolutely fantastic add-ins for the Sametime Client.

I would also like to look into developing a plug-in that would allow the Sametime Client to be viewed in the To-Do bar of Microsoft Outlook 2007. Anyone have any ideas on how to start that or has anyone heard of this plug-in already existing? Sounds like an interesting little project, right?

If anyone is interested in Sametime Plug-in Development or Sametime in general, join the Lotus Sametime Plug-in Development Community by clicking here. That's all for now!

Signing off,
B

It's a sad day, because I'm here at work and it is about  3 degrees outside with a windchill of -10......but the good news is that I learned so much at Lotusphere that I will be bringing a lot of new perspective to our team and our company about Lotus products as well as the integration of Lotus into many of our existing products! This conference has been an amazing experience, filled with knowledge and many of those ah-ha moments. The days were busy,  but well worth it in the end as I can't wait to develop the Lotus products we have in house and look into the new products that Lotus will be releasing soon. Overall, the conference was a fantastic experience loaded with tons of information and great networking capabilities as well the top in hospitality and location. Thanks IBM for putting on this conference and I really hope to be there next year!

Signing off,
B

Day 3 - After last night, we had a very hard time getting up this morning (no, I was not drinking, I was singing!!!!!). But it was awesome last night, thanks Cheryl and the Ladies for the backup dancing Anyway, today Chris and I started off our day with a session about the Future of the Desktop, which was a very interesting viewpoint on the future of desktop computing. I was interested to hear about Linux and the approach that Lotus and IBM appear to be developing towards. After that we visited the Why Activities is Critical session, which offered a little more insight into the intention of activities and the features that will be coming in Connections 2.0 and beyond, which we are really stoked for (HURRY UP ALREADY!!!!!) After that it was on to the labs for some more in depth looks at things like the 3D virtual teambuilding worlds, which also has some very interesting concepts. We then visited the usability labs, where I learned a lot about Lotus Mashups, and had many ideas for the way that it could be used in our company. Chris also did two other usability labs, including one about wiki usage and the other about document management. After that, we decided to take a little deviation from the plan and visit Downtown Disney for awhile and do some shopping for Chris' kids. After that it was on to the Island's of Adventure for the Hulk and Dueling Dragons!!! Awesome rides, awesome times, and an overall awesome experience here at Lotusphere 2008. Another late night, but another great night, thanks IBM and all of the sponsors, it was a blast and it would be awesome to be able to come here next year!

Signing off,
B

Day 2 - Wow, what a busy day. So much information, so little time..... Anyway, this day was non-stop all the way through, starting with an 8:30 session, ID507 - Getting the Most Out of Lotus Connections. But before I could make that, I decided it would be in my best interest to get to the auxiliary shuttle at Blizzard Beach only to find that I left my Lotusphere pass at the hotel.......so I had to drive 30 minutes back to the hotel and another 20 minutes back to shuttle (for some reason traffic wasn't as bad on the way back and it had nothing to do with Cadillac STS we got to rent I will save that story for another blog entry). Anyway, the Connections session was very cool, and gave me much insight into the business values as well as the many of the new features that Connections offers. After that, the 10:00 AM session for Sametime Plug-in Development Deep Dive gave me many great ideas about different plug-ins that are currently available as well as ideas for other plug-ins that would be handy to develop. On to the 11:15 session, we went to the Glimping the Future session, which involved the idea of 3D worlds for training and interaction, including applications like Second Life. It was very interesting to see the ideas that are being generated in this space and should be an exciting ride to see what will be developed in the near future. After a fantastic lunch at the Mediterranean Restaurant, we had two Deep Dive sessions for Sametime Standard as well as Sametime Advanced. Most of the Sametime Standard stuff we already knew about as we have it deployed in our environment, but we were really excited about the new options that will be offered with Sametime Advanced, mainly the persistent chats and the instant screen sharing. Both of these features will be very important tools in our environment and will provide us with solid solutions that we are currently lacking. After that, we hit the 4:15 session about the new version of Connections, which had a lot of repeat information from the keynote and other Connections sessions. But we absolutely love what has been done with interface, the widget based homepage absolutely rocks!!! After that, we hit up the useability lab for Connections, which was really fun as it offered us a change of pace from the breakout sessions and such. Once we got done with the lab, we chilled for about 20 minutes before having an absolutely awesome dinner at the Bluezoo with some of the IBM team (thanks for dinner guys, you're awesome!!!) After dinner, we hit up the Kimono for karoake until about 1:30 am (I have almost been up for 24 hours and am exhausted at this point....). So that is the day that we had, and we are looking forward to many more opportunities tomorrow.

Signing off,
B

I'm loving what I'm seeing at Lotusphere 2008 down here in Orlando, and it's only Monday. I'm in the keynote right now, but I love being able to still write a blog while watching Maureen demo Domino designer!! We've already had jumpstart sessions for Connections as well as Sametime and the information that we've gained has caused me to want to go back to my hotel room and work on our systems!!! Loving what you're doing Lotus!! Thanks Lotus 911 for this awesome website, Bleed Yellow rocks!!!

Signing off,
B