off the Hook - 911s Chief Lotu...

BleedYellow.com has been a wonderful success. With over 750 global registrations, dozens of new blogs and communities, and thousands of hits in just the 10 days since its launch, I think it's safe to say that we have interest. So what's next? Well, we certainly plan to keep the site up to date with the latest versions of Connections as quickly as IBM will let us. In the coming months, look for a variety of enhancements, including disussion forums, presence awareness, an enhanced home page allowing personalization, and other features that are slated to be delivered with Connections 2.0. In addition, we hope to attract some additional bloggers to perhaps migrate to this site as well as some developers to dig into the Lotusscript API that we have developed for Connections to build integration between Domino applications and BleedYellow.

 

Finally, stay tuned over the next few weeks in particular for some special post-Lotusphere surprises that we really think you'll enjoy.

 

The bottom line is that this site is here to stay and we are committed to continuing to enhance its value based on your feedback - so enjoy, and get involved.

 

Sincerely,

Scott Hooks

VP of Services, Lotus 911

We are very proud of the more than 600 registraions, dozens of blogs, dogears, and communities, and thousands of hits that bleedyellow.com has gotten in the 5 days since its launch (stay tuned for official stats after Lotusphere. Someone asked me today if I thought it could become the next Notes.net, which made me recall a conversation I had with a colleague where we discussed how participation in Notes.net (now developerWorks) has started to fall off, and how the truly useful information is now most commonly found in blogs. So how do we capture all that knowledge into a single searchable source? Google is great, but often returns way more irrelevant information than relevant information. PlanetLotus.org's RSS consolidator is my current favorite one-stop shop, but you need the operator's approval to be added to the list (sorry Yancey. Oh, and can you add the bleedyellow feed?). More importantly, how do we INSPIRE those with the knowledge to share it?

 

Our answer is bleedyellow.com. One central place where the Lotus faithful can gather to start blogs that will have high visibility and searchability, as well as find each other, share bookmarks, and form communities. Furthermore, what if you find the answer, but need a quick clarification? Just add im.bleedyellow.com to your Sametime communities and hit the author on chat.

 

Let me assure you that bleedyellow.com is not a "Lotusphere stunt." We are committed to keeping this site going, applying the latest innovations from the Lotus Development team, and adding our own enhancements as well as folding in enhancements from the community itself.  As Nathan just posted on his blog, we are pleased to announce a LotusScript API for Connections that will provide a bridge for Notes/Domino developers to build applications that integrate with Connections using the skills you already have.

 

So it it the next Notes.net or something else entirely? Only time will tell.

We were enetertained before OGS by the Orlando Symphony Orchestra rocking hard. Mike Rhodin opened with the theme of Emergence and introduced special guest: Bob Costas. Rhodin returned and emphasized the continuing demand growth for collaborative software and the changes in business technology needs being driven by the new generation of professionals, who expect tools like instant communication and social software in the workplace. He then announced an IBM partnership with RIM that showed a screenshot of a Blackberry with Lotus Connections on it. We at bleedyellow.com will get right on that. 

 

Project "Atlantic" is a new initiative focused on integrating SAP Business Suite with the Lotus Notes client. It sounds like Notes will be able to used as a front-end to SAP for certain workers. "Demo King" Ron Sebastian showed an "Atlantic" sidebar application that inferred it will allow real-time interaction with SAP based on documents selected in the Notes client..

 

Alistair Rennie introduced Jeff Eisen and Russ Holden (chief architects of Notes and Domino) who confirmed that Notes/Domino 8.0.1 will include Notes Traveler and some DWA enhancements, including a web-based interface for the iPhone. They also confirmed client support for Ubunto and Mac and emphasized the improved performance of Domino server. Ron demonstrated features like a better mail quota indicator, Sametime Unyte integration with meeting invitations, and a sidebar "Widget Palet" that allows a user to easily add widgets from Notes views, web services, or Google Gadgets. Widgets can be distributed to users via an online catalog, or by email, which install with a drag and drop to and from the email message. These gadgets can be automatically linked to text in Notes documents by using a pattern-matching scheme. They are calling this "Live TEXT". The new DWA "lite" looks and functions astonishingly similar to Notes 8. Ron then did a live demo of DWA access from an iPhone.

 

For Notes/Domino 8.5, they announced support for a server ID vault allowing easier ID management, an intelligent attachment store they project will reduce attachment storage by as much as 35%, and an Email security appliance emerging from the ISS acquisition. This is the release that will include project "Atlantic". there is also a great looking new discussion template. Domino Designer 8.5 will run on Eclipse and include an xPage design element that allows easier development of Web 2.0 applications. There is a drag and drop palette and class browser similar to WSAD.

 

Symphony: Kevin Cavanaugh stated that there have been 400,000 downloads of Symphony. In February 2008, they plan to deliver API's that will allow integration with the document, spreadsheet, and presentation editors in Symphony and Notes 8 with full compatibility. He illustrated a "translater plug-in" that translates documents into different languages with a few simpe clicks.

 

Unified Communications and Sametime: Ron Sebastian showed "Broadcast communities" and "SkillTap" for Sametime 8 Advanced version, which also has the notion of persistent chat rooms and instant screen sharing. Nothing new there.

 

Portal: Larry Bowden recapped the past year's Portal enhancements and wins, which now has the #1 market position in this space, Ron showed Portal integration with Lotus Connections, client side integration of portlets, such as drag and drop data moves between portlets, "tear-away portles", and a web-based rapid forms development interface. A quick look at Ed's liave blog also clarified that there will be "support for WebSphere Portal applications in Notes, Sametime, Quickr, and Blackberry devices.  Portlet Factory portlets can run in the client.  Deploy to Portal, run in Notes."

 

Quickr: Jeff Schick indicated that Quickr 8.1 will ship in March and include integration with the Symphony suite and Outlook (whatever that is) as well as team space template improvements, Future versions may include document ratings (ala Netflix), tags for documents, and integration with Connections and FileNet.

 

For Connections 2.0 and beyond, they are working on an improved home page, discussion forums, wiki support, language translation tools, widgets, federated search across all Connections services, the "Atlas" relationship visualization tool, Quickr integration, and offline and mobile device support (including Blackberries). I can't wait to get these into Bleed Yellow for you. Activites will also be beefed up and easier to use.

 

Now for the new product announcements:

 

Lotus Mashups is a lightweight browser-based creation of mashup applications using widgets and content feeds that can be easliy layered and wired together. 

 

Lotus Foundations is the acquisition of the small-footprint autonomic Nitix flavor of Linux from Toronto-based Net Integration Technologies, which includes the Nitix Blue offering that includes an integrated Domino server, This solution is targetted at the SMB space as a Microsoft SBS killer, sets up in under 30 minutes, and can run on an appliance that fits in an 8 x 11 envelope as Rhodin illustrated on stage. Lotus 911 and I have personally been working with Nitix for over 2 years, so this announcement has a special place in my heart. Foundations will also encompass "bluehouse", which is a new software as a service offering of the key features across the Lotus Collaboration portfolio. It is also targetted at organizations with less than 500 users. Ron demonstrated the bluehouse web interface, which includes "live charts", an integrated visualization tool for data on the screen.

 

Links to other OGS blogs:

http://edbrill.com/ebrill/edbrill.nsf/dx/liveblog-lotusphere-2008-opening-general-session

http://www.lotus911.com/nathan/escape.nsf/d6plinks/NTFN-7B3GXA

http://www.timtripcony.com/blog.nsf/d6plinks/TTRY-7B3H9N

http://smokey.rhs.com/web/blog/PowerOfTheSchwartz.nsf/d6plinks/RSCZ-7B3HEZ

http://www.curiousmitch.com/CuriousMitch/mitch2.nsf/d6plinks/MCON-7B3HD8

http://www.alanlepofsky.net/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/

 

 

 In case you missed it in Chris's post, registered users can sign in to im.bleedyellow.com using your Sametime client and your email address and bleedyellow.com password and chat with other yellow bleeders. Want to know who's online? Just add the YellowBleeders public group to your chat list.

Thank you to those who have already started participating in BleedYellow .com. We have over 250 registrations and thousands of hits in just 2.5 days. Wow! This is a great opportunity to start a blog and gain visibility from the community. As of today, we are announcing an initiative that will allow Domino developers to build applications that integrate with BleedYellow.com or your own Lotus Connections implementation. So, I'd like to know... What other features you want to see added to BleedYellow.com? With this community, the sky is the limit. Share your ideas and let's start collaborating and building this community together.

Even with a satellite internet connection, 10 people on the same uplink gets congested. BUT, we all have Blackberries too, most of us on the Edge network. Sooooooo, I just connected my blackberry via USB cable, fired up Blackberry Desktop (which I don't use for any other purpose now that its all wireless), and created a dial-up network connection. BAM,  I'm on the web at 460 kpbs, which ain't bad.

Here's a link to setup the network connection:
http://www.blackberryforums.com/blackberry-guides/2019-user-howto-use-blackberry-modem-laptop.html

Note: This won't work on GPRS.

Live blogging from the bus... For those of you that don't know, Lotus 911 typically takes an RV from Atlanta to Orlando and we party the whole way there. This year, we have 16 people attending Lotusphere, 11 of whom gathered in Atlanta this morning to board the "tour bus" we are taking this year (since the max legal limit for even a large RV is 8). This thing is LOADED! We're talking leather furniture, an HD LCD, 2 additional TV's, wireless internet access (obviously), a surround sound stereo (currently blasting The Crystal Method), a kitchen, bathroom, and a professional driver. As a bonus, we added a giant version of the Bleed Yellow claws to both sides and the back of the bus. Don't worry, we plan to host some events on it, so be sure to grab one of us (in the red shirts with the claws) and ask when the next bus party is.

We got a late jump, so we probably won't arrive at the Dolphin until about 6:00 PM. So for those of you that want to greet us, see the bus, and grab some early SWAG, keep an eye on this blog. I'll post again when we're close.

 That's not a bad thing folks. It all started at 2:24 PM today. Chris Whisonant (your bleeedyellow.com administrator) announced the launch in his blog at that time and we waited for the faithful blogging community to pick up on it. Within an hour (and with a little IM help from Nathan), we had 10 registrations and about 100 hits. Over the next 5 hours, we achieved over 100 registrations and 800 hits, and were posted on at least 6 blogs that I saw. We've had a few people start blogging already and new communities and dogears created too. So for those of you that have helped us get this started, here is a special early bird surprise: Look for the Lotus 911 / Bleed Yellow branded tour bus (no joke) pull up to the Dolphin at about 5:00 PM and be the first to get some Bleed Yellow SWAG.

 

Thanks to all of you.

 

Scott

BleedYellow.com was created by Lotus 911, Inc. in an effort to (1) showcase the capabilities of Lotus Connections, (2) create an online community and central gathering spot like Facebook specifically for the Lotus faithful, and (3) provide an integrated Domino server and development environment for registered Domino gurus.

 

We are very excited about hosting this community and continuing to expand its capabilities and invite you to share the ownership of this community with us.  If you haven't already, please register and unlock the power of social networking today.

 

Thanks,

Scott Hooks

VP of Services, Lotus 911