The reviews are in
Category CollaborationFrom everything I have heard and read, Lotusphere 2006 was a huge success and everyone I have spoken to is really pumped and excited about the future. I'm now doubly sorry to have missed it (although if I had to miss one of the opening ceremonies - one staring Jason Alexander would be my first choice - he doesn't hold a candle, in my opinion, to Patrick Stewart, John Cleese, Avery Brooks..... etc.) While I can definitely perceive the excitement by reading the various blogs and talking to some of the attendees, I haven't quite caught the fever here 2000 miles away, but it has definitely started me thinking again.
After 16 years of dealing with Notes/Domino and 5 years of cc:Mail stuff before that, I'm just a bit burned out with the technology. Actually, it's not the technology that I'm burned out on, it's the frustration of trying to logically convince organizations that they should have a vision and not just blindly follow the herd. Sometimes sitting in presentations, I think that using a 2x4 or a baseball bat would be a very effective sales tool. Since leaving SBD a year ago, I have been toying with a lot of different ideas for my next venture. Most of these ideas have been decidedly lower-tech, and I admit that there is something attractive about making money without having to think a lot and just working hard- a dry cleaning business or delivery service. However, the upside for me is that the excitement from Lotusphere has me once again thinking about working with Domino again. To be truthful, I've spent the last two years working with Portal and Workplace and while I think the technology is very cool, I don't think I have the energy anymore to go out an affect a technology change - let the young bucks do that - I'm too old to be a full time evangelist for something new. But Domino is mature and sophisticated - what's not to love about it? And with Hannover/V8 everyone just slides into the newer technology without any major pain. That being said, I still maintain that Activity Explorer/activity based collaboration represents a seminal change in collaboration...... see, I can't help myself.