Genii Weblog

A time to be nice... Kumbaya, anyone?

Sat 24 Jan 2009, 01:07 PM



by Ben Langhinrichs
In a recent post, Bill Buchan, yes, Wild Bill himself, wrote:
In the coming year or so, we're all under HUGE pressure to cut costs, be better, row harder, etc.
And then a but further on:
And heres' one more think. Be more positive. Especially Administrators. Only shoot something down if you have a better suggestion. Its not a bad rule. And no-one wants to be the 'first asshole out the door', right ?
This got me thinking, especially in light of my not-so-nice posts regarding IBM's MIME rendering, but also in light of the recent Lotusphere talk about xpages.

Go back a year.  What was talked about this extensively at last year's Lotusphere?  That's right, composite applications.  Not so much this year, right?  There were still some sessions on composite applications, or that at least mentioned composite applications, but about half as many as last year, and there was hardly a mention in any major event.  Now, I think there is a difference between composite applications and xpages (namely, I think the latter has a far better chance of working and providing value), but I think the lesson to be learned may NOT be that now is the time to be nice, or even more positive.  Trust me, we can kumbaya all the way to the unemployment office, but I'd rather make sure of the next sixteen quarters of Lotus growth.  And that means taking Bill's latter advice:
Only shoot something down if you have a better suggestion.
Now that I can stand by.  I'm an ISV, so I won't just say "This MIME rendering sucks!"  Instead, I've done something about it and created iFidelity.  For those of you who can't or won't create the solution yourself, at least make some noise about it.  As an example, take a look at Tommy Valand's post Thoughts on XPages hijacking the id-attribute, in which he complains (rightfully, I think) about the decision to use the id-attribute for xpages, but also suggests some reasonable alternatives.  We need more of that... complaining about xpages and making sure it is as robust and sturdy and usable as possible.  That, and not mindless cheerleading, is what is going to spur more use of xpages and a better reputation for Lotus Domino development.

Copyright © 2009 Genii Software Ltd.

What has been said:


772.1. Bill (01/25/2009 03:57 AM)

Yikes. Someone taking me seriously ? Nooooo!

Actually, the 'only shoot if you have a better idea' came from an IBM business Partner meeting at the Swan. So I stole that too. But yeah, its a good way of turning a bitch-fest into something slightly more positive.

Didnt work for that IBM BP meeting though. ;-)

---* Bill