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Sametime/QuickPlace Newsletter #5 from Rob Novak (with BIG news this time)
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| August 11, 2006 |
Sametime/QuickPlace Tips Newsletter:
Time for some BIG news!
Tips and News from the QuickPlace, Sametime, and Workplace Experts
Dear Rob,
Summer is a slow time, right? Ha! As you
probably know, the vastly improved Sametime 7.5
is
about to ship.
Collaboration University is around the corner.
And the really exciting news in my world today is
this --
development plans and in-progress details for
QuickPlace 8 have finally been leaked, and
we have the story, straight from the source. As the
IBM Design Partner for QuickPlace, I've had the
opportunity to work with IBM on the plans for several
months now, so it is a pleasure to finally discuss
those plans without fear of having big men in blue
suits show up at my door! :-)
With so much to talk about, I'm tempted to just dive
into the various stories. But as with last issue, I'd
like to take this opportunity to introduce a guest and
one of the major speakers for Collaboration University
in both Kansas City and London next month, Satwik
Seshasai. Satwik is the Team Leader for
Development of IBM Lotus QuickPlace at IBM.
One final note before we get into this issue -- early
registration for
Collaboration University has an important
money-saving deadline: a $200 discount ends
on Friday, August 18! But
even without the discount, this conference
is a great value for anyone looking for in-depth
Sametime and QuickPlace training. You'll want to
register as soon as possible because space is limited
in both venues!
That's my obligatory commercial. I really do
hope to meet some of my readers in Kansas City or
London!
Rob Novak, President, SNAPPS
rnovak@snapps.com
http://www.LotusRockStar.com
Taking Notes Podcast
QuickPlace 8 with Satwik Seshasai and Rob Novak
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of participating in what
was the first public disclosure of plans for QuickPlace
8 in Taking Notes podcast #27 as a guest along
with Satwik Seshasai of IBM. The Taking Notes
series is produced and moderated by Bruce Elgort and
Julian Robichaux of OpenNTF fame. Big thanks to
Bruce and Julian for arranging the podcast on short
notice once we knew it was OK to go forward with
information on the new version!
In case you haven't listened to a podcast before, it's
really simple. The link below will take you to the
Taking Notes Podcast site. At the bottom you'll see
a Podcast logo. The podcast is an mp3 file, you can
either click on it and listen to it online, or right-click
and download the file to listen at your leisure. If you
happen to have an iPod, you can subscribe to the
Taking Notes series through iTunes and make sure to
have all the Taking Notes podcasts as soon as
they're released. Enjoy!
Collaboration University™
Sept 13-15 in Kansas City, Sept 27-29 in London
Last month I
announced
Collaboration University™, and IBM and the
partners involved in this event are really pleased at
the response so far! This unique
event, to
be held in the US (Kansas City) and Europe (London)
this September, is 100% focused on technical
information on Sametime and QuickPlace. With
Sametime 7.5 shipping almost simultaneously with the
event and the news about QuickPlace 8,
the timing couldn't be better.
Why did we
decide to have an event like this? It's
simple, really. There is a lot happening in the
collaboration market, and a lot of that is happening
at IBM. The sheer numbers of new products that
need coverage at industry conferences has the
effect of keeping sessions on products like Sametime
and QuickPlace a bit sparse. But with millions of users
of each, we figured it was a good time for the
industry experts on these products to come together
and fill the need for in-depth technical education.
Hence,
Collaboration University!
We now have the sessions all planned and the
agenda is set, so visit the site and feel free to ask
any questions you have about the event.
Registration is available online, or by calling toll-free
+1-800-889-7350, or international +1-978-253-
0100.
Early registration ends August 18 (save
$200!). Seats
are limited, so register today.
Straight from the Source
News about QuickPlace 8
Hi, I'm Satwik Seshasai, and I'm the Team
Lead for IBM Lotus QuickPlace here at IBM. If you've
been following Rob's blog and newsletters, you
probably know that we've been hinting at some big
news about QuickPlace, and well, the time has
come.
For several months, we've been finalizing the
development plan for QuickPlace 8, which is
scheduled to ship concurrent with Notes "Hannover"
next year. The product plans have shaped up with
years of feedback from our customers, our Design
Partner SNAPPS, and other Business Partners. I'm
pretty excited about what we have in store for
QuickPlace -- some of it has already been developed
and will be unveiled over the coming months to our
Global Customer Partnership Council, at Collaboration
University, and of course at Lotusphere 2007 to name
a few.
While the details are a bit long for a newsletter
format (keep your eye on those blogs and
conferences), I thought I would outline the major
areas we're working on at IBM:
For Administrators
- Increased reporting for more
intuitive information about servers, places and users
- A "dashboard" interface which gives place
managers more control over their places!
- A Place Superuser role - while not specifically for
administrators, this new role allows a Place manager
to perform tasks that require calling the administrator
today
For End Users (wow!):
- A complete overhaul of the user interface using
Web 2.0 technologies and AJAX -- a productivity
boost as well as bringing QuickPlace in line with the
advanced capabilities of new browser applications
- Contextual menus to perform actions on
documents directly from the folder view
- Mouse-over popups for member "business cards"
- Drag and drop documents into folders
- Open Document Format support
- A new visual theme to leverage the enhanced UI
capabilities
- RSS and Atom feeds for subscription and
notification of QuickPlace content and events
- Deeper integration with Microsoft Office - open,
save and modify directly from the menu and toolbar
- Integration with e-mail -- drag and drop threads
and attachments from e-mail into QuickPlace folders
shown directly in your inbox!
- Integration with the new Eclipse-
based "Hannover" client - a new sidebar panel to see
your places
- Integration with Activities, with the ability to add
QuickPlace data to an Activity and see your activities
in your place
- Integration with Sametime 7.5 via plug-ins that
surface QuickPlace membership information,
contextual "our places" links during chats, and more
For Developers & Partners:
- Exposure and extension of the QuickPlace AJAX
methods by inclusing them on the file system instead
of embedded in a template
- Resources for development of additional plug-in
and integration solutions and products for ISVs
- Similar to above, exposure of QuickPlace data via
RSS and Atom feeds will allow developers to create
solutions we haven't even thought of yet
- Web Services integration
That's a quick overview of what's going on in the labs
at IBM for QuickPlace. We're really excited to be
announcing our work-in-progress -- I know it's been
kept under the covers for too long! As we have just
seen with Sametime 7.5, we like to think of
QuickPlace 8 as a "rebirth" of the product, and are
happy to be sharing some of the positive news and
energy with you at this stage.
I'll be with Rob and a dozen other speakers next
month at Collaboration University where I'll give
a "Sneak Peek" session to unveil the work we've done
to date. As always, we want as much feedback as
possible so if you are going to be in Kansas City or
London, be sure to stop me and give me your
thoughts on QuickPlace 8!
Of course, there's also Codename WILIKI. But
that's sooner.
Sametime Bot in 7 Minutes
When something important happens, you know. Fast.
Close your eyes and imagine this...OK open them
back up.
Someone comes and, let's say, registers for the
conference on the Collaboration University website.
Let's also say there are no other registrants with
a "New" status at the time. Within one minute, a
Sametime bot that is running on my machine (could
be anywhere) has a look at the registration database
and because a setup document tells it to be checking
for "New" status registrations, the bot can do a
search and find some data. Because it has some
data, it decides to log into my Sametime server
as "CU Registration". "CU Registration" is defined as a
user on another server in LDAP. Because "CU
Registration" is in my buddy list, boom - goes
green.
Now I have a subtle, visual indication
that we have a new registrant that needs processing!
It gets better.
If I click to initiate a chat with my buddy "CU", he
responds immediately with the name and country of
the registrant. If there's more than one, it's a
numbered list and I can choose from it to see more
information. Like what country the registrant is from,
or what they hope to gain from attending the
conference.
And for the finishing touch...since in addition to
Sametime 7.5 beta 4 and Notes 7 integration, I am
using the Trillian Sametime plugin, I set up a notification
sound that plays when my buddy comes
online.
Sounds pretty hard, huh? If you started from
scratch, yes. But I developed all of this in real life
yesterday in 7 minutes flat, starting with an
example "Content Awareness" Sametime bot I gave
away at Lotusphere 2006, with a few tweaks to field
names and forms. This method of using bots isn't
completely new, but it certainly adds value once you
start to play with it. And the best part, it's still
free under the GNU General Public License. Go
ahead - read about how I did it on my blog, then
grab the example and try it yourself!
Codename: WILIKI
I always wanted to give something a codename!
I'll give you one clue what this is. If you think you
know the answer, send me an email. If you're wrong,
I won't answer. If you're right, I still won't answer.
But I will point out the first correct guess on
September 14, 2006 at Collaboration University when
Satwik, Viktor and I unveil that which has been given
the "Codename: WILIKI"...and give you a nod in the
newsletter and on my blog.
Here's your clue: It is not part of QuickPlace 8 (yet);
it will be available for QuickPlace 7. But if you add it
up, it'll really be 9. Times 2.
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