Posts Tagged 'ibm'

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Laptop-less, but a survivor

Published June 18, 2007 Uncategorized Closed
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It’s hard to imagine being without my laptop. If you own a laptop, and had to be without it (not by choice) – you’ll understand. My ThinkPad T41 is 3 years old in August, and he’s been giving me some problems for some time.. Most were minor (USB related stuff), that had little effect on my daily work, but for the past 2-3 weeks it’s getting worse.. It got stuck coulpe of times, resulting in an abrupt shutdown, using a long press on the power button..
I’ve lost sound as well, on speakers and headphones..

So I had to put it away.. for our tech support..

It’s only been 3 days now, without emails (Lotus Notes 8), IM (Sametime 7.5.1), my 35GB of WPLC related data – and it’s hard.. I do have my favorites at del.icio.us, and used Gmail from time to time, but it’s just not the same.. Google Reader kept me in sync with my feeds, but being away from my data was just too hard. And although many collaboration softwares are available (from IBM and others), I realized I just didn’t use them as much as I like.

Only today I had to give a presentation about Web 2.0 at IBM, using Lotus SW, to a large customer. I realized that all my files are stored on my hard-disk, and I have no remote access to them. There is a security issue, obviously, in putting personal data on a shared spcae, but there are many examples out there of how to make resources available online, shared as well as private.

So, my (new) resolution after this short laptop-less experience is to make a better use of Lotus collaboration software, so I’ll have most of my HOT materials available online, regardless of location and device…

BTW, my laptop is fine – new motherboard, and we’re back to business..

Getting to know the portfolio, web 2.0 style

Published June 12, 2007 Uncategorized Closed
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I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately, in preparation for my new role. There’s plenty of stuff available at the external software website, and obviously at our internal site, but in the spirit of web 2.0 I’ve been doing some free search, to find out what going outside, with the customers and users.
IBM Lotus Sametime is IBM’s award winning instant messaging collaboration application, which allows for more than just chats.. you can web-conference, voice-conference (VoIP), share and much more – and there are over 15 million users worldwide.. not to mention the security it provides to the corporate business.
My free search also included YouTube (of course), and even there I found this excellent overview video, showcasing Sametime.

There’s also this video about IBM’s latest application in the collaboration era, called Lotus Connections. 5 services in 1 applications, which allows total collaboration for the enterprise.

New challenges ahead

Published June 8, 2007 Uncategorized Closed
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It has been quite a week for me, over at work..
For the past 2 years now I have been leading the local IBM Forum team, which serves as the customer and technology center for IBM and its business partners.
Starting July 1st I’ll be responsible for Workplace, Portal and Lotus Collaboration (or WPLC) sales at IBM Software Group. Needless to say I’m very excited about this.

WPLC is not such a diverse field, with Lotus Domino and Notes, Workplace, Lotus Sametime and Websphere based Portal, but it’s highly innovative, and allows for excellent collaboration within the business. Not to mention that WPLC includes almost 50 different products that gives you a wide range of choice, when it comes to building your knowledge platform.

As you know it’s always good to take advantage of technology, so I did some searching using my Google Reader and Google Homepage to find some Notes bloggers. And I found a lot…
So, for my first (and un-official) post at WPLC, here are some bloggers you might want to read. I know I’d like to meet them as well…
Ed Brill, Mary Beth Raven, Alan Lepofsky, developerWorks’ Inside Lotus, Chris Pepin and Rob Novak. There are many many more – drop me a line if you read something you like..

Web 2.0 for Big Blue (aka ‘the Enterprise’)

Published May 15, 2007 Uncategorized Closed
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I attended a semi education today, held by IBM’s GTU, part of their quarterly relationship events with the developers community. The education was titled ‘Web 2.0 for the Enterprise‘, and featured a lecture by David Boloker (Strategy CTO, Emerging Internet Technology, IBM SW Group) and a live demo by Vova Soroka (Senior Manager, Collaboration Technologies, IBM Haifa Research Labs).
David talked a bit about Web 2.0 technologies, especially the implications for the enterprise and how IBM is putting it to use, using the recently announced Lotus Connections. I’ve heard David in the past, at a recent Lotus event 3-4 months ago, and his insights are always current and up-to-date.
The second half of the education was a live demo by Vova Soroka. Vova and his team followed-up on David’s introduction to web 2.0 technologies (ajax, rss, web-services, mushups, wikis, etc) and took the audience through IBM’s web 2.0 tools:

  • Fringe (enhanced employee directory)
  • Connections (a shared, browser-based workspace)
  • SameTime SONAR plug-in (IBM internal IM with a ‘popularity’ plug-in that analyzes your interactions and scores your buddy list)
  • and a new QEDWiki platform, that’s available for download at IBM’s alphaWorks site.

I’m not a developer, so I won’t get into the technical details of each tool, but I will say that it has been an eye opener for me. I consider myself an early adopter, and like to test beta versions of different internal IBM softwares, but the possibilities of web 2.0 for the enterprise are endless. Especially if you’re working at IBM… 😉

You can see a video of Rod Smith from IBM, on ‘Mushing up Business Value with Web 2.0’, from the recent Web 2.0 Expo, held this April in San Francisco. You can access some of the sessions’ material over at the presentations archive.
Also, a 9 minute demo of QEDWiki:

Can’t see the video? click here.

IBM a Top Innovator, again…

Published May 7, 2007 Uncategorized Closed
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I don’t usually comment about IBM, as this is my personal blog, but some issues require my attention, and comment.
BusinessWeek-Boston Consulting Group published its 2007 World’s Most Innovative Companies report, and IBM is in the top 10, again. IBM is not in the top 5, but we did jump one place to 9th.
Still, a respectable achievement, if we consider the competition. Competing with Apple and Google (1st & 2nd, respectively) isn’t easy, especially if you consider IBM is in an entirely different line of business. We work with corporations, governments and companies, whereas Apple & Co. and working with consumers.. it’s easier to show innovation in the consumer based market.
100 million iPods do make a difference..

IBM’s Innovation agenda has been in the front line of our strategy for some time now. Sam Palmisano, IBM’s CEO, mentioned in PartnerWorld 2007 why innovation is crucial to survive in the industry, and how IBM is positioned to support our business partners, customers and even ourselves to become better innovators. According to IBM, innovation is not only in products or services, but also in business processes and business transformation.
You can learn more about IBM’s Innovation at ibm.com/innovation/guide.

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Mobile & Media Consultant. I help startup companies launch products to the consumer market. Reach out: dvir.reznik [at] gmail.com
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This is my personal blog. The postings here do not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my past employers or of my clients. It is solely my opinion.