Sep 112009
 

First I have to apologize for not posting anything on my blog for some time. It has not been much time over for blogging lately.

Well, it’s September again and time for Collaboration University in Chicago and London plus a visit to Sweden and the family there. This year I have to leave my family, here in Kansas, for 18 days. Not something I like to do but with work the first 13 days and then being so close to Sweden make it almost impossible not to go there. Cheap airline tickets with Ryan Air doesn’t hurt either.

I’m very excited about CU this year. Showing the new Lotus Quickr 8.2 features in Troy’s, Rob’s and my sessions, together with sessions about Lotus Sametime 8.5 with the new WebSphere-based Meeting Center and Lotus Connections 2.5 are not short of amazing. If you are attending this year, it will not be disappointing.

I hope to CU in Chicago, London or maybe Sweden!

May 282008
 

Collaboration University opened it’s new website today with a brand new fresh look. Registration also opened for the event. This year we will be in Chicago and London. This event is a deep focus on Lotus Quickr, Lotus Sametime and new this time Lotus Connections focused on on integration and APIs.
From Rob Novak’s site:

In Chicago we’ll be at the IBM Innovation Center, located on the Chicago River a few blocks from Michigan Avenue. I have visited the building twice this year, and folks it is a great place to have the size and type of conference we produce. In two weeks I’ll be in London visiting our venue there, IBM South Bank. Just a few blocks from Waterloo station, Marriott County Hall, the London Eye, and accessible from all over central London. Our dates (both start on a Monday and run through Wednesday)

Chicago: September 8-10, 2008
London: September 15-17, 2008

This year we are also trying a brand new workshop concept

For our workshops this year (Wednesday afternoon post-con), we’re trying something different. We’re going to give you a month’s experience in 3 hours! The workshop will focus on Quickr Domino development and administration. Developers will go to one room and work on an application – with significant help – for 90 minutes, while the admins will start with a “bare bones” install of Quickr and apply best practices security settings, modify LDAP, configure notes.ini and qpconfig.xml, and set up MSSO. Next, each developer will pair up with an admin to deploy the application and test it. If that’s not real-life enough, your resident business client (me) will request a critical change in the application so everyone – developers and admins alike – can learn what choices you have to make when deploying changes to a production Quickr environment.

Visit collaborationuniversity.com and look around and register early for discounts. We also have a discount for past Alumni this year.

Sep 202007
 

IBM has announced Lotus Symphony so we finally has a name for the productivity editors inside Lotus Notes 8. This is a free download from IBM and they are based on the OpenOffice suite of editors. Last weeks announcement that IBM will contribute back to OpenOffice community is in direct relation to this announcement. We at SNAPPS have been using these tools for the last few months now and I could not be happier with them. FREE does not hurt either.

There were other announcements made at the New York city event on Tuesday and by Kevin Cavanaugh here at Collaboration University in London yesterday.

Notes Traveler

Mobile support for Lotus Notes and Domino Web Access users through IBM Lotus Notes Traveler- Following the shipping of Lotus Notes and Domino 8 that began worldwide in August, IBM is announcing Lotus Notes Traveler, a new client for Lotus Notes and Domino 8.0.1. Currently scheduled to be available in the first quarter of 2008, Lotus Notes Traveler will provide out-of-the-box, mobile support for Lotus Notes and Domino Web Access users, enabling access to Lotus Domino mail from Microsoft Windows Mobile devices. As currently planned, Lotus Notes Traveler will provide automatic, real-time replication of email, including attachments, calendar, address book, journal and to-do’s and will work over all wired and wireless connections.

Lotus Notes 8.0.1

With a beta coming a few weeks there are a lot of enhancements and new features in the new version of Lotus Notes 8.0.1. New Domino Web Access with two different versions of light (fast) and normal. Finally a secondary calendar & time zones that will work good. Mail file quota guage that Mary Beth Raven showed us at Collaboration University in Kansas City last week and will show here in London on Friday. “To do” UI improvements. They did not have time to get those in in the 8.0 release, but now they will be there. Quickr 8.1 integration into side shelf. 35% increased compression on the databases (sorry, they are called applications now) Native support for 64-bit on Windows and AIX. FIPS 140-2 support, a federal standard for security and Citrix support.

Sametime 8

Sametime 8 will have three flavors – Basic (just IM in Notes), Standard (integration with mobile, telephony integration) and Advanced (meetings +).

WebDialogs purchase became Sametime Unyte – web conference available as a service. Simplifies collaboration outside the intranet. Will link to other Lotus products via plug-ins.

Lotus Quickr 8.1

Side shelf connector for Notes 8.0.1, Connector for MS Outlook. Strong UI improvements and performance improvements of over 50%. Personal file sharing for free to Notes users. Enablers for ECM integration.

HUGE! New product announced available early 2008: Quickr Content Integrator: Migrate from Sharepoint, Exchange public folders, Domino teamrooms, and DDM libraries. Also provides coexistence running in parallel, or migrating. Synchronization is an option.

Lotus Forms 3.0

Dropped Workplace name. This is a big deal – Zero footprint eForms. Browser-based using XML XForms standards.

Jun 192007
 

Rob Novak has posted the sessions and speakers for Collaboration University for Lotus Quickr, QuickPlace and Sametime in July for both Kansas City and London.

For Sametime

  • Sametime 101 – Deploying Sametime
  • Sametime Meeting Center Customization Tricks – How to Roll Your Own!
  • Top 5 hidden Sametime Hacks and Programming Tricks
  • Developing Sametime Connect plugins
  • Exploiting the Toolkits for Sametime Bots and Automation
  • Sametime Links – Developing your own Queueing Application *Note from Rob – $10,000 in free code anyone???
  • Installation and Configuration — Sametime Gateway for Public IM
  • Deploying Sametime Connect Plugins
  • Sametime 7.5.1 New Features (It’s Bigger than it Sounds!)
  • Clustering Sametime Servers — Models and Examples
  • Bandwidth and Capacity Planning
  • Top 10 Support Issues for Lotus Sametime
  • Monitoring and Managing Your Sametime Servers (Including the new Monitoring Toolkit)
  • A Guide to Telephony Integration – A User’s Guide to Terminology and Options

For Lotus Quickr:

  • Lotus Quickr 8.0 Introduction and Features
  • Lotus Quickr Domino Installation and Configuration
  • Lotus Quickr – Introducing and Understanding the new Templates Part 1
  • Lotus Quickr – Introducing and Understanding the new Templates Part 2
  • Quickr Development Fundamentals – Placebots, Forms and Themes
  • Introducing the Dojo Toolkit
  • Lotus Quickr Development — Leveraging Template Code to Create Your Own Applications
  • Lotus Quickr for WebSphere Portal Installation and Configuration
  • Lotus Quickr for WebSphere Portal Development Overview
  • Using the Dojo Toolkit for Advanced Development in Lotus Quickr
  • Integration Strategies for Lotus Quickr, QuickPlace, Domino and Sametime
  • Flexible Views, Workflow Engines and More Reusable Tools!
  • Roundtable – Small Groups Session (size limited)
  • Lotus Quickr – Deploy How You Want, Where You Want – Integrating the Platforms

We will also have some foundation sessions on LDAP, Firewalls and the popular “Best 10 minutes from each speaker” session on the final day.

Collaboration University is a small, focused conference so you get one-on-one time with real experts and IBM development – folks like Carl Tyler, Rob Novak, Gabriella Davis, Chris Miller and more. Check out the speakers page, and get registered! See you in Kansas City and London!

Apr 272007
 

Rob Novak announced the keynote speakers for Collaboration University, and the list is very impressive.

Mike Rhodin
General Manager
Workplace, Portal and Collaboration Software
IBM Software Group

Mike will deliver the keynote address at Collaboration University on July 9 in Kansas City.

Ken Bisconti
Vice President, Lotus Software Products
IBM Software Group

Ken will deliver keynote addresses at Collaboration University in London on both July 18 and September 19.

Ed Brill
Business Unit Executive
Worldwide Lotus Notes/Domino Sales
IBM Software Group

Ed will deliver the keynote address at Collaboration University on September 10 in Kansas City.

These keynotes, together with some of the best experts assembled exclusively for each event will make Collaboration University 2007 your gateway to the most in-depth, advanced, highly focused, and complete coverage of IBM, Lotus Quickr, Lotus Sametime, and Lotus QuickPlace.

If you are like me and want to see stuff now, there is a new version of Sametime 7.5.1 and a new demo of Lotus Quickr.

Register today

Apr 092007
 

Collaboration University just went live with their new website announcing new events this summer and fall. After much success with last years events in Kansas City and London, they are putting on 4 events this year. 2 events in Kansas City and 2 in London.

The events are:

Collaboration University™ for IBM Lotus Quickr™ and Lotus Sametime®

July 9-11: Kansas City, MO
July 18-20: London, England

Collaboration University™ for IBM Lotus Notes® and Domino® 8

September 10-12: Kansas City, MO
September 18-20: London, England

New Bonus for 2007

CU will this year, by requests from former CU Alumni, have optional 3rd day work-shops at all four events.

So new for Collaboration University 2007, we will be holding optional hands-on workshops on the final day of the conference. These 3-4 hour workshops will have you building systems, applications or learning more in-depth materials on a topic of your choice.

Head over to the CU website and register today for big Early Bird discounts.