Posts Tagged 'lotus sametime'

Last 2 speaking engagements as an IBMer

I’m not afraid of public speaking, on the contrary – I like it a lot. The interaction with the crowd, the presentations, seeing me on the big screen – all made me quite the popular speaker. Since I’m leaving IBM soon, you’ll have two last chances to catch me speak as an IBMer, this week and the next, about the subject that eludes us all (most of us at least) – Social Media ROI at the business.

The first event is ‘The Enterprise in the Digital Age‘ – a joint IDR (ISV and Developer Relations at IBM) and YCD (ISV) session about internal comm and marketing tools, held this Tuesday, the 17th, at IBM Forum. I’ll be speaking about Social Media ROI, focusing on some customer references of IBM’s Lotus Connections and Lotus Sametime, as well as our own (IBM) internal adoption story. The presentation is already available at slideshare.net.

The second event is The 2009 Israeli Chamber of Information Systems Analysts, to be held next Monday, the 23rd, at Kfar Hamacabia, Ramat Gan. I’ll be speaking around noon about (again) ‘The adoption of social media – enterprise 2.0 style’, providing an overview of the entire web/enterprise 2.0, what solutions are available today – both inside and outside the firewall, and wrapping up with IBM’s adoption of such tools. My presentation will be posted later this week at slideshare.net.

Hope to see you in one (or both) of these upcoming events.

It’s (same)time for High Definition

IBM and Radvision has a long-lasting partnership in the IM space, with IBM’s Lotus Sametime and Radvision’s Scopia Desktop solution. In Lotusphere 2009 a month ago, Radvision introduced a new plug-in for Lotus Sametime, which adds high definition video conferencing to Sametime environment. The following post was written by guest blogger Sagee Ben Zedeff from Radvision.

I am a big fan of desktop video conferencing, and of RADVISION’s High Definition Scopia Desktop in particular. The ability to communicate with others directly from my laptop wherever I am in High Definition (REAL High Definition @ 720p) is priceless. Add to this the fact that it supports desktop, room system and mobile handset endpoints, and you can truly video conference from anywhere with anyone.

And now Lotus Sametime users can enhance their collaboration and communication experience using Scopia Desktop in Lotusphere 2009. Among the recent exciting announcements, RADVISION unveiled a unique plug-in for Sametime, based on Scopia Desktop, which seamlessly adds high definition video conferencing to Sametime’s environment.

RADVISION’s conferencing platform, SCOPIA, has been supporting IBM’s unified communication and collaboration platform for a long time now. However, using the new Sametime plug-in, Sametime users can now enjoy multi-point HD video conferencing in their IM or web conferencing sessions easily and seamlessly.

The plug-in is simple and fully integrated into Sametime, centrally managed and deployed without any complex installation issues or licensing fees. You just click on the video icon in Lotus Sametime or Web Conferencing and you are ready to go.

In fact, Sametime users don’t need to change anything in their hardware or software. They can still use the same PC and webcam, yet enjoy the new HD services. The plug-in uses PC resources (processor power, network bandwidth) efficiently, allowing for H.264 video with highest quality, sending and receiving HD @ 720p resolution. It will even automatically detect CPU and bandwidth availability, and determine optimal parameters to guarantee the best experience for your setup.

If this sounds too good to be true, you can actually give Scopia Desktop a (free) test right now and see for yourself.


High definition video conferencing is happening everywhere, now is the time to start enjoying it on Sametime.



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Sagee Ben-Zedeff is a technology researcher in the CTO’s office at RADVISION. He has been developing video technologies and video related products for the past decade. He also writes the Video Over Enterprise blog, which deals with video and video applications “with an enterprise slant”.

Tech tip: where are my emoticons?

Got asked this yesterday by a colleague and it got me curious – where does Lotus Notes saves my 150+ smileys I use frequently in my instant messages? After a quick search, and a 5min chat with a colleague across the pond (another IM ROI), I found the answer.

First off, it depends which interface you’re using for IM: Lotus Notes or Lotus Sametime.
Secondly, the version is also important.

Most users are probably working like me, meaning the embed IM within my Notes client (see screenshot below). So, head over to C:notesdataworkspace.metadata.pluginscom.ibm.collaboration.realtime.palettespalettesSmileys and you’ll find them! It’s also convenient for copy-paste actions, as well as import/export.

I think this post worthies an article at developerWorks.. 😉

Social media adoption – the IBM story

Last week I had the pleasure of talking to a group of college students from Canada, who came to Israel with Hillel Foundation of Toronto. They visited IBM for half a day, and we had a good discussion about social media and how IBM adopted it internally. As anyone, they were looking for the ROI, so I gave them examples of how social media at IBM helps me on a daily basis.
All of them were Gen Y of course, so at the first portion of my presentation (what is web/enterprise 2.0) I just hit ‘next’ all the time.. 😉

Since most participants knew what social media is, an interesting discussion started, of why it’s important and how such tools will benefit them – in the coming months. Some of the students were already part of the social media space, either working at VCs or other organizations aimed at helping SU companies in their early stages.

It was an excellent opportunity to share some of the work IBMers are doing using social media tools, for the past 5 years now! We have lots of social media tools (see slide above), some stay as research projects while others grow up and become IBM solutions (such as our social software solution – Lotus Connections).

The presentation from last week is available at my slideshare space.
Feel free to leave your comments and thoughts!

US troops are chatting with Lotus Sametime

The US Army is considered very hi-tech, adopting many technologies that enable the troops and commanders to be more connected – to the field and to each other. Nevertheless, I was pleased to read over at The Sametime Blog (John Del Pizzo), that the US troops in Iraq are using IBM Lotus Sametime to communicate with one another, and video-chat with colleagues back in the US. The Army usage of Lotus Sametime isn’t for chatting alone – it’s a complete unified communication and collaboration solution, that enables troops to transfer text, audio, video and files, over a secure network, in a single interface.

“We’re hitting between 5,000 and 6,000 chats per day,” said Lt. Col. Mathew Riordan, product manager for the Army’s program office for EIS Enterprise Information Systems. “There is a lot of communication. Someone in theater can easily chat with someone in Warren, Mich.”

The army also took advantage of the solution’s development platform, and added a plug-in that creates groups based on geographical location:

“Basically, what we did was took their product and added a thing called groups,” Riordan said. “When someone goes into the system, they can go in to chat online. There are 351 public groups showing who is online. You can add your office and see anyone that is online.”

Lotus Sametime also enables forces on the ground in Iraq to get better intelligence, using the knowledge the previous force gathered on its tour:

“If I go to Iraq, I can reach back and ask about a mullah or a mosque or an intersection,” said Daniel Gouré, vice president of the Lexington Institute, a Fairfax, Va.-based think tank. “It can really help the knowledge base. This is the Army really thinking.”

Links:
The Sametime Blog – The official US Army chat room software
Defense News – US Army buys collaboration software
Strategy Page – The official US Army chat room software
IBM Lotus Sametime on ibm.com

And, finally, while on the subject of Lotus Sametime, a nice retrospective video of Sametime’s first 10 years (1998-2008):

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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.