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Lotusphere 2006 Opening Session -- The Substance that Style Killed
By Andrew Pollack on 01/23/2006 at 06:01 PM ESTThere were good things in the opening general session at Lotusphere 2006 this year. The Sametime 7.5 announcement and features for example were well handled and well demonstrated. Jason Alexander, the guest speaker, was excellent as you would expect, and the demonstration of Hanover (Lotus Notes next major release) was fairly good once they finally got to it. There were big problems, however, with the session overall.
To begin with, Mike Rhodin did not speak well at all. I know he can speak, as I’ve seen him do it much better. The difficulty of an extremely overproduced and scripted delivery however should be left to professional actors. Reading from a teleprompter and attempting to appear spontaneous is a hard won skill, and it is not one we should expect of our executives. I have to say, he almost pulled it off. Dr. Goyal was someone who had a terribly difficult time speaking, but overcame it with a charming personality and staggering intelligence. I’m not saying Mr. Rhodin isn’t a nice guy or that he not bright – he’s both – but he’s not Goyal.
The middle part of the presentation was a lot like King King, the recent abomination of a remake. You could have taken a full hour out of it and never missed it. I’m starting to believe that some ghostly remnant of Janet Horan remains in the conference center and at the slightest opportunity stifles all the possible excitement in a room leaving no energy whatever.
By two full hours of conference, there’d been almost no mention of Notes. It’s great that they left the exciting Notes stuff till the end, but then at the last minute they didn’t have time to do it justice. They also gave no hint during the session that it would be coming. By 10:30, even I was worried that the Notes Client was going to be declared dead, and I KNOW better. A business partner turned to me and said “I have two customers here who think Notes is dead. They damn well better start talking about it right now!”
| Editor Note: So many people who work for and with Craig have spoken and writen to me on this, that I wanted to post a link "In-line" here to my follow-up post expressing support for his other work. See This Link | Next, out came Craig Hayman with the most skillfully crafted and delivered yet totally misguided and revoltingly off target presentation I have ever seen. The presentation was supposed to show off the work that’s been done on the “Activity Explorer” – and that work is fantastic. Of course, you wouldn’t know it from the presentation, and unfortunately I’m barred by NDA from actually saying much about it. No, Craig’s presentation was REALLY about “Craig Hayman, Master Presenter” and not about any particular content at all. Craig delivered a fast paced, snappy, witty, and very animated presentation which involved carefully timed banter with a lightning fast series of animated slides which were designed to punctuate his comments. It was a masterful use of technology – and did nothing whatsoever to convey a message or show of the product. Gabriella Davis later told me “I understand Activity Explorer and I’m excited by it. By the time he was done I was both depressed and confused.” From this presentation alone, anyone who wasn’t already familiar with it would be lost. That’s sad, because I can tell you it is an amazing tool – I just can’t tell you why. I can sum up my impression of Craig Hayman’s presentation by saying “The Craig Hayman show sucked despite his obvious mastery of slideware and clear idol worship of Steve Colbert (Comedy Central’s Daily Show and Colbert Report).” Jason Hook, a professional developer and friend called it “The substance that style killed.” |
Finally, already several minutes past the expected end of the session, the Hanover (Notes next version) client was trotted out for a quick tease of a demo. It was a good demo, it’s a great product. We all want it. It was WAY under represented in the session.
IBM, here are things to consider for next year:
#1 – Where was Rocky Oliver? You’ve hired the unquestioned top presenter in the entire Lotus Domino industry. He’s a pro, and has been presenting complex information to mixed audiences with good humor for more than 15 years. Year after year he’s a top rated speaker at every industry show. He wrote part of the code for the demo. WHERE WAS HE? You’re stupid not to tap him for this. Give Rocky 30 minutes unscripted or scripted to demo any of the products you want people to like. Tell him “Here, make people like this” and watch. He’ll have everyone laughing, and then running out to find out more about this stuff. That’s a much better result than having a product manager turn everyone into comatose zombies reading to chew off limbs to escape the room.
#2 – It’s great to save the Notes stuff till the end so you go out with a positive feeling. It was the first time for that this year, and it worked. Next time, you should at least HINT every half hour or so that it’s coming. Maybe just add a little pop-up on the screen projects that says “You can do this in Notes too.”
#3 – The presentation is not about the presenter. Craig, focus on the product, not the presentation.
#4 – There are 125 million Notes users now. According to IBM, if I understood right, there are less than 10,000 workplace & portal users. That’s 12,500 to 1. So why on earth would you think people want a session that is 100 to 1 coverage of workplace and portal to Lotus Notes? Sessions are about what your CUSTOMERS want, with some of what you want to tell them thrown in – not the other way around.
See you at the sessions!
My own thoughts on this are...By Neil on 01/23/2006 at 06:19 PM EST
Portal users or Portal customers?By Jerry Glover on 01/23/2006 at 07:31 PM EST
I wasn't there to hear it, but did he perhaps say 10,000 Portal
customers? As in companies? I'm pretty sure there are single portal
installations with >10K users. As for Workplace user count, that could possibly
be 10K, but I seriously doubt it.
customers? As in companies? I'm pretty sure there are single portal
installations with >10K users. As for Workplace user count, that could possibly
be 10K, but I seriously doubt it.
Sadly, Jerry -- I don't knowBy Andrew Pollack on 01/23/2006 at 09:54 PM EST
The numbers are funny things. We don't get numbers by platform and we don't
get derivations of the license numbers we see. We get licensed seat numbers
for Domino & Notes then customer numbers for Workplace and Portal. What does
that mean?
You want an honest comparison? Give me the same numbers the same way. How
many seat licenses fro Workplace have been sold (and I mean sold, not given
away)? How many seat licenses for Portal have been sold. Is it licensed per
server? Fine, tell me how many Domino customers are represented by those 125
million seats and I'll compare it to the given number of customers who have
bought portal or workplace.
I can only comment on what I've been given, and the obfuscation feels
deliberate to avoid comparison -- just like putting MQ Sereies into the
Websphere budget complete obscures the revenue numbers for Websphere from
public consumption and comment.
get derivations of the license numbers we see. We get licensed seat numbers
for Domino & Notes then customer numbers for Workplace and Portal. What does
that mean?
You want an honest comparison? Give me the same numbers the same way. How
many seat licenses fro Workplace have been sold (and I mean sold, not given
away)? How many seat licenses for Portal have been sold. Is it licensed per
server? Fine, tell me how many Domino customers are represented by those 125
million seats and I'll compare it to the given number of customers who have
bought portal or workplace.
I can only comment on what I've been given, and the obfuscation feels
deliberate to avoid comparison -- just like putting MQ Sereies into the
Websphere budget complete obscures the revenue numbers for Websphere from
public consumption and comment.
61,000 customers for Notes/Domino.By Ed Brill on 01/23/2006 at 10:54 PM EST
Thanks, the point holds very well then.By Andrew Pollack on 01/23/2006 at 11:18 PM EST
Assuming all Workplace customers are by definition Portal customers, thats
61,000 to 4500 if I recall the portal number correctly.
Which is a more realistic number comparison, but my point is still quite a
valid and strong one. 13.5:1 comparison. The point holds.
If you tell me they don't overlap, that makes it 7000 total or about 6:1 --
except that how many of those 4500 or 7000 are not also Domino customers?
the numbers at that detail are meaningless -- the point remains that the
audience was not there to PRIMARY be pushed at Workplace. That's content you
get to add as a bonus for giving people what they came for. Not content you at
the expense of the product they already care about.
61,000 to 4500 if I recall the portal number correctly.
Which is a more realistic number comparison, but my point is still quite a
valid and strong one. 13.5:1 comparison. The point holds.
If you tell me they don't overlap, that makes it 7000 total or about 6:1 --
except that how many of those 4500 or 7000 are not also Domino customers?
the numbers at that detail are meaningless -- the point remains that the
audience was not there to PRIMARY be pushed at Workplace. That's content you
get to add as a bonus for giving people what they came for. Not content you at
the expense of the product they already care about.
It's called a GENERAL session for a reason.By Ed Brill on 01/24/2006 at 07:52 AM EST
1) Actually, the opening general session has, since the introduction of the
first Domino companion products, always been about sharing the stage...the
balance between new and old products. Lotus made two acquisitions last year,
shipped brand new products -- isn't it appropriate to showcase those? This
isn't "Notes sphere", it's "Lotusphere" (and that, now, by extension includes
Portal and Workplace as part of the same product family). You get to choose
all the sessions you attend the rest of the week, and it's your business
whether you go to a single portal or workplace or forms session. But the OGS,
we get to cover what we think the market overall should hear -- leading edge,
previously unknown, or familiar and refreshing.
2) Portal may have only 4000 customers vs. Domino's 60000, but it's growing
faster. Those customers are here and they want to hear about their product.
We have portal sessions for them, but we also have to have OGS content for them.
3) I worry that you are saying we "PRIMARY" pushed at Workplace. Once the
session archive is up, go take a stopwatch to the sections about Notes/Domino
vs. the other four sections. You'll still find that ND got more airtime. And
there's no push to Workplace going on -- it's just coverage of seven different
areas of the portfolio in a GENERAL session.
first Domino companion products, always been about sharing the stage...the
balance between new and old products. Lotus made two acquisitions last year,
shipped brand new products -- isn't it appropriate to showcase those? This
isn't "Notes sphere", it's "Lotusphere" (and that, now, by extension includes
Portal and Workplace as part of the same product family). You get to choose
all the sessions you attend the rest of the week, and it's your business
whether you go to a single portal or workplace or forms session. But the OGS,
we get to cover what we think the market overall should hear -- leading edge,
previously unknown, or familiar and refreshing.
2) Portal may have only 4000 customers vs. Domino's 60000, but it's growing
faster. Those customers are here and they want to hear about their product.
We have portal sessions for them, but we also have to have OGS content for them.
3) I worry that you are saying we "PRIMARY" pushed at Workplace. Once the
session archive is up, go take a stopwatch to the sections about Notes/Domino
vs. the other four sections. You'll still find that ND got more airtime. And
there's no push to Workplace going on -- it's just coverage of seven different
areas of the portfolio in a GENERAL session.
I know my point is made when you have to point out my typos-- By Andrew Pollack on 01/24/2006 at 05:22 PM EST
The points still hold, Ed. To reiterate, the key problems with the opening
session were:
#1. Poor choice made by not utilizing your best presenters in favor of having
senior people demo the products.
#2. VERY poor representation of the VERY exciting work being done by activity
explorer.
#3. During the 45 minutes to an hour in the middle, no hint or comment that
'oh, and it works in Notes too...'
#4. Too much scripting to be pulled off by anyone who isn't a professional
actor.
session were:
#1. Poor choice made by not utilizing your best presenters in favor of having
senior people demo the products.
#2. VERY poor representation of the VERY exciting work being done by activity
explorer.
#3. During the 45 minutes to an hour in the middle, no hint or comment that
'oh, and it works in Notes too...'
#4. Too much scripting to be pulled off by anyone who isn't a professional
actor.
I completely disagree with your assessmentBy Ed Brill on 01/23/2006 at 08:37 PM EST
Andrew, the first 15 minutes of the demo were Notes/Domino here and now,
including the first ever showing of Notes 7 on a Mac. DWA on a Mac. Notes 7
integration with IBM Workplace Forms. And Sametime 7.5 -- a product which many
really truly did think was dead, needed some airtime. The fact that the first
section was labelled "Notes & Domino Now" clearly implied that there was a
later section coming on "Notes & Domino later".
Even before the demos, the customer video of Plymouth Tube was about a Notes
customer. Rhodin talked about the Notes business results even before he
brought Jason Alexander on stage.
Jerry's comment is right -- you're comparing number of customers vs. number of
seats. Portal has 4000 customers -- organizations. It's the market leader in
that segment, and grew bigger than double digits in 2005. Portal has every
right to be a key part of the message now.
As for Rocky, the Lotusphere opening session requires a huge time commitment,
and Rocky has spent the last few months with other huge time commitments. OGS
speakers are typically only drawn from the ranks of product management or
development. Note that I've never been on the main stage in a dozen years,
either... even when I was in product management or product marketing. There's
a dozen reasons why they choose who they choose, and I assure you it wasn't a
slight on Rocky that he wasn't up there.
There was about a ten-minute flat section of the presentation during the
Workplace Business Strategy Execution stuff and a little bit into the Domino
Next. The whole thing needed a little crisping up. But to pan it as strongly
as you have doesn't jive with all the other reports I've read and heard today.
I'm sorry you were disappointed.
including the first ever showing of Notes 7 on a Mac. DWA on a Mac. Notes 7
integration with IBM Workplace Forms. And Sametime 7.5 -- a product which many
really truly did think was dead, needed some airtime. The fact that the first
section was labelled "Notes & Domino Now" clearly implied that there was a
later section coming on "Notes & Domino later".
Even before the demos, the customer video of Plymouth Tube was about a Notes
customer. Rhodin talked about the Notes business results even before he
brought Jason Alexander on stage.
Jerry's comment is right -- you're comparing number of customers vs. number of
seats. Portal has 4000 customers -- organizations. It's the market leader in
that segment, and grew bigger than double digits in 2005. Portal has every
right to be a key part of the message now.
As for Rocky, the Lotusphere opening session requires a huge time commitment,
and Rocky has spent the last few months with other huge time commitments. OGS
speakers are typically only drawn from the ranks of product management or
development. Note that I've never been on the main stage in a dozen years,
either... even when I was in product management or product marketing. There's
a dozen reasons why they choose who they choose, and I assure you it wasn't a
slight on Rocky that he wasn't up there.
There was about a ten-minute flat section of the presentation during the
Workplace Business Strategy Execution stuff and a little bit into the Domino
Next. The whole thing needed a little crisping up. But to pan it as strongly
as you have doesn't jive with all the other reports I've read and heard today.
I'm sorry you were disappointed.
Of course you do Ed....By Andrew Pollack on 01/23/2006 at 09:47 PM EST
...lets be real, if you didn't you wouldn't likely post -- or at least if you
felt you needed to it certainly wouldn't be in agreement.
The quotes I gave you are real. I didn't make them up. The sametime stuff
got good and fair airplay. I said as much.
This most definately wasn't the worst opening session ever -- not by a long
shot. The order of things was generally good. It remains true that the really
exciting things being done with Activities got stepped on so badly as to be
entirely missed. The presentation by Hayman was too clever by half, and was
about Craig Hayman not Activity Explorer and conveyed none of the excitement of
the product. The Hanover stuff was pushed to well past the time when the
session was to end, and the middle 45 minutes (not 10 at all) was mind numbing
on a scale only Janet could have rivaled.
How is possible that Rhodin could annouce 125 million seats in such a way as to
get no excitement?
As to Rocky -- I'm willing to bet he'd have moved hell and high water to do it
given the chance, and its IBM's loss that he didn't get that chance.
I hope someone can convince Mike Rhodin that the very best bosses say as little
as possible. They let other people do most of the talking, and make the few
statements they make really count. He has in his employ professionals capable
of inspiring a crowd like that. He would look much more like the kind of
leader I'm sure he wants to be if he'd just stand back and let his people make
him look good.
The news this year about Notes is fantastic. Its the best kept bunch of
secrets at the show. Again. What a shame.
felt you needed to it certainly wouldn't be in agreement.
The quotes I gave you are real. I didn't make them up. The sametime stuff
got good and fair airplay. I said as much.
This most definately wasn't the worst opening session ever -- not by a long
shot. The order of things was generally good. It remains true that the really
exciting things being done with Activities got stepped on so badly as to be
entirely missed. The presentation by Hayman was too clever by half, and was
about Craig Hayman not Activity Explorer and conveyed none of the excitement of
the product. The Hanover stuff was pushed to well past the time when the
session was to end, and the middle 45 minutes (not 10 at all) was mind numbing
on a scale only Janet could have rivaled.
How is possible that Rhodin could annouce 125 million seats in such a way as to
get no excitement?
As to Rocky -- I'm willing to bet he'd have moved hell and high water to do it
given the chance, and its IBM's loss that he didn't get that chance.
I hope someone can convince Mike Rhodin that the very best bosses say as little
as possible. They let other people do most of the talking, and make the few
statements they make really count. He has in his employ professionals capable
of inspiring a crowd like that. He would look much more like the kind of
leader I'm sure he wants to be if he'd just stand back and let his people make
him look good.
The news this year about Notes is fantastic. Its the best kept bunch of
secrets at the show. Again. What a shame.
just to add a data point...By Ed Brill on 01/24/2006 at 04:46 PM EST
the Portal and Workplace sessions at LS06 have been as full as the
Notes/Domino/Sametime ones, at least over the first two days. This is an
upward shift from previous years. So, the audience is definitely broader than
it has been at previous Lotuspheres.
Notes/Domino/Sametime ones, at least over the first two days. This is an
upward shift from previous years. So, the audience is definitely broader than
it has been at previous Lotuspheres.
Its good to hear that the other products may finally get some playBy Andrew Pollack on 01/24/2006 at 05:19 PM EST
4500 Portal customers in 3+ years is a fairly slow adoption rate. Personally,
I still think Portal itself is a waste of time for customers, though its
results in terms of the valueable technologies and research that has come out
of the effort will benefit Domino and Notes greatly.
I still think Portal itself is a waste of time for customers, though its
results in terms of the valueable technologies and research that has come out
of the effort will benefit Domino and Notes greatly.
My own thoughts on this are...By Carl Tyler on 02/01/2006 at 02:39 PM EST
This discussion gets confusing, when you say portal seats are you lumping
together Workplace portal and Websphere Portal?
I know a lot of Workplace portal seats were sold as Learning System seats, but
not really for what would be considered Workplace Portal usage the way everyone
thinks of it.
Workplace Portal and Websphere Portal are different things though, even though
Workplace Portal is based on Websphere Portal, that is correct right? Or are
they exactly the same things with different names?
together Workplace portal and Websphere Portal?
I know a lot of Workplace portal seats were sold as Learning System seats, but
not really for what would be considered Workplace Portal usage the way everyone
thinks of it.
Workplace Portal and Websphere Portal are different things though, even though
Workplace Portal is based on Websphere Portal, that is correct right? Or are
they exactly the same things with different names?
You're 100% right and 100% wrongBy Craig Wiseman on 01/26/2006 at 08:39 PM EST
I don't disagree with the bulk of your non-Craig H. comments (us Craigs have
to stick together,eh?).
The whole "Domino is our best selling product - but really you want
Workplace" brain fart is a bit beyond me. However, the forum for your comments
- a public internet blog - is not the best (note I said BEST) place for them.
The IBM Business Partner forum, perhaps?
The nay sayers will be looking for any discord in order to use it to download
the excellent things that came out of Lotusphere.
As far as Ed's comments - The gloves are off, right? Your comments were kind
of a poke in the eye, and I'm glad to see some fiesty-ness. Now we just need to
see it aimed at the right folks.
Thanks for a great Lotusphere!
to stick together,eh?).
The whole "Domino is our best selling product - but really you want
Workplace" brain fart is a bit beyond me. However, the forum for your comments
- a public internet blog - is not the best (note I said BEST) place for them.
The IBM Business Partner forum, perhaps?
The nay sayers will be looking for any discord in order to use it to download
the excellent things that came out of Lotusphere.
As far as Ed's comments - The gloves are off, right? Your comments were kind
of a poke in the eye, and I'm glad to see some fiesty-ness. Now we just need to
see it aimed at the right folks.
Thanks for a great Lotusphere!
F*cked up web designBy Volker Weber on 01/28/2006 at 08:58 AM EST
Since you used strong words to get your point across, please allow me to do the
same:
I am sorry to say that the web design of your blog is completely broken. I
would really like to read the comments. In order to do that I need to navigate
more than a dozen pages. Can you just make them appear ONE ONE PAGE in order of
posting? I can do away with everything else on the page. Just need the
comments. Plain text will do.
How much time would this have saved?
### Neil ###
I think point 4 is interesting... I was in a meeting with a client and someone
from IBM a shile ago, and the subject kept coming back to Workplace...
Start at Domino.Doc end up a WP Documents, etc, etc, after this the client
turned to me and said "Is Workplace not selling or something? theyre really
keen on talking about it".
WP is a neat product, but I wonder at times is IBM trying too hard...
### Jerry Glover ###
I wasn't there to hear it, but did he perhaps say 10,000 Portal
customers? As in companies? I'm pretty sure there are single portal
installations with >10K users. As for Workplace user count, that could possibly
be 10K, but I seriously doubt it.
### Andrew Pollack ###
The numbers are funny things. We don't get numbers by platform and we don't get
derivations of the license numbers we see. We get licensed seat numbers for
Domino & Notes then customer numbers for Workplace and Portal. What does that
mean?
You want an honest comparison? Give me the same numbers the same way. How many
seat licenses fro Workplace have been sold (and I mean sold, not given away)?
How many seat licenses for Portal have been sold. Is it licensed per server?
Fine, tell me how many Domino customers are represented by those 125 million
seats and I'll compare it to the given number of customers who have bought
portal or workplace.
I can only comment on what I've been given, and the obfuscation feels
deliberate to avoid comparison -- just like putting MQ Sereies into the
Websphere budget complete obscures the revenue numbers for Websphere from
public consumption and comment.
### Ed Brill ###
61,000 customers for Notes/Domino.
### Andrew Pollack ###
Assuming all Workplace customers are by definition Portal customers, thats
61,000 to 4500 if I recall the portal number correctly.
Which is a more realistic number comparison, but my point is still quite a
valid and strong one. 13.5:1 comparison. The point holds.
If you tell me they don't overlap, that makes it 7000 total or about 6:1 --
except that how many of those 4500 or 7000 are not also Domino customers?
the numbers at that detail are meaningless -- the point remains that the
audience was not there to PRIMARY be pushed at Workplace. That's content you
get to add as a bonus for giving people what they came for. Not content you at
the expense of the product they already care about.
### Ed Brill ###
1) Actually, the opening general session has, since the introduction of the
first Domino companion products, always been about sharing the stage...the
balance between new and old products. Lotus made two acquisitions last year,
shipped brand new products -- isn't it appropriate to showcase those? This
isn't "Notes sphere", it's "Lotusphere" (and that, now, by extension includes
Portal and Workplace as part of the same product family). You get to choose all
the sessions you attend the rest of the week, and it's your business whether
you go to a single portal or workplace or forms session. But the OGS, we get to
cover what we think the market overall should hear -- leading edge, previously
unknown, or familiar and refreshing.
2) Portal may have only 4000 customers vs. Domino's 60000, but it's growing
faster. Those customers are here and they want to hear about their product. We
have portal sessions for them, but we also have to have OGS content for them.
3) I worry that you are saying we "PRIMARY" pushed at Workplace. Once the
session archive is up, go take a stopwatch to the sections about Notes/Domino
vs. the other four sections. You'll still find that ND got more airtime. And
there's no push to Workplace going on -- it's just coverage of seven different
areas of the portfolio in a GENERAL session.
### Andrew Pollack ###
The points still hold, Ed. To reiterate, the key problems with the opening
session were:
#1. Poor choice made by not utilizing your best presenters in favor of having
senior people demo the products.
#2. VERY poor representation of the VERY exciting work being done by activity
explorer.
#3. During the 45 minutes to an hour in the middle, no hint or comment that
'oh, and it works in Notes too...'
#4. Too much scripting to be pulled off by anyone who isn't a professional
actor.
### Ed Brill ###
Andrew, the first 15 minutes of the demo were Notes/Domino here and now,
including the first ever showing of Notes 7 on a Mac. DWA on a Mac. Notes 7
integration with IBM Workplace Forms. And Sametime 7.5 -- a product which many
really truly did think was dead, needed some airtime. The fact that the first
section was labelled "Notes & Domino Now" clearly implied that there was a
later section coming on "Notes & Domino later".
Even before the demos, the customer video of Plymouth Tube was about a Notes
customer. Rhodin talked about the Notes business results even before he brought
Jason Alexander on stage.
Jerry's comment is right -- you're comparing number of customers vs. number of
seats. Portal has 4000 customers -- organizations. It's the market leader in
that segment, and grew bigger than double digits in 2005. Portal has every
right to be a key part of the message now.
As for Rocky, the Lotusphere opening session requires a huge time commitment,
and Rocky has spent the last few months with other huge time commitments. OGS
speakers are typically only drawn from the ranks of product management or
development. Note that I've never been on the main stage in a dozen years,
either... even when I was in product management or product marketing. There's a
dozen reasons why they choose who they choose, and I assure you it wasn't a
slight on Rocky that he wasn't up there.
There was about a ten-minute flat section of the presentation during the
Workplace Business Strategy Execution stuff and a little bit into the Domino
Next. The whole thing needed a little crisping up. But to pan it as strongly as
you have doesn't jive with all the other reports I've read and heard today. I'm
sorry you were disappointed.
### Andrew Pollack ###
...lets be real, if you didn't you wouldn't likely post -- or at least if you
felt you needed to it certainly wouldn't be in agreement.
The quotes I gave you are real. I didn't make them up. The sametime stuff got
good and fair airplay. I said as much.
This most definately wasn't the worst opening session ever -- not by a long
shot. The order of things was generally good. It remains true that the really
exciting things being done with Activities got stepped on so badly as to be
entirely missed. The presentation by Hayman was too clever by half, and was
about Craig Hayman not Activity Explorer and conveyed none of the excitement of
the product. The Hanover stuff was pushed to well past the time when the
session was to end, and the middle 45 minutes (not 10 at all) was mind numbing
on a scale only Janet could have rivaled.
How is possible that Rhodin could annouce 125 million seats in such a way as to
get no excitement?
As to Rocky -- I'm willing to bet he'd have moved hell and high water to do it
given the chance, and its IBM's loss that he didn't get that chance.
I hope someone can convince Mike Rhodin that the very best bosses say as little
as possible. They let other people do most of the talking, and make the few
statements they make really count. He has in his employ professionals capable
of inspiring a crowd like that. He would look much more like the kind of leader
I'm sure he wants to be if he'd just stand back and let his people make him
look good.
The news this year about Notes is fantastic. Its the best kept bunch of secrets
at the show. Again. What a shame.
### Ed Brill ###
the Portal and Workplace sessions at LS06 have been as full as the
Notes/Domino/Sametime ones, at least over the first two days. This is an upward
shift from previous years. So, the audience is definitely broader than it has
been at previous Lotuspheres.
### Andrew Pollack ###
4500 Portal customers in 3+ years is a fairly slow adoption rate. Personally, I
still think Portal itself is a waste of time for customers, though its results
in terms of the valueable technologies and research that has come out of the
effort will benefit Domino and Notes greatly.
### Craig Wiseman ###
I don't disagree with the bulk of your non-Craig H. comments (us Craigs have to
stick together,eh?).
The whole "Domino is our best selling product - but really you want Workplace"
brain fart is a bit beyond me. However, the forum for your comments - a public
internet blog - is not the best (note I said BEST) place for them. The IBM
Business Partner forum, perhaps?
The nay sayers will be looking for any discord in order to use it to download
the excellent things that came out of Lotusphere.
As far as Ed's comments - The gloves are off, right? Your comments were kind of
a poke in the eye, and I'm glad to see some fiesty-ness. Now we just need to
see it aimed at the right folks.
Thanks for a great Lotusphere!
same:
I am sorry to say that the web design of your blog is completely broken. I
would really like to read the comments. In order to do that I need to navigate
more than a dozen pages. Can you just make them appear ONE ONE PAGE in order of
posting? I can do away with everything else on the page. Just need the
comments. Plain text will do.
How much time would this have saved?
### Neil ###
I think point 4 is interesting... I was in a meeting with a client and someone
from IBM a shile ago, and the subject kept coming back to Workplace...
Start at Domino.Doc end up a WP Documents, etc, etc, after this the client
turned to me and said "Is Workplace not selling or something? theyre really
keen on talking about it".
WP is a neat product, but I wonder at times is IBM trying too hard...
### Jerry Glover ###
I wasn't there to hear it, but did he perhaps say 10,000 Portal
customers? As in companies? I'm pretty sure there are single portal
installations with >10K users. As for Workplace user count, that could possibly
be 10K, but I seriously doubt it.
### Andrew Pollack ###
The numbers are funny things. We don't get numbers by platform and we don't get
derivations of the license numbers we see. We get licensed seat numbers for
Domino & Notes then customer numbers for Workplace and Portal. What does that
mean?
You want an honest comparison? Give me the same numbers the same way. How many
seat licenses fro Workplace have been sold (and I mean sold, not given away)?
How many seat licenses for Portal have been sold. Is it licensed per server?
Fine, tell me how many Domino customers are represented by those 125 million
seats and I'll compare it to the given number of customers who have bought
portal or workplace.
I can only comment on what I've been given, and the obfuscation feels
deliberate to avoid comparison -- just like putting MQ Sereies into the
Websphere budget complete obscures the revenue numbers for Websphere from
public consumption and comment.
### Ed Brill ###
61,000 customers for Notes/Domino.
### Andrew Pollack ###
Assuming all Workplace customers are by definition Portal customers, thats
61,000 to 4500 if I recall the portal number correctly.
Which is a more realistic number comparison, but my point is still quite a
valid and strong one. 13.5:1 comparison. The point holds.
If you tell me they don't overlap, that makes it 7000 total or about 6:1 --
except that how many of those 4500 or 7000 are not also Domino customers?
the numbers at that detail are meaningless -- the point remains that the
audience was not there to PRIMARY be pushed at Workplace. That's content you
get to add as a bonus for giving people what they came for. Not content you at
the expense of the product they already care about.
### Ed Brill ###
1) Actually, the opening general session has, since the introduction of the
first Domino companion products, always been about sharing the stage...the
balance between new and old products. Lotus made two acquisitions last year,
shipped brand new products -- isn't it appropriate to showcase those? This
isn't "Notes sphere", it's "Lotusphere" (and that, now, by extension includes
Portal and Workplace as part of the same product family). You get to choose all
the sessions you attend the rest of the week, and it's your business whether
you go to a single portal or workplace or forms session. But the OGS, we get to
cover what we think the market overall should hear -- leading edge, previously
unknown, or familiar and refreshing.
2) Portal may have only 4000 customers vs. Domino's 60000, but it's growing
faster. Those customers are here and they want to hear about their product. We
have portal sessions for them, but we also have to have OGS content for them.
3) I worry that you are saying we "PRIMARY" pushed at Workplace. Once the
session archive is up, go take a stopwatch to the sections about Notes/Domino
vs. the other four sections. You'll still find that ND got more airtime. And
there's no push to Workplace going on -- it's just coverage of seven different
areas of the portfolio in a GENERAL session.
### Andrew Pollack ###
The points still hold, Ed. To reiterate, the key problems with the opening
session were:
#1. Poor choice made by not utilizing your best presenters in favor of having
senior people demo the products.
#2. VERY poor representation of the VERY exciting work being done by activity
explorer.
#3. During the 45 minutes to an hour in the middle, no hint or comment that
'oh, and it works in Notes too...'
#4. Too much scripting to be pulled off by anyone who isn't a professional
actor.
### Ed Brill ###
Andrew, the first 15 minutes of the demo were Notes/Domino here and now,
including the first ever showing of Notes 7 on a Mac. DWA on a Mac. Notes 7
integration with IBM Workplace Forms. And Sametime 7.5 -- a product which many
really truly did think was dead, needed some airtime. The fact that the first
section was labelled "Notes & Domino Now" clearly implied that there was a
later section coming on "Notes & Domino later".
Even before the demos, the customer video of Plymouth Tube was about a Notes
customer. Rhodin talked about the Notes business results even before he brought
Jason Alexander on stage.
Jerry's comment is right -- you're comparing number of customers vs. number of
seats. Portal has 4000 customers -- organizations. It's the market leader in
that segment, and grew bigger than double digits in 2005. Portal has every
right to be a key part of the message now.
As for Rocky, the Lotusphere opening session requires a huge time commitment,
and Rocky has spent the last few months with other huge time commitments. OGS
speakers are typically only drawn from the ranks of product management or
development. Note that I've never been on the main stage in a dozen years,
either... even when I was in product management or product marketing. There's a
dozen reasons why they choose who they choose, and I assure you it wasn't a
slight on Rocky that he wasn't up there.
There was about a ten-minute flat section of the presentation during the
Workplace Business Strategy Execution stuff and a little bit into the Domino
Next. The whole thing needed a little crisping up. But to pan it as strongly as
you have doesn't jive with all the other reports I've read and heard today. I'm
sorry you were disappointed.
### Andrew Pollack ###
...lets be real, if you didn't you wouldn't likely post -- or at least if you
felt you needed to it certainly wouldn't be in agreement.
The quotes I gave you are real. I didn't make them up. The sametime stuff got
good and fair airplay. I said as much.
This most definately wasn't the worst opening session ever -- not by a long
shot. The order of things was generally good. It remains true that the really
exciting things being done with Activities got stepped on so badly as to be
entirely missed. The presentation by Hayman was too clever by half, and was
about Craig Hayman not Activity Explorer and conveyed none of the excitement of
the product. The Hanover stuff was pushed to well past the time when the
session was to end, and the middle 45 minutes (not 10 at all) was mind numbing
on a scale only Janet could have rivaled.
How is possible that Rhodin could annouce 125 million seats in such a way as to
get no excitement?
As to Rocky -- I'm willing to bet he'd have moved hell and high water to do it
given the chance, and its IBM's loss that he didn't get that chance.
I hope someone can convince Mike Rhodin that the very best bosses say as little
as possible. They let other people do most of the talking, and make the few
statements they make really count. He has in his employ professionals capable
of inspiring a crowd like that. He would look much more like the kind of leader
I'm sure he wants to be if he'd just stand back and let his people make him
look good.
The news this year about Notes is fantastic. Its the best kept bunch of secrets
at the show. Again. What a shame.
### Ed Brill ###
the Portal and Workplace sessions at LS06 have been as full as the
Notes/Domino/Sametime ones, at least over the first two days. This is an upward
shift from previous years. So, the audience is definitely broader than it has
been at previous Lotuspheres.
### Andrew Pollack ###
4500 Portal customers in 3+ years is a fairly slow adoption rate. Personally, I
still think Portal itself is a waste of time for customers, though its results
in terms of the valueable technologies and research that has come out of the
effort will benefit Domino and Notes greatly.
### Craig Wiseman ###
I don't disagree with the bulk of your non-Craig H. comments (us Craigs have to
stick together,eh?).
The whole "Domino is our best selling product - but really you want Workplace"
brain fart is a bit beyond me. However, the forum for your comments - a public
internet blog - is not the best (note I said BEST) place for them. The IBM
Business Partner forum, perhaps?
The nay sayers will be looking for any discord in order to use it to download
the excellent things that came out of Lotusphere.
As far as Ed's comments - The gloves are off, right? Your comments were kind of
a poke in the eye, and I'm glad to see some fiesty-ness. Now we just need to
see it aimed at the right folks.
Thanks for a great Lotusphere!
Volker, you took real time with that! By Andrew Pollack on 01/28/2006 at 10:05 AM EST
Volker, you know me well enough to know I can take as well as I can give...
I'm sorry you don't like the site design. I agree it has flaws. I opted to write it myself because it is and was an excersize in user interface design skills -- and I don't do much U.I. work.
I don't entirely agree with your opinion on how things should flow, but I don't entirely dissagree either.
Changes are definately over due -- on that we agree. Now, if I can just move them toward the top of the list....
I will say this -- blogging as a whole is a good thing -- blogs as a whole suck for a communication tool. I'm working on ideas in that light, but they're more extensive than just putting comments on one page or something like that. Slashdot, while it has its flaws, has some really interesting thought behind how it works.
I'm sorry you don't like the site design. I agree it has flaws. I opted to write it myself because it is and was an excersize in user interface design skills -- and I don't do much U.I. work.
I don't entirely agree with your opinion on how things should flow, but I don't entirely dissagree either.
Changes are definately over due -- on that we agree. Now, if I can just move them toward the top of the list....
I will say this -- blogging as a whole is a good thing -- blogs as a whole suck for a communication tool. I'm working on ideas in that light, but they're more extensive than just putting comments on one page or something like that. Slashdot, while it has its flaws, has some really interesting thought behind how it works.
Andrew - you are rightBy W.A. Fischer on 01/31/2006 at 04:31 PM EST
Hi,
unfortunatelly I could only see the video stream of the opening session but
finally Andrew is on the right way with his opinion especially with the
presenters and the teleprompter.
Most of the presenters feel save in their presentation or didn't show their
best performance at that moment. They hung too much at the teleprompter and it
seems they weren't really 100% familiar with their presentation.
So Why? I don't know but I can remember opening sessions with Cliff Reeves a
few years ago and he knew at every moment what he was talking about. Most of
the VP & Execs were far behind my expectations and if there is an argument
"execs don't have the time" - come on THAT'S WRONG - totally wrong
Look at Steve's MacWord Opening Session - perfect presentation for more than 1
hour?
unfortunatelly I could only see the video stream of the opening session but
finally Andrew is on the right way with his opinion especially with the
presenters and the teleprompter.
Most of the presenters feel save in their presentation or didn't show their
best performance at that moment. They hung too much at the teleprompter and it
seems they weren't really 100% familiar with their presentation.
So Why? I don't know but I can remember opening sessions with Cliff Reeves a
few years ago and he knew at every moment what he was talking about. Most of
the VP & Execs were far behind my expectations and if there is an argument
"execs don't have the time" - come on THAT'S WRONG - totally wrong
Look at Steve's MacWord Opening Session - perfect presentation for more than 1
hour?
I also posted a blog entry on this hereBy Carl Tyler on 02/01/2006 at 02:42 PM EST
http://www.iminstant.com/blogs/ctyler.nsf/d6plinks/CTYR-6LKQX6
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from IBM a shile ago, and the subject kept coming back to Workplace...
Start at Domino.Doc end up a WP Documents, etc, etc, after this the client
turned to me and said "Is Workplace not selling or something? theyre really
keen on talking about it".
WP is a neat product, but I wonder at times is IBM trying too hard...