An archive of my writings from 2007 till 2011. If you're interested in the recent stuff, visit my Tumblr at dvirreznik.com.
Carl Tyler has posted over the weekend a very cool and insightful video (20min), showcasing the differences between Lotus Sametime Unyte and your (and mine) normal Lotus Sametime 7.5.1.
As you probably know, IBM acquired WebDialogs Inc., and integrated its solution (WebDialogs’ Unyte) into the Lotus Sametime portfolio, announcing a whole new family, dubbed Lotus Sametime 8.0.
Carl also published a high-quality version of the video. Check out his blog and watch.
Another update for the upcoming Software Group Community Day, set for Wednesday, Sep. 5th, from 15:00 at Cinema City, Israel.
First, the event website, where you can find details on the event, the other brands’ sessions, agenda and a registration form – ibm.com/il/news/events/community .
Secondly, Lotus session. There has been many announcements this past week, regarding Lotus Notes and Domino 8, Lotus Sametime 8 and the acquisition of WebDialogs and subsequent introduction of Lotus Sametime Unyte. This makes out Lotus session much more interesting. I will try to provide as much information as possible, on how Lotus strategy is affected, what will change, what are the benefits and how we intend to promote these offerings in Israel.
For the live demo part, I am planning to present you a UC2 (Unified Communication and Collaboration) demo, in sync with recent announcements regarding Lotus Sametime 8. It’s not final, so stay tuned. UC2 is gaining momentum in Israel, as many businesses, not only large enterprises, are moving towards VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) solutions. Lotus Sametime serves as an excellent platform for VoIP solutions, and can integrate with leading providers, such as Cisco and Avaya. I encourage you to watch this webcast, held by IBM with Colgate-Palmolive, on UC2 solutions.
If you have a particular request for the Lotus session, let me know.
Finally, I have Lotus Notes 8!!
It wasn’t easy thou, and let me explain.
I’ve been using Lotus Notes 8 Beta 3 for 6 months now. As soon as Lotus Notes 8 was available, and Ed had already installed it, I just couldn’t wait to get to the office and download the source files for myself.
The first mistake I did was to interrupt the un-install process of Notes 8 Beta 3. Never interrupt a process like that. I though the Add/Remove action was stuck, and it stuck my laptop, so I ended the process. Hugh mistake, I know. ‘Cause now I had an incomplete installation of Notes 8 Beta 3 in my registry, that cannot be removed! I tried installing the Beta 3 version again, which kinda worked, but when I wanted to un-install it, I had the wrong install package for product on my registry.
An advice from a colleague and one more Google search I found Your Uninstaller 2006! software, that suppose to do what Add/Remove can’t – remove those programs that stuck on you, and there’s nothing you can do to remove them, other than formatting your entire HDD..
And it worked – like a charm ! So thank you Your Uninstaller 2006. You saved the day.
It’s a brand new world.
The past week was filled with coverage on Notes 8 release, and new announcements in VoiceCon, on Lotus Sametime 8, along with the release of IBM’s recent acquisition – WebDialogs, which will be added to the Lotus brand, and its solution incorporated into the next version of Lotus Sametime. As Adam Gartenberg commented, a picture is much better than words, so in a nutshell, here’s the new Lotus Sametime 8 family.
There will be 4 versions:
Sametime Entry 8.0 – a new offering designed to get companies started with enterprise IM. It’s based on the embedded Sametime service available to Lotus Notes users – encrypted IM, chat history, rich text, emoticons, spell check – in an easy to adopt enterprise IM solution.
Sametime Standard 8.0 – the follow-up release of current Sametime 7.5.1 client, and the future entitlement for current customers.
Sametime Advanced 8.0 – a new offering that will package all of the capabilities of Lotus Sametime Standard together with new, advanced capabilities, such as persistent group chat, broadcast tools that will allow users to pose questions to communities of experts and tap an organization’s knowledge base in real time, a new plugin that will allow for instant desktop or application sharing, and community/server-based geographic location awareness.
Sametime Unified Telephony – a new offering that will provide capabilities both for the end user and through new middleware components. For the end users, it will provide for onscreeen alerts of incoming phone calls, rules-based phone routing for incoming calls, an integrated soft phone, and integrated phone and desktop presence. On the middleware side, this offering will simplify the process of connecting Sametime to multiple back-end PBX systems, regardless of which vendor (or how many vendors) you might be using. Key components of this offering will come through technology from Siemens OpenScape.
In closing, news roundup, for Lotus Notes 8 and Lotus Sametime 8:
Lotus Notes and Domino 8 – ibm.com/lotus/notesanddomino
Lotus Sametime 8 – IBM Unified Communication and Collaboration solution
Lotus Sametime – ibm.com/lotus/sametime
IBM Lotus Sametime Unyte (WebDialogs acquisition) – ibm.com/sametime
Lotus Notes and Domino 8 shows new life – InfoWorld
Enterprise e-mail get pumped – InfoWorld
Lotus takes unified aim at MS with Sametime 8 – InfoWorld
The Lotus floats on – PCPro
IBM positions Lotus Notes for growth – TheStreet
Notes/Doomino 8 hits the streets – IT Jungle
The 15th annual IBM Lotusphere event will take place in January 20-24, 2008, in Orlando, Florida, USA. Registration is now open.
Hopefully, this would be my first Lotusphere, and I’m very excited. Not only because it’s the 15th annual event, but also because I’ve heard a lot about the recent events, and tried to monitor what I could and was available online. But being there is something entirely different. Ed Brill already commented on LS08, and I’m sure there will be more updates from him and other Lotus colleagues in the future.
Couple of observations:
See you all in January 2008!
BTW – if you missed Lotusphere 2007, or you just want to refresh your memory, check out the Lotusphere 2007 page.
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.
