Domino Interface

After 14 months in the making, the Midwest Lotus User Group Conference 2009 site is now online. The conference will be held in Chicago on August 27-28, 2009. The Midwest Lotus User Group Conference is made possible by the collaboration and cooperation of many Lotus user groups throughout the Midwest including: Central Ohio Notes/Domino User's Group GRANITE Lotus User Group Northeast Ohio Lotus User Group Northeast Wisconsin Lotus User Group Southern Wisconsin Lotus User Group West Michigan Lotus User Group Our goal is provide great in-depth technical sessions and workshops presented by your peers, promote awareness of Lotus user groups, and provide a venue for Lotus professionals to collaborate and network. For more information, go to www.mwlug.com . Registration for this conference will open on June 1, 2009.

At Lotusphere 2009, a number of business partners including myself were discussing how BPs who focus solely on the small business market ( small not medium) can collaborate and discuss our needs which is different from BPs who focus on the mid-market and enterprise. Bernie Leung from Mesa Technologies suggested that we start a LinkedIn group as a starter. I also have many others ideas. The new "Lotus for Small Businesses" LinkedIn group is now online. If you are a BP that focuses on the small business market come join our group. http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=1775798

Today was the first day to relax and decompress after a week of intense 14 to 16 hour days. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend many sessions with booth duty and meetings that I had with IBM. I finally can get more than four hours of sleep per day. One of the great things about Lotusphere that I enjoy every year is meeting the developers face-to-face. The opportunity to talk to them is worth the cost of the event. I was able to also meet with other BPs and customers that I have communicated by email or phone. Some of the customers came as far as Australia and South Africa. It was great to see them face-to-face. Lotusphere is definitely as global event. One important announcement at Lotusphere 2009 for Taishan Works is the new Branch Office version of Lotus Foundations. I have been asking this for a long time and I am glad it is finally coming. Lotus Foundations will finally meet my minimum specifications. One great session that I was able to attend was Lance Spellman's Jump St...

It was a beautiful evening for the party, unlike the past few years where it was freezing. The food was better than last year. Based on my food barometer as a gauge on how IBM is doing, IBM is doing well, crab cakes are on the menu. So far from what I have seen, a greater number of attendees are from Europe and Asia. Unfortunately, with the recession, a number of companies were not able to go. There are a number of great sessions on XPages, Symphony, and Quickr coming up and there is a number of new announces about Lotus Foundations that I am excited about. It addresses some of the issues that I have with Lotus Foundations. IBM is making a good effort towards addressing the SMB market. Still need improvements but they are slowly heading in the right direction. Need to get ready for a long day tomorrow. Since Blogger does not seem to get updated correctly on PlanetLotus.org, blog was created on 01/18/09 11:46 PM.

Yesterday I attended an all day session on Lotus Foundations for both IBM Business Partner and Lotus Foundation Partners. Being both an IBM Business Partner and Lotus Foundation Partner, it was interesting to here the perspectives of Lotus Foundation Partners (formerly Nitix Partners) versus IBM Business Partners. From the perspective of an IBM Business Partner, Lotus Foundation is has limitations. As states it is not a Domino server, but a server powered by Domino. This will likely change in the future. The Web interface is been improved. There is still a lot of work ahead to competite against Microsoft. Lotus Foundation is a good starting point for IBM. There is a number of things that I would like to see added or changed. But that is me. For Business Partners that are interested, there is discussions about forming a Lotus Foundation User Group. If you are interested, please contact me and I can get you in touch with the person who is heading it up.