Again, I want to reiterate the fact that Lotusphere was as good as it ever has been however, I think the yellow bubble is beginning to take a harder look at the product portfolio and making some hard decisions. These decisions are about their careers as, some bloggers have blogged about of lately and others are about their commitment to Lotus and, support for their products and strategies.
As for me, many of you know I work by day as an IT Manager in a company using SAP, Exchange, SQL Server and Salesforce.com for our strategic IT systems and by night I participate in a software company that sells a popular product for Lotus Domino. It's hard for me to be critical of anything Lotus as the continued success of Elguji depends hugely on the success of the Lotus Domino product. My job is to make both Elguji and Lotus successful.
Gee I thought I was going to write about something else by this point but I will in just a moment.
While PlanetLotus and Twitter have done the Yellowverse good there still is an underlying feeling that you can't say publicly anything bad about Lotus in anyway. One thing that Lotus fails to realize is that with social media it's very hard to control the message and trying to control it is quite obvious. Blogs, tweets and other posts aren't about an "us" and "them" and too often they are and create tremendous friction among yellow factions.
As we all know there is always a tremendous amount of "chatter" behind the scenes amongst many of us. Many of it is revolves around things such as the "attack kittens(tm)", Lotus staff and other people. If the Lotus brand is to succeed all parties will need to come to grips and face the good and the bad and become part of the conversation and not pull a Tanya Harding. I believe it is worse for customers and outsiders to read about the infighting than to read about a good honest discussion about the software and people we base our careers on.
Also, I am learning of more and more Lotus business partners trying to stab the other partners in the back. Why is this? Well I don't really know. The economic landscape could be one possible cause but, I think it started before this. OK enough of this. I hope to cover more on my thoughts on the Lotus position in Part 3 or 4 of this series.
So back to Lotusphere...
Having to use a laptop computer being legally blind really sucks. Over the last year I have seen my vision go from 20/400 and 20/800 to 20/600 and 20/800. Couple this with the aging process and lack of depth perception and using a laptop computer is hard to do. Now try blogging and podcasting on a 15" screen that you have to hold in your lap compared to using your big honking 24" iMac at a tabletop.
So this all started at Lotusphere 2008 and at Lotusphere 2009 it was dang near impossible. Right now I am typing this on a Mac with the screen zoomed 5x and the letters are at least half an inch tall each.
And speaking at a session has also become quite difficult. Most of the time now I literally have to memorize my slide deck or move to the floor in front of the big screen to see the content. You may have seen me do this.
So now adjusting to a world where a laptop is hard to use is going to be a challenge unless somebody comes out with a thirty inch laptop display. Some of you may ask about using the zoom on the laptop however both Parallels and Fusion do some funky thinks to the keyboard when zoomed making Windows useless.
Well tonight it's a Taking Notes podcast with Julian, Eric Mack and Chris Blatnick talking about eProductivity and GTD. Should be a great show. Taking Notes is coming alive again! The 1352 Report recorded a show on Monday night that I also need to produce. Both shows should be out on Wednesday.
Part 3 in this series coming on Wednesday.
Comment posted by Colin Williams03/10/2009 04:14:54 PM
Yay to the podcasts!!!
Comment posted by Ed Brill03/10/2009 05:01:30 PM
There still is an underlying feeling that you can't say publicly anything bad about Lotus in anyway.
I think this is self-perpetuated by a few who *want* it to be seen as us vs. them.
When Duffbert criticized IBM for losing GSK last week, I joined in on the conversation. He also was vocal about IBM for how it handled "Project Match". No issues there.
When Ben Langhinrichs wrote a multi-part series highlighting major flaws in rich text rendering in Lotus Notes, I read every word and realized he had some very important and accurate points.
When Paul Mooney complained recently about IBM's download process and file names, I was silently cheering "right on!" and trying to figure out how I could climb the mountain to do something about it.
When a potty-mouthed Mac blogger tore the Notes installer on Mac to shreds, I engaged in the conversation and only threw a little bit of attitude back at him. In the background, I had our developers read his entry, as profane as it was. However, I vowed not to engage FUDtroopers like that anymore after that episode, because that blogger was more about himself than the betterment of the product.
I, and my fellow IBM executives, read the blogs. A lot of them. Frequently. Internally, we discuss what's being discussed. I'm not the only IBMer out here anymore. The texture of the community has changed. As my boss said to me, the complaints are now far less about the product itself than they were five years ago. All of this is great progress. However, we're all still human and reading words, from people we know and often consider friends, that are written to be deliberately hurtful -- even if they are not personal -- causes a natural human reaction of having someone react, get upset, and tune out.
If that is what someone wants, then by all means, keep going. However, if what you want -- as is the case with Bruce here -- is to help make the product, the market, and the world a better place, then write with that meme in mind. You'll get more engagement, even if you are critical, and you might even effect change. It happens. A lot of what I've done in the six months I've been the product executive for Notes is make change happen, based on what you all have told me needs to happen...in some cases, for years. We are getting involved with OpenNTF.org -- Bruce and Nate's baby! -- and many other good moves that will help everyone.
So, Bruce, it's not that you can't say publicly anything bad. Anyone can say what they want, and they should -- frequently -- on techie topics, on business topics, on critical topics. My suggestion -- and it's only a suggestion -- is to think about the desired outcome, and let that guide your voice.
Comment posted by Declan Lynch03/10/2009 05:20:50 PM
Homepage: http://www.qtzar.com
The point of business partners stabbing each other in the back could not be truer here in the Pittsburgh region.
There are only two business partners in this area and over the past few years one of them has tried organizing a 'user group' meeting on the same day that the other was running a LCTY event. The user group only consisted of the first BP's customers as the other BP won't tell their customers about it in fear that they will be poached.
This backstabbing has caused the situation where my efforts to relaunch a user group have been hampered by the fact that neither BP will tell their customers about the group. A darn shame.
Comment posted by Jess Stratton03/10/2009 05:52:03 PM
Homepage: http://momelettes.com
I think a new business standard playbook for *any* business should be to read Chapter 11 of "What Would Google Do", titled 'New Relationships" in which Jeff Jarvis talks about his experiences with Dell, and what Dell did in response in a changing social Internet.
I'm looking forward to the podcast on GTD... I am working on a monster blog post for Momelettes about how using eProductivity combined with Lotus Notes can help any personal home user, not just a business person. Before I post it, I am trying to find some sort of connection to an editor at Lifehacker.com, I want to see it get front-page coverage when it comes out! 
Comment posted by Bob Balaban03/10/2009 06:34:30 PM
Homepage: http://www.bobzblog.com
@Bruce: Congratulations on the awards, all well deserved. Sorry about your vision issues, I hope they don't slow you down. Keep going!
@Ed: Well said, I definitely applauded your efforts re Binky (or however he spells it), and constructive criticism (even if it sounds like whining) should always be rewarded. Don't forget (I know you don't) that BPs depend for their livelihood on the software.The stakes are big for us.
@Jess: You go! Make sure we get the link when the article is posted.
Comment posted by Tony Palmer03/10/2009 06:34:49 PM
Homepage: http://palmerweb.blogspot.com
Bruce & Declan,
re BP's. Do you think that this is due to the fact that there is just less Notes and Domino work out there and hence competition is fierce? I'm not suggesting that it's appropriate behavior.
Comment posted by Bruce03/10/2009 06:57:54 PM
@Tony,
There is plenty of work out here. I am constantly passing work off to other BP's and mostly ones in the UK.
Comment posted by kjc03/10/2009 10:26:50 PM
Your mama might have said... "If you can't say anything nice, say nothing at all." While somewhat true, it should actually be... "If you can't provide CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, then shut your trap."
While I am not in the Lotus community I do deal with the art world, a very subjective world at that. While there is all lot of art out there that does not appeal to me in any way, that doesn't mean it's not artistic or doesn't have some intrinsic value.
I was just saying to Bruce this afternoon... it's amazing the similarities between the technology world and art world. Far too many criticize to run their mouths, rather than providing constructive criticism, insight and observation.
Comment posted by Stuart McIntyre03/10/2009 11:15:49 PM
Homepage: http://blog.collaborationmatters.com
Great post. I hadn't realised how significant your sight loss is Bruce - it just makes your success in so many fields even more impressive....
Comment posted by Jason Hook03/11/2009 03:27:25 AM
I hadn't realised either. I'm lucky, provided I can find my glasses in the morning I can fix my problems 
I admire your ability to adapt and your achievements hugely but you know that already.
I've worked for three BP's in the past and I have an opinion on the backstabbing which I'm not going to share but as a customer of IBM and a BP I will always lean toward the positive BP who provides the best service.
Jason
Comment posted by Nathan T. Freeman03/11/2009 03:53:50 AM
Homepage: http://nathan.lotus911.com
The answer to "why is this?" is simple: because BPs are competitors. What's amazing isn't that it happens; it's that it doesn't happen A LOT MORE.
Who's Tanya Harding and what would she pull?
Comment posted by Volker Weber03/11/2009 04:57:14 AM
Homepage: http://vowe.net/about
Mounting a sneak attack instead of competing. See ""The Kerrigan attack" on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonya_Harding
Comment posted by Denny Russell03/11/2009 05:35:01 AM
Homepage: http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/DennyRussell
I guess the BP are all out for themselves, it's a competitive business. And just to clarify, there are only 2 Business Partners (that I am aware of) that are consultants (not selling a product) looking hard for work in the area. But I know where Declan is going. Pittsburgh is a small town and these guys don't want their customers getting cozy with the other partners in town. It really sucks as I think there could be a good group of people there to get a Lotus User Group going here. But I digress...
Kudos to you Bruce for your accomplishments. And I agree whole-heartedly, make it constructive criticism and it will be a good think. We have to work together to build the 'yellow' world.
Comment posted by Dan Soares03/11/2009 06:40:46 AM
Bruce:
I really admire how you don't let your sight loss problems get in the way. I'm sure it gets you down sometimes (or maybe it doesn't) but we see someone who is determined and successful in SPITE of their problems.
Kudos to you !
Comment posted by Keith Brooks03/11/2009 06:55:58 AM
Homepage: http://www.vanessabrooks.com
Bruce, sorry about the vision, it does suck and no laptop zooming is ever going to be enough in the long run. But you are working to live with it and beat it and that's what is important.
BPs backstabbing? Just normal business operations for some people unfortunately.
truth is many BPs don't sell licenses which is THE only reason IBM wants to talk to you or keep you on their radar. I understand it, it's about business, but it also leads to odd circumstances.
We as a BP have been asked to go to market with something, and we do, then get shot down for competing against IBM or worse, becoming a companies support service and thus taking away IBMs support contract money(some sales guys easy money on renewal).
It's a no win scenario sometimes. But if you want to grow your business, you do what you need to for the CUSTOMER, that goes for IBM as well as the BP. This point sometimes gets lost.
Previously I have discussed this issue with various people within the partnerworld community but did not get very far on an option for those of us who rarely sell licenses and how we can best be involved.
We prefer NOT to get involved with clients and their licenses unless asked as usually our clients, Fortune 50(hopefully still) members usually go direct to IBM.
Other times IBM, and this is not fair but it is their way, makes plans with other BPs even though they ask all the BPs interested to assist. LCTY's, among other topics, come to mind, as others already posted above.
Comment posted by Declan Lynch03/11/2009 12:38:32 PM
Homepage: http://www.qtzar.com
Just to clarify the point on the BP's in Pittsburgh effectively blocking the formation of a user group I always forget that the company Denny works for is also a BP in the Pittsburgh region and that is not one of the two BP's I'm referring to.
Comment posted by Andy Donaldson03/11/2009 06:42:31 PM
Homepage: http://blog.macian.net
@Bruce - You could look at the backstabbing as a compliment. You had something new, exciting and awesome to show at Lotusphere and whomever it was that was pulling crap with you guys was just plain scared. I mean seriously, what you guys have to offer is truly innovative. And I'm not just saying that. You keep on, keepin on, bro.
@Declan and @Denny - That really stinks for the 'Burgh community. Cleveland has done a great job getting the usergroup up and running again and I haven't seen any of that kind of shenanigan going on there. But I'm a customer so I may not have that exposure. Perhaps you guys can come over to the dark side for one of our meetings. We have cookies!
Comment posted by John Smart03/15/2009 09:23:40 AM
Homepage: http://www.greyduck.com
Bruce: A friend of mine found a great deal on a wide screen HDTV and now uses that as his computer monitor. He has so much desktop space he never maximizes his windows.
Just a thought.
