Lotus Guru

OK, so I missed the "send your slides to Paul deadline" but at least I'm in good company. Little else can be said that hasn't been about the overall goodness that was the 2008 Irish Lotus User Group conference. From my own narrow perspective, I was honored to be part of that goodness, and found the experience rewarding on both a personal and professional level. As expected there was great technical content, and although I did skip more sessions than I'd like to prepare for my own sessions, I still managed to squeeze in some learning both in and out of sessions.  For example, I had a conversation with Thomas Schulte about his OpenNTF !!SYSTEM!! inventory management tool that yielded the unexpected bonus of a cool embedded table technique that I immediately put to use on a current project.

Among the highlights were my impromptu hosting of Ytria's "SpeedSponsoring" presentations and a last minute "You're doing SpeedGeeking" non-request from Paul, in which I reprieved my "Top 10 Things You Wish Your Boss Understood About IT" bit from last year. I also enjoyed being the token American getting grilled about the election etc. by a dinner-table full of my European friends (you know who you are )

Fine. They can be found on SlideShare here. Enjoy

Posted by Kevin S Pettitt | 06/24/2008 12:00 PM | Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (3)

Posted by Kevin S Pettitt | 06/24/2008 11:16 AM | Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Posted by Kevin S Pettitt | 06/11/2008 9:34 AM | Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (12)

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Posted by Kevin S Pettitt | 05/30/2008 11:22 AM | Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

So the SQL Server guy stops by and says, "Hey, we want to create some reports of Notes data and we only know how to use SQL Server to do it. Do you mind exporting it to a delimited text file and saving it to this restricted folder on the file server? Here's the username and password of a special Windows account with rights to the folder. Oh, and we need it to run on a scheduled basis so everything is automated. Thanks!"

Posted by Kevin S Pettitt | 05/30/2008 9:03 AM | Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (11)

Bob Cringely in his latest column entitled "Reality Check: What does Gartner really DO?" takes a good whack at the hornet's nest that is the IT industry. Drawing a distinction between "Real engineers" and "IT workers", Cringely argues that the "lack of professionalism in IT" has spawned a symbiotic/parasitic relationship between the advice givers and their customers.

Into this knowledge vacuum come the vendors, who want to sell stuff, and the consultants like Gartner, Forrester, IDC, and the Yankee Group, who need IT managers to feel uncertain about every decision except the decision to buy something, anything. Then look at the number of "research reports" that are commissioned by vendors. Uh-oh.

The five P's of IT are Pride, Prejudice, Politics, Price, and Performance, with the last two being by far the least important. Consultants like Gartner are very useful for minding the pride and politics, their real function being to provide $2 billion worth of IT management CYA per year.

So the saying "the best advice is free" may just be true. If you ever need to make the case for hiring "real" IT professionals into decision making positions as opposed to listening blindly to what "the industry" says, just point folks to this column. Then call me - I know people .

Posted by Kevin S Pettitt | 05/19/2008 11:35 AM | Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (1)