"What's the Latest with Notes Traveler?"–Open Mic

You are invited to join an Open Mic Webcast on the topic, "What's the Latest with Notes Traveler?" " After a presentation, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions directly of IBM developers and support engineers. You can post questions in advance of the call as a response to this entry in the Notes/Domino/Traveler forum.
The event will take place on Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 11 a.m. EDT (15:00 UTC or GMT -4) for 60 minutes.

Bookmark Webcast Technote #7024152

Title:     What's the Latest with Notes Traveler? - 24 April 2012
Doc #:  7024142
URL: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27024152
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Web Conference URL
Web conference: Join an IBM SmartCloud Meetings (formerly LotusLive) web conference to view the presentation: Conference 6784422
http://www.ibm.com/collaboration/meeting/join?id=6784422

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WebSphere Plugin Key & Password Expiration 4/26

Accelerated Value Announcement:  WAS Alert affecting ICS Products !

WebSphere Plugin Key & Password Expiration 4/26

Overview:    WAS Support posted two Flash Alerts to customers about Expirations on 4/26.  These expirations could have significant impact to production environments if not addressed. The following alert applies to all products that are built on top of WebSphere Application Server, for example: Portal, Sametime, Connections, and Quickr J.

ACTION:  Make sure that your customers are aware of these items and the April 26th date .

1)The password to the Plugin-key.kdb file  that is shipped with the WebSphere Plugin install will expire on April 26, 2012:
 
Please refer to the following link for additional details.  

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21588312

The impact  of the "password expiration issue in the above flash" is that the https transport between the WebSphere plugin and back-end AppServers will stop working, if not resolved.  It means that the Plugin-key.kdb (and the personal & signer certificates in it) will not be loaded during the plugin initialization and the https transport will not be used.

2) The personal certificate  called "WebSphere Plugin Key" within the plugin-key.kdb that is shipped with the WebSphere Plugin install will expire on April 26, 2012:

Please refer to the following link for additional details.  

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21577327

This will affect those WebSphere AppServers that are configured to require SSL client authentication (SSL mutual authentication) and that are using the default WebSphere plug-in key.  Most of our customers did not configure WebSphere AppServers to use SSL mutual authentication between the plug-in and WebSphere AppServers.

We CAN Move From SharePoint to IBM!

So I have not posted for a while, and for good reason.  I have been working almost exclusively with the same customer since November on a really cool project and it is finally reaching a point that I can talk about it… a bit.  We (Ascendant) partnered with IBM and T-Systems to bring to fruition a working content migration utility that can take content FROM SharePoint and populate it into Connections / Quickr / WCM.  (Yes… any or all of the three mentioned have a native connector for the utility from T-Systems now thanks to our project.)  Beyond just grabbing the content, transforming it, and then pushing it into the correct content area, we are able to maintain content ownership and impersonate other users at migration time without impacting those users.  This is truly a first of it’s kind solution to the best of my knowledge.  Hats off to the whole team we have been working with.  I know I am excited to be part of this, as I am sure most of the other team members are as well.  This brings real choice to the market as people now have the availability to move their content between platforms.

Thank You everyone that made this possible!

QuickrD Bug

A while back, I was made aware of an issue where the Notes client will increase the size of fonts in emails when sent back and forth multiple times.  This link points to the problem description:

https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21201323

The work around is to add a few variables to your servers notes.ini to address this.  So what does this have to do with Quickr?

I was recently discussing a Quickr 8.x > 8.5.1 upgrade when this was encountered.  If you have implemented the work around as listed in the above technote, it will break the Quickr login page.  The rendered HTML will be malformed, and you will not be able to use the Quickr login page which allows for non-directory members logging into the server / places.

Took a bit of figuring and a PMR, and I suspect this is a rare combination of circumstances, but if this can help anyone else, here it is.

Announcements!

As many of you are already aware, IBM announced ND8.5.3.

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/notesanddomino/nd85.html

Beyond the typical fixes, we now have access to Connections Profiles and Files as Domino customers.  This is all in an effort to help businesses on their road to becoming social businesses.  This is great because there are Notes plugins for these features, bringing this content to the users at no additional cost.

We already have access to Portal at no additional cost if it is used to drive content for Notes clients and not a Portal implementation.  (limited use for ND customers)

What about Activities?  I would love to see activities added to the list of entitled software, but we need to take these things one step at a time.  Thanks IBM!

ND 8.5.3 also brings us an improved Traveler experience for the Droid community.  With greater attention to the Android platform, we now have support for newer devices and better overall security through feature leveling across platforms like partial device wipes.

It has been hinted that this is likely the last major release in the 8.5.x code stream.  This means it will soon be time to look for ND9?

We also heard that IBM has a new offering, the XWork Server.  This is an application only (XPages driven) server that allows you to deploy up to 4 applications (not just 4 NSF files, mind you) within the limits of this flat fee license.  This means that there is no abacus required as you try to calculate your PVUs.  Ed Brill covered this in a recent blog post.

http://edbrill.com/ebrill/edbrill.nsf/dx/introducing-ibm-xwork-server

There are numerous applications that I can think of for this server.  I believe this could be a good thing for IBM.  This reminds me of a recent conversation on LinkeIn where someone had suggested that IBM separate apps from mail in the Domino product line-up.  Offering an applications only approach to maybe embrace (SHUDDER) another email platform along side of Domino as your RAD environment.

Buried in the Inbox, besides these important announcements, LS12 is ramping up.

Heads up: Get out your social calendar.  It's time to add Lotusphere 2012 to your agenda!
Lotusphere, IBM's premier collaboration event, kicks on on Sunday, January 15, 2012.  As in past years, Lotusphere 2012 promises to be content-rich.
Whether you are interested in Social Business strategy or product features and capabilities, the event promises to offer something for just about everyone.  Attend and:
- Listen in on over 300 sessions
- Pick up technical tips and tracks
- Hear about best practices and see live examples
- Tour the Solutions Showcase and see real-world solutions firsthand
- Socialize with your peers, Business Partners and IBMers
Are you ready to expand your social circle?
Register for Lotusphere 2012 today: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/events/conference/index.html
I look forward to seeing you in Orlando!

Did we already start collecting session abstracts?  Where have I been?!?

Well, kids… this is definitely a very short summary of this busy week in the Lotus camp.  Good luck, and happy socializing. 

Beacon Awards Nomination Time

Fellow BPs… if you have not heard yet, the time to act is now!

Dear IBM Business Partner,

The IBM Beacon Awards were established more than a dozen years ago to recognize IBM's Business Partners globally for their excellence and innovative solutions based on IBM technology. More than 25 awards will recognize Business Partner achievement across a wide-range of solution areas, including Smarter Computing, Smarter Planet Solutions, Smarter Industries and Technical Excellence.

Beacon Award winners and finalists are an elite group of IBM Business Partners who have delivered unique and innovative solutions that raise the standard for business excellence and customer satisfaction. Winning a Beacon Award puts your firm in the spotlight for industry recognition and on a path to greater opportunity through increased visibility and promotional opportunities.

Past winners have said the awards help create competitive advantage, drive more business and raise their profile in the industry. The IBM Beacon Award is your opportunity to shine the spotlight on your business as a true innovator. I encourage you to nominate your solution(s) for this prestigious award. Nominations must be submitted by November 1, 2011, at 11:59 p.m., US Eastern Daylight Time (New York).
The IBM Beacon Awards are synonymous with excellence and innovation. I hope you'll consider nominating one or more of your most innovative solutions of 2011. Visit PartnerWorld for Beacon Award details and to nominate your solutions.

Regards,

Wilfredo Sotolongo
Vice President
IBM Business Partners and Mid-Market Sales
IBM North America

LotusLive vs. Office 365: Trial 2 (Email)

Now that I have my five test users in both Office 365 and LotusLive, the first thing I would expect an organization to want to do is start communicating.  With the exception of maybe the most advanced social businesses, the dominant mode of business communication today is still email.

Both offerings provide you with a link to access your web based email in just one click from the landing page after signing in.  Their interfaces are similar enough in that you have an Inbox, Drafts, Sent Items, Trash, and Spam/Junk on the left side in the typical location.  The main pane opens to your Inbox in a list format.

Office 365 displays a preview of the selected message, in just the same way that Outlook does.  LotusLive does not have a preview from the list view by default.

LotusLive provides tab style links at the top of the user interface to quickly access your individual Contacts, Calendar, and Preferences.  There does not appear to be any facility for ToDo’s within your Mail.  (This functionality can be performed elsewhere in LotusLive.)

Office 365 also provides quick access to your Calendar and Contacts, but in line with your other left-hand navigation.  In addition to the common features, Office 365 presents the users with Tasks (or ToDo’s) right in the mail interface, just like their rich client. (Outlook)

Web-based email has become more feature rich, both in on-premise products and in freely available products.  We expect common features like flag for follow-up, spell checking, folder management, search capabilities, attachment handling, and others I am sure to be missing.  This list of features is present in both solutions and intuitive enough to use, in my opinion.

That said, web based email is not realistic for laptop users who need access to email while off-line or disconnected.  Both LotusLive and Office 365 state they support Outlook as a rich client, so I will try to configure Outlook 2010 to access both and contrast the experience.

Here is the video of setting up Outlook for Office 365. 

Before I started configuring Outlook for LotusLive, I found the help documentation to explain how to do it here.  The instructions indicated you needed to supply your IMAP/SMTP server information in the format of yoursiteID-smtp.mail.lotuslive.com.  This was not very intuitive to me, but fortunately, IBM supplies this information in the Administration section of LotusLive.  To locate your server information, log into LotusLive and enter the Administration area.  Click on iNotes on the left hand side, and locate your server information at the bottom of the page.

Armed with the nitty-gritty, it was time to get to work.  Here is the video of me configuring Outlook for LotusLive.

Both solutions support Outlook 2010 as advertised.

Office365 provides your organization with GAL features like an on-premise deployment of Exchange would, where LotusLive does not.  You still have access to personal contacts, and calendaring with both services.  I would imagine the delegation of email and calendaring to function when using Office365, but it does not work when using LotusLive as your back-end.  This is because LotusLive simply provides IMAP (inbound) and SMTP (outbound) basic services for the Outlook client, while Office365 is powered by Exchange.

For basic email functionality, taking your own email off-line, and the ability to use Outlook (which may already be on your system), either service is sufficient.  If you are looking for a similar experience to running Exchange within your organization, but do not have the facilities or skills to do so on your own, Office365 gives you a very viable alternative.

LotusLive vs. Office 365 : Trial Comparison 1

In the posts I published today ( Office 365 | LotusLive ), I set out to register for both LotusLive and Office 365 for a small group of 5 users to pilot the features of these competitive products.  Initial reactions were:

Office 365

• Simple and intuitive interface.
• Straight forward set of features, Document Sharing, Email, Calendar, Instant Messaging, and Online Meetings.

LotusLive

• Comprehensive set of features.
• Excellent list of native and third-party tools available for the trial.

The immediate contrasts that I recognized were:

1. Office 365 only gives you the basic services, while LotusLive immediately makes a LARGE number of applications available to you during the demo.  LotusLive gives you Activities, Forms, and Charts which seem extremely useful in a business deployment.
2. LotusLive only allows you to use their sub-domain while Office 365 gives you the ability to make a custom sub-domain to personalize your experience in a unique way.
3. LotusLive has a more prominent link to their help to get you started.
4. Office 365 appears to make ActiveSync available to trial members, while it seems mobile email access would be achieved through IMAP or POP3 for LotusLive’s trial.
5. Branding of the LotusLive interface is well documented in the product help.
6. Office 365 immediately presents you with links to help configure your native PC applications (Outlook, Office, etc.) to work with their service.  LotusLive has documentation on configuring local applications to interact with their service, but it requires more steps and user intervention.
7. LotusLive has content tagging built intuitively into their offering.  Office 365 does not have as comprehensive of a content tagging system.
8. As one would expect, the social aspect of LotusLive (Connections) is much more prominent, while Office 365 is very centered around document based collaboration and simplicity of access to common office computing facilities like email and calendaring.

In all, it is obvious to me that these are competitive products.  The experience similarities of the common features like email, calendaring, etc. is what you would expect of rival products from IBM and Microsoft.  The largest difference to me is that IBM’s solution gives organizations more tools or applications.  Integrating with third party CRM solutions, document signing/validation, and so many other apps gives an organization a full spectrum solution in which to run their business.  Office is really focused on bringing Office content to users everywhere and anywhere a browser or smart phone can reach.

The documentation, videos, guides, wikis available and easily accessible for LotusLive are as comprehensive as their offering, but you could argue that it needs to be.  Without some guidance, I can see how someone looking for just the office basics could be lost.  LotusLive does give an administrator the ability to shut off or unsubscribe from applications they do not intend to use which will certainly clean things up for the users, but out-of-the-box… everything is turned on.  Office 365 feels lacking to me in the documentation department, but arguably, its simplicity and smaller set of features enables users to more easily just stumble through the service with little need for hand-holding.

I like both offerings.  Office 365 does make it a bit easier to get a whole group up and running as it provides an interface for importing a list of users in a few simple steps as I discovered, and LotusLive does not allow for multi-user registration without seeking the intervention of an IBM representative.

When evaluating these two products, it seems to be a good idea to seek some references.  Ask for opinions of others who have already adopted each solution and see what features they like/use the most.  What do they not like.  These opinions, when filtered through what your organization finds to be important, canl make for an easier time navigating these two different approaches to cloud delivered enterprise tools.

Other considerations I see include:

• Migration Process
• Costs (which I understand to be comparable)
• Accessibility for Users
• Existing IT Assets to Integrate with

I personally like both offerings, each for their own strengths.  I hope this insight helps.

LotusLive: User Registration

I signed up for a 60 day trial of LotusLive to test drive the features and user experience.  The registration process was simple enough to navigate.  The only hiccup I experienced was upon completion of my registration, there was no intuitive way to progress.  The next step was actually to wait for an email to complete my registration and setup my password.  This was not clearly defined as the path and I felt abandoned on the completion page.

Once I confirmed my registration, I was presented with My Dashboard.  First impression is that the LotusLive suite of tools available to me is very comprehensive.  It is way more than just email, chat, meetings, and file sharing.  We will spend some time on these features in another post.  The first step, just like I decided was the initial step for Office 365, is to register my users.

From My Dashboard, I selected the Administration link at the top of the page.

I then selected User Accounts from the left side of the Administration page.

From here, I clicked on Add User Account.

The form that was presented asked me for the necessary information to setup the user and map this ID to my available licenses and applications.

You must reach the bottom of the form to find the field to setup the user’s email address in LotusLive.

The completion indication takes you back to the User Accounts summary and informs you of the ID creation status and the number of available IDs you have left to license.

I then proceeded to locate the facility to allow me to import a list of users for my trial.  I did not find anything intuitively, so I clicked on the Administration help guide.  The User Registration help read:

So there you have it.  As a trial, you can only register users one at a time.

IBM @ 100

Interesting article.  Give it a read:

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0627/focus-sam-palmisano-watson-christensen-ibm-at-100.html

June is Learn XPages Month!

http://xpages.info/Internal/home.nsf/dx/Learn-XPages-Month

If you have not heard, pass the word!

Highlights:

• OpenNTF.org XPages Contest, win an iPad:
  http://contest.openntf.org/
• Free XPages Workshop, sponsored by TLCC on June 2nd and 3rd - Join TLCC's instructors in this free two hour webinar designed for Domino Developers with no (or very little ) XPages experience. This webinar will have hands-on activites to get you started with XPages! There are two identical sessions planned for June 2nd at 3:00 PM (EDT) or June 3rd at 8:00 AM (EDT).
  Click here to get more information on the Free XPages Workshop
• XPages Guru Webinar on June 1st - This webinar is a great way to learn what XPages can do for you. Six XPages experts will discuss what XPages are, case studies, the benefits of XPages, migration to XPages, the roadmap to getting to XPages, and resources for XPages developers. The date is June 1st at 11:00 AM Eastern time.
  Click here to sign up for this webinar

IE9 Support

So it would seem support for Firefox was already addressed by Lotus iNotes, and they are projecting IE9 support in the forthcoming release Domino 8.5.3.  The current target for the release is Q3 2011.

Inspirational WebAdmin

I don’t often have a need to use the Domino WebAdmin interface, but Friday I found a need to do so.  I logged in and was greeted with the following:

I had no idea IBM was so flattering… it made me chuckle, so I had to share.

SpigitEngage & FB = COOL??

IBM Thinks So…

http://www.spigit.com/2011/04/ibm-launches-its-cool-software-contest-with-spigitengage-for-facebook/

XPages Forum Template

https://greenhouse.lotus.com/blogs/lotustechinfo/entry/xpages_forum_template_is_now_available_for_download?lang=en_us

It is available now for download.  Thanks Amanda and company for getting this out to us!

Lotus teams with WebSphere to release a NEW Portal certification

From IBM:

This certification is the first of its kind in IBM Collaboration Solutions in that it transcends the typical product divisions associated with IBM certifications by recognizing skills developed using another brand's technology, in this case WebSphere Application Server.
To achieve this certification, an individual needs to obtain certification in Portal 7 System Administration and then take the applicable Websphere test. Here is the complete path:
Achieve "IBM Certified System Administrator - WebSphere Portal 7.0"
AND Pass "000-377 - IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V7.0, Core Administration"

Is This Science Fiction, or IBM Innovation?

http://venturebeat.com/2011/04/03/ibm-researchers-create-nanomedicine-to-kill-bacteria-where-antibiotics-fail/?obref=obinsite

While I am not typically interested in what IBM is doing with “hardware” these days, the potential that this technology brings to the world is undeniable.  Kudos to IBM.  This is truly where SciFi and reality meet.

Registration now open: IBM Exceptional Web Experience Conference 2011

In case you missed it, the IBM Exceptional Web Experience Conference 2011 registration has started.  This conference is dedicated to helping organizations be more successful by highlighting proven business solutions and technical strategies designed to keep pace with rapidly evolving web user demand and expectations.

The conference will be held May 16 - 19, 2011 at the Buena Vista Palace Hotel in Lake Buena Vista, FL.

More information and registration.

PuTTY Access to IBM Cloud

At LS11, IBM offered some of us the opportunity to preview a Domino server in the IBM Cloud.  I was able to score a test account and just provisioned my instance.  Chris Miller @ IdoNotes had a great video to get you started on configuring your account and first instance in this video.  Once I was up and running, I tried to connect to my instance via SSH as the dashboard boasted I could do.  During the provisioning of the instance, you are prompted to associate a private RSA key with the instance.  If you do not have one already, the provisioning site helps you generate one and save it to your computer.  It is associated with your IBM ID you used to create the cloud instance.  You are also prompted to create an Admin ID, but this is apparently the first Domino user for this domain created with this instance. 

TIP: Remember your Domino admin password.  The Username is Admin.  You can download the ID file once you gain access to the web administrator from the person document.

At the bottom of the administration console, there was some information about accessing the newly started instance.

After entering the IDs it listed in the administration console, I realized I needed to configure PuTTY to use the pre-shared key I created during provisioning to access the server.

Since many people are running Domino on Windows, or do not have a PSK infrastructure in place for securing their Domino servers running on Unix/Linux I figured this may be a good piece of information to share with everyone.

If you did not download the whole PuTTY package, download PuTTYgen.  Once you have PuTTYgen, launch it.  Then proceed to click on File > Load private key

Browse to the RSA key file you used or downloaded when configuring your IBM Cloud account.

PuTTYgen will tell you it successfully opened a SSH-2 PSK and it will need to be converted to the PuTTY format for it to work.  Click OK.  You can then create a key file passphrase in the provided fields in the middle.

Select File > Save private key and save the PPK (PuTTY Pre-shared Key) file somewhere that you will remember.

Now that you have converted your key to PuTTY format, you can configure PuTTY to use the key file as the authentication mechanism for accessing your IBM Cloud server.  After establishing the session information in the initial screen, like IP address of your server and the protocol to use, navigate to Connection > SSH > Auth, and use the Browse button to locate your PPK file you just created.

Return to the Session screen at the top of the left column and save your session.  You will now be able to connect to your IBM Cloud server via SSH.  Just provide the correct user, idcuser, and you are all set.

IBM’s Watson

I received this email today, and thought I would pass it along.  It had some links of interest if you intend to follow Watson as it competes on Jeopardy.

IBM's Watson

A computing system that rivals a human's ability to answer questions

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Dear Business Partner,

As you may know, a team of IBM mathematicians and computer scientists have worked for the past four years on a new technology, one capable of transforming business and society. This has enormous implications for you as a Business Partner and represents an opportunity to incorporate this exciting technology in new solutions and applications for our mutual clients.

The IBM Researchers set out to accomplish a grand challenge - build a computing system that rivals a human's ability to answer questions posed in natural language with speed, accuracy and confidence. The results are a computing system named Watson which will compete on the U.S.-based TV game show Jeopardy! against the show's two most successful human contestants on February 14, 15 and 16.

Jeopardy! provides the ultimate challenge because the game's clues involve analyzing subtle meaning, irony, riddles and other complexities in which humans excel and computers traditionally do not. Watson's ability to understand the meaning and context of human language, and then rapidly process information to find precise answers to complex questions, holds enormous potential to transform how computers help people accomplish tasks in business and their personal lives.

Watson's Question Answering (QA) technology enables the system to analyze massive amounts of data and will help people rapidly find specific answers to complex questions. The technology could be applied to health care for assistance in accurately diagnosing patients, to improving online self-service help desks, providing tourists and citizens with specific information regarding cities, and much more. You may want to learn more about the initiative by watching this introductory video.

Crucial to the project are eight universities that are collaborating with IBM Researchers to advance the QA technology behind the Watson computing system. The Open Advancement of Question Answering Initiative, established in 2008 by IBM and Carnegie Mellon University, aims to provide a foundational architecture and methodology for accelerating collaborative research in automatic question answering.

Win or lose, IBM's Watson represents a big step in shifting the way we look at computers from today's "calculators" to "machines that learn." Watson is a powerful demonstration that the era of learning systems is indeed upon us, where computing will go beyond increased storage, better search and more complex analytics to systems that help humanity reach its greatest potential for human creativity, innovation and ingenuity.

At IBM we look forward to working with you to find creative ways to apply this exciting technology to new business opportunities. Don't hesitate to contact us for more information, or to discuss ways we can apply the technology we've developed in Watson to pivotal issues in your industry.

Regards,

Jim Corgel                                         Claudia Fan Munce
General Manager                                Managing Director, IBM Venture Capital Group
IBM ISVs and Developer Relations       Vice President, IBM Corporate Strategy