Archive for August, 2007

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Software Community Day – Update

Published August 21, 2007 Uncategorized Closed
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I wrote about it 2-3 weeks ago, and promised an update. So, here it is.

IBM Israel Software Group Community Day will be held on Wednesday, September 5th, starting at 15:00, at Cinema City, just outside of Tel Aviv. The event will include user groups of all 5 Software Brands: Information Mgmt., Tivoli, WebSphere, Rational and Lotus. Each brand will host a 2 hour session, that would focus on updated offers and solutions.

The Lotus brand session theme is Power 2 the People and it will focus on Lotus Collaboration Strategy for the enterprise. The general concept of our session is to provide you, the end user, with the tools to increase your productivity by providing a set of collaboration tools, in the context of the work you’re doing.

Since Lotus User Group had an event during June 2007, we’ll try to focus our presentations on new offers and solutions, and give you, the end user, the opportunity to explore some of the products first hand, using Lotus Greenhouse. If you want the chance to explore the products, you must register in advance at the website ibm.com/il/news/event/community/ .
We’re still working on allowing free Wi-Fi access for our customers at the event.

As a first step of using the tools we’re talking about, our entire session will be available on Sametime Meeting Center! In order to attend the session online (from home or from the cinema itself), you must have permission to Lotus Greenhouse – so pls register today! All registered participants will receive a user id and password for Lotus Greenhouse, approx. 1 week prior to the event.

Once you have your user id and password to Lotus Greenhouse, simply follow this link to enter SWG Meeting Day meeting. Enter you Greenhouse userid/pass and you’ll see the SWG Meeting Day meeting details, similar to the one screenshoted below. Click ‘Attend Meeting’, enter the meeting password (lotus4u) and you’re in! You’ll have to install a tiny Java plug-in, so permit your firewall as needed.

I’m looking forward to seeing you in 2 weeks time!

If there’s anything in particular you want to see at the Lotus session, comment below and I’ll try to integrate it in my presentation.

Lotus Notes and Domino 8 available now !

Published August 16, 2007 Uncategorized Closed
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On Tuesday August 14th, IBM announced the general availability of Lotus Notes and Domino 8, previously known as Hannover. The sales talk that started that launch was one of the popular slaes talks in Lotus history, as IBMers and Business Partners dialed-in to the e-meetings to hear and see the new features.

I’ve been using Notes 8 Beta 3 for almost 3 months now, on 3 different laptops. In the very few days I had to use Notes 7 (standard on IBM machines), it was as if I went back in time. The new user interface is remarkable. It’s a big leap compared to version 7, and gives the user much more freedom and customization.
Notes 8 is built on the open Eclipse platform, which gives developers the option to extend Lotus platform with plug-ins and extensions. Also worth mentioning the integrated support of RSS Feeds, as well as an embedded Lotus Sametime, IBM’s leading real time collaboration solution.
Ed Brill (who hosted the sales talk on Tuesday) talks extensively on Notes & Domino 8 release in his blog, and you’re most welcome to read.

You can also watch this 10min video on YouTube, of IBM’s Ron Sebastian, Executive Architect for Lotus, showcasing Lotus Notes and Domino 8. (can’t see? click the link)

I commented last month about some of the difficulties we have in Israel, not only from the competition aspect, but also from the language aspect. For those not familiar with developing software for other languages, we’re not talking merely on changing some characters.

Hebrew is written from right to left, so the entire software UI’s needs to be mirrored. So the usual menus you have from the top left (File, View, Edit, etc) should be in Hebrew from the top right. And that’s not easy.

We (IBM SWG) have been doing a wonderful job these past years, working hard to supply as many international languages as possible (Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, German, ect), at launch date (like with Quickr and Sametime), but unfortunately, for Hebrew, we’ll have to wait until January 2008. But look at the bright side – we’ll have 4 months to build the buzz, showcase the product and its advanced features. If you want to purchase the English version, you can do that right now.

Meanwhile, read some more insights on Lotus Notes and Domino 8… or attend a birthday party for Notes/Domino 8… or read this Bloomberg article on Notes/Domino 8.

FYI – more comments from Carl Tyler on Lotus Sametime 7.5.1 integration with Office.

Open Collaboration Client with Novell SUSE’s Linux

Published August 12, 2007 Uncategorized Closed
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IBM opened LinuxWorld in San Francisco with an announcement of an integrated open collaboration client for Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop.

The open collaboration client includes IBM Lotus Notes, IBM Lotus Sametime and the IBM productivity tools. In addition, IBM Lotus Connections, IBM Lotus Quickr and IBM WebSphere Portal can easily be added bringing social networking, team collaboration and portal capabilities to SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. In addition, the server components required to support the open collaboration client are also available as one click install solutions and include IBM Lotus Domino and Lotus Sametime servers powered by SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 from Novell.

“Effective desktop management is a challenge for organizations today,” said Roger Levy, senior vice president and general manager of Open Platform Solutions for Novell. “Novell is collaborating with IBM on the open collaboration client bundle powered by SUSE Linux Enterprise to help customers meet that challenge and benefit from improved collaboration, increased end-user productivity, strengthened security, and reduced total cost of ownership.”

InfoWorld: IBM, Novell strengthen desktop, server ties
IBM: http://www.ibm.com/lotus/opencollabclientwithnovell

My new laptop

Published August 11, 2007 Uncategorized 1 Comment
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3 days ago it came to the world, not screaming and pushing like others, but we knew it arrived.
Weighting only 1.5 KG (3.5 pounds) and 2 cm (0.8 inch) thick – we loved him from day 1. I just couldn’t stop holding it, carrying it with me where ever I go, and it didn’t cry for over 4.5 hours…
Impressive !!

I think it’s safe to say now that I’m not talking about a new ‘real’ baby (although I wouldn’t object to having one…), but to my brand new laptop – ThinkPad X60.
My old machine, ThinkPad T41 did just fine, but it was time to upgrade, no offense, to a newer, better model. And in the technology field – smaller is better.
Other than the size, which impressed me, ‘casue until I held it I didn’t know it was so small and light, the battery time is amazing. With the extended 8 Cell battery I can work for over 4.5 hours (in high system performance), without worrying for recharging. It’s simply amazing. A true laptop.

The ThinkPad X60 was the first to include Intel’s Core Duo processor (T2400), at 1.8GHz with a 1GB RAM and 80GB HDD. There’s all the usual connectivity (a/b/g, BT) but also Fire-Wire (IEEE 1394) and SD Slot. Cool. And it was also CNET’s Editors’ Choice in 2006.

How’s the keyboard you ask? Well, I use an example. During the first 2 days I hit “+” button instead of the “backspace” one couple of times, but it passed away. The ThinkPad legendary keyboard is so intuitive and well-organized, that there’s really no comparison with others. Every button, even the tiny right CTRL button, falls right into place, and you rarely miss.

I’ve written before about Lotus Notes 8 Beta and the toll it takes on your system, but the X60 (as well as my T41 with 1GB, btw) is doing just fine. Working smoothly, not hick-ups, screens moving fast enough – just what I’d expect. I’m also running Lotus Sametime 7.5.1, as well as Adobe Photoshop CS – no worries. The new T2400 processor barely break sweat.

Suddenly writing is much more pleasurable…

Power 2 the People

Published August 10, 2007 Uncategorized Closed
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I’ve been talking a lot this past month – customers, analysts, business partners, friends and family – on how important it is to empower people. Why it is so important to provide people with the right tools so they in turn can perform more effectively. Some of the people I meet acknowledge the fact that the world will rely on real time collaboration in the near future, and that we have to act on empowering people, while others are less reluctant to think so.
It’s hard to belong to the 1st group. It’s not something the IT/CIO can take for granted, being dependent on real time collaboration, which automatically brings public IM softwares to mind, with security issues. And making that step, that giant leap, is hard.

IBM Software Group in Israel will hold a SWG Community Day, on Wed. Sep. 5th, at Cinema City, just outside of Tel Aviv. The community day will be a joined one for all 5 SWG brands – Lotus, Rational, Information Mgmt., WebSphere and Tivoli. The Lotus brand community will focus on how businesses of all sizes can harness the power of their employees, and improve their productivity, performance and eventually – happiness.

Power 2 the People is the chosen theme, and we will present a fraction of Lotus software that enables you to do just that – give Power to your people, your most valuable asset. We will focus on 3 products, 2 of them were announced a month ago: Lotus Quickr, Lotus Connections and the veteran Lotus Sametime.

The main attraction in Lotus brand day will be the hands-on session – the audience will have the opportunity to experience, first hand, the mentioned 3 products. All you need is to register and bring your own laptop.

The registration site isn’t ready yet, so I can’t post the link, but will update you asap.
If you have any request for the community day, a unique software you wish to see, product demo, particular subject you’re interested – feel free to post a comment. I’ll do my best to accommodate, but no promises…

See you there.

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