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Mashups, SMB Support On Tap At Lotus Conference
1/22/2008
ORLANDO, Fla. -- IBM Lotus kicked off its 15th annual Lotusphere conference here today, and while the announcements were not quite as unexpected as last year's introduction of Quickr and Connections, you got to witness the evolution of the Lotus product line, along with announcements that will directly benefit the small to medium-size business (SMB) market.
Notes 8 Evolves
The Notes 8.0.1 client was announced and should be available in early February. One of the biggest additions is a widgets sidebar integrated into the client. This sidebar allows a user to add Google gadgets, or create widgets from Lotus Notes data with a simple wizard-based interface.
For example, if you follow a sales number view in a customer management database, you can use the wizard to "widgetize" the view. The view then shows up in your sidebar for viewing without having to go the database itself. It should allow for the user to customize their experience even more. The widget capability is even controllable via administration policies on the back-end. You can add widgets or lock down certain capabilities to match your company's culture.
Notes 8.0.1 now supports what Lotus is calling Live Text. Live Text is basically what Smart Tag technology is to Microsoft Office. You can set Live Text to scan your documents and email and make certain words hyperlinks that take you to more information. For example, you could have your company's part numbers automatically become hyperlinks to the product database, or you could have addresses automatically link to Google Maps.
Lotus also announced the availability of Domino Web Access Lite mode. Lite mode is a web email client optimized for low bandwidth communications. It's highly AJAX driven, includes features like in-line spell check, rich editing, Google Maps integration and will be an alternative to the Full version available currently. For those users who need the extra speed, this will be a wonderful addition.
Domino gets its turn
Also announced was the future version 8.5 of Lotus Domino, the back-end server component of Lotus Notes. Updated items will include better ID management, compression technologies that can retrieve up to 35% of your disk space used for Domino databases, and Attachment Storage Reduction which can reduce space up to an additional 35% on top of the compression technologies.
Updated templates will be included to refresh long-in-the-tooth applications such as Discussion databases and document libraries. They will get a very Web 2.0 feel with AJAX components and design.
In order to make those apps act more like their Web 2.0 brethren, IBM also announced Domino Designer 8.5 which will be the first Designer client based on the Eclipse and Expeditor Lotus frameworks. Lotus will focus on the new technologies with a full palette of AJAX-based controls that you will be able to drag-and-drop directly into your Notes and Domino applications.
The assault on Office continues
Lotus Symphony got some love as well with Beta 4 announced for a February release. Beta 4 will include a fully programable API in which developers can create applications and plug-ins that will have full functionality in the stand-alone Symphony and Lotus Notes versions. IBM also touted an updated user interface, and built-in language translation. Lotus is aggressively pushing Symphony as the free-alternative to Microsoft Office. It was announced that Symphony had already been downloaded over 400,000 times.
Social Computing Marches On
Quickr 8.1 will be arriving in March and will be sporting a newly updated interface based on user feedback from 8.0. Additions include breadcrumb navigation to get around easier, a drop-zone for easily uploading files and sidebar integration with Notes 8.0.1. "Future" enhancements slated for the team room software include tagging, ratings, integration with enterprise back-end file and compliance systems, and a media library that can manage audio and video.
Connections version 2 made an appearance, with integration to public social networks such as Yahoo! Answers, Facebook and Socialtext. In addition, it will become more personally customizable, include attention management features, mobile support for the Blackberry and the ability to replicate your activities. There was no timetable announced for Connections V2.
Mash it up
One of the new product announcements is Lotus Mashups. Mashups is a lightweight browser-based environment that supports widgets (both internal Lotus-provided and external companies such as Google) and things like tagging, ratings and a mashup catalog. You can layer data together and even wire various widgets together. An example of this is taking one widget that shows an employee database, and having it link to salary information. Clicking on the one widget, reveals data in the other. These are all easily created by wizards in the browser as well as a development environment based on the submitted IWidget open specification.
Each user (or company) can customize their Mashup space however they wish. Lotus Mashups is due to go into a managed beta soon.
Lotus targets Small Business
The biggest announcements of the opening general session came in the form of long overdue support for the small to medium size business market. Several initiatives were announced that target businesses under 500 employees, and will directly compete with Microsoft Small Business Server.
The first announcement came in the form of Lotus Foundations. Foundations is a software package that includes all of the things a small business might need. There will be several different configurations of the product, but the first one released will be a collaboration server that will include Domino and pieces of Quickr and Connections.
The software can be re-sold and customized through partners to incorporate different technologies as well, and it can even be sold as a hardware appliance. Mike Rhodin, General Manager, IBM Lotus Software, even took a page out of the Steve Jobs handbook by pulling a Foundations appliance out of a overnight delivery envelope.
Foundations will include self-healing capabilities, as well as the ability for partners to remotely manage the environments. This allows SMBs to focus on their businesses rather than on IT.
The other major SMB offering is codenamed Bluehouse. Bluehouse is a software-as-a-service offering that will tie-in to Foundations to allow extranet access to company data. Users can share files, contact information, chat, activities and web meetings. If a small business needs to connect with external partners and vendors, Bluehouse will be the offering to help them out.
Both Foundations and Bluehouse will be entering managed beta soon and no pricing or availability details have been released.
Check back next week when I give you more details on today's announcements, and a summary of all of this week's highlights.
About the Author
John Roling is the Senior Groupware Administrator for a North American trade-show exhibit company and a certified Lotus Notes Administrator, Developer and all-around geek. You can keep up with him at his blog or drop him an e-mail at jroling@gmail.com.
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