Lotusphere 2010, what did I get out of it, and what’s to come.
Mat Newman January 27 2010 17:00:00
IBM get's Notes.Finally.
A few years ago Lotus was the "jewel in the crown" at IBM, it's great to know that in 2010 it's back where it belongs. This time - it's for real! The vibe this year was extremely up-beat, and when that is combined with the presence of some senior and influential IBM'ers who aren't immediately recognised within the Yellowverse, it was obvious that Lotus is "cool" in IBM.
New product offerings, commitments to new versions, a great roadmap for the future, and a sneak-peak at what's coming ... Vulcan.
VULCAN
Vulcan is slick, the design team in Mary Beth's lab have worked exceptionally hard to improve the "image" of Notes in the last couple of years, a face-lift that began with Hannover (the then code-name for Notes 8). Vulcan extends on this, not only with interface improvements, but with a new concept of what your "dashboard" could be.
During my user training, I have always gone to great lengths to ensure that participants understand not only the Notes software, but also the most important concept of Notes. That is: "Notes is NOT an email application, Notes is an information management tool that can be used to access information from virtually any source".
Vulcan is again, not just about the software - it's about the concept. Where Notes allows me to access information in one client, the Vulcan concept allows me to consolidate that information in one place. Peter Presnell has a couple of great posts on his blog about what this concept means, and what the Vulcan interface will be able to do for you.
VISUAL BACKCHANNEL
I've mentioned in other posts about the disadvantage of living so far from the centre of the Yellowverse, When Dan Gruen demonstrated Visualisation's to me in the Innovations Lab he didn't need to go into his deep-dive explanation of what it did - I got it. I only had to look at this tool to realise how valuable it would be for me to consume all that information from multiple sources, have it categorised, tagged and time-lined for me and then automatically cross-referenced.
Man - this is cool tech!
Imagine following a twitter stream where everyone #HashTags correctly, so you can follow the topic thread. Sure, you can now search on that hash tag, but who mentioned it most often? Are they a source you trust or consider authoritative? When was it trending, and how many times within your "follow" cloud was it mentioned?
Enter Visualisations:
Unfortunately I only have the "cloud" screen-shot from #ls10, the Time Line was amazing! Even so, the image above clearly shows the larger the "Cloud Tag" the more frequently it was mentioned (Top part of screen), next step - click the Cloud Tag and identify WHO was mentioning it and their "sphere of influence" spoke increases the more times they mention it (Bottom Left), and finally, what was that stream's listing (Bottom Right).
The cool part about this tool is that you can change the focus of the analysis by clicking the "Cloud Tag", the "Poster" or the "Stream"; ie: Clicking any part of the application will re-analyse the information.
As I said to Dan in the Lab, this will make it easier for me to quickly identify trends that have happened over-night (that's during the day for most of you guys!) and the quickly analyse that information, without having to trawl through pages of Blogs, RSS feeds, Twitter Streams, Facebook Walls, or Linked-in status updates.
I REALLY can not wait for this tool to become available!
WRAP UP
There were a couple of differences I noticed from previous years - some good, some, well...
Having all of the sessions either in the Swan or Dolphin, without having to traipse across the car-park to the "Yacht" was a great idea, I didn't arrive late for any of the sessions I want to see this year. It made the corridor between S&D even busier, but it also meant that you were more likely to run into someone you knew between sessions.
Thanks to the organisers for opening up a "speaker room" in the Swan this year, it was a great room, quiet and the connection was fantastic, thanks! And thanks to John Head for looking after my stuff for a few minutes while I ran an errand :-)
Please bring back the "Shoelaces" on the attendee badges, I overheard more than one conversation about them being "itchy" or falling off. I know where you can get some great yellow ones if you need them.
And finally - if you've never attended this event before and you work in the Yellowverse, even if you come from half-way around the world, invest the 4 1/2 grand to get there - it's worth it!
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