Genii Weblog


Civility in critiquing the ideas of others is no vice. Rudeness in defending your own ideas is no virtue.


Fri 30 Dec 2005, 08:57 AM
Is there any point to having a Technorati Profile?  What do you get from it?

Copyright © 2005 Genii Software Ltd.

Fri 30 Dec 2005, 08:42 AM
I am not officially working today, but I thought I should report back...

Things slowed down a bit over the holidays, and because a lot of people already have the information, but there have been been over 1025 downloads of the 2006 Lotusphere Sessions database so far.   A new one will be out shortly, but only two sessions were completely missed from the original list:

BP403 Best Practices: IBM Lotus Domino for Linux (web link)
Speaker: Daniel Nashed
SW 1-2 - Monday  5:00pm - 6:00pm

Lotus Domino on Linux has become one of the most stable and popular platforms. This session provides a set best practices and tips on running Domino on Linux Enterprise Servers. This session covers best practices on installation, troubleshooting and will deliver technical information on Lotus Domino for Linux implementations on Domino 6.5.x SLES8/RedHat Enterprise Servers and Lotus Domino 7 on SLES8/9 in 32Bit/64Bit environments with special considerations of the scalability improvements in Lotus Domino 7.


BDD401 Expand Your IBM Websphere Portal and IBM Workplace Services Express Opportunities with IBM Workplace for Business Strategy Execution (web link)
Speakers: Glen Salmon, Tong Li
SW Mocking Bird 1-2 - Sunday  10:30am - 11:45am

Learn how to expand your current IBM WebSphere Portal or IBM Workplace business offerings with IBM's newest software product: IBM Workplace for Business Strategy Execution. This session will provide Partners with an overview of this product and a brief technical walk-through of how Partners can enable applications to work with IBM Workplace for Business Strategy Execution. Attendees will learn how to create custom portal based dashboards and scorecards for customers, and why these solutions are in demand. We will also discuss the ways Partners are building consulting services to help customers create alignment, track accountability and accelerate exception resolution. If you are an IBM Business Partner, Systems Integrator, ISV or Consulting Partner focused on IBM Websphere Portal or IBM Workplace, than this is a must attend session.

Copyright © 2005 Genii Software Ltd.

Thu 29 Dec 2005, 11:03 AM
I have not paid a lot of attention to LotusUserGroup.org,  but it has generally seemed like a "good thing".  People I know and respect seem to like it, and have participated in webcasts and forums and such surrounding the organization, so I have had a generally favorable impression.  But today I got a phone call from Scott Treggiari of LotusUserGroup.org  the that I found fairly disturbing.

On the phone call, Scott told me that LotusUserGroup.org was working fairly closely with IBM at Lotusphere and would be doing live broadcasting from on-site.  No problem there, sounds cool.  He also said that they would be putting up a Virtual Showcase with additional exposure for the people with pedestals.  Again, sounds good, and not far off of what we are doing with the Sessions database.  But then he said that by default, you just got your company name and pedestal listed, and if you wanted to buy an upgrade package, your company name could become a URL and you could also have a chance to provide a link to download sales materials.

Buy an upgrade package?  Still, I thought maybe they would charge a nominal amount.  No chance.  It is $750 US to buy the basic upgrade, or for $1000 US you can get a taped interview accessible from your that same Virtual Showcase.  There was no explanation of who this would benefit, and he was fairly vague when asked.  I had him send along a package, and this is just the beginning. There are $2500 packages for "Ask a Guru" podcasts and other sponsorship deals.  The $750 US is only if you buy by Jan. 2, after which it is $1000 US.

I have to say, I am pretty uncomfortable with this.  I have worked hard, and am happy to provide a whole lot of information in our annual sessions database for free.  I have tried, unsuccessfully, to get IBM to simply provide a list of pedestal numbers along with company names so we could put up a Virtual Showcase, for which we would charge... nothing.  I still plan on providing this service, but it is frustrating to find that IBM would rather provide access to LotusUserGroup.org so that they can charge yet another fee to provide information, when we would be happy to provide this and more for free.  I understand that LotusUserGroup.org has a need to raise some money for its activities, but this sounds outrageous.  Also stupid, since the main Lotusphere site has the URLs for free.  This just doesn't seem to fit the spirit of the user group mission to me.  Anybody else have any thoughts?

Copyright © 2005 Genii Software Ltd.

Tue 27 Dec 2005, 08:28 AM
An old friend from college, Peter Schiano, sent a Christmas card, catching us up on the various family events.  When he got to his son Chris, he wrote:
Chris, a t-shirt and the ACLU gave our school district a 1st amendment lesson (Google for details).
I aspire to write a Christmas card where I get to parenthetically say "Google for details.

Copyright © 2005 Genii Software Ltd.

Fri 23 Dec 2005, 07:46 PM
... or at least all who celebrate it.

Copyright © 2005 Genii Software Ltd.

Fri 23 Dec 2005, 02:02 PM
I took the leap today, and perhaps it is time for you as well.  Sure, the new year is over a week away, but I decided it would be horribly embarrasing after giving people grief last year, so to avoid missing the date, I switched our company copyright to 2006.  Now, you don't have to jump on the bandwagon this early, but don't be caught in two weeks when I'll probably come looking.  Better to be forward looking than stuck in the past with 80's technology an old copyright date.

Copyright © 2005 Genii Software Ltd.