Collaborative Thinking

Notes 8 Feed Reader: To Be Or Not To Be...

Better, yes. The right answer, no. See my earlier post on Notes 8 and its feed reader capability.

IBM needs to decide if it is in the feed reader business or not. Forget that these clients will essentially be free as add-ins to browsers, Outlook and so on. Being a player in the market is important overall - especially when competing with Microsoft. "Dabbling" with a feed reader is ultimately just going to result in frustrated users and an overall poor user experience. IBM needs to deliver a feed reader that is as good or better than what exists in Outlook 2007 and IE7. It needs to declare whether it will or not support Windows RSS Platform. There needs to be much more on information provided on security, administration and network management as well as issues around handling read/unread marks across clients and devices as well as de-duping strategies.

Coming out with a feed reader that is behind what Microsoft is delivering as well as vendors such as Attensa, KnowNow and NewsGator is simply underwhelming. And to-date, no official direction on a feed server.

What I was much more impressed by was the Lotusphere 2007 talk of Venus. Links below:

Carol Jones   Elias Torres   Sam Ruby   James Snell 

I was on a call a few weeks ago with a Hannover design partner and we were discussing the feed reader in Hannover (now known as Notes 8).
He shall remain nameless (unless he wants to identify himself), but his comments in as direct a quote as I can remember were: "It's not that I don't like the feed reader in Hannover, it's that I hate it".    His beef was although it works nicely to read the web pages for the feeds when you are on-line, there was no decent off-line story.    That is, you could not read the summaries of each feed entry when off-line.   Not too cool in the Notes universe.
Well, the power of negative suggestion sometimes accomplishes things.   A statement like "It's not that I don't like X, it's that I hate it" reverberates somewhat.
So, here's a screenshot, fresh from this morning's Notes 8 daily build.   Now you can find something else to pick on....

Source: Jeff Eisen

IBM Sametime 7.5: Just-in-Time Rediscovery of Real-Time Collaboration

For Burton Group clients, a new report (45 pages) is available that examines IBM's efforts regarding real-time collaboration and unified communications. A summary is provided below. Clients need to log-in here.

IBM Sametime 7.5: Just-in-Time Rediscovery of Real-Time Collaboration
v1, 05 February 2007
 
Author(s): Mike Gotta
Additional Input: Karen Hobert, Peter O'Kelly

Conclusion
Sametime 7.5 solves many of IBM’s immediate challenges. It modernizes the user experience, transforms the client architecture, begins a modernization effort on the server, improves federation with external instant messaging (IM)/presence networks, and assists with establishing a partner ecosystem for unified communications based on standards. IBM’s rediscovery of real-time collaboration as a strategic endeavor occurs just in time. Microsoft is poised to release a next-generation platform in 2007 that will significantly up the ante. This Sametime release will protect IBM’s install-base, but IBM must continue to execute and build alliances with its communication vendor partners to stave off Microsoft hegemony.

Synopsis
IBM has not been quiet about Sametime 7.5. The marketing effort began in January 2006 when the release was highlighted at IBM’s Lotusphere conference, and reached a high point with the September 13, 2006, launch event. While some may consider IBM’s messaging to be over the top, Burton Group believes that it is a necessary maneuver. IBM’s commitment to Sametime has been ambiguous at times, allowing Microsoft to gain traction with its unified communication strategy and products (i.e., Office Communicator 2005 and Office Live Communications Server 2005). Prior to Sametime 7.5, IBM faced three barriers to becoming a resurgent force in the real-time collaboration market:

• The Sametime user experience was not state of the art. If users did not find Sametime to be a compelling product, IBM’s install-base and future adoption options would be threatened.
• A Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based platform available under IBM’s Workplace brand duplicated Sametime’s capabilities. If information technology (IT) strategists felt that Sametime was not a viable platform, that perception would also threaten IBM’s install-base and growth options.
• IBM lacked an application and integration framework for real-time collaboration and unified communications. If enterprise decision makers concluded that IBM was not a credible solution provider, IBM would have to cede that ground to Microsoft, which would exploit that position to place greater competitive pressures on IBM.

Given these barriers, Sametime 7.5 is hugely strategic. Success will invigorate the Sametime brand and position IBM as a credible Microsoft alternative for real-time collaborative applications and unified communications. The following features demonstrate IBM’s commitment to modernize the platform:

• Numerous user interface and functional improvements
• A new client architecture, based on Eclipse, with a plug-in model for using Sametime as an application platform
• A new gateway for federation with public instant messaging (IM) networks
• Additional partnerships for audio and video technologies

Given the impact Sametime 7.5 will have on communication and collaboration strategies, IT organizations should not view this release as an incremental update. Instead, architects and infrastructure planners should assess the bigger picture of where IBM is heading with real-time collaboration and unified communications. Enterprises satisfied with IBM’s approach will come one step closer to the goal of a unified platform that encompasses IM, audio, video, web conferencing, and presence. Organizations that view Sametime negatively will likely adopt a Microsoft-oriented solution or a best-of-breed alternative.

Pew Internet: Tagging

An interesting read, especially given IBM's recent direction regarding tagging and social bookmarks within Lotus Connections (specificlly, its dogear component).

Tagging

1/31/2007 | Memo  | Lee Rainie

Just as the internet allows users to create and share their own media, it is also enabling them to organize digital material their own way, rather than relying on pre-existing formats of classifying information.

A December 2006 survey has found that 28% of internet users have tagged or categorized content online such as photos, news stories or blog posts. On a typical day online, 7% of internet users say they tag or categorize online content.

The report features an interview with David Weinberger, a prominent blogger and fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

View PDF of Report

Source: Pew Internet: Tagging

Lotusphere Wrap-up & Microsoft Reaction

If you are interested in an overview of Lotusphere and the perspective of Peter O'Kelly, Research Director for Burton Group’s Collaboration and Content Strategies service, then I highly recommend this Collaboration Loop post.

IBM’s 14th annual Lotusphere conference was held in Orlando this week.  This post is the first in a series that provides an overview of key themes from Lotusphere 2007, along with some projections about how IBM’s revised strategy is likely to change the competitive landscape.

Source: Collaboration Loop - Lotusphere 2007 Impressions: IBM Versus Microsoft

Interestingly enough, it brought a comment from Microsoft:

" ... I'm curious to hear you comment on how things like Connections match up against the capabilities already in SharePoint...my honest sense is good first effort by IBM, but even the base capabilities of SharePoint exceed the people search capability of Connections (e.g., people results returned with content results, not a separate search, people results organized by their relationship to me in the corporate constellation, the addition of public contacts with Knowledge Network, etc.).

While I'm impressed that IBM have finally pulled their head out of the sand, claiming the space of innovation with products and capabilities which already exist from Microsoft strikes me as disingenuous, at best. We can argue the merits of what each vendor delivers (or promises to, in the case of a number of things shown at Lotusphere), and that's likely an interesting conversation, but it strikes me as misleading to not acknowledge that Microsoft already ships many of these capabilities, and has, in some cases, for a couple years (WSS vs. Quickr, for example)."

A couple of initial thoughts:

• First, as I posted earlier, Microsoft has changed its direction concerning Knowledge Network. The technology will now be distributed as a Technical Preview which means it will not be a supported feature of Office SharePoint 2007. So Microsoft cannot compare KN to Lotus Connections (which will ship as an official product with support services around mid-year). There is no announced date as to when KN will ship as a supported product.
• There is no tagging and social bookmarking capability within SharePoint as well. The dogear component within Lotus Connection has no Microsoft counterpart.
• Lotus Connections includes an Activities component which unifies collaborative interactions across multiple tools and allows users to organize them based on an ad-hoc work perspective. SharePoint can perhaps do some of this (there are a lot of workflow and list capabilities) but the IBM approach is somewhat unique.
• Both products support user profiles and blogging. Both products support XML syndication. SharePoint can be used for community building but the approach is different than that implemented by the Communities component within Lotus Connections. Business requirements will determine which method is best.
• Lotus Connections is a packaged solution that can be hosted or deployed on-premise. It can be deployed within a Microsoft-centric environment. SharePoint's capabilities are embedded within the SharePoint stack itself - there are pro and con arguments to each approach. But I can see a rational business case where even a SharePoint shop would take a look at Lotus Connections.
• My early perspective on Lotus Connections (including an summary of its underlying infrastructure) can be found here.

One Plug-in For All

Well, almost. A valuable clarification on the plug-in model for Sametime 7.5 and the minor "tweek" necessary to ensure that a Sametime 7.5 plug-in can also run in Notes 8.

We were saying that in general at Lotusphere this year, people seem to get the picture of base technology (Eclipse) with platform based on it (Lotus Expeditor) and multiple products built on this platform (Lotus Notes, Sametime, and standalone Expeditor).    Standalone Expeditor gets you the platform to develop and build apps on, but without the Sametime and Notes collaboration pieces.

The one confusion, he said, was people are unsure of and are getting inconsistent information as to the simple question:  "Does a plug-in written for Sametime work in Notes 8?"

Source: Jeff Eisen

Postscript from Lotusphere: Lotus Connections

One of the more strategic announcements IBM made at this week’s Lotusphere event was Lotus Connections, (formerly known by its code name, “Ventura”). To recap the news – Connections represents IBM’s first foray into the realm of social software. It is a platform play that can be deployed internally (on-premise) within an organization. It is also will be available as a hosted service offering. Connections is comprised of five core components: Profiles, Communities, Dogear, Blogs and Activities. Additional components are likely to emerge over time (wikis would be an obvious candidate). The platform is designed around an Ajax-style user interface. Connections relies on WebSphere Application Server 6.1, DB2 (with Oracle as an option) and Tivoli Directory Integrator (for integration with LDAP, Active Directory or HR systems).Roller (an open source project) is leveraged for the blog engine. Dogear is an internally built tagging and social bookmarking system that emerged from IBM Research. Dogear exploits XBEL (XML Bookmark Exchange Language). Profiles represent an internal application used within IBM to provide a “Facebook”-like capability referred to as IBM Blue Pages. The Profile schema within Connections can be extended by customers. Activities allows users to organize, share and manage ad-hoc interactions that occur within instant messaging, workspaces and such in a consolidated manner represents work that was started by IBM Research and modified by the product team as part of bringing the technology to market. Connections integrates with Lotus Sametime 7.5 and also supports XML Syndication feeds (based on Atom).

IBM faces multiple competitive pressures as it moves forward to deliver a social software platform for an enterprise audience. From a market and technology perspective:

Consumer-oriented services: There are a variety of online services that offer aspects of what Lotus Connectiosn offers such as del.cio.us (tags and bookmarks) and TypePad (blogging). Facebook has offered its profiling and networking capabilities to an enterprise audience as well.

Open source software: A variety of projects are available for IT groups to exploit such as  WordPress (blogs) and Scuttle (tags and bookmarks).

“Web 2.0 Suites”: There has been some movement to loosely-couple various vendor tools together such as SuiteTwo (a project that involves Intel, TypePad, SocialText and NewsGator).   

Specialty Vendors: A range of vendors exist that deliver a mix of blog, wiki, XML syndication and related social software capabilities such as Attensa, Confluence, Jive, KnowNow, NewsGator, SocialText, and Traction Software.

Microsoft: Within Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft has included blog and wiki support as well as some level of “social distance” analysis as part of SharePoint’s search capabilities. Profiles are available through its MySite feature. Its Knowledge Network add-on will now be delivered as a Community Technology Preview (CTP) but it included more comprehensive profiling and social networking features which extended to external parties.

The advantage IBM has (as does Microsoft) is the ability to extend the conversation from social software itself to include the typical security, identity, compliance, integration, development, infrastructure and operational requirements that are concerns of larger enterprises. Additionally, IBM can also inject its professional services capabilities into selling opportunities as well. IBM has engagements that can deliver consulting services at the organizational, business process and technology levels.

So what’s not to like? While there is tremendous potential in what IBM is bringing to market, and its is refreshing to see major vendors adding credibility to the space, there are some areas of concern.

First, “social software in a box” in-and-of-itself does not guarantee success. If the software components are to have synergy with each other they need to be designed in a manner that satisfies a variety of individual, group (e.g., community) and network needs. Adoption is heavily influenced by relationship factors as well as work and lifestyle needs (including aspects such as context, relevance, convenience and so on). While the software has been successful used within IBM, we need to see some additional use-case scenarios and proof-points to validate how a packaged solution has advantages over discreet tools used individually in a loosely-coupled manner.

Second, IBM seems to be positioning Connections (at least at this point), to a CXO-level audience, touting its business transformational impacts that can improve growth and facilitate innovation. I don’t disagree with the assertion, but it’s similar to selling dog food to the dog owner and forgetting about whether the dog wants it or even likes it. IBM needs to balance the CXO-level messaging revealed at Lotusphere with a complimentary message that focuses on the workers themselves. Ultimately, success of Lotus Connections will be determined not by the CEO but by the line worker. How well an enterprise deals with its underlying organizational dynamics (such as culture) and is able to positively influence viral and organic adoption patterns are critically important for the success of socially-oriented systems.

These systems might be sold top-down but value will be driven bottom-up.

I can foresee some spectacular failures if a CXO pushes for deployment of Connections with the belief that people will socially engage themselves and actively participate at a community level simply because the technology is available to do so. I wish it was that easy – but experience over the past decade or more has proven that technology is not the silver bullet. IBM needs to be somewhat more forthright in rationalizing Connections as a solution that needs to go hand-in-hand with a health-check on organizational readiness. Some companies will need to re-examine their formal institutions and programs before becoming a “social enterprise”. That said, organizations that are already healthy when it comes to culture and community-building will likely have fewer barriers to adoption and will more rapidly blend the technology into their daily work practices and interactions with other people inside and outside the company.

Third, IBM needs to build out the partner ecosystem around Lotus Connections. I was surprised not to see other business partners and third-party vendors announcing support or demonstrating how they extend the product through plug-ins, mashups and so on. Perhaps that will occur over the next few months leading up to the formal release.

Lastly, while Connections represents enormous opportunity for its professional services group, IBM needs to ensure that the technology can be bootstrapped without the need of a consulting engagement.

Postscript From Lotusphere: Unified Communications & Collaboration

It has been a long and hectic week here at Lotusphere. Meetings, sessions and the exhibition floor have impacted my time to post on the event in any qualitative manner until now. For those waiting for IBM to kick-off its unified communications strategy then this event can be put down as the starting point. Until now, the message from IBM was more oriented towards real-time collaboration with some UC aspects but nothing more cohesive until this week where IBM provided some glimpses into how it will approach the market and differentiate itself from Microsoft.

IBM announced a “point release” (Sametime 7.5.1) this week at Lotusphere which will ship in 2Q07 providing a news event and subsequent opportunity to broaden the conversation from real-time collaboration to unified communications. Sametime 7.5.1 will offer some interesting enhancements. I especially like the “tabbed chat” metaphor which significantly improves the manageability and user experience around multiple chat conversations (single window with easy navigation between dialogs. Improved integration with Microsoft Office applications (including Outlook) was another capability added to the upcoming release. Improved integration with a Microsoft-centric desktop is essential for Sametime to counter Microsoft Office Communicator and how LCS currently provides presence and other services to desktop applications. Linux server support will be attractive for organizations committed to that platform as will the addition of Mac client support.

More importantly, Lotusphere also included a mini-keynote on unified communications that helped provide attendees with an overview of its strategy and commitment in this area. That commitment includes dedicated senior leadership. Bruce Morse, vice president of the Lotus unified communications, is now focused on putting IBM on equal competitive footing with Microsoft. The first volley was to define a new tag-line “unified communications and collaboration” or “UC squared”. The theme here was to emphasize that unified communications needs to have a point – to be purposeful in what technology convergence should enable organizations to do better – not just linear productivity improvements but to facilitate emergence of new work models and improved process performance through collaborative applications that are now communication-enabled.

While the keynote was more high-level, it provided a necessary overview and grounding for attendees that might not be well-versed with the unified communications market and business opportunity – there were no hard shots taken at the competition. Appropriate for the venue but I believe IBM needs to come out much more strongly over the next several weeks to build on the message  established here this week.

Specifically, I expect IBM will differentiate itself in a couple of important ways:

• IBM will paint Microsoft as the “director” of a unified communications solution where it plays the role more of a “packager” of a UC solution
• IBM will portray Microsoft as a rip-and-replace strategy where existing audio and video providers will be pushed aside as Microsoft attempts to deliver a broadly horizontal platform that favors its own tools
• IBM will “draw a line in the sand” as it has with applications by leaving communications (IP telephony and such) to its partners while it focuses on its core middleware infrastructure and collaboration platform
• IBM will play the standards angle hard concerning SIP/SIMPLE and XMPP and point out the weakness in Microsoft’s use of CSTA, customized protocols and extensions as well as difficulty with third-party integration and interoperability (e.g., presence aggregation) versus its own Sametime platform
• As a “packager” IBM will consistently highlight the build-out of its partner ecosystem and the wide-choice organizations will have in choosing their preferred communications provider
• Finally, IBM will focus on building out a developer community around Sametime highlighting its Eclipse-based plug-in model

Microsoft should not take IBM’s efforts here lightly. I sense a different level of excitement on the part of vendor partners and some advantages in IBM’s approach (especially the developer model) versus Microsoft. Make no mistake, Microsoft is in a very strong position and has played its cards extremely well over the past three years. But the door is not yet closed and IBM has come a long way in just a year or so. Gaps do remain however that IBM needs to address:

• There was no mentioned of where IBM wants to go concerning unified messaging
• Few details were provided on the modernization effort needed on the Sametime back-end (similar to what happened with the client with Sametime 7.5)
• Little information was provided on where IBM intends to go with a hosted model for Sametime (to counter Microsoft Office Live Meeting)

Overall, this will be quite the competitive battle over the next few years. The wild card will be Cisco and how deeply it will, or will not, partner with IBM. Other wild card players include of course Avaya (with an interesting acqusition of Ubiquity), perhaps Adobe to some extent and Oracle if it ever wakes up to the UC market opportunity.

Microsoft Makes It Easier for Organizations to Transition to Its Unified Communications and Collaboration Platform

Just to clarify this release from Microsoft, which I find misleading, nothing exists today that will help Lotus customers migrate from Sametime to an LCS or future OCS environment. To imply so in the title of the press release is unfortunate. From Notes/Domino to Exchange (e-mail), yes. From IBM's real-time collaboration tools to Communicator and LCS, no. The term "unified communications" should not have been used (it implies something that's not there).

"With the release of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, the 2007 Office system with SharePoint Server 2007, and solutions such as the next generation of Microsoft Office Live Communications Server in the pipeline, I'm convinced we will continue to see strong adoption of our comprehensive platform in the coming year," said Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division at Microsoft. "Our clear road map and product innovation are helping customers say yes to Microsoft."

Source: Microsoft Makes It Easier for Organizations to Transition to Its Unified Communications and Collaboration Platform

This Week: Lotusphere

Greetings from Lotusphere 2007. I arrived Sunday night after a plane ride made longer by poor weather. This week I will be attending sessions, meeting with IBM'ers as well as vendor partners and assessing the announcements made this week. My focus on the conference will be concentrated on real-time collaboration, unified communications, and social software (e.g., blogs, tagging, social bookmarks, XML syndication and social networking).

I may post on topics during sessions but more likely I will try to write posts that reflect some analysis of what I'm seeing and/or hearing. There are enough press releases and live blogging going on that you will have plenty of options for general news.

First impressions: Overall, good crowd, excited about the commitment IBM continues to make with its Lotus brand, event itself is well-run and the press conferencing this morning was well attended (seemingly more crowded than the past few years). The big news from my perspective was IBM better defining its vision for unified communications and the announcement of Lotus Connect - a new social software platform targeting enterprises. I'll comment specifically on these announcements later.

Gaps: Nothing mentioned on unified messaging and speech regarding unified communications, some overlap that was not well-explained between Quickr and Connections.

Guest speaker: Neil Armstrong. Very nice.

"The social networking run is over, kaput, done, finished" | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

I would agree that the media and vendor hype over social networking is cause for frustration and perhaps even parody. The term has been applied to so many different types of sites and applications, that the term has become hijacked to a great degree by parties interested in gaining media attention. But there are some very real business and organizational benefits to the technology and the solutions that it enables. So when I glanced at this posting, I was somewhat saddened that an opportunity to look at a topic from the perspective of the enterprise turned into a discardable reading. But, I decided to comment on it because as these technologies emerge within an enterprise settings, both IBM and Microsoft will play a strategic role. Enterprise environments have some constraints not found on the Internet and consumer-oriented implementations. Topics such as security, identity, compliance, integration, development models/tools are valid requirements often dismissed by pundits as something relegated to Enterprise 1.0 thinking. I disagree (obviously) with that type of over-simplification.

As I reflect on Lotusphere I'll post my thoughts over the next few days.

Of course not, IBM getting into social networking is the equivalent of the cab driver touting stocks and the dunce down the street trying to flip real estate. The appropriate response to those aforementioned signals: Sell! The top of the market is here.

Source: » The social networking run is over, kaput, done, finished | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com