Observations from Lotusphere
by Volker Weber
There is so much going on in my head that I somehow have to dump it in no particular order:
- Kevin Spacey is cool. Cool people don't trot up and down the stage.
- Essential tools for staying connected, all of them on the iPhone: free video calls with FaceTime, sharing photos and videos with close friends and loved ones on Path, free texting via Kik. I also learned about Viber, which gives you free voice calls. It does not require Wi-Fi, but you would not want to use it with data roaming.
- An iPod watch is a geek magnet, but not necessarily a babe magnet.
- A Canon G11 is a serious camera. But if you want to shoot in low light, you better have a DSLR with 50mm kit. Bonus points for full format sensor.
- You should not play with your BlackBerry while participating in a panel on stage in front of analysts and journalists. Seriously, even if you are the RIM CEO.
- Speaking of which, the commercial OGS break for Nokia was delivered much smoother than the BlackBerry one.
- Scripted panels with customers don't work for me. Not in the least bit.
- Sessions without teleprompter are hugely superior. It does not matter how hard you are trying to hide that you are just a puppet reading from a prompter. Remember, your face is on the big screen and unless you are wearing shades we see what you are doing.
- 300px wide "high-res" screenshots display a shocking incompetence. Same goes for JPEG.
- You are using Twitter, Facebook, Blogs to communicate. IBM uses them for demand generation (Sandy Carter). Marketing counts the number of tweets and blog entries as a metric for "success".
- "Blogs and Wikis" are now an empty buzzword, same as "open".
- There are vendors on the show floor begging you to write about the fact that customers are dumping Notes. Multiple times. They were really hard to get rid off.
- The CTO award went to a tool that can turn old ugly Notes apps into new ugly web apps. Which is very useful if you want to keep the server but dump the client. Unfortunately you can't buy the tool.
- People have strong opinions on what is running on their device. They could not care less about what is running on the server. Don't pay lip service to open. Make it really open. Yes, that includes kick ass support for IMAP on Domino.
- Yancy Lent has written a really cool vendor bingo service that works with QR codes. Zero overhead. No, I did not win the iPad.
- You can easily survive on a diet of iced tea and fruit, salad, and three beers a night.
- Traveling in coach on Lufthansa sucks big time. Bitchy flight attendants, awful food, old seats, entertainment on CRT screens hanging from the ceiling. Hey, it's no longer 1999. Upshot: direct flight into Frankfurt. Once the nightmare was over, it was over.
- After traveling to the US for 30 years, I still can't get used to being shoved around. "You cannot go through this door, you have to go through that door". - "Why?" - "Because of the RFID sensor on your badge." - "I have long removed that sensor." - "You have to go through that door".
- Same goes for being seated in cafes. There are a dozen empty tables in front out in the sun. Why do I f&cking have to wait for you to show me one of them?
- A big thank you to Marco, Felix and Stefan for letting me ride along. An even bigger thank you to Otto for letting me have his car.
- 10-on-1-briefings are completely useless. Exception: Uffe Sorensen. Lesson learned there: you will have a social network. The only question is whether you own it or somebody else.
- Brightest mind I talked to all week: Charlie Hill. Thank you, Karen and Beate.
- You haven't heard the full story on the BlackBerry Playbook yet.
- IBM writes the Symbian Traveler client. Nokia writes the Exchange client. That's why the latest Symbian version supports Exchange but not Domino.
- If you want to speak about Notes/Domino marketing, Ed is your man. He inherited the title from Kevin, who now does strategy for IBM Collaboration Solutions.
- It's going to be a brutal year for Lotus in Germany.
- The really interesting story is never told on stage.
- "Lotus knows" ends here. "Lotus Software" was nowhere to be seen. I think that is a good thing. Let it be IBM instead.
PS: I see a lot of new hardware in my close future.
Comments
Clarification.. GBS's Evolution Transformer doesn't have an "ugly" filter. It will also transform all those pretty Notes apps to XPages too! We like to beat up Notes for the ugly applications it produces without recognizing that it is equally capable of creating some pretty nice ones too. That power is in the hands of the craftsperson that created them.
Of course, Peter. It's a strict GIGO process.
The "Watson/Jeopardy" closing general session speaker Dr. Brown did not use a TelePrompTer and his comments were lively and interesting, which proves your point.
I thought I read somewhere that there was to be a "Lotus Knows Social" marketing campaign kicked off in the US soon.
Sounds like LotusLive is still a focus. Just saw a flash ad for that on Slashdot.org last night.
spending time with good friends @ Lotusphere - priceless :-)
Could not agree more with the Lufthansa comment. A recent experience with an indian privately owned carrier (Jet) in coach was a revelation as to what is possible. LH should shame themselves to death. Welcome to the third world, Germany! Delhi Airport kicks ass, too.
"It's going to be a brutal year for Lotus in Germany."
Sounds like there are some not that funny things in the pipeline.
I hope that some of the most interesting stories will continue being told on vowe.net. Thank you for your informative review.
@Thomas
Bad enough but the brutal year could very well only concern IBM Lotus employees.
Since your editor-refuses-to-give-back-award helps me more than 40 mediocre amazon reviews of a product, which new hardware do you see in your close future? I'd like to be prepared. :)
I think the only one I can talk about today is the Nokia E7. Most of the kit I am expecting is not on sale yet, some of it has not even been shown anywhere.
I'm not sure if it would help your low light photography as I'm not a camera person but the new Canon G12 has in camera HDR. My mate is a professional photographer (=hard to impress) and he is well pleased with his.
HDR is for high contrast photos, which you don't find in low light.
Haha.. You were on a 744 (747-400) which are the only planes left in Lufthansa's fleet that still have the center mounted CRT's. They fly that route mostly on long hauls. I have done it multiple times to EZE (a 13hr flight from FRA) and going to do the SIN run soon, not looking forward to it. The A380's are super nice, and will run to New York and SF soon. Did the NRT run on it and it's unbelievably quiet makes my noise canceling headphones obsolete.
On your way to MCO we were on a 744 with the new cabin. That was much better, but I still do not like the 3-4-3 arrangement where two people have to get up for letting somebody out of A or K. I prefer to fly the A340-600, which also flies the FRA-MCO route 464/465..
Thanks Volker, I guess I'll read about the other intriguing hardware here later then. :)
