Changing the way that I work.

Inspired, in no small part, by Luis Suarez’s “experiment” of getting away from email at work, I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to change the way that I work in order to survive.

Reading Luis’ early blog entries I found myself saying “45 emails a day? I get that many emails over night! I WISH I could get to 45 emails a day.”  I made all kinds of excuses for why I couldn’t do what Luis did (we have different jobs, different organizational cultures, different

BUT…Recently I’ve been paying closer attention to my own frustrations about how much email I receive and my objections and have realized that I’ve done this to myself.  We’re not so different. (apart from my funny accent)

I already overcame my fears of removing the Microsoft Office Suite and relying only on Symphony and those fears proved to be completely unfounded…no reason this shouldn’t be the same.

So, after a year in my new IBM role (and getting more comfortable in my own skin) I’m recommitting myself to taking on the email battle. 

Shameless product plug:  Connections 2.5 is making this WAY easier for me.

For starters:

1)  Newsletters: Gone…if they have a feed, I’ll subscribe in my feedreader. (Which, incidently, I have a widget for on my Connections Homepage)

2) Wikis:  Moved away from “can you give me an update on this” to “can you please update the status here.”  Pretty simple, but even today I probably had 4 requests for the same status and just sent them an IM with the link to the wiki page…that was already updated by my team.

3)  Mass/Group communication:  Moving to blog entries for team updates.  There are still some items that are marked “cascade this to your team” that are formatted specifically for email, but that’s a battle for another day.

4)  Integrated Voice into Sametime:  This has been HUGE for me and a strangely very liberating way to communicate. IM has become the primary method of communication but using ST as my phone has added a whole new dimension.  But this is for another post…suffice it to say, time saved, better communication, better attention on the task at hand.

6)  Microblogging:  Goodness…don’t know how I lived without it.  I’m a huge fan of Twitter and the the addition of Microblogging in Connections 2.5 is very, very, very welcome. 

 

So..that’s just for starters…

 

 

DAOS Estimator

The Lotus Domino Attachment and Object Service (DAOS) was introduced in Domino 8.5 to help minimize redundant file attachments by utilizing a separate repository on the Lotus Domino server for attachments.

You can now download the Lotus Domino Attachment and Object Service Estimator (DAOS Estimator), a tool for planning the roll-out of DAOS on the Domino 8.5 server.

First Meeting of the Canadian and Caribbean WebSphere Portal User Group

I am esctatitic to announce the the launch of an extremely important initiative in Canada and the Caribbean to allow all of us to share our background and experience with Websphere Portal and the Lotus portfolio. 

A tremendous “Thank you” and congratulations to Anoop Sidhu on the Lotus Canada Technical Sales team for his effort and leadership in getting this off the ground. 

Want to register and participate?

https://greenhouse.lotus.com/turbo/open/route/view/start?formName=VD_uqusS8Vrw5MyE1235921543886

__________________________________________________________

The Canadian and Caribbean WebSphere Portal User Group is being launched to provide forum inwhich WebSphere Portal users can share best practices and expertise.

There are many benefits to participating in this WebSphere Portal User Group including: 

• Learn best practices and optimal ways of using the technology
• Get advice, hints, and tips from experts
• See how other organizations are using the technology
• Network with other technical professionals in your area

At the present time we are planning to have at least two meetings a year; one in the spring and one in thefall. Meetings will consist of presentations from the field and from IBM on subjects that the grouprequests. Meeting frequency, schedule, and content will be discussed at the kick-off meeting.

Kick-off Meeting

The first meeting of the group will be held on May 14^{th, 2009. The meeting will be held simultaneouslyin Toronto, Montreal, and Calgary.}

Date: May 14th, 2009

Time: 2:00 PM – 5:30 PM EST

Locations:

• Toronto: Manulife Building, Main Floor – 200 Bloor Street East – South Tower, Jackson Theatre.
• Montreal: Technical Exploration Centre, 1250 Rene Levesque Blvd.
• Calgary: Technical Exploration Centre, 227 – 11thAvenue S.W

Agenda: Start	End	Title	Speaker(s)
2:00 PM	2:15 PM	Welcome	Lauren Wendel Product ManagerWP(IBM) Anoop Sidhu(IBM)

2:15 PM	3:15 PM	Portal Best practices and Lessons Learntfrom Customer Deployments	Skyler Thomas,Senior TechnicalStaff Member (IBM)
3:15 PM	4:15 PM	Best Practices for Creating WebSpherePortal portlets using WebSphere PortletFactory	Jonathan Booth,Senior Architect forWebSphere PortletFactory (IBM) L. Simmonds Senior DevelopmentManager forWebSphere PortletFactory(IBM)
4:15 PM	5:15 PM	Customer Success Story: TD Bank Portal	Alex Wright Senior Architect(TD Bank) Randy Bast Senior Architect(TD Bank)
5:15 PM	5:30 PM	Closing Remarks	Anoop Sidhu

MS Office-less at the office: Week 1

This is going clearly going to be a short segment. 

As I mentioned in my previous post, I completely removed MS Office from my WORK computer.

*shrug*

Not much to report;  No real issus. In fact, I found it a bit more effective having my editors directly in my Notes client as opposed to switching apps.

There has been a slight learning curve figuring out where things are but, surprisingly, I discovered alot of useful things in Symphony that I couldn’t

Created presentations in Symphony Presentations from scratch, and hybrids of content from existing MS PowerPoint, and Symphony Presentations.  A few really minor formatting snags…thats about it.

Not much to say about MS Word v. Symphony Documents.  I opened a bunch of Word documents.  There were words on the page.  The formatting was fine.  I don’t use Document editors so this

Spreadsheets were where my biggest concern lay.  “What about all those crazy voodoo macros?  Can I work with these big honkin’ Excel spreadsheets that I receive?”  Guess the answer was “yes.” 

Haven’t had a real hiccup yet.  Fingers crossed! 

P.S.  I probably just cursed myself by saying that…kind of like yelling “He’s gonna get a Shutout/NoHitter”

MS Office Free

Taking the plunge.  I’m uninstalling MS Office from my work machine.

I’ve been running Open Office on my home machine for over a year and, while there was a very minor initial learning curve, we’ve really had no problems.

My wife’s initial reaction was: “Where’s Excel?  What the hell did you do to the home computer?”   But after about 2 weeks, the dust settled and now I only get the occasional “how do I” question.

So…here is it goes.  So long MS Office!

An additional upside:  More room on my harddrive for music!

le mal du siècle

In 19th Century French literature, the term “le mal du siècle” (the malady of the
century) described a sense of loss, disillusionment, and melancholy.

In the 21^st Century, our mal du siècle might refer to the diseases of not sharing our knowledge nor making a personal contribution to dealing with the issues that we all face.

So, what are these “diseases” or pains that we face in this century?

Chronic Blogotosis

Fear that whatever comes out of your mouth will stink.

Cure: Drink water…chew some gum…get over yourself.

Sharing Deficit Disorder

Too many distractions…too busy to blog…writing takes time and I just don’t have time to do it.

Cure:  You have time to write an email?  You have time to bookmark a site? This isn’t a disease, it’s an excuse.

Blogexia*

A fear and/or total rejection of blogging to the point it causes signifigant harm to the individual.  Symptoms include rapid weight loss, hair loss, and shifty eyes.  Often is accompanied by Chronic Blogotosis.

Cure: *Sigh*…grow a pair already!

Blogstipation*

You really REALLY want to blog but no matter how hard you try, you just can’t.  It’s painful.  People keep telling you that if you don’t blog then you’re going to explode which just exaserbates the symptoms.

Cure: A solid dose of prunes, confidence, and someone to remind you that when you have a good idea that “you should blog about that.”

The ultimate cure for these diseases?

Bloglemia!!!!

You ingest as much as you can and then spew it all back out again in a different and colorful way.

Cure: Untreatable…this is a good disease…deal with it.

*thanks to Bernie Michilak and Gia Lyons for their input

 

 

National Pond Hockey Championships round-up

We had an incredible time last weekend in Huntsville for the National Pond Hockey Championships.

Most of our wives play on a team in the tournament as well so we all pack up the kids and make a huge family weekend out of it. 

Both our Men’s and Women’s teams did exceptionally well this year. “Ragtime” (my wife’s team) made it to the Final game but lost to a very strong team after 8 games.

After only winning 1 game last year, our team (The King Ferdies Tastee Creem Reunion) took the National title in the Masters Rec Division with a rather decisive win over the IShares from San Fransisco!

 

Our prize for winning?  A jacket (actually quite nice) and a case of Molson Canadian each. 

We’re all still buzzing a bit from the win (no pun intended)…The local press is all over this

 

“How many of you are planning your upgrade to ND 8?”

As I was checking out of the Dolphin on Thursday,  I ran into Frederic Dahm one of the presenters at Lotusphere and fellow Canadian.

Fred told me that the session went very well but he had a bit of a scare at the beginning.  To lead off the session, he asked:

‘Who’s planning to upgrade to Notes and Domino 8?’ 

2 hands were raised. 

He said he paniced a little inside when he saw that so he asked another question:

‘Who’s planning to migrate to 8.5?’

EVERY other hand in the session shot up!!!

The enthusiasm around Notes and Domino 8.5 is incredible.  It’s solid, and the additions of DAOS, the ID Vault, and Xpages have been the hot topics.  Not because they’re “cool” but because they actually make a difference to how Domino customers can simplify, extend, and optimize their environments. 

 

View from my room: Lotusphere 2009

Photo taken from my room at the Dolphin after the Beach Party on Sunday night at Lotusphere 2009 using…ahem…manual focus.

Lotusphere 2009: Takin’ Care of Business

This year marked my 10th Lotusphere and I still get as excited and engergized as I did in 1996. Lotusphere 2009 has left me very pumped and ready to really make a difference this year with our customers and business partners. This will be our year in Canada to really show what we’re made of!

Here’s a quick recap from my perspective as this year was different on many fronts:

The atmosphere:  Less razzle-dazzle and much more “let’s get down to business.” As a self-admitted pragmatist, this was an atmosphere that I was very happy to observe since it means that people are seeing behind the hype and realizing that there is an exceptionally strong, compelling and REAL story to be told about the strength of the Lotus portfolio.  It’s about solving business problems and it was clear that customers, partners, and IBMers were all on the same page about this.

My family was with me: This was the best part!  Although I saw them little during Lotusphere, I still managed to show off my wife and kids.  You could tell who the parents were pretty easily…they had that look in their eye when they saw the kids and wanted to just touch them.  To my knowledge, nobody touched my wife. 

Best comment from an attendee when he saw my 2 year old…”Great to see you starting them on the Lotus path so young!”   All I could respond with was “Thanks…and THAT one is starting even younger!” (3 months old)

My Role:  This was the first year that I’ve attended as an IBM manager.  When I wasn’t discussing plans, concerns, and successes with customers and business partners I had a great opportunity to spend time with my team as as well with the Lotus Leadership team.  Despite the long days, it was tremendously valuable to me and my team(s) to be able to take full advantage of being together to celebrate a strong 2008 and prepare for a spectacular 2009.  Again…pragatism…down to business.  (with a little more than a little fun thrown in)

The Portfolio: Stonger, and better defined.  People are understanding the strategy, and are realizing that this is not only a strong technology strategy but that it’s very focussed on building business capability and reducing costs.  (ahem…pragmatism)