Links
- BlogSphere Links
- Domino Resources
- My Favorite Blogs
- My Forum Posts
- Tools I Use
From Notes.net: Answer to "What is Lotus Notes/Domino?"
Reflections on Admin2008/Lotus Developer2008 Conference
05/05/2008
Category Admin2008 Lotus Developer2008 SuperNTF OpenNTF
With the perspective
afforded by a weekend of recovery and reflection (and binge coding on SuperNTF)
after last week's Admin/Lotus Developer2008 conference, I herewith offer
my obligatory assessment of the event:
LOTUSPHERE COMPARISON. Although Lotusphere has of late offered breakout sessions of outstanding technical quality, I can see why the VIEW conferences have earned their reputation for greater technical depth. I suppose it isn't surprising considering the nature of the magazine itself, which is nothing if not "in-depth" in its treatment of various technical topics. This focus is brought to life by a conference comprised almost exclusively of geek-oriented sessions, which at 90 minutes (or 3 hours for Jumpstarts), offer 50% more time than those at Lotusphere.
PRAISE FOR THE ORGANIZERS. The VIEW staff ran a very tight ship, both during the conference and over several months of preparation. From a speaker standpoint the contrast with Lotusphere is striking because of the rigorous editorial review process that your slides go through.
PRAISE FOR THE VENUE. The smaller scale of the conference made shuttling between hotel room and conference a quick and painless exercise, since all the rooms were within a 2-3 minute walk of one another and the main elevator. Beyond the convenience factor, everything else about the facilities "just worked".
MY PRESENTATIONS. My own presentations seemed to be very well received, and I certainly had fun delivering them and fielding questions afterward. I had the most fun with the SuperNTF one, as this was the first time that the material has appeared at any conference and I actually got a round of applause at the end (thanks for that btw). For those waiting eagerly for the new release to appear, it IS coming soon but I have a few things to polish still. As I alluded to above, the weekend was very productive in this regard.
So all in all a great experience and I'd highly recommend this conference to anyone looking for a high knowledge per dollar return on investment. I also want to thank Chris Blatnick in particular for recommending that the VIEW folks contact me in the first place, and for allowing me the honor of presenting some of his material from last year.
With the perspective
afforded by a weekend of recovery and reflection (and binge coding on SuperNTF)
after last week's Admin/Lotus Developer2008 conference, I herewith offer
my obligatory assessment of the event:
LOTUSPHERE COMPARISON. Although Lotusphere has of late offered breakout sessions of outstanding technical quality, I can see why the VIEW conferences have earned their reputation for greater technical depth. I suppose it isn't surprising considering the nature of the magazine itself, which is nothing if not "in-depth" in its treatment of various technical topics. This focus is brought to life by a conference comprised almost exclusively of geek-oriented sessions, which at 90 minutes (or 3 hours for Jumpstarts), offer 50% more time than those at Lotusphere.
PRAISE FOR THE ORGANIZERS. The VIEW staff ran a very tight ship, both during the conference and over several months of preparation. From a speaker standpoint the contrast with Lotusphere is striking because of the rigorous editorial review process that your slides go through.
PRAISE FOR THE VENUE. The smaller scale of the conference made shuttling between hotel room and conference a quick and painless exercise, since all the rooms were within a 2-3 minute walk of one another and the main elevator. Beyond the convenience factor, everything else about the facilities "just worked".
MY PRESENTATIONS. My own presentations seemed to be very well received, and I certainly had fun delivering them and fielding questions afterward. I had the most fun with the SuperNTF one, as this was the first time that the material has appeared at any conference and I actually got a round of applause at the end (thanks for that btw). For those waiting eagerly for the new release to appear, it IS coming soon but I have a few things to polish still. As I alluded to above, the weekend was very productive in this regard.
So all in all a great experience and I'd highly recommend this conference to anyone looking for a high knowledge per dollar return on investment. I also want to thank Chris Blatnick in particular for recommending that the VIEW folks contact me in the first place, and for allowing me the honor of presenting some of his material from last year.
Hear Me on LotusUserGroup.org Podcast
05/02/2008
Category Lotus Developer2008 SuperNTF
As the VIEW Admin2008/Lotus Developer2008 conference wraps up here in Boston I thought I should catch you up on all the great things that happened this week. One of the unexpected treats was being interviewed by Jess Stratton for here LotusUserGroup.org podcast on Wednesday. It's just a little 2-minute piece and covers my general impressions of the conference and also a bit on SuperNTF, which was the subject of one of my presentations. If you're wondering what a Washington DC accent sounds like, you can find out here.
As for the actual SuperNTF presentation which I delivered earlier today (Friday), it went over very well and I had a great audience. Thanks to those of you who came and I expect to hear about any great ideas you have to enhance SuperNTF...or else!
.
I should have a new release posted this weekend so you can actually play
with what you saw in the demo.
As the VIEW Admin2008/Lotus Developer2008 conference wraps up here in Boston I thought I should catch you up on all the great things that happened this week. One of the unexpected treats was being interviewed by Jess Stratton for here LotusUserGroup.org podcast on Wednesday. It's just a little 2-minute piece and covers my general impressions of the conference and also a bit on SuperNTF, which was the subject of one of my presentations. If you're wondering what a Washington DC accent sounds like, you can find out here.
As for the actual SuperNTF presentation which I delivered earlier today (Friday), it went over very well and I had a great audience. Thanks to those of you who came and I expect to hear about any great ideas you have to enhance SuperNTF...or else!
.
I should have a new release posted this weekend so you can actually play
with what you saw in the demo.
DCNUG Today - 4PM - Nat Geo
04/24/2008
Category Lotus Notes DCNUG
The DC Notes User Group is meeting today. I'll be previewing my VIEW conference presentations and there are lots of other goodies in store - details here, and if you come please sign up here so we bring enoughbeer cookies.
Sorry for the late mention, but I hope we'll see you there. To receive advance email notices of meetings instead of waiting for me to post, you can register on the DCNUG site here.
The DC Notes User Group is meeting today. I'll be previewing my VIEW conference presentations and there are lots of other goodies in store - details here, and if you come please sign up here so we bring enough
Sorry for the late mention, but I hope we'll see you there. To receive advance email notices of meetings instead of waiting for me to post, you can register on the DCNUG site here.
Lotus Notes: The Prius of Information Technology
04/22/2008
Category Lotus Notes Suburban Sprawl Efficient Technology
Here's an Idea:
Stop Rewarding Waste and Inefficiency.
Yesterday morning during my usual transition out of dreamworld, National Public Radio aired a segment called Home Prices Drop Most in Areas with Long Commute which discussed the far more jarring wake-up call that America has received as a result of the collapse of the housing market and the run-up in gas prices. Turns out the "American Dream" of a big house with a nice yard way out in the peaceful suburbs within walking distance of 200 similar houses (and not much else) isn't so affordable after all. One of the examples provided was Ashburn, Virginia, which is a sprawling, fairly affluent bedroom community about 40 miles west of Washington, DC, not far from Dulles Airport and the many high tech businesses located nearby. This is a place that essentially didn't exist 20 years ago, and whose explosive growth was fueled by the crazy money spun out from the late-90s dot.com fever. If you're looking for real brick and mortar examples of McMansions and runaway suburban sprawl, you need look no further than Ashburn.
Listening to the story about houses in Ashburn which two years ago sold for $550,000 and now list for $350,000, I couldn't help but feel a sense of morbid vindication, since I have believed for quite a while that this day would come. As a long time student and advocate of "Smart Growth" I have given a great deal of thought to the devastating environmental, social, financial and other effects of America's largely successful attempt to abolish walking. Ashburn's real estate collapse was almost inevitable since it and many similar communities were viable only because low gas prices subsidized the immensely wasteful land development pattern that characterizes suburban sprawl. The smart thing to have done would have been to discourage excessive driving through a heavy tax on gasoline and use the funds collected to support mass transit. The current mess only proves the assertion that sprawl development is much harder to sustain when no one can afford to live in it. Unfortunately for many foreclosed homeowners, America is learning that lesson the hard way, and too late for them.
As the title of this post suggests, this lesson applies to the IT world as well, and reinforces the points I made last Summer, just as Notes 8 was launching, about the impact of the economic downturn on IT decision making:
Clearly I see Lotus Notes as an extremely efficient vehicle for delivering business value with technology (although a Lexus hybrid might be a better metaphor than a Prius). Even today I was chatting with a colleague at a former client, hearing yet another story about the million$ that management keep spending on a foolish exercise to recreate several Notes applications (that I built). In fairness, once you've spent this kind of money on a boondoggle it's really hard to stop - too many people's reputations are on the line. But as Ashburn's plight has vividly demonstrated, nature has a way of forcing things back into balance when we try to stretch them too far. I guess we'll see if I called this one right as well.
Here's an Idea:
Stop Rewarding Waste and Inefficiency.
Yesterday morning during my usual transition out of dreamworld, National Public Radio aired a segment called Home Prices Drop Most in Areas with Long Commute which discussed the far more jarring wake-up call that America has received as a result of the collapse of the housing market and the run-up in gas prices. Turns out the "American Dream" of a big house with a nice yard way out in the peaceful suburbs within walking distance of 200 similar houses (and not much else) isn't so affordable after all. One of the examples provided was Ashburn, Virginia, which is a sprawling, fairly affluent bedroom community about 40 miles west of Washington, DC, not far from Dulles Airport and the many high tech businesses located nearby. This is a place that essentially didn't exist 20 years ago, and whose explosive growth was fueled by the crazy money spun out from the late-90s dot.com fever. If you're looking for real brick and mortar examples of McMansions and runaway suburban sprawl, you need look no further than Ashburn.
Listening to the story about houses in Ashburn which two years ago sold for $550,000 and now list for $350,000, I couldn't help but feel a sense of morbid vindication, since I have believed for quite a while that this day would come. As a long time student and advocate of "Smart Growth" I have given a great deal of thought to the devastating environmental, social, financial and other effects of America's largely successful attempt to abolish walking. Ashburn's real estate collapse was almost inevitable since it and many similar communities were viable only because low gas prices subsidized the immensely wasteful land development pattern that characterizes suburban sprawl. The smart thing to have done would have been to discourage excessive driving through a heavy tax on gasoline and use the funds collected to support mass transit. The current mess only proves the assertion that sprawl development is much harder to sustain when no one can afford to live in it. Unfortunately for many foreclosed homeowners, America is learning that lesson the hard way, and too late for them.
As the title of this post suggests, this lesson applies to the IT world as well, and reinforces the points I made last Summer, just as Notes 8 was launching, about the impact of the economic downturn on IT decision making:
If we accept that many of the decisions made by organizations to switch from Notes/Domino to Outlook/Exchange/.NET/Sharepoint in recent years were based more on emotion than on technical or financial merit (and I do), the next question is how did all those extra costs not raise more red flags on the balance sheet? Well, my theory is that as financially foolish decisions like this become increasingly hard to justify amidst the overall economic belt-tightening, we'll start to see a lot less of them. From that standpoint, Notes 8 couldn't have come at a better time. Even if the downturn suppresses overall worldwide IT spending for awhile, it seems likely that Lotus will be getting a bigger share of what's left.
Clearly I see Lotus Notes as an extremely efficient vehicle for delivering business value with technology (although a Lexus hybrid might be a better metaphor than a Prius). Even today I was chatting with a colleague at a former client, hearing yet another story about the million$ that management keep spending on a foolish exercise to recreate several Notes applications (that I built). In fairness, once you've spent this kind of money on a boondoggle it's really hard to stop - too many people's reputations are on the line. But as Ashburn's plight has vividly demonstrated, nature has a way of forcing things back into balance when we try to stretch them too far. I guess we'll see if I called this one right as well.
Are Certifications Just a Refuge for the Inexperienced?
04/19/2008
Category Lotus Notes Lotus Certification
The passing
mention of Lotus Notes certifications in my recent "How I got started"
post elicited a reader question:
I had to laugh because I haven't bothered to get certified since R5 (shhh, don't tell), and really don't know what if any market value certifications have. I am pretty sure whatever *added* value they do have decreases as actual experience increases. But for them to have any value at all they need the respect of folks who actually hire Lotus professionals (an insight only slightly more profound than noting water is wet). My own low opinion of certifications came about for two reasons. First, I wasn't getting asked about them when interviewing. And second, it had become apparent to me that some "certified" professionals had simply mastered the test and, to put it politely, didn't know what the #*&!@ they were doing. This latter observation has been echoed by many other senior Notes pros with whom I have spoken over the years.
On the bright side, I have recently been made aware that some folks we all know and respect are now among those writing the actual test questions, and that as a result the tests have become substantially harder to pass without truly understanding the subject. I'm still not sure if there is any mea$urable value in certification for me personally, but it does at least appear that it may be regaining the respect of other Lotus professionals. These characteristics would put certification roughly on par with blogging, which isn't a bad thing.
So I ask you, dear reader:
1) What value do certifications have?
- Do companies reward employees for getting certified, or is the value only for those in the hunt for jobs or clients?
- How does the value vary for professionals with different levels of experience, or different levels of public visibility (conference speaking, blogging, etc.)?
2) For those who have taken the tests, which tests and what is your impression of their rigor?
3) Are there any specific certifications which stand out as more valuable, or any that seem likely to in the near future?
4) Am I missing anything else about this topic which deserves a mention?
The passing
mention of Lotus Notes certifications in my recent "How I got started"
post elicited a reader question:
I was curious what certifications you have? I need to update myself, and was wondering what is marketable these days.
I had to laugh because I haven't bothered to get certified since R5 (shhh, don't tell), and really don't know what if any market value certifications have. I am pretty sure whatever *added* value they do have decreases as actual experience increases. But for them to have any value at all they need the respect of folks who actually hire Lotus professionals (an insight only slightly more profound than noting water is wet). My own low opinion of certifications came about for two reasons. First, I wasn't getting asked about them when interviewing. And second, it had become apparent to me that some "certified" professionals had simply mastered the test and, to put it politely, didn't know what the #*&!@ they were doing. This latter observation has been echoed by many other senior Notes pros with whom I have spoken over the years.
On the bright side, I have recently been made aware that some folks we all know and respect are now among those writing the actual test questions, and that as a result the tests have become substantially harder to pass without truly understanding the subject. I'm still not sure if there is any mea$urable value in certification for me personally, but it does at least appear that it may be regaining the respect of other Lotus professionals. These characteristics would put certification roughly on par with blogging, which isn't a bad thing.
So I ask you, dear reader:
1) What value do certifications have?
- Do companies reward employees for getting certified, or is the value only for those in the hunt for jobs or clients?
- How does the value vary for professionals with different levels of experience, or different levels of public visibility (conference speaking, blogging, etc.)?
2) For those who have taken the tests, which tests and what is your impression of their rigor?
3) Are there any specific certifications which stand out as more valuable, or any that seem likely to in the near future?
4) Am I missing anything else about this topic which deserves a mention?
LotusGuru - How It All Began
04/18/2008
Category Lotus Notes Lotus Approach
Notes...A Love Story
It was almost love at first sight. The year was 1996. Corporate WANs were in bloom, Netscape and Windows 95 were the coolest things around, and I was just beginning to fumble my way through something called "database development". I had arrived at this unlikely and unexpected place through a combination of risk taking and serendipity. Only a few years before I had earned my "liberal arts" degree from the University of Virginia and emerged into the post-cold-war world more eager to travel Europe than get a "real" job. That I had only the faintest idea what career path I wanted to follow probably had something to do with that, but the early-90s economic recession meant there were few good opportunities anyway. The mostly unplanned journey through those few years included extended periods living and working in London, Dublin, and Toronto, as well as the odd business trip to Hong Kong and China and a few months on the Eurail circuit. The marketable skill that funded the journey was an ability to master the various Word Processing packages - Lotus Manuscript, WordPerfect, and eventually MS Word. "Mastery" in this case included devising all sorts of tricks (aka "macros") to avoid the more tedious aspects of the job. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but Laziness, it turns out, is it's remote-control-loving, mini-fridge-next-to-the-barcalounger, couch potato father. This character flaw would come in very handy later on.
So there I was in late 1995, newly departed from a 2-year stint with a boutique management consulting firm based in Toronto, looking for my next challenge. As in previous such episodes, I planned on using my ability to create fancy documents as a way to sneak in as a temp to companies I might want to work for. Of course, when printed these documents would leave me complicit in the destruction of vast swathes of forest - did I mention I was an environmental science major? Anyway, the idea was to have the temp agency find me very short assignments at organizations which fell under the categories of "international" and/or "consulting", and then show up to play secretary dressed in a suit, and get noticed. A pretty successful formula up to then, and a few months and half a dozen assignments later, I hit paydirt again...
Read More
Notes...A Love Story
It was almost love at first sight. The year was 1996. Corporate WANs were in bloom, Netscape and Windows 95 were the coolest things around, and I was just beginning to fumble my way through something called "database development". I had arrived at this unlikely and unexpected place through a combination of risk taking and serendipity. Only a few years before I had earned my "liberal arts" degree from the University of Virginia and emerged into the post-cold-war world more eager to travel Europe than get a "real" job. That I had only the faintest idea what career path I wanted to follow probably had something to do with that, but the early-90s economic recession meant there were few good opportunities anyway. The mostly unplanned journey through those few years included extended periods living and working in London, Dublin, and Toronto, as well as the odd business trip to Hong Kong and China and a few months on the Eurail circuit. The marketable skill that funded the journey was an ability to master the various Word Processing packages - Lotus Manuscript, WordPerfect, and eventually MS Word. "Mastery" in this case included devising all sorts of tricks (aka "macros") to avoid the more tedious aspects of the job. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but Laziness, it turns out, is it's remote-control-loving, mini-fridge-next-to-the-barcalounger, couch potato father. This character flaw would come in very handy later on.
So there I was in late 1995, newly departed from a 2-year stint with a boutique management consulting firm based in Toronto, looking for my next challenge. As in previous such episodes, I planned on using my ability to create fancy documents as a way to sneak in as a temp to companies I might want to work for. Of course, when printed these documents would leave me complicit in the destruction of vast swathes of forest - did I mention I was an environmental science major? Anyway, the idea was to have the temp agency find me very short assignments at organizations which fell under the categories of "international" and/or "consulting", and then show up to play secretary dressed in a suit, and get noticed. A pretty successful formula up to then, and a few months and half a dozen assignments later, I hit paydirt again...
Read More
Presenting SuperNTF (and more) at the VIEW Lotus Developer2008 Conference
04/09/2008
Category Lotus Notes SuperNTF Developer2008 OpenNTF
A couple days
ago I mentioned that one of the things that had been keeping me up
all night busy recently was the effort to put together session
slides. Turns out, the folks at the VIEW have seen fit to invite
me to present three sessions at the upcoming Lotus Developer2008
conference in Boston. This is the first time I will attend a VIEW
conference (let alone present), and I am both honored and excited at the
prospect. The conference (and its companion Admin2008) are happening
from April 30th-May 2nd, and if you haven't already booked there is probably
still time to do so. Considering the speaker lineup (other than moi
that is), this promises to be a pretty information packed three days.
Here are the three sessions I'll be presenting:
If you see me there please come up and say "Hi!"
A couple days
ago I mentioned that one of the things that had been keeping me Here are the three sessions I'll be presenting:
Best Practices for Designing Top-Notch Notes Client User Interfaces
Grasp the importance of good UI design in building dynamic, user-friendly applications, and pick up essential design techniques to create more powerful and more dynamic UIs in the Notes client. Learn how to leverage the advanced features in Domino Designer and get a detailed code walk-through so you can immediately begin implementing these design concepts. Take a deep dive into layers, embedded form and editor combos, and on-the-fly report generation. Explore best practices for exploiting common design elements like combining embedded views, using outlines and folders to create drag-and-drop document processing functionality, and a lot more. You walk away with a sample database containing all of the examples used in this session to take home and use as your own.
Templates, Templates Everywhere — If You Know Where to Look
Templates are everywhere. Notes ships with them, and you can find lots more at Lotus Sandbox, OpenNTF, and other blog sites. This session gives you a fast-paced look at some of the best templates drawn from a variety of different sources, including administrative and development tools, advanced business applications, and generic application frameworks. Cut down your development time by building on the good work of someone else. Whether you’re a developer, admin, or both, you’ll come away from this session ready to put these templates into action to help make you more productive, make your job easier, and impress your clients.
SuperNTF — An Easy Way to Create Great Databases
Come check out SuperNTF, the open-source Notes application framework built from the ground up to make implementation of development best practices easy, even for novices. See how the capabilities and simplicity of this template encourage wide adoption, enabling you to promote coding standards across your organization. Avoid common pitfalls when employing tricky Notes features such as soft deletions, integrated help, and error handling. Learn about the template’s advanced features for user–activity and field–change tracking, configuration, and data reporting/exporting. This session provides an in-depth look at SuperNTF to see how it can help inject new life into existing apps and/or provide a strong foundation for new apps.
If you see me there please come up and say "Hi!"
Your Host
Kevin Pettitt
Search
Idea Jam
Contact
- Subscribe to This Blog
Full Posts
Comments
Advertisements
Downloads
OpenNTF
Archive
Poweredby
Domino BlogSphere
Version 3.0.1 Beta 8a
Disclaimer
This site is in no way affiliated, endorsed, sanctioned, supported, nor blessed by Lotus Software nor IBM Corporation, nor any of my past or future clients. The opinions, theories, facts, etc. presented here are my own and in no way represent any official pronouncement by me on behalf of any other entity.
© 2005-2008 Kevin Pettitt - all rights reserved as listed below.
Unless otherwise labeled by its originating author, the content found on this site is made available under the terms of an Attribution / NonCommercial / ShareAlike
© 2005-2008 Kevin Pettitt - all rights reserved as listed below.
Unless otherwise labeled by its originating author, the content found on this site is made available under the terms of an Attribution / NonCommercial / ShareAlike