I’m Disappointed In Snow Leopard
Wed, Mar 17th 2010 12:10p Alan Lepofsky I know I'm late to the game, but I finally upgraded from Mac OSX 10.5.8 to 10.6.2 last night. One of the new features I was the most excited about was "Sort your Spotlight search results by name, date modified, date created, size, kind, or label." Sadly, it does not work as I (nor many other upset people posting to various forums) expected. As you can see below, the only sort options in list view are name, date, and kind. Size is greyed out. Size is an extremely useful search parameter, [read] Keywords: apple
applications
mac
201
I’m Disappointed In Snow Leopard
Wed, Mar 17th 2010 11:30a Alan Lepofsky I know I'm late to the game, but I finally upgraded from Mac OSX 10.5.8 to 10.6.2 last night. One of the new features I was the most excited about was "Sort your Spotlight search results by name, date modified, date created, size, kind, or label." Sadly, it does not work as I (nor many other upset people posting to various forums) expected. As you can see below, the only sort options in list view are name, date, and kind. Size is greyed out. Size is an extremely useful search parameter, w [read] Keywords: apple
applications
mac
349
Enterprise Microblogging - Where Everyone Can Ask and Answer Questions
Fri, Mar 12th 2010 4:00a Alan Lepofsky In Star Trek, the crew of the USS Enterprise could get an answer to almost any question, simply by asking out loud. Each week viewers witnessed inquiries such as "Computer, how long will it take to get to Epsilon Vega at Warp 6?" or "Computer what is the average airspeed of an unladen swallow?" Back in the real world, we are not quite there yet, but we're pretty damn close. Via countless websites, search engines, and social networks we have almost unlimited information at our disposal. [read] Keywords: connections
email
enterprise
facebook
google
macbook
microsoft
networking
twitter
24
Sharing Status Updates Reduces Duplication Of Work
Tue, Mar 9th 2010 5:40p Alan Lepofsky Last week I wrote Using Social Software To Accelerate Business Performance, as the introductory post to a new series where I'm going to discuss how "Enterprise 2.0" tools provide benefits in the business world. I'm going to begin the series today by discussing the internal use of microblogging, which enables people to openly share short messages with their coworkers. For those of you unfamiliar with microblogging, the most widely known example is Twitter, where you enter "140-character or [read] Keywords: email
enterprise
instant messaging
office
social software
twitter
270
How Sharing Status Updates Can Help Your Colleagues
Mon, Mar 8th 2010 9:10p Alan Lepofsky Last week I wrote Using Social Software To Accelerate Business Performance, as the introductory post to a new series where I'm going to discuss how "Enterprise 2.0" tools provide benefits in the business world. I'm going to begin the series today by discussing the internal use of micro-blogging, which enables people to openly share short messages with their coworkers. For those of you unfamiliar with micro-blogging, the most widely known example is Twitter, where you enter "140-character o [read] Keywords: blogging
email
enterprise
instant messaging
office
social software
twitter
170
Using Social Software To Accelerate Business Performance
Fri, Mar 5th 2010 2:50p Alan Lepofsky One of the main themes of the "2.0" world is the shift to more open sharing of information. In our personal lives, that shift is fairly well understood and accepted. Pictures are shared on Flickr. Videos are shared on Youtube. We talk about our lives on our blogs. We say what we're doing on Twitter. We even tell people exactly where we are on Foursquare. Our lives are an open book, for friends, family, and sometimes even strangers to see. In the business world, many companies are just [read] Keywords: email
enterprise
social software
twitter
34
Socialtext Launches 4.0
Wed, Mar 3rd 2010 3:40p Alan Lepofsky Today we launched Socialtext 4.0, which makes it simple for people to form groups around common goals or areas of interest. Groups can share information, ideas, and status messages via microblogging with Socialtext Signals, and create wiki pages, spreadsheets, and blog entries in Socialtext Workspaces. "The focus of our enterprise social software has always been to accelerate business performance for our customers, by giving their people new ways to share knowledge and expertise," says Euge [read] Keywords: collaboration
application
enterprise
security
social software
twitter
wiki
57
How General Motors Uses Socialtext for Its RD
Mon, Mar 1st 2010 5:43p Alan Lepofsky At Lotusphere 2010, General Motors spoke about their use of Lotus technologies to enable internal collaboration. Some of you sitting around me heard me politely say "and Socialtext." What I found funny about the GM talk was how they emphasized the Volt, which is the result of the work of GM's Research division, which uses Socialtext. Of course big companies often use more than one vendor, so no big deal. "To address the difficulty in getting researchers to interact with each other at the s [read] Keywords: collaboration
lotus
lotusphere
community
office
280
Very cool new 3D History Browser Plugin For Notes
Mon, Mar 1st 2010 10:20a Alan Lepofsky As reported on Niklas Heidloff's blog, Hiroyuki Okamoto has created a very cool 3D history browser for Lotus Notes. It currently only works on Windows, so even though it emulates the carousel feature made popular by Apple, it does not yet work on Macs. I don't know anything about Eclipse plugin development, but I thought the point to moving to Eclipse was for cross platform support? What is it about certain plugins that cause them to not work across OSes? Also, is there anyway for the [read] Keywords: lotus
notes
apple
development
eclipse
openntf
262
Zen - This is the way all software should work
Mon, Feb 22nd 2010 11:50p Alan Lepofsky I don't promote products often, but after 5 minutes looking at Zen, I wanted to tell people about it. Zen is an online tool for project management that follows the Personal Kanban methodology. I'm just starting to learn about this, but I can see how it could really help me manage my tasks. Zen's UI is clean and gorgeous. It is so easy to use that there is no need for training or help. I found the selecting/highlighting of objects, collapse and expanding options, drag and drop, to al [read] Keywords:
127
Eugene Lee Talks About Enterprising Social Sharing
Mon, Feb 22nd 2010 9:20p Alan Lepofsky Some sound-bytes Enterprise 2.0 started with the adoption of web 2.0 technologies to meet enterprise requirements around security, privacy, etc. Initially a lot of the challenges customers focused on were: Where do I use it? How do I use it? How do I get adoption? At Socialtext we've always shifted that conversation to, How do you get business value from it? There will be ongoing pressure to provide integrated solutions, not point products Customer success and services will play a key part (b [read] Keywords: admin
collaboration
enterprise
javascript
security
web 2.0
283
Tom Brokaw Explains Canada To Americans
Sun, Feb 21st 2010 11:10a Alan Lepofsky There are some great little nuggets in this video: $1.5 billion is transacted between the US and Canada every day Canada is the second largest country in the world, with only 34 million people 90% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the US border Canada is the US's largest oil supplier If you're in a fight, you want the Canadians by your side On Sept 11/2001, 239 US bound flights with 33,000 passengers landed in Canada President John F. Kennedy to the Canadian parliament in 1961: "Geography [read] Keywords: application
156
Canadian Pride Abounds At The Olympic Opening Ceremony
Mon, Feb 15th 2010 9:50a Alan Lepofsky The Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics touched the hearts of Canadians in many ways. The emphasis on the First Nations people was wonderful. The whales swimming across the floor of the stadium was incredible. (can anyone find footage of that online?) But the most talked about segment (other than an arm of the torch not lifting) seems to be spoken-word poet Shane Koyczan's performance. I can't find a clip from the Olympics, but here is Shane presenting a similar piece. Full lyrics... [read] Keywords: application
wiki
148
Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Tweets
Fri, Feb 12th 2010 12:40a Alan Lepofsky Self-actualization: Preachy tweets expressing to the world how deep you can be. Get a job at a greeting card company please. Esteem: Ah, the joy of patting yourself on the back in public. Yes, you're the best. Thanks for sharing. Love/belonging: Ego boosting messages subliminally targeted at the friends and family you hope are following you. Guess what? They are not. Safety: Isn't it interesting how every vendor seems to be the best? You're not. My company is. Physiological: W [read] Keywords:
73
Finding The Balance Between Online and Off
Wed, Feb 10th 2010 10:30p Alan Lepofsky Today I read two very interesting stories about how the new generation of on-line services such as Facebook and Twitter are affecting people's lives. At one end of the spectrum was Wil Wheaton, who blogged about how Twitter has changed his life and career for the better. At the other end was the USA Today article about people shutting down their Facebook accounts to regain their privacy and peace of mind. Both stories have valid points, and at various moments I've leaned in each direction. T [read] Keywords: connections
email
facebook
gadget
twitter
Jesus Fed His Pet Velociraptor Pancakes
Sun, Feb 7th 2010 5:30p Alan Lepofsky Friday night, I was one of the 8 Powerpoint Karaoke presenters at the closing party of Social Media Week Toronto. The way it works, is you have to present a slide deck that you have never seen before. Each slide is on screen for 40 seconds, and then advances automatically. My topic was something about what to do when someone lies on the internet. I'm just rambling in the clip below, but at the time it was the best I could do. Here is the first video I've seen, if they share the full video [read] Keywords: application
105
Enteprises Want Activity Streams That Include Microblogging
Wed, Feb 3rd 2010 9:00p Alan Lepofsky Yesterday Gartner released their Five Social Software Predictions for 2010 and Beyond report. There were two quotes in it that I was thrilled to read: By 2014, social networking services will replace e-mail as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for 20 percent of business users By 2012, over 50 percent of enterprises will use activity streams that include microblogging, but stand-alone enterprise microblogging will have less than 5 percent penetration I think we all underst [read] Keywords: email
enterprise
networking
social software
workspace
147
Now That Is How Add To Calendar Should Work!
Wed, Feb 3rd 2010 4:10p Alan Lepofsky Using Mac Mail.app, I clicked on a date and selected "Create New iCal Event". It added the subject, date and time as one would expect, but it even parsed the location from another part of the email. Sweet. The calendar event also has a link back to the email message. (url Show in Mail...) However, it still pisses me off that I can't resize the calendar event window. Often I have a ton of information in the note field, and I hate that I can't expand the dialog box to make it easier to [read] Keywords: email
mac
411
Two good Notes Tools
Tue, Feb 2nd 2010 10:40a Alan Lepofsky To my readers in the Lotus world, if you are not following @CollabChick on Twitter, you should be. She provides some great links to information and tools. Examples: Using IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.1 Reference Card This quick reference card will help you get started performing the most common tasks in IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.1 SwiftFile Mail Assistant 4.0 for Notes client 8.0 SwiftFile is an intelligent assistant for Lotus Notes that helps users organize their e-mail into folders. [read] Keywords: ibm
ldd
lotus
notes
notes client
twitter
The most important thing I heard at Lotusphere
Sun, Jan 31st 2010 8:30p Alan Lepofsky I have about 10 pages of notes from Lotusphere that I want to turn into blog entries. However, since Orlando I've been involved in project PDL, been working on some awesome upcoming Socialtext stuff, and had a family party this weekend that brought my siblings to town, so I've not had a spare moment. I don't even want to think about my laundry nor the pile of bills on my desk! Anyway, I'm going to begin my Lotusphere posts with what I think is the most significant thing I heard at the show. [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
lotusphere
notes
applications
integration
twitter
49
Recording a TV show should not be this hard
Wed, Jan 27th 2010 10:20p Alan Lepofsky I'll admit it, I've complained (ok, whined!) a lot about Rogers Cable in Toronto since I moved back from the US (where I used TIVO and Comcast). Since silly little "it sucks" type comments provide no value to anyone, I decided to record the following video to show one of the problems I struggle with. Below you will see me try and do what I think is one of them most common PVR tasks, recording a season of a show. I hope someone can show me the error of my ways, and help me learn what I am doin [read] Keywords: application
What’s Your Favourite Notes 8.5.1 Client Feature
Wed, Jan 27th 2010 11:05a Alan Lepofsky Have you upgraded to Lotus Notes 8.5.1? If so, on which platform? The 8.5.1 client has a ton of new features. Some examples: New toolbar icons that offer more control over fonts and highlighters, the insert link dialog box, drag to resize tables, and auto-correct for spelling. What is your favourite new feature? Please let me know. If you've not upgraded yet, you better! [read] Keywords: lotus
notes
10
Encypted Notes Mail On iPhones
Wed, Jan 27th 2010 11:05a Alan Lepofsky One of the things my friends at Lotusphere are most excited about, is Lotus's first official application in the Apple Apps Store, IBM Lotus Notes Traveler Companion. This app enables people who synchronize their Domino mail using IBM Lotus Notes Traveler, to view encrypted mail on their iPhone. I heard it's been downloaded by people in over 40 countries in just the first few days. So if you're an iPhone user, go get it, it's free! Notes encrypted email, now "There's an app for that!" [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
lotus
lotusphere
notes
traveler
apple
application
email
iphone
11
I’m Surprised Quickr Is Still Around
Wed, Jan 27th 2010 11:05a Alan Lepofsky Today at Lotusphere, IBM made several announcements around current products and future ideas. Everyone has been asking me what I thought, and I will blog about many of the Notes related items soon, but right now I need sleep. There is one thing I can quickly cover though... I was really surprised that Quickr has not been completely rolled into Connections already. They both have file sharing, they both have wikis, and a few other features in common. It's always been confusing having the [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
lotusphere
notes
quickr
5
Yes, I’m at Lotusphere
Wed, Jan 27th 2010 11:05a Alan Lepofsky Yes, I'm in Orlando again, for something like my 15th Lotusphere. It has been wonderful catching up with former teammates, business partners, IBM execs, and friends from all over the world. So why am I here? To see what IBM is up to, and report the news the best I can. As everyone knows, I'm a fan of Lotus Notes, and that has not changed just because I now work at Socialtext. I hope my take on the news provides an insightful look that is not too "positive-marketing-spinny" nor too "compet [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
lotusphere
notes
5
Excited about refreshing my blog design!
Wed, Jan 27th 2010 11:05a Alan Lepofsky Coming soon, a brand new look and feel to this site. The current design has been hacked together by me over the last 5+ years, and it is about time I actually get a much more polished look. [read] Keywords:
Yes I’m Going To Lotusphere, and I’d Like To Talk To You
Wed, Jan 27th 2010 11:05a Alan Lepofsky Greetings everyone. Well, it appears that I'm once again going to make the annual trek to Orlando in January for Lotusphere. Not a bad thing when you live in a cold winter city. What I would like to do is spend 10-15 minutes with you, learning about how your company uses social software as part of a business process. I'm not looking for specifics of the application, or the tool your using. Instead, I'd like to gather some general information around the problem(s) you were facing, the type [read] Keywords: lotusphere
application
development
email
social software
twitter
2
Truth In Advertising
Wed, Jan 27th 2010 11:05a Alan Lepofsky Accenture has dropped Tiger Woods, but I still saw this billboard at the airport (Chicago I think) the other day. I wonder if they left this one up on purpose? It's so spot on, I almost thought it was a fake. While I know we're all Tiger'd out, I found this story very interesting: Tiger Woods needs a heart-to-heart with Tiger Woods. The author (who is well acquainted with Woods, unlike 99.99% of the others who have written about him) makes you wonder, did Tiger do this on purpose (con [read] Keywords: email
37
Yeah, SnagIt for Mac is almost here!
Tue, Dec 15th 2009 11:09p Alan Lepofsky Many of you know about my love for Techsmith's SnagIt and Camtasia products. I've used them for years to create the images and videos used on this blog, provide visual answers to questions, and create marketing material for several products. When I switched from PC to Mac, my greatest disappointment was the lack of these two tools for the Mac platform. Well since Techsmith loves me, earlier this year they released Camtasia for Mac, and today they gave me a Chanukah present by releasing the pu [read] Keywords: mac
87
So Many Tools, So Many Lists
Sun, Dec 13th 2009 12:19p Alan Lepofsky Being able to organize the people you follow on Twitter into groups/categories/lists (whatever you want to call them) is one of the most useful ways to help process the flood of information that is shared via microblogging. I have lists for people at work, for family, for friends, etc. and this enables me to reads tweets in a way to works well for me. Up until Twitter's recent introduction of lists, each client (TweetDeck, Seesmic, and others) handled lists in their own way, meaning you had to [read] Keywords: apple
facebook
linkedin
twitter
Present Naked
Tue, Dec 8th 2009 2:59p Alan Lepofsky There are tons of resources that explain how to improve your slides, but I don't often see information on how to improve yourself as a presenter. These slides provide some excellent guidance: Present NakedView more presentations from Carmen Taran. [read] Keywords: application
2
Good Advertising Reaches You Personally
Mon, Dec 7th 2009 11:19p Alan Lepofsky In previous posts I've talked about how I feel good advertising reaches the viewer at a personal level, resulting in a) it getting their attention, and more importantly b) them remembering it later. Apple has obviously mastered this practice visually, musically, and thematically. ex: iPod music ads, iPhone There's An App For That ads, I'm a Mac ads, etc.., The T-Mobile myTouch ads are great. I find myself singing the song, and I like the idea of personalizing the phone. (no Tmobile here [read] Keywords: apple
application
iphone
ipod
mac
microsoft
mobile
2
Zen via photos
Mon, Nov 30th 2009 8:49p Alan Lepofsky This weekend at a craft show, I found a wonderful booth named A to Z Photography. The artist has taken photos all around the world of occurrences of the letters a-z in nature, bridges, doors, fences, machines, etc. She had dozens of options for each letter, and helped customers assemble any word they wanted. People were buying their names, as well as sayings like family, love, and peace. I decided on "zen" and created the following image. (they are 4"*6" photos) [read] Keywords:
11
Following The Crowd - Traction Is The Key To Uptake
Mon, Nov 23rd 2009 11:09a Alan Lepofsky While doing product demos on the tradeshow floor of Web 2.0 Expo, we witnessed an interesting phenomenon. As soon as one person started to watch a demo, a few more people would join in. Then a few more. After a few seconds, we'd have a crowd. Why does this happen? Because people are interested in what other people are interested in. The same affect can be witnessed as long lines form to get into the hottest new club, or as you look in the window of a crowded restaurant and decide you want [read] Keywords: social software
web 2.0
4
What Golf Taught Me About Software
Sun, Nov 15th 2009 1:59p Alan Lepofsky http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3014/2552054331_7796e47a69_m.jpg Last weekend I had the pleasure of playing golf with a few of my colleagues while I was out in California. The day reminded me of a few important lessons related to software: 1. Change is hard 2. Good tools can help you 3. Relationships are important Change is hard I've been playing golf for 3 years. Last weekend was the first time I'd ever used clubs other than my own. I was very uncomfortable, my confidence was low, [read] Keywords: email
networking
social software
wiki
6
New Battery
Sat, Oct 31st 2009 7:02p Alan Lepofsky After calling all the Apple Stores, Best Buys, and a dozen other stores, I finally found a new MacBook Pro battery at a pro-photography store. My old battery had 250 cycles, and was holding 50-60%. Here's the new one... [read] Keywords: apple
macbook
HOLY CRAP! A full page Lotus AD in Wired Magazine
Wed, Oct 21st 2009 10:49a Alan Lepofsky As winter quickly approaches here in Toronto, the real story may be that hell has actually frozen over. As I was sipping my morning hot chocolate and flipping through the latest edition of my favourite magazine Wired, I almost spit out my multi-grain bagel as I stumbled upon this... That's right. A full page advertisement for Lotus in a major magazine. WELL DONE!!! If you read my post about the Lotus Knows airline videos, you'll may recall I did find it to be affective. " [read] Keywords: collaboration
lotus
citrix
microsoft
networking
office
7
File Navigator for Notes
Tue, Oct 20th 2009 12:30p Alan Lepofsky "The file navigator is a sidebar plugin that allows browsing through the OS file system. From the sidebar you can also open and delete files and drag & drop files between the file navigator and Notes documents." I've not tried it yet, but it looks pretty cool. via Adam Gartenberg [read] Keywords: notes
openntf
twitter
3
Happy 30th Birthday VisiCalc, and Welcoming SocialCalc To The World
Mon, Oct 19th 2009 9:19a Alan Lepofsky Today is the 30th anniversary of the introduction of VisiCalc, the original spreadsheet program created by Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston. Today also marks general availability of SocialCalc, the social spreadsheet from Socialtext. Some of the key features include: - Sheets can contain values from other sheets, even across workspaces. This allows you to distribute the creation and sharing of data. - Seamlessly integrate wiki pages (or people's profiles) inside spreadsheets - Include valu [read] Keywords: application
email
php
wiki
Spooked By A Number
Mon, Oct 12th 2009 10:49p Alan Lepofsky I just noticed this, and I swear these are not fake. I have to admit, I'm a little creeped out. [read] Keywords:
3
Thoughts On Riding My First Wave
Fri, Oct 9th 2009 10:19a Alan Lepofsky My first reaction about Wave is kudus to Google for trying to improve some of the processes and tools we struggle with today. I'm just not sure which processes those are, which tools, and with which audience. At first glance, Wave is obviously an email client. It has in inbox, and folders, and a preview pane. But wait, that is wrong. They don't want it to be an email client. So is it a word processor? A wiki? A chat tool? Web conference? Yes to all of those, sort of. And while t [read] Keywords: document
ibm
email
google
wiki
Domino Designer Is Now Free
Tue, Oct 6th 2009 11:19a Alan Lepofsky Its great to read on Ed's blog that the release of 8.5.1 is not just about new code, but several licensing changes. The two key things being: Domino Designer Is now FREE. Ideally this will mean more developers will be able to build Notes/Domino applications, especially in schools and SMB. Most of the complexity around purchasing client access licences has been removed. I don't think many people realize all the stuff that is included when you buy Notes, such as Quickr Entry, Sametime Entry, [read] Keywords: designer
domino
lotus
notes
notesdomino
quickr
sametime
applications
2
One good thing about being sick, catching up on TV
Mon, Oct 5th 2009 12:02a Alan Lepofsky Due to a cold, I spent most of the weekend on the couch. Here are the shows that are either on my DVR or I download and watch. What are your favourites? 07 Ghost - Anime about the battle between two countries, and a young prince with the hidden powers to end the war American Dad - I'm not sure why I keep watching, but I do. Bleach - My fav anime. Story of soul reapers (angels) fighting to protect the souls of people on earth from hollows (demons) Bones - I love this show, but I don't think [read] Keywords:
Cute Lotus Knows Ad, But...
Tue, Sep 29th 2009 9:09p Alan Lepofsky Ed and Bilal both blogged today about this new Lotus Knows video. I like the ad, its catchy, and on target for travelers. (Ed mentions it will be shown in-flight on US Airlines, JetBlue, and Virgin America) However, honestly it does not hook me into wanting to find out more. If you don't already know what Lotus is, this does not tell you, and it does not make me curious enough to go find out. I think the failing is that it does not say what is in it for me, which is one of the main [read] Keywords: lotus
apple
application
facebook
3
Understanding Atonement
Mon, Sep 28th 2009 3:19p Alan Lepofsky Today is Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. I'm taking a few hour break from Synagogue, and wanted to share an explanation found in the notes of one of the main prayers: "For transgressions between man and God, repentance on Yom Kippur brings atonement. For transgressions between man and man, Yom Kippur brings no atonement, until the injured party is appeased" I try and live my life as positive, and non-confrontation as possible, but I'm sure at times I've unknowingly wronged peop [read] Keywords: notes
The Most Beautiful View In The World
Fri, Sep 25th 2009 10:19a Alan Lepofsky I shared a URL in Twitter this morning "25 Vistas To See Before You Die" which sparked a lot of debate. As with any list, you'll never get it right! So, I wanted to move the conversation here. 1. What are a few of the most beautiful places you have been to? (Based on anything: the view, the architecture, sunset, plants, animals, the felling of awe) 2. Which places would you like to visit that you have not yet? My answers: 1. (not in any specific order) Machu Pichu, Peru. Chichen [read] Keywords: twitter
2
My Latest Presentation On Embracing Enterprise 2.0
Thu, Sep 24th 2009 10:21a Alan Lepofsky This is an updated and shortened version of my much longer deck from last year. The intent is to provide an audience which is new to this technology, a quick summary of the history of creating and sharing information, and why they should be looking at some of the newer options available to them. (it is not a vendor pitch) Embracing Enterprise 2.0View more presentations from Alan Lepofsky. [read] Keywords: collaboration
application
enterprise
2
From Question To Answer In Seconds
Wed, Sep 23rd 2009 9:49a Alan Lepofsky I love when I personally experience one of the benefits, that we marketing people hype up when pitching to customers. True story... This morning I was setting up a new soft-phone on my MacBook, and I could not get it to connect to our PBX. I searched for the information in our wiki, and while I did find the setup instructions, I was having problems with connecting. So, did I call the HelpDesk? Email Support? No. I posted the question on Socialtext Signals, our internal micro-bloggi [read] Keywords: blogging
email
instant messaging
macbook
wiki
Tranparency, not Anarchy
Mon, Sep 21st 2009 6:10p Alan Lepofsky Two the primary concepts of the "2.0" world (be it Web 2.0 or its business counterpart Enterprise 2.0) are a) getting people involved (participation), and b) making information available to everyone (transparency) While many of us have come to accept these as commonplace on Flickr, YouTube, Delicious, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc... business today are often still reluctant to embrace these cultural changes inside their corporate walls. One of the reasons often cited is that executi [read] Keywords: enterprise
facebook
linkedin
twitter
web 2.0
2
Sometimes It Is Ok To Play With Your Food
Mon, Sep 21st 2009 11:29a Alan Lepofsky These images were emailed to me several times over the last few day, so I figured I'd share them via SlideShare. I don't know the original source or author, so if you do, please let me know so I can give proper credit. If I had to pick a favourite, I'd go with slide 12. Slide 6 would be the runner up, I want to learn to peel an orange like that. Best Wishes Via Food SculpturesView more presentations from Alan Lepofsky. [read] Keywords: application
Former IBMer Gives Good Sax
Tue, Sep 8th 2009 9:09a Alan Lepofsky I love learning about the "outside lives" of business colleagues. Firemen, chefs, photographers, gamers, pilots, athletes, ... , ... Below is footage of the CD Launch party from Mark Ginsburg, the former head of Lotus Business Partners in Asia Pacific. Mark really gets going about 4:50 in. Mark, I hope to see you live one day on a visit to Australia. [read] Keywords: lotus
application
2
Smarter Planet. Not Smarter Ads
Sun, Sep 6th 2009 1:02p Alan Lepofsky I was flipping through Golf Digest, and stumbled upon this two-page ad from IBM. I don't like to be too critical, but honestly, I don't get it. The left page is 4 paragraphs of text. The image on the right means nothing to me. The ONLY reason I read it was because I noticed the IBM logo on the bottom left, and I wanted to see if Lotus Knows was mentioned. I'm sorry IBM, but why, why not make Smarter Ads? PS: Don't say "Mission accomplished, they got people talking about it.", becaus [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
blogSphere
3
Hopefully My Birthday Can Help Others This Year
Wed, Sep 2nd 2009 11:59p Alan Lepofsky It has been a pretty interesting last 365 rotations around the sun. I moved countries, and bought my first home. I've sadly seen people I loved pass away, and joyously celebrated as some little ones entered this world. My life is a good one. I have an amazing family, great friends, I'm healthy, I have a wonderful job, and a cool place to live. Sure, there are a few things I wish were different in my life, but I know those things will come. So what do I want for my birthday? This year, I [read] Keywords: application
twitter
3
Never leave home without your camera
Wed, Sep 2nd 2009 11:49a Alan Lepofsky I drove by this field of yellow dandelions that seemed to go on forever. Sadly I did not have my good camera with me, but at least I could snap a shot with my phone to preserve the memory. (in low res) [read] Keywords:
2
Can’t Twitter Auto-Block This Stuff Already?
Tue, Sep 1st 2009 8:30a Alan Lepofsky While Ingrid, Jeanie, Cathleen, and Dorothy seem like really nice girls, I'd really rather they not show up in my follow list, especially when I'm trying to explain the value of Twitter to people. [read] Keywords: twitter
10
Catching up on 8.5.1
Sun, Aug 30th 2009 10:52p Alan Lepofsky Notes has always offered cutting edge features (offline/local, field level replication, access controls, ...) yet at the same time still been missing some things you would have expected years ago. When I was at Lotus, I had a list of "things that were missing" that I used to bug the product managers about, but they knew I did it out of love. It was nice to be able to strike off an item of two with each new version, but I was always still a bit frustrated at some of the things that really neede [read] Keywords: lotus
notes
blogging
bug
What Makes A Concert Great?
Mon, Aug 24th 2009 9:20a Alan Lepofsky There is a huge difference between performing and entertaining. Let me illustrate using two of my favourite bands, The Police and The Great Big Sea. Two summers ago when The Police were touring, I was so excited. I actually saw the concert 3 times, in 3 different cities. All 3 concerts sucked. The songs were fine, but I could have sat in my living room and just listened to the songs. The Police did nothing to entertain me at all. Contrast that with The Great Big Sea, a Celtic rock b [read] Keywords: application
Vacation Overview and Photos
Mon, Aug 17th 2009 11:39a Alan Lepofsky My vacation last week started with a weekend in Atlanta for my sister's birthday. It was so wonderful to see her family and friends. While you've seen me post about moving home to Toronto for family, sadly neither of my siblings live here, so I am so happy when I get to see them. I then spent the week in the Blue Ridge mountains, right where Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina meet with one of my best friends from Boston. We went for a short hike (!) up 1000 stairs at Amicalola Fall [read] Keywords:
4
People Are The Platform
Wed, Aug 12th 2009 12:49p Alan Lepofsky Ross Mayfield has written a fantastic blog post about people and role they play in creating and sharing information, in finding answers, and in forming connections. A few months ago I created the following simple slides to illustrate a point I had heard Ross make once... On one side you have people. On the other content. If you have lots of people, but they don't know about each other, or about available content, a great deal of value is lost. On the other side, if you have a great deal of [read] Keywords: collaboration
connections
application
enterprise
facebook
twitter
4
Tomorrow is Yellow Day 2009
Mon, Aug 10th 2009 11:32a Alan Lepofsky Last year Nathan and I combined to bring the Lotus Community "Ye11ow Day". It was an August 11th celebration to help bring together the Lotus community. The goal was to have offices spread the word, and get people to wear yellow, take yellow photos, die their hair, or whatever! I had almost forgotten, but tomorrow Ye11ow Day is back. I'm on vacation this week, so hopefully tomorrow I'll be golfing, but I'll wear yellow and share some photos. What will you be doing? [read] Keywords: lotus
community
Cool follow-up to my Socialtext and iNotes integration post
Tue, Aug 4th 2009 8:10p Alan Lepofsky In a meeting today with a large potential customer, they mentioned they use Lotus Notes. I was able to quickly show them how they could access iNotes via the Socialtext Dashboard. They asked about alarms in the calendar, and I did not know if they would work or not. So, why not test it during a live demo! As you can see below, the alarm notification worked just fine. They were very happy, and I hope this helps them sign on the dotted line. [read] Keywords: inotes
lotus
notes
integration
3
Lotus Knows This. Lotus Notes That.
Tue, Aug 4th 2009 12:19a Alan Lepofsky While I was not able to attend IamLUG in person, I did hear about they keynote via blogs, twitter, and the like. The big news appears to be that IBM is promising a big marketing push for Lotus. (and the fans go wild!) The campaign will focus around the phrase "Lotus knows ________"; where the "_____" will be different depending on the circumstance and placement. You can read more at Ed's Blog. I really hope Lotus can change the perception many people have about the brand. Since I've "stepp [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
notes
twitter
I want Wii Sports Resort
Sun, Aug 2nd 2009 9:30p Alan Lepofsky Do any of you have Wii Sports Resort yet? If so, does it rock? I don't even have a Wii, but if this is as fun as it looks, I may get one. I especially want to play the frisbee games. Golf, archery, table tennis, it looks like this provides hours of fun. [read] Keywords: application
Cool New App from Elguji, IQJam
Mon, Jul 27th 2009 8:56a Alan Lepofsky The folks that created IdeaJam (and LinkJam and TaskJam, no ToeJam yet) are releasing a new application tomorrow called IQJam. From their site: IQJam is the perfect solution for organizations looking to capitalize on the knowledge of their employees. The concept is amazingly simple - people ask questions and other people answer them. Questions and their answers can be voted up or down. Voting allows the IQJam community to identify questions that they would like to see answered. Voting on [read] Keywords: domino
application
community
ideajam
2
Cool New App from Elguji, IQJam
Mon, Jul 27th 2009 8:53a Alan Lepofsky The folks that created IdeaJam (and LinkJam and TaskJam, no ToeJam yet) are releasing a new application tomorrow called IQJam. From their site: IQJam is the perfect solution for organizations looking to capitalize on the knowledge of their employees. The concept is amazingly simple - people ask questions and other people answer them. Questions and their answers can be voted up or down. Voting allows the IQJam community to identify questions that they would like to see answered. Voting on an [read] Keywords: domino
application
community
ideajam
4
Fantastic Video about Lotusphere and Locus Tacos
Sun, Jul 26th 2009 9:43p Alan Lepofsky Check it out, I'm in this excellent Lotusphere video starting around 5:10! Wow, I'm certainly not trying to grow my hair again after seeing that mess on screen. ;-) I'm keeping it short from now on. Who else can you spot? Place their name and time in the comments. For those that don't get the joke, I was a "plant" in the Lotusphere Idol contest. Here's my blog entry about it, including the slides. This video captures how much fun Lotusphere is (well, it did not show Kimonos [read] Keywords: lotusphere
application
Access iNotes Mail and Calendar From Socialtext Dashboard
Mon, Jul 20th 2009 10:01a Alan Lepofsky Many of you have asked me about integration between Socialtext and Lotus, so I wanted to share this short video (no audio) showing how you could access iNotes from your Socialtext Dashboard. (A customizable, OpenSocial widget based home page) This is not officially supported by either company today, but we're happy to talk to you about next steps if your company is interested. Don't forget to register your department for Socialtext Free 50, and also take a look at our new M [read] Keywords: inotes
lotus
application
integration
php
widget
2
iNotes Access From Socialtext Dashboard
Mon, Jul 20th 2009 9:41a Alan Lepofsky Many of you have asked me about integration between Socialtext and Lotus, so I wanted to share this short video (no audio) showing how you could access iNotes from your Socialtext Dashboard. (A customizable, OpenSocial widget based home page) This is not officially supported by either company today, but we're happy to talk to you about next steps if your company is interested. Don't forget to register your department for Socialtext Free 50, and also take a look at our new M [read] Keywords: inotes
lotus
application
integration
php
widget
3
Secure Twitter Like Functionality, But Securely Behind Your Firewall
Tue, Jul 14th 2009 11:31a Alan Lepofsky Today Socialtext announced our new Socialtext Microblogging Appliance. With everyone talking about Twitter, it is natural that IT departments are now feeling the heat from employees about getting microblogging type functionality at work. With Socialtext Signals, employees can ask questions, share links and news, and update their status. Everyone in the company becomes better connected and better informed. The new Signals appliance starts by providing you access to Socialtext Signals [read] Keywords: application
desktop
networking
php
twitter
6
Attention Notes/Domino Developers... Learn XPages!
Mon, Jul 13th 2009 11:20p Alan Lepofsky Lotus Developers, here is the new must have for the top of your blog reading list... Welcome to The XPages Blog First I would like to welcome you to The XPages Blog. This is a team blog brought to you by several IBM Lotus Domino XPages developers from around the globe including: * Steve Castledine * Bruce Elgort * David Leedy * Declan Lynch * Jeremy Hodge * John Mackey * Tim Tripcony * Matt White We will be posting how-to videos, tips, techni [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
lotus
notes
notesdomino
xpages
5
Do you want to help contribute to the Notes/Domino 8.5 Redbook Wiki?
Thu, Jul 9th 2009 7:40p Alan Lepofsky The IBM Redbook's team is starting a new project for a wiki based Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5 Deployment Guide. Read the details here. As you can guess based on my employer, I'm a big fan of creating content collaboratively via wikis. While some naysayers have enjoyed criticizing IBM over the last few years for moving away from published books and moving to a wiki format, I applaud them. If any other company had done this, people would probably be saying "Look how with the times is." I [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
lotus
notes
notesdomino
wiki
4
Recovering From My Blackberry’s Meltdown
Thu, Jul 2nd 2009 10:20a Alan Lepofsky I've been having big problems with my BlackBerry Curve this week. First, the battery would only last a few hours. Next, it pretty much stopped responding, taking almost a minute sometimes to highlight an icon. Then, email just stopped coming in. Turns out, I was out of disk space. Not low. Out. 0 bytes available. It would have been nice to have had a low space warning and some indication of why email stopped. I was pointed to this article to help me clean up the space. A few tips [read] Keywords: blackberry
email
facebook
google
4
Two Books For Your Collection
Sun, Jun 28th 2009 4:19p Alan Lepofsky There are two new books out that I hope everyone buys. Yes, I am friends with the authors... so buy buy buy! Bricklin on Technology by Dan Bricklin. I've been fortunate over the last year to not only meet Dan, but to work with him at Socialtext and become friends with this computing legend. Dan has forgotten more about computers, technology, and sharing information then I'll ever know. I love talking to him not just about the past, such as the days of VisiCalc and Lotus 1-2-3, but also a [read] Keywords: lotus
twitter
My Ikea Hack
Mon, Jun 15th 2009 11:39p Alan Lepofsky What does two Lack side tables plus a set of Rill casters (plus 3.5" wood screws) make? A bench chair, with storage underneath, on wheels! I put together one Lack table, then mounted it onto the top of a second. I used two of the extra legs on one of the sides, providing a "back" for things I may slide underneath, like books, pillows, blankets, etc. Flipped it over, and screwed in the casters. Putting a cushion on the top turns it into a place to sit. I may make four of these, and [read] Keywords:
