Genii Weblog

Do we still need a Lotusphere Sessions DB?

Wed 3 Nov 2010, 09:36 AM



by Ben Langhinrichs
After ten years of providing a downloadable Lotusphere Sessions, plus feeding information to Blackberry, iPhone and other apps, I look forward to the Lotusphere sessions being announced with a fair degree of trepidation.  

Will this finally be the year that IBM provides their own downloadable database?  I'd say that is increasingly unlikely.

Will this be the year that IBM provides enough information and mobile devices are ubiquitous enough that people don't use the sessions db?  I'd say that is getting closer every year.

The problem is, I won't really know the answer until it is too late.  I can pour the hours into creating and updating the database, and find it wasn't really necessary.  Alternatively, I can skip it and find out that IBM didn't provide enough and have people unhappy.  (You quickly learn in this business that once you have provided people with something for years, they blame you if you don't provide it, even if they never paid a dime for it.)

Does anybody have an opinion?  Is the ubiquity of mobile and laptop access, and the quality of IBM's online schedules, sufficient?  Beyond a nostalgic backward glance, would anybody care if I skipped the database and focused on other things?

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What has been said:


913.1. John Head
(11/03/2010 02:09 PM)

Well, selfishly, I do. I usually write demos around the content in that database. Since you have never changed the structure, I can swap in the current year's session db and the demos just work. So I vote yes :-)


913.2. Rob Wunderlich
(11/03/2010 02:50 PM)

Ben, I too hope that you do your database again.

I not only use it personally (and use to to add things to my calendar), but, like John, I've added a few things here and there for my demos.

So I also vote yes!


913.3. Garrett Wolthuis
(11/03/2010 03:52 PM)

I vote yes, also. I know it's a lot of work for you and we really do appreciate it every year.

Personally, it's much easier for me to plan out my session attendance in Notes than it is to use IBM's LotusLive version.


913.4. Joe Litton
(11/03/2010 03:54 PM)

I will VERY happily donate via a PayPal button if you care to pop one on your site. It is a lot of your valuable time to provide the db, and the db provides TRUE value to many of us (agreed that IBM would ideally provide this).

Perhaps enough in the community would step up and show appreciation via a Paypal button. That would perhaps make this worth your time (no way to tell ahead of time). Obviously, with your business being the source of your income, time taking from that to provide a gift to the community has an impact on your bottom line. We should be willing to make up for that.


913.5. Jim Casale
(11/04/2010 07:15 AM)

@Joe Litton +1 I'd be willing to donate time, services, or money to help. As with others I find it much easier to plan my sessions at Lotusphere


913.6. Jason
(04/11/2010 13:39)

Arguments about is it worth it aside (only you can judge I think).

It's nice to have something to have a familiar framework to store session materials in after the event;

Nice to have something IBM doesn't own and is customisable;


913.7. Keith Brooks
(11/04/2010 02:00 PM)

Ben, We all get great usage and benefit from it, no question. IBM last year did not have a better way to get information into my calendar, nor have anywhere near the details your app provided for the bits that did.


913.8. Sharon Albright
(11/08/2010 01:13 PM)

Yes please continue the Lotusphere Sessions DB. That is where I put all the presentation PDFs and sample databases. I use it as my reference (all year long) and it contains my notes and comments on LS.


913.9. Kendra
(11/10/2010 06:09 PM)

Oh, please do! It is excellent for all the reasons stated above. It is flexible and ties neatly into my calendar which will then be on my BB as I tool around....if I am able to go this year. ;-)