Reflections On September

It was a busy September. Two weeks pretty much taken up by travel to Microsoft’s PDC event and Oracle’s OpenWorld conference and the rest of the time was focused on completing a portal report. A lot of interesting news though to reflect on:

• Macromedia had a good month from a marketing/brand perspective. They inked a deal with Cisco who will adopt the Flash platform for Web Conferencing by licensing Breeze. While the initial joint work is for an SMB offering for audio/Web conferencing, I suspect that the deal is only the beginning and we’ll see the Breeze technology used for other application scenarios as well. Macromedia also announced integration of Breeze with Avaya’s Meeting Exchange. Coincidentally, these two vendors (Avaya, Cisco) are the two most prominent communication players that are still trying to figure out a way to compete with Microsoft’s onslaught into the real-time communication space. Earlier this year Macromedia came out with a scalability solution (edge services) and a deal with SAP that focused on including Macromedia’s Flex technology within NetWeaver but could very well be extended I imagine to include Breeze as well. While Web Conferencing is still dominated by a hosted model, you have to like what Macromedia has done this year to position itself to compete when the market does tip in favor of on-premise software.
• IBM launched Notes/Domino V7. As my colleague Peter O’Kelly was quoted in a Network World article "One of the reasons that this is a remarkable release is that many people thought they would never see it," says Peter O'Kelly, an analyst with Burton Group. IBM has worked hard over the past two years to correct the unfortunate “dual highway” strategy it originally presented to customers that marginalized Notes and Domino in favor of a new set of collaboration services situated on top of the WebSphere platform. Today, customers should feel more confident that their continued investment in Notes/Domino will be preserved and that the evolution towards Workplace and WebSphere will be incremental and gradual and much less intrusive (more of a “melt away” of the Notes/Domino internal structure into a set of components and services that run over the broader Workplace Client Technology and WebSphere platform at some juncture). Actually, I would argue that the legacy is not Notes/Domino but much of the Workplace Collaboration Services which now seem redundant given a revitalized Notes/Domino strategy.
• NextPage 2 was launched by NextPage. NextPage 2 is a subscription service that implements an edge-centric approach towards document sharing, collaboration and coordinating peer review activities. What’s interesting about the service is not so much about the fact that it’s hosted or the specific features and functions but the broader debate around edge vs. core (“core” referring to historical, server-centric, policy-managed solutions). Companies like Groove and NextPage have focused on an end user work style that is more peer oriented, natural and less intrusive than similar solutions from enterprise content management vendors (who have adopted a more rigid server model that generally forces users to change the way they work to obtain any real benefit). This “edge vs. core” debate is going to become more critical over the next few years as Microsoft makes services such as People Near Me (a network P2P capability) available as part of Vista and rich/smart clients continue to be discussed in terms of application delivery. The right question though is not so much edge “versus” core but edge “and” core – that is – how do we better understand the social and work styles of end users (including teams and communities); the capabilities they have across a range of devices (not just PCs but many other form factors) that blur boundaries of consumer and corporate computing; to exploit edge computing while connecting and transitioning those services (including data, information) into a well-managed core environment that satisfied corporate policies (e.g., compliance, security, etc). 
• Jabber announced that it will integration SIP and XMPP by Spring 2006. It’s nice to have a two horse race to keep all the players honest so “game on”. Perhaps this will encourage Microsoft to fold its SIMPLE extensions back into the IETF sooner.
• IBM announced a new consulting service to help employers deal with aging workforce issues. The press release notes two interesting statistics. First – among countries in the European Union, the number of older workers (50-64 years) will grow 25%, while younger workers (20-29 years) will decrease by 20% over the next two decades (Source: Commission of the European Communities, "Increasing employment of older workers and delaying the exit from the labour market," Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, The European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, March 3, 20041). Second – in the US, by 2010, the number of workers between ages 45-54 will grow by 21 percent, the number of 55-64 year-olds will expand by 52 percent, and the number of 35-44 year olds will decline by 10 percent (Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics and The Conference Board,"Managing the Mature Workforce". The issue is not new – concerns related to retiring workers and associated loss of experience have been used repeatedly to justify many knowledge management efforts. A key difference now is the overwhelming amount of data that makes the threat more expansive and predictable, hitting virtually all private and public-sector organizations.