Beyond The Yellow Bubble

Happy New Year to all fellow citizens of the yellowverse and especially those few that live inside the yellow bubble and have been reading my blogs during the year.  Yes folks, it's time for the obligatory annual review blog entry - with one eye to the year that lies ahead.
.
Living here on the West Coast of the US I got to enjoy 2009 for a little longer than most.  It wasn't always that way.  In Australia I would often spend New Year with family & friends on the Gold Coast, a city that spans two states, each in a different time zone.  So not only did I get to celebrate new year earlier than most on the planet, I got to celebrate it twice!  Now I watch the amazing fireworks display on Sydney Harbour, the awesome sight of the London Eye, and of course the famous ball-drop at Times Square.  By the time new year arrives here in Los Angeles it seems somewhat anti-climactic.
.
For me, as a Notes developer, life went the other way this year... I started 2009 behind almost everyone doing almost all my Notes development with Notes 6.0.  As I had done for many years I would watch and read with envy the many great things other developers were able to do with later versions of Notes.  Happily, I ended 2009 doing ALL my development with Notes 8.5.1.  During the year I had a couple of painful months using 8.5.0, the release I never wanted to use.  8.5.0 turned out to be a bigger train wreck than I imagined.  But while 8.5.1 is not perfect (just don't mention documentation!) I quite like it and what I can now do, especially XPages for Web development....
.
XPages
As a Notes developer there is no doubt in my mind that 2009 was the year of XPages.  The tone was set at Lotusphere 2009 when XPages presentations abounded and it seemed to be the buzz topic on the blogsphere for most of the year.  For me it was like learning Notes development all over again.  I spent 3 months in XPages Kindergarten trying to figure out how to do some of the most basic tasks.  Later I spent time as an XPage first grader building on my three Rs ( Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic) for XPages.  After 6 months I feel like I now have a good basic understanding - so much so that I am spending the first two weeks of 2010 training other Notes developers how to support my new XPage applications.  I even made it onto my first Taking Notes podcast episode 100 - talking about XPages
.
Planet Lotus/Blogging
During 2009 I transformed my blog on bleedyellow.com from being a commentary on my .Domino Framework project to a more general Thoughts and Views on Notes Development with a view to stimulating discussion and debate within the Notes community.   The stats provided by Planet Lotus suggest I have been successful in producing a blog that is being read inside the yellow bubble.  I am especially happy about the amount of comments I have been able to attract for many of my blogs.  During 2009 I moved all my XPage Technical blogs to the new XPages Blog.  Great work Bruce Elgort and the many others for getting this concept off the ground.  I like the concept of a shared technical blog that focuses on a specific area and hope to see that concept expand in 2010.
.
OpenNTF
2009 was a year in which we saw IBM actively support OpenNTF.  This stimulated a lot of debate, but it seems that  the all important groundwork has been laid.  Now thanks to the efforts of Niklas Heidloff, Steve Castledine, the Steering Commitee, and a great many others we are seeing a steady flow of new projects being made available for use by the yellowverse.  Early in the year my own LotusScript-based .Domino Framework project went gold.  Just in time for me to start work on a new SSJS-based xDomino Framework project.  I also had the pleasure of working with Niklas and Steve on the Discussion NextGen project, the first OpenNTF project in which the intent is for IBM to take the code back into the Notes product itself.
.
IdeaJam
During 2009 we saw Idea Jam used as part of the Lotus Knows campaign attracting a lot of attention from the yellowverse.  Yesterday I achieved a personal milestone with my 100th idea on how the Lotus Notes product could be improved.  This past year I made a concerted effort to make more comments on other people's ideas, especially when I found myself demoting an idea that was important for somebody else.  I started making use of IQ Jam posting a few questions and answers and was fortunate to be selected as a member of the managed beta program for 8.5.1.
.
DominoFramework.com
I 2009 I started my own Web site as a home for my .Domino Framework project.  It still needs a lot of work.  One spin-off from the Web site was Lotus Legends which has attracted a moderate amount of interest.  By year's end I managed to profile my first 50 members of Lotus Legends.
.
2010
It's only day one of the new year and I am amazed at how many project and goals I already have for Lotus Notes over and above the work for which I get paid....

1. I will be attending my first ever Lotusphere in 2 weeks time and I am quite excited.  I look forward to meeting many of the people with whom I have interacted inside the yellow bubble as well as meeting a few more that live outside that bubble.  I am expecting 2010 to be a big year for Notes developers and lotusphere should again set the tone for the year ahead.
2. I am in the process of transforming my dominoframework.com Web site into a community Web site yellowverse.com (take a sneak peek) which I hope will be a better home for Lotus Legends and other initiatives I have planned.  I plan to reach out to members of the Notes community not already well served - especially in non-English speaking countries - to assist in making this site relevant to the greater needs of the community without detracting from the other existing community sites.  I also hope to have 100 Lotus Legends profiled by the end of 2010.
3. All will be revealed at LS, but I expect I soon will doing a whole lot more SSJS coding and a lot less Lotuscript coding so there is a need for me to build a new framework that works with XPages - my OpenNTF project XDomino Framework.
4. I have a new pet project (cSpace) building a Lotus Notes-based collaboration tool.  I plan to showcase this as part of yellowverse.com.  At this time I am exploring if it might have some commercial potential.  If it doesn't I will release it on OpenNTF.
5. On the ideas front I am hoping to secure a spot as a Design Partner.  This will allow me to better focus my many ideas based upon a better understanding of what IBM are doing.  Of course it will also mean less blogs about what I think is going on - as I might actually know a little more !! Hopefully I will get an early look at 8.5.2 and 9.0.
6. By this time next year I am hoping I will be hard at work putting my finishing touches on my first lotusphere presentation (LS2011).  Preparation for that has already started as I know I have a lot of competition to secure a speaking slot at this event.  I would like to get to at least one other LUG during 2010 as part of that preparation.

So to all of you, I would like to wish you and your families the very best for 2010.  Looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible at LS 2010.  I am also relying heavily on you to keep the feedback coming.  It is the diversity of views, opinions, and talents that makes the Notes community such a great one.  Cheers!

This great community of ours relies heavily on super-human efforts from a relatively small number of people such as the ones listed in my previous blog.  It also thrives on a great number of smaller contributions from each and every one of us.  We all have the capacity to be a Lotus Legend in one way or another….

 :

Blogging

Planet Lotus now lists 341 blog sites that it monitors.  If you feel that you have something unique to contribute get on board and share this with the community.  Both Planet Lotus and Bleedyellow.com offer free blog hosting services.  My only suggestion is to make sure you have some original material.  Blogging soon begins to read like SPAM when multiple bloggers start to blog about something already covered by a previous blogger (a good blogger should never blog around with another blogger's blog)

If you are not inclined to become a blogger you can still make an important contribution by reading these blogs on a regular basis and contributing comments.  Blogging consumes valuable time and most bloggers appreciate knowing that there efforts are providing value.  Opposing views often help stimulate worthwhile debate (but keep it civil!)

 :

Product Ideas

We all have views and ideas about what changes/additions could be made to improve the Lotus Products.  Unless you are a Design Partner, one of the most constructive ways to express yourself is through ideajam.  IBM regularly acknowledges they constantly review these ideas as they plan for the next greatest releases, so get in there and have your say.  Even if you are not the creative type you can make a valuable contribution by scanning other people’s ideas, voting on them, and especially by adding comments.  Spending 5-10 minutes every week to visit this site can make a huge difference.  IBM are more likely to respond to great ideas with 100+ votes than those with 5-10 votes.

 

Code Contributions

OpenNTF is perhaps the best known and most used resource for exchanging open-source code within the yellowverse.  If you have written some great code that you think would be of value to the community (and you own the code!) consider adding this code to OpenNTF either as a project or in the code bin.  Contributions to OpenNTF can be made in other ways as well.  The site itself has discussion forums for ideas and each project has a section to contribute feedback or ideas.  And if you have a few hours of time please considering joining one of the project teams to assist in building these projects.  Even if you are a novice developer these projects represent a great way to develop your skills by working with others and contributing to a community resource.  This especially includes you aspiring graphic designers that can help assist with adding cool UIs.

 

LUGs and Spheres

I live in Los Angeles where it is said that everyone is either an actor, a writer, or a wannabe.  And so it seems also to be the case with our own Lotus community.  This year there were over 1,000 yellowbleeders who submitted presentations for Lotusphere.  This means if you attend you are more than likely going to be sitting next to someone who is either presenting or wishes they were presenting. 

:

It seems like every nook and cranny of the yellowsphere now has a LUG event for you to attend.  These LUGs offer many of the same benefits as Lotusphere itself (but more free beer).  And if you are an inspiring Lotusphere presenter, LUGs offer a perfect venue for you to gain exposure and experience as a presenter. 

Please visit www.lotususergroup.org for information about a Lotus Community in your corner of the yellowverse and get involved.  You can also visit my web site at www.dominoframework.com and look under Yellowverse for links to these and other Notes community Web sites.

Do you have the LEGEND IN YOU?

I have been spending a lot of my "free" time over the past month working on an OpenNTF project to develop the next version of the Discussion Template.  All going well this will be available around the time 8.5.2 is released.  My initial focus has been on developing a new Notes Classic interface for the discussion template.  Please take a look at the video posted on You Tube and share with me any thoughts.  The entire project team is looking for as many ideas as possible about how we can improve the look and feel, ease of use, and functionality of the Discussion template.  There is an IdeaSpace on the OpeNNTF web site for the Discussion NextGen project that can be used to add and vote on ideas.  And if there is anyone else out there with some spare time that could lend a hand all the better!

If you are contemplating XPages development, already started, or interested in how to build applications in which Xpages form a component there is a great new OpenNTF project just launched.  The project will extend one of the most used Notes templates, the Discussion template.  The project is being sponsored by IBM and hence will provide members of the yellowverse with the unique chance to work with some of the best  Notes application developers at IBM (Niklas Heidloff and Steve Castledine).  I am sending in my enrollment form as this seems like it may develop into one of the best Xpages Kindergartens going around.  This is an opportunity too good to miss!  If you don't have the time to attend, visit the discussion area and post a few ideas as potential homework assignments for the new kindergaten students.  See you in class!

I have just released he latest version (1.0.1) of .Domino Framework on OpenNTF. This is a minor release with a small number of bug fixes and minor improvements.

Compared with other major development platforms the yellowverse has a relatively small number of active members.  We also have a fairly small number of resources we can use.  These include PlanetLotus, IdeaJam, Bleedyellow.com, Discussion Forums, Wikis, Blogs, and OpenNTF.  I don't think we have yet gotten a large enough community of active contributors that we can afford to lose anyone.  Especially not people who have made major contributions over the years.  Nor can we afford to lose OpenNTF.

It seems that there are some frustrations out there in the yellowverse, especially with the current focus of OpenNTF on the issue of IP.  I feel I can comment because I have participated in those discussions using the OpenNTF forums and conference calls.  While I do not agree with everything the committee is doing I also recognize we have a special group of people who are giving significant amounts of their time (largely) voluntarily to help the Notes community.  IBM have offered to come in and provide SIGNIFICANT resources to help OpenNTF to do things that have not been possible before.

A number of OpenNTF contributors have clearly communicated that they want to retain the flexibility to contribute projects to OpenNTF pretty much the same way as they have in the past with no additional constraints or overheads.  Me too!!!!  I am pretty sure that is still the case.  The discussions taking place about IP are constrained to what it would take to have a project elevated to a new "higher" status of a managed project.  The old way is still there and will remain there!

IBM and a few others have indicated that they have specific needs that need to be addressed if they are to be able to consume these projects.  So a new class of project has been established and a complicated set of rules are being developed to meet those needs.  Given IBM are largely committing all the resources to work on this then that's fine with me.  I question how many projects will bother going to all this trouble.  It seems to me that unless you want IBM to be using your project you will not benefit much.  But I may be wrong.  So if you are like me and you see no value then just leave your projects as they are.  There is no need to withdraw your projects completely from OpenNTF to make this point.  Just leave them there as "unmanaged" projects.  Removing projects or not submitting new project hurts the Notes community itself more than anyone else.  We need one place where we can ALL make contributions and share.  We all need YOUR contributions no matter who you are.  I am seeing more and more people turning up at my XPages kindergarten every day and we especially need your Xpage and Composite Applications contributions.

The message I would like to communicate to the OpenNTF steering committee, and especially IBM, is that there are some of us that do appreciate all your efforts and contributions.  Please focus some of your time and attention on addressing IBM's specific needs as we really do need the additional resources that only they can bring to OpenNTF.  What I would suggest (and what I think others are also suggesting in their own way) is that OpenNTF spends a reasonable amount of its time and effort NOW meeting the needs of existing and potential new members of OpenNTF who will not be submitting managed projects.  I am sure you are doing many things that are not yet visible to us.  Lets find some things that are meaningful and of value and make them visible asap.

To those that have contributed projects or are thinking about making contributions, to those that merely make use of these projects, or even those that have not yet found there way to OpenNTF I would suggest going to the OpenNTF forums and providing some clear indications of specific things that you want that can make OpenNTF work better for the entire yellowverse.  Give the committee a list of things that they could do now that would make this thing work for YOU.  Place them in ideajam so others can vote.  To those of you that have been active in OpenNTF but have gotten so frustrated you have felt you may be better served by leaving please consider coming back and helping in some small way.  I need you guys, because without you the voice that I and others who share similar views will grow even weaker.  Dividing the yellowverse into smaller groups serves the needs of nobody other than Microsoft and Google and those with nothing better to do than count frustrated members.  Perhaps we should consider establishing our own lobby group within OpenNTF to represent these views better.  It does seem the OpenNTF comittee and other such as Ed are still happy to keep listening...  Please, please, please lets pull together and not pull apart.

It is still early days in my Xpages learning but one thing has already become very clear.  Xpages development is crying out for a framework even more so than LotusScript. It is not yet clear to me how much of my time moving forward is going to be spent doing Xpages development, but the extend to which I do I just know a lot of my time is going to be consumed collecting code from all over the place and consolidating it and combining it with my own code in a way that will allow me to continue to do Rapid Application Development.

It is now clear to me that I need two separate framework.  The existing one that is OOP LS based and will support all non XPage development and a separate one that will focus almost exclusively on Xpages and SSJS (and possbly Java and even LS at a later stage).  My goal is to at least have a beta posted on OpenNTF sometime soo after 8.5.1 is released.

The current .Domino Framework proect is likely to be extended but will focus on non-XPages development.  How much will depend on how much non-Xpages development gets done in the future.

I have now created a community on bleedyellow.com.  Anyone who would like to get involved in any way is encourage to join this community (it is moderated but I have super low standards on membership -- If you drink beer or even if you write some form of Notes code your are a shoe in to be accepted).  Contributions can include ideas, enhancement requests, code contributions, rolling up your sleeves and building the code, or just telling us what we are doing wrong.

The 0.1 Beta of the .Domino  Framework was released as an OpenNTF project over the weekend.