This is exactly what David Allen talked about on the Taking Notes Podcast. Now the question is how do we accomplish this? Got ideas?
Comment posted by Ed Brill12/30/2008 07:53:36 PM
Homepage: http://www.edbrill.com
Bruce, take one look around this community -- don't you already see thousands of customer evangelists for Notes? Lotusphere? The blogs? The people who finally have started to shout down the trolls on /.?
We need MORE evangelists, and I think there are a lot of efforts already going to help with that (LinkedIn, blogs, Twitter, YouTube videos, Facebook, etc.). It would be interesting to see a discussion of what more needs to take place that doesn't default to a free Notes mail client for home use or open source. Fresh ideas, please 
Comment posted by Roland Reddekop12/30/2008 09:15:17 PM
@Ed - I guess I'm in your eyes guilty of "default" thinking in the blog linked below for making a multi-point case for Notes@Home and a rationale for mainstreaming the product which can only help your corporate sales challenges:
http://www.leadershipbynumbers.com/ms.nsf/d6plinks/BMAA-7MTPFF#Comments
A general dismissal is all you've offered (so far) based on your webmail theory. A little reasoning and interaction would go a long way. The days of marketing by gut feel alone are over. Your assumptions re web mail need to be tested and verified. If you have so little confidence in the value of Notes@Home given a good package of templates, then Notes@Work is surely on a slippery slope too. Don't know if you've made that connection.
I am a Lotus Evangelist, but that doesn't mean us amateur evangelists and you as a professional evangelist are always on the same page (or "document" in NotesSpeak).
There's a proverb that iron sharpens iron, so a little friction in discussion along with respect isn't a bad thing.
Comment posted by Bruce12/30/2008 09:19:02 PM
@Ed,
Yes the Lotus Community is FANTASTIC. We the developers and admins make up much of that community and noise on Twitter, FB, YouTube, LinkedIn etc. What I really think we need is reference stories from end-users, marketing from end-users and simple public passion for a product that they love and use to do their job.
I will come back and comment some more as I have a splitting headache after having Thai food tonight.
Ideas, ideas, ideas?
Comment posted by Ed Brill12/30/2008 09:20:40 PM
Homepage: http://www.edbrill.com
Roland, I didn't dismiss your idea based on gut instinct. We have done much research and tried giving away Notes in various forms over the years.
I haven't responded at Jack's because your role play doesn't address the core issue which is that the kind of marketing you look for is very expensive and must be considered in the context of running Notes as a profitable business. I made this point once already and you and Kevin both said basically "but the awareness is worth it". This is not the way that IBM writes a business plan and there are many variables that have to be considered. I mentioned a few of them in my first comment, such as the fact that we distribute Notes in 26 languages all over the world. Support is another factor. I could go on with many more.
I am happy to carry on a private conversation but discussing IBM's business plan in public makes me a bit uncomfortable for what should be obvious reasons.
Comment posted by Roland Reddekop12/30/2008 09:47:12 PM
Fresh Idea Alert:
Ok, its not that fresh because its really just promoting David Allen's idea from the podcast that Bruce referenced. I too am guilty of hoarding from my company the knowledge and benefits using a simple local database, created from the Journal/Notebook template (new and improved in 8.5 BTW), as a tool for capturing just about anything that could be useful to reference later. I use one NSF at work for code snippets, technical ideas from blogs, web pages, tutorials and related files...basically anything that could help me with my "Notes Guy" job. At home (yes us Notes@Home people exist) I use it similarly, just for different topics like downloaded manuals for everything from my programmable thermostat to my lawnmower, recipes, even as a contents index for my paper filing system.
So, this being a useful thing that 95% of the Notes user base (outside of devs and admins) don't know about, how about someone with good video skills make a catchy video tutorial and put it on YouTube for us to use to educate our users.
There are likely some technical reasons why this has not been promoted by Notes Professionals besides laziness to train users. Top of mind would be backup considerations. In a corporate environment IT would be on the hook to backup these local NSFs. In our case we just customize the Tivoli Storage Manager include/exclude file though its not a real useful solution for remote users who may connect/disconnect frequently. It would be nice if Lotus added the Journal/Notebook to the replicator page to sync automatically with the mail file just as they did in Notes 8 for Contacts in the local names.nsf. That would be excellent support for this idea. Meanwhile, we can either advise users to use the Action>Synchronize Journal menu or or allow users to replicate their Notebook NSF to the server.
Comment posted by 12/30/2008 10:16:43 PM
At least 12 years ago one of the Lotus guys in Scotland (yes, when there used to be offices here) became 'unavailable' because he was working on something that is probably best summed up with 'Notes@home'. He was a really genuine guy and I think he still works for Lotus. I never pressed him on it because, quite frankly, I could never get Notes to make sense without the server.
It might be for different reasons but when Ed says that Lotus/IBM have tried giving away Notes in various forms over the years I not only believe him but recognise for myself that there really seems to be little value in pursuing it.
Here's a really crass case: there's a gadget luster who drinks in my local pub who was falling over himself a while back to upgrade from Windows XP to Vista purely because he liked the visual way Vista Windows minimised. He caused himself no end of grief. Two days ago, while boring everyone with his new iPhone (yeah, who wants one when they're ten-a-penny), he revealed he had ditched Outlook because he didn't like the way it appeared to do 'whatever'. I asked if he had switched to Notes but the answer was that he had actually switched to Thunderbird.
Although he has a sense for the 'spirit of the age', the guy is technically illiterate and unless I've missed something no-one is marketing Thunderbird.
Comment posted by Roland Reddekop12/30/2008 10:30:45 PM
@Ed,
I don't mean to draw you into a conversation that will compromise IBM's marketing or strategy. I'll only respond to what you've already said publically and if you cannot converse for proprietary reason, I understand. I am not contributing my thoughts here so you can confirm any of my thinking.
Just a very short response to your two main objections in your post both on this blog and on Jack's (1) Huge Marketing expense and (2) Support costs/considerations.
(1) Marketing a Notes@Home does not need to cost anything if its packaged simply as an optional addon for Symphony. You could download just Symphony or Symphony with Notes. If anything, the cost would be in the slight improvements needed to make Notes configurable by a non-Notes admin. Adding a button to the icon bar of the Notes Client that corporate users will see that links to a help document titled: "Do you want to use Notes@Home too?" would simply direct them to the Symphony site. No need for a massive splash, just let it grow on its own. Their Notes Admins would probably gladly promote it too for free.
(2) Support Costs - What do you do with Symphony? Its free. You don't provide free support beyond a knowledge base, user forums, and we already have those for Notes. If someone wants personal support, well that's chargeable. You should see that as a revenue stream, not as a liability.
Ok, I've said more than enough and like Bruce, I have a headache, but its not from Thai food. Its probably a case of blog commenting too much while I have a head cold.
All the best in 2009.
Comment posted by Kevin Pettitt12/31/2008 07:25:48 AM
Homepage: http://www.lotusguru.com
Just a few random thoughts that inspire someone to improve on them:
- ALL LANGUAGES? Taking cultural and local market factors into account, I wonder if it's really necessary to do a Notes@Home in all 26 languages. For example, different countries have different notions of work/life balance that make the idea less compelling. Also, the countries that started their uptake of Notes more recently probably don't need Lotus brand makeovers as much as the US et al. where a large number of folks have cemented negative opinions of Notes.
- THIRD PARTY OPPORTUNITIES? I have to think expanding the Notes user base in a consumer direction would open up some good opportunities for simple personal use apps. These might be offered with upgrades such as "backup", "multi-user support", and "remote web access" (i.e. Domino server hosting, with the requisite license upgrade, perhaps spread out as a monthly charge). Considering the whole Eclipse thing, I wonder if a business partner might even be able to take up the idea of Notes@Home itself. If its truly just a matter of tuning the preferences and adding a few wizards, local BPs might be able to create a localized, simplified version of Notes standard. IBM would then only need to create the licensing structure to allow this.
Comment posted by Ed Brill12/31/2008 07:48:19 AM
Homepage: http://www.edbrill.com
Now Kevin is onto something... "THIRD PARTY OPPORTUNITIES" is definitely something I am interested in. We tried this once before and it failed, but I think the product has come along way since "Private Edition" in 2000 (German-speaking market only). I think there are a ton of valuable Notes applications that could be aggregated, or made available via a catalog approach, to deliver value to an individual Notes user.
@Roland it always costs money to market something, even if the something is free. Even adding on to Symphony means more complexity to the Symphony message and thus, more time/money/effort. Just giving away product does not mean people will take it -- they have to know why they should and where they can get it.
I agree about support costs but collaboration is necessarily more complicated than individual productivity.
Comment posted by Roland Reddekop12/31/2008 07:53:16 AM
Related: On having more evangelical missionaries for Notes in 2009...
http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/sanitycheck/entry/mainstreaming_lotus_notes_in_200911
Comment posted by Kevin Pettitt12/31/2008 08:01:52 AM
Homepage: http://www.lotusguru.com
@Ed - Re: "Third Party Opportunities" - So does this mean you can sort of the licensing issues to make that a possibility?
Comment posted by John Turnbow12/31/2008 08:12:35 AM
Homepage: http://www.recondite2.com
Bruce,
I like this idea and look forward to adding it to individual applications that promotes their use. Would be nice to have in a Lotus Notes "Statup" or "Sidebar" application that is configurable to point to specific NEWS, Applications, data, RSS. Gets the user to what is important in a "Corporate" environment. If we evangilize Notes centric gathered information then we evangelize Notes as the central point of gathering the information. I think we do need a specific, SIMPLE, startup/sidebar app for something like this... Maybe I'll start on something...
Comment posted by Ed Brill12/31/2008 08:12:35 AM
Homepage: http://www.edbrill.com
I want to make sure I understand *which* licensing issues you mean before I respond.
Comment posted by Kevin Pettitt12/31/2008 09:12:07 AM
Homepage: http://www.lotusguru.com
Ed, you mean I can't just throw out words like "free" and let it go at that 
?
This will require more thought, but for starters "Lotus Notes Personal" aka "Notes@Home" aka ??? should be licensed as free, such that third party vendors can market add-ons to, customized versions of (perhaps rolled into some other marketed application offering), without passing on a Notes client license cost. They should be able to charge for whatever enhancements they do make. The differentiation between Personal and "Real" Notes (i.e. not free) might be access to a Domino server or it might be something else, but the licensing should allow the license cost to be spread over time (months) so the customer isn't hit with a non-trivial one-time fee. Resellers might already have the ability to absorb the full license cost themselves and then recover it via monthly subscription charges, but anything to make that easier and less of a cashflow hit to resellers is a good thing.
Symphony (with a surprise inside)
On a practical, code delivery level, I'm wondering if it might be possible to just enhance Symphony with all the Notes client code but keep it hidden by default. Yes, it makes for a bigger download and install, so perhaps have the installer ask whether to install the "Lotus Notes Connector" or "Internet Extensions" or ???. Vendors would be able to surface it however they might need, either full-blown or in a more piecemeal fashion, integrated with an application they sell. That way the core Symphony/Notes codebase continues to flow from IBM via whatever update channel exists now, but IBM doesn't itself have to go to the trouble of creating all the extra wizards, etc. I believe there is already a fairly straightforward mechanism for vendors to customize the preferences panel in Notes, although I'm only guessing that standalone Symphony has the same capability.
I guess in essence what I'm suggesting is to ship the entire Notes/Symphony package and just *call* it "Symphony". The only difference from the regular Notes/Symphony would be that all the Notes bits are hidden behind some sort of "advanced" preferences setting. Vendors would know how to build install wizards to that could surface some or all of those settings, as well as ones of their own. Consideration would need to be given perhaps to things like registering Notes as the default email client, adding shortcut icons to desktop, and other items omitted from the original install.
Having several million copies of "Symphony Enhanced" in circulation would have to be a pretty good incentive for Notes-focused ISVs to write applications to take advantage of the full capabilities. It would in turn serve as an organic path for pulling in new, paying Notes/Domino customers, in many cases via the Foundations and Bluehouse offerings.
So, no language translations, no wizards...what are you waiting for?
Comment posted by Charles Robinson12/31/2008 09:12:38 AM
Homepage: http://www.cubert.net
There is no licensing model that effectively enables home Notes use. A Notes stand-alone client license costs $107 for messaging and PIM only, or $148 for full collaboration features: https://www-112.ibm.com/software/howtobuy/buyingtools/paexpress/Express?P0=E1&part_number=D5CPILL,D5CS2LL,D53T5LL&catalogLocale=en_US&Locale=en_US&country=USA&PT=html&S_TACT=none&S_CMP=none . To get this to fly in the consumer market it's going to have to be substantially less expensive.
I'm not sure if the other people who brought this up are thinking of something else, but that by itself makes it a non-starter for me.
Comment posted by Roland Reddekop12/31/2008 09:34:08 AM
@Charles
As one of the "other people who brought this up", a proposal for licensing Notes@Home ("Symphony, Communication Edition"?) over on Jack Dausman's blog was for a free license for simple POP/SMTP only usage, but licenseable when talking to a Domino Server. I don't believe there would be any significant cannibalization of existing licenses by that model. But Kevin's suggestions for value-added services for a fee is striking a stronger chord and that's good too. Its good collaboration.
Reference: Jack D's blog entry
http://www.leadershipbynumbers.com/ms.nsf/d6plinks/BMAA-7MTPFF#Comments
Comment posted by Kevin Pettitt12/31/2008 09:41:48 AM
Homepage: http://www.lotusguru.com
@Charles - in layman's terms Notes@Home would be free as long as you are not connecting to a Domino Server.
In technical terms, accomplishing this would require sorting out how to create a Notes ID that would facilitate all the normal certificate, encryption, authentication, etc. functions without some admin creating the various certifiers normally required for same. You would also need to give thought to what happens when/if that user upgrades to a "real" Notes id and has a bunch of local dbs encrypted with the original one. Maybe you disable encryption for Notes@Home, but that would torpedo a potentially major "selling" point for some users. There are several ways to handle that issue so it shouldn't be necessary to disable.
Comment posted by Kevin Pettitt12/31/2008 09:54:16 AM
Homepage: http://www.lotusguru.com
Is Symphony "Extensible" the way Firefox is?
Extending on (sorry couldn't resist) the theme of third-party opportunities around Notes@Home, I wanted to throw out a familiar model as one that maybe could be emulated. Firefox has long been known for the many great extensions that are available that customize the browser interface, plug functional holes, add capabilities, provide hooks into value-added services like Skype, etc.. That is essentially what I envision when I think of the "Symphony with Notes hidden inside all wrapped in an Eclipse shell" offering.
So my question is: How feasible is this model in the Symphony/Notes context? The current Symphony standalone might not be wrapped in Eclipse (I just don't know), but the Notes Standard client is and if it were repackaged as Symphony with Notes hidden as I suggest above, that problem goes away.
Comment posted by Mike McPoyle12/31/2008 10:11:40 AM
I've posted similar things on Ed's blog, but I'd love to see Notes@home, but I'd like it to connect to a Notes server. In fact, I'd like it to connect to IBM's Hosted notes server via the installer wizard, and give you xxx megs of space on your xxx@[insertcatchyNotesdomain].com address. Then, that same install wizard should have two tabs: Home and Work.
'Home' should have hosted a blog template, journal, etc. 'Work' should have an expense report, time tracking, performance review application. The Home tab is completely usable, and the Work tab is usable too, but meant as a demo. They can insert ads touting IBM products, etc. IBM needs to be 'hip', and that means you need home penetration. Apple does it, MS does it, yet IBM makes no real attempts.
Basically, Home is a functional gateway drug to the Work side. I'm tired of hearing people bash poorly written Notes apps, claiming that therefore 'Notes sux'. I'd prefer IBM deliver some modern *cough* templates in their server and installs, and this is the way to do it.
Sorry Bruce, I got way off the evangelist tangent, but it's sorta related. My point is that the evnagelists could be grass roots if IBM invested the effort. IBM already has the hosted servers, right?
Comment posted by Kevin Pettitt12/31/2008 10:28:23 AM
Homepage: http://www.lotusguru.com
@Mike - hm, connecting to an IBM Domino server would solve the "how do I give the home user a Notes ID" technical problem, but it would mean putting language translation, wizards, etc. back on the to-do list. I was thinking along the same lines except that third-party vendors would build the user-facing bits, but it makes licensing sense that IBM serve as the certificate authority for creating a Notes@Home ID. The ISV-written wizards would simply have to have a way to point users to IBM for that part of the install. IBM would need to do some work for this, but it's all backend.
Comment posted by Karl-Henry Martinsson12/31/2008 10:56:58 AM
Homepage: http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/texasswede/
My thought is this here: http://planetlotus.org/3e5c74
Comment posted by Mike McPoyle12/31/2008 12:16:44 PM
@Kevin - ISVs are certainly capable of the presentation stuff, but I'd like to see a common goal, and a consistent presentation and marketing push, and only IBM can really do that. Yes, it's going to take some money for the wizards, localization, etc, but IBM isn't a charity. How much have other companies spent trying to topple Domino? IBM isn't going to continue to build market share without investing.
ISVs could certainly get in on the action. Let's imagine a 3rd tab in the workspace called 'Partners'. IBM could host 3rd party application demos and solutions, success stories, etc. There's also nothing keeping ISV demos off the 'Work' tab. I realize this is almost bleeding over into a web-portal, but Notes client is so rich that a hands-on, configured, live demo of a modern app, IMHO, would be a big win.
I just got an Xbox, so I'm gonna draw a parallel to their Live service. Sure, I can read about games on the web, and I can go to websites and get some of the same videos, but on my Xbox via Live, it's just *so* easy. I can download a game and play it in minutes. I buy games that I wouldn't even think about READING about, just because it's so easy to get a tates of the game via Live. IBM needs a 'Domino Live', where I can download the client with no risk, then immerse myself in it if I desire.
Comment posted by Charles Robinson12/31/2008 12:33:58 PM
Homepage: http://www.cubert.net
I think I was a little too vague in my previous comment. The problems aren't mostly technical, they're legalese.
There is nothing in Notes for Messaging that prevents me from connecting to a Domino server and opening a database. It's great that IBM doesn't limit their software, but there are no legal licenses that allow home users to use completely local applications other than journals and "reference databases". What falls into that latter category is open for debate -- at least until you get audited.
The challenge here is for IBM to get the verbiage of the licensing to properly empower ISV's to develop offline applications for home users. None of the current licenses appears to do that. Once they get the legalese in place they'll have to get the pricing in line with what the market will bear, and that is a number approaching $0.
Finally, I think the idea of promoting Notes@Home for e-mail is completely wrong. When you hear about a company using Notes solely for e-mail, what is the first criticism? That they're not really using Notes for what Notes is good for.
As Roland and Kevin said on Jack's blog, the target should be the small home businesses or other small organizations that use Word, Excel, Access to manage their data. The goal should be to get them to realize the power at their fingertips when that is all consolidated and more readily searched.
Comment posted by Jon Harisson12/31/2008 01:08:20 PM
At my last Microsoft conference I had some discussion with some of the MS lackeys about software infiltration and the McDonalds theory of "getting them in early".
I was quite surprised to hear that one of their key strategies on mass adoption was to get their products in front of younger users at an early age. Even if it meant it was free.
This explains why MS Office has always been significantly cheaper for students as Microsoft is hoping that their younger users (students) buy this (or pirate it) and get them acquainted with how the software works at a very young age. This way when they enter the work force the knowledge is already there. A key to why most companies won't migrate to another Office solution as the cost to re-educate their users far outweighs the cost to purchase Office seats.
Product evangelism is a great avenue to expand upon and as most have mentioned I think we've already got a great community. I think we need to look at the big picture for a minute though.
Comment posted by Karl-Henry Martinsson01/01/2009 08:05:56 AM
Homepage: http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/texasswede/
@Jon: That is a point I have been bringing up for several years, that IBM should get Notes out to students early. I been getting the response from Ed Brill that they have some programs for colleges and that IBM think that is enough.
Personally I think a Notes Personal Edition which is not just mail but also some applications (perhaps even containing "Domino Designer Lite"?) would be a great tool to sell for very little money, or even give away for free, like Microsoft does with Visual Studio Express. Yes, I can go to microsoft.com and download it for free! http://www.microsoft.com/express/download/
Imagine what cool solution a couple of thousand students could develop, perhaps as projects in high school? Then when they come out at the workplaces, they know all about the power of Notes and how easy and fast you can develop applications.
Comment posted by Stuart McIntyre01/03/2009 01:16:08 AM
Homepage: http://blog.collaborationmatters.com
@Mike "I've posted similar things on Ed's blog, but I'd love to see Notes@home, but I'd like it to connect to a Notes server. In fact, I'd like it to connect to IBM's Hosted notes server via the installer wizard, and give you xxx megs of space on your xxx@[insertcatchyNotesdomain].com address."
Now that the old Notes.Net domain is defunct - all the content has been transferred to developerWorks/LDD (or whatever it's called this week), it seems to me that this is the perfect use the notes.net moniker - free 50MB personal email accounts from IBM, using either iNotes or the downloadable Notes@Home client.
If necessary to get past some of the licensing issues, IBM could even charge a nominal fee ($50 pa) to get a Notes.net Pro account, giving extra space, plus access to the client. Then it wouldn't be free per se, but the value delivered for a small outgoing would be significant.
Comment posted by Dave Leigh01/04/2009 08:14:39 AM
Homepage: http://www.cratchit.org
Bruce, the only effective marketing I see for Notes is word of mouth from customer evangelists. There are days I just wish IBM were as enthusiastic and vocal as the customers.
It's obvious to power users that Notes and Outlook are not comparable products, so put out some old fashioned ads that clearly and concisely make the case that Notes isn't just email. How do you use YOUR Notes?
