2007 Review
As 2007 comes to a close, I look back at what was a fantastic year on many levels. January started off the joyous ride with an incredible LotuSphere, where we impressed the IT industry with not only improvements to our existing products, but also the introduction of several new ones. The event can be summarized by the simple phrase "Lotus is back", and my interactions with customers, press, and analysts throughout the course of the year strongly confirmed this.
What perhaps excites me the most is that in 2007 I've noticed that more and more people are really starting to understand and experience the benefits of collaboration. Some of this was fuels by the fact that it was a big year for product releases from Lotus, as well as Microsoft and Google, and a year of explosive hype from hundreds of "web 2.0" vendors. That is a really good thing. All this exposure means that more people are now starting to understand what Lotus customers have known for over a decade, that collaboration is about a lot more than just sending emails! So while we marketing an IT staff in the trenches spend our time squabbling about prices, market share, operating systems, etc, the real users of our products are becoming better connected to their peers, sharing information faster, finding subject matter experts, and ultimately getting their work done more effectively. That makes me happy.
I'll also remember 2007 as a good year for our Lotus Business Partners. I've heard dozens of stories of increased sales, new product launches, company mergers and acquisitions, new opportunities opening up, and more. I believe that this trend is going to multiply in 2008, as partners start to extend Notes, Sametime, Quickr, Connections, Symphony, etc. in exciting ways that were not possible before.
In 2007 my personal "day in the life at IBM" changed in many exciting ways. I became a Blackberry user. I started using social networking sites both externally as well as our IBM internal only implementations. I started using social bookmarking, sharing my own URLs as well as searching for what other people have bookmarked. Our internal Lotus Connections Dogear site is now the first place I go to for finding information, not Google. I became a believer in "micro-blogging", or providing short little status updates. I can not tell you how many things I have discovered by reading other peoples' status updates. For example, by seeing what other people are doing, I've found out about conferences, web sites, books and blogs, that I otherwise would now have known about. Also in 2007, the way in which I store and share files with my teammates has improved, using both Lotus Quickr and an awesome tool from Lotus Research. Perhaps one of the biggest changes has been my switch to using Lotus Symphony for creating all my presentations. While there have been some learning curves, I am excited about taking part in building a future where proprietary document formats will be less of a concern. Finally, while I've actually been using Notes 8 builds since long before 2007, it was this year that all the pieces really came together. Within IBM we have developed dozens of sidebar and composite applications which have dramatically improved the way I work. The next step is delivering more of these capabilities to you our customers.
On the blogging front, I have to apologize that I have not provided as many dedicated Lotus Notes tips and tricks stories as I would like. I do have dozens and dozens of things I want to share with you to improve your usage of Lotus Notes, but sometimes it is a struggle. One of the things that makes it difficult is that I am always using future beta versions, so I tend to forget what features are available to the public, and which are not! I also know that of course not everyone is using Notes 8 yet, and trying to remind myself of what works in versions for 3 or 4 years ago is not easy. Also, many people don't realize this, but I have not actually worked on the Lotus Notes team for many years! Of course I am still a huge lover and advocate for the product, but my job (I work for the overall Director of Strategy for Lotus) takes me in so many different directions, it is hard to find the time to focus my mind specifically on writing something about Notes. I will try to get better about it :-)
Ok, enough about work! In 2007 I had some wonderful trips including Costa Rica, Switzerland, Ireland, France, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Georgia, and Florida. I continued to work on my golf addiction, and I'm still running around playing a lot of ultimate frisbee. I would have liked to have spent more time outdoors hiking and camping, but at least I did get to sleep under the stars a few times this summer.
As we head into Lotusphere 2008, I can't tell you how excited I am. No really, I can't. I'd get fired! There are so many things I want to share with you, but alas, I have to bite my tongue for another 3 weeks. I will tell you this, if you think 2007 was a good year, hold on for 2008!
So what about you? Was 2007 just another normal year, or do you look back at the last 12 months and recall some exciting changes? What do you think the IT highlights of 2007 were? How does your company feel about Lotus these days? Are you using Notes 8, Sametime, Connections, Quickr, Symphony, Portal? If not, what can we do to change that?
Have a wonderful New Year, and see you soon in Orlando.
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What perhaps excites me the most is that in 2007 I've noticed that more and more people are really starting to understand and experience the benefits of collaboration. Some of this was fuels by the fact that it was a big year for product releases from Lotus, as well as Microsoft and Google, and a year of explosive hype from hundreds of "web 2.0" vendors. That is a really good thing. All this exposure means that more people are now starting to understand what Lotus customers have known for over a decade, that collaboration is about a lot more than just sending emails! So while we marketing an IT staff in the trenches spend our time squabbling about prices, market share, operating systems, etc, the real users of our products are becoming better connected to their peers, sharing information faster, finding subject matter experts, and ultimately getting their work done more effectively. That makes me happy.
I'll also remember 2007 as a good year for our Lotus Business Partners. I've heard dozens of stories of increased sales, new product launches, company mergers and acquisitions, new opportunities opening up, and more. I believe that this trend is going to multiply in 2008, as partners start to extend Notes, Sametime, Quickr, Connections, Symphony, etc. in exciting ways that were not possible before.
In 2007 my personal "day in the life at IBM" changed in many exciting ways. I became a Blackberry user. I started using social networking sites both externally as well as our IBM internal only implementations. I started using social bookmarking, sharing my own URLs as well as searching for what other people have bookmarked. Our internal Lotus Connections Dogear site is now the first place I go to for finding information, not Google. I became a believer in "micro-blogging", or providing short little status updates. I can not tell you how many things I have discovered by reading other peoples' status updates. For example, by seeing what other people are doing, I've found out about conferences, web sites, books and blogs, that I otherwise would now have known about. Also in 2007, the way in which I store and share files with my teammates has improved, using both Lotus Quickr and an awesome tool from Lotus Research. Perhaps one of the biggest changes has been my switch to using Lotus Symphony for creating all my presentations. While there have been some learning curves, I am excited about taking part in building a future where proprietary document formats will be less of a concern. Finally, while I've actually been using Notes 8 builds since long before 2007, it was this year that all the pieces really came together. Within IBM we have developed dozens of sidebar and composite applications which have dramatically improved the way I work. The next step is delivering more of these capabilities to you our customers.
On the blogging front, I have to apologize that I have not provided as many dedicated Lotus Notes tips and tricks stories as I would like. I do have dozens and dozens of things I want to share with you to improve your usage of Lotus Notes, but sometimes it is a struggle. One of the things that makes it difficult is that I am always using future beta versions, so I tend to forget what features are available to the public, and which are not! I also know that of course not everyone is using Notes 8 yet, and trying to remind myself of what works in versions for 3 or 4 years ago is not easy. Also, many people don't realize this, but I have not actually worked on the Lotus Notes team for many years! Of course I am still a huge lover and advocate for the product, but my job (I work for the overall Director of Strategy for Lotus) takes me in so many different directions, it is hard to find the time to focus my mind specifically on writing something about Notes. I will try to get better about it :-)
Ok, enough about work! In 2007 I had some wonderful trips including Costa Rica, Switzerland, Ireland, France, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Georgia, and Florida. I continued to work on my golf addiction, and I'm still running around playing a lot of ultimate frisbee. I would have liked to have spent more time outdoors hiking and camping, but at least I did get to sleep under the stars a few times this summer.
As we head into Lotusphere 2008, I can't tell you how excited I am. No really, I can't. I'd get fired! There are so many things I want to share with you, but alas, I have to bite my tongue for another 3 weeks. I will tell you this, if you think 2007 was a good year, hold on for 2008!
So what about you? Was 2007 just another normal year, or do you look back at the last 12 months and recall some exciting changes? What do you think the IT highlights of 2007 were? How does your company feel about Lotus these days? Are you using Notes 8, Sametime, Connections, Quickr, Symphony, Portal? If not, what can we do to change that?
Have a wonderful New Year, and see you soon in Orlando.
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