During the first session of "The
eleven commandments" with Bill, I got into my usual rant about the
useless way the Notes client handles attachment blocking for users.  Currently,
the domino server, LAN and client takes the hit before the user knows the
attachment was too big to send.  For more details, look at this
This idea got a standing ovation yesterday and applause today.  Little
did I know that Mary-Beth
Raven was in the overflow
room.  Tim
Clark handed me his
ipod during the session, and this was on Twitter.

I told the audience and they went nuts.
 That’s a picture perfect example of collaboration speeding up your
business/industry.

Today is the longest day.  In the
lobby from 6.30am and its back to back sessions.  Aside from presentation,
I will be a part of Lotusphere IDOL (go.. its great fun) and then, I have
heard a rumour of a free (beer and wine) bar at the Symphony Presentation
Karaoke at 7.30pm in Kimono’s.

Also… more announcements being streamed
from IBM all day today, and some that we will be very interested in.

Now it has relatively calmed down post-OGS,
and my first session of the week, with Bill Buchan is complete, now is
the time to give some of my impressions on the OGS, and what worked/didn’t
work.

The blogger’s area was hilarious.  Not
necessarily comfortable for over two hours, but it was just pure fun.  Very
nice that all bloggers just "went with it" and plopped themselves
down.  What was really nice was power sockets for all of us.  No
worries on battery life!

WiFi could of been better.   Last
year, WiFi was excellent and it seems to have lapsed yesterday/today.  That
being said, the logistics team reacted quickly and gave us access to a
separate network up the front.  If that was not the case, many people,
myself included would of just closed the laptop and sat back, instead of
live blogging.

The live blog method we used seemed
to be popular.  Declan has the stats but it was very busy.  Thank
you for all the feedback so far!

It was the most professional, slick
Lotusphere OGS I have been to.  Well executed, well timed, with the
Blueman group and Dan Aykroyd setting a fast and funky pace.  The
even ran over, but there was a lot to cover.  The look and feel of
the products were consistent, and neat.  This went beyond the Lotus
brand, and into the IBM space.  The Filenet interface "matched"
the Connections/iNotes look and feel.

Lotus and Rim are working hard together.
 I lost count of the mobile demos with connections, Quickr and Symphony.
 Excellent work, and very encouraging. xPages support already for
the berry, BES is SUPPORTED on Domino 8.5 server after 10 days of release!
 That’s just incredible and encouraging.   Mobile support is
a solid offering in the Lotus space now.  How long has it been since
we could say that!  I think Traveler was not covered as RIM took focus
on the day, and obviously showed a lot of investment in the Lotus space.

Very little demo of infrastructure features
in Domino in the OGS, but that could easily be me making that comment,
as that is my area.  I think that a demo of id vault would of had
dancing in the aisles.  xPages is a BIG deal for developers.

Lotuslive.com (the new name for Bluehouse)
looks great and has established Lotus in the SAAS space.  Hopefully,
many will log into this service and try it for themselves.

There is more to come in announcements
this week.  I’m sure of it.  Some will be surprises.  I
think the OGS felt a little vacant for some, as we are used to the barrage
of announcements as opposed to the constant feed planned this week.  Right,
off to my DAOS session!

Stuart McIntyre, Matt White, Declan Lynch and I will cover all aspects of the Opening General Session on our respective sites. The shared post will be available when from 8am EST just below. THe page will refresh itself every few moments so sit back and watch!


Scroll to the bottom to get the latest updates

After arriving last night, it was straight
to the ESPN bar to meet up with the geeks, and get into the Lotusphere
mood.  We are all getting old though, as many of us left before
closing time!

Plenty going on today so far, with awards
for ideajam already, and meeting up with other speakers/friends that I
have not seen in a year.  Most of my day was spent on last minute
session adjustments and prep for the week to come, and staying tuned to
twitter and some of the Business Development day announcements, which are
very interesting indeed.  More of that tomorrow during the Opening
General Session.

Being one of the people on the Bloggers
Programme, I have access to aspects of the event typically reserved for
the real press.  Today , we got to tag along at the evaluation and
judging of the contenders for "Best in showcase" award.  Getting
behind the scenes adds an unusual twist to the week, and I am certain that
we will get to hear of some snippets of information over the next four
days.

Remaining today is the highly anticipated
"turtle’s guide to lotusphere" and then the opening party.

I have done a lot of screwing around with
DAOS and during Gab and I’s session, will be sharing my experiences.  For
the record, I’m yet to find a serious negative one.  

Yes.  Its that good.

A (very) early start has me in Belfast
city airport at 5.15am, waiting for the red-eye to London Gatwick for the
BA flight to Orlando.  Luckily, it seems I made the "geek plane"
with people from Blackberry, Integra4Notes, on board along with Stuart
McIntyre and Kerr.  This will be my fifth Lotusphere USA, and by far
the busiest yet.  I have been very lucky to get to present a few sessions
this year, and also be involved in a few other programs.  The downside
of that is my schedule is harsh and unforgiving.  I already expect
to be a car crash by the end of the week.  Tuesday is turning out
to be almost funny for many people.  There are at least 7 sessions
I am either speaking/judging/participating in some fashion or another.
 Comfortable shoes and Susan Bulloch for running-defence (she is a
pro… if you don’t understand what I mean, ask me in the bar).

For anyone that attended ILUG any year,
Eileen Fitzgerald is presenting on Tuesday morning at 8.30am (BP302 Control
Your Domino Environment by Applying ITIL Principles).  Although she
is far more confident then me, its always good to see a friendly face the
first time you present at Lotusphere, so I will be there and hope to see
many of you too.   Duffbert saved my ass four years ago when I took
to the stage with Bill Buchan (baptism of fire) for the very first "Worst
Practices" session.   I was petrified when Bill was hopping around
the stage already with 15 minutes to go.  Bill is hilarious to watch,
scary to be on stage with.  Duff simply said "Paul don’t worry
about the session starting, its already begun… and you’re on.  Go
with it."  I accepted my fate and went with it.  Bill was
a fantastic help back then and to this day.

And now its 2009.  That same sense
of being petrified remains before presenting at ‘sphere.  Don’t let
experience fool you into thinking speakers become complacent.   Simply
put its the "top of the game" event for an industry leading product.
 It is NOT a cheap event to attend, and the audience wants value in
knowledge.  All the jokes at the start cover the terror!  

We’re gonna need a bigger bag

I always like to see good
things happen to good people (and
good companies).
 Regardless of the fact they may
or may
not be competition.
 It’s just nice to see people get what they deserve.  I would
love to setup a list of companies and business partners that are considered
of high integrity
and trustworthy
and have people report their own
experiences with them (a type of "cool
wall" for products/services)
but I can guess it would take all of 10 seconds before somebody (read:
marketing or legal) tries to fuck with it.