Spanky's Place :: Opening General Session

Category LS 2007

Ok, I know a lot of folks have posted about this, so I'll just hit on the most important (for me at least) points (in no particular order except the first one):

Neil Armstrong: I still remember watching the Apollo mission coverage on my grandmother's television. The whole family was over there, and I (along with everybody else) was transfixed by what was happening some 250,000 miles away. This is one of my strongest childhood memories. Neil Armstrong (and Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, John Glenn, Chuck Yeager, Deke Slayton, Gus Grissom, Ed White, Roger Chaffee, Scott Carpenter, Gordo Cooper, Jim Lovell, and yes, even Yuri Gagarin) were my heroes as I was growing up. These men (and many others unnamed here) had the guts to climb into a "tin can" sitting on top of what was essentially a flying bomb and launch themselves into space. Getting to see one's hero in person can have a dramatic effect; and for me it was an extremely emotional experience. I openly wept while listening to Neil Armstrong speak. Kudos to IBM for inviting him.
Hannover is on track for a mid year delivery, and has now been given it's official product name: Notes & Domino 8.
Supporting the End User's experience and needs is now the primary target and focus of all Lotus Software.
if cool, intuitive, and easy to use, then users will adopt your system
Collaboration, Connection, Change (a revamped take on the old 3C's?)
Lotus Sametime now has voice and video chat, tabbed chat, and MS-Office integration. There will be a Linux Server version, and a Mac client. The Sametime Gateway allows connections to public IM services (AOL, Yahoo!, and Google chat -interestingly, no MSN Instant Messenger connection seems forthcoming).
When using Sametime on a handset (like a Blackberry), any text-chat session can be converted to a call and back again.
130 million + Lotus Notes / Domino users
Notes & Domino 8 is IBM's one and only enterprise email application.
Notes & Domino 8 incorporates 100% standards-based open document format word processing & spreadsheets; and includes MS-Office integration.
Public beta of Notes & Domino 8 begins next month.
Composite applications & mashups. -watch this topic, it is going to get very important very quickly.
SmartSuite, MS-Office & PDF integration / conversion is now native to the Notes client.
New product announcement: Quickr (I predict great success for this, as soon as IBM changes the name to something less idiotic). Collaboration & communication; store, share, and search information, document management, RSS & ATOM protocols. Available (in slightly different versions) for free later this year to all licensed (with maintenance) Notes, DWE, and Quickplace user.
New product announcement: IBM Lotus Connections Sadly, I cannot predict great success for this one. While this really is an incredibly cool product, the truth is that most of it's features are available (separately) through free (as in beer) websites and services. It is only a matter of time before somebody compiles these separate features into a single cohesive free site / service; which means that the potential market for this will dry up and blow away. I think this is a shame, as IBM Lotus Connections really does rock. I sincerely hope I am wrong on this prediction; but I think in time it will prove true.
Single Composite Application Program Model -watch this topic as well.
Lotus Expeditor 6.1 -available as both an Eclipse client app and an Eclipse plug-in IDE. This looks to be very cool, but defining the boundaries between the two is somewhat difficult. I think IBM should publish a clear definition of both as soon as possible.
Domino Designer 8 - for building Notes & Domino apps (pretty much a given). Includes full WSDL capabilities, as well as the Lotus Component Designer for build Portal apps w/o having to hand-code Java.