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Both Alan Lepofsky and Ed Brill have posted articles about extending Notes 8 through plug-ins and composite applications… but I thought I’d share this one with you, a great example of something being rolled out within IBM. Chris Freestone of the Lotus Technical Sales team here in the UK has developed a plug-in which provides members of the Financial Services business unit with a quick reference guide to who in Technical Sales (across the five IBM software brands) has expertise in which products.

The data source at the back-end is a good ol’ Domino database, but it could be anything (just a matter of Chris telling the Eclipse plug-in what to read). And you can see from the screenshot here that the names are made live by the wonders of Sametime… double-clicking starts a conversation with the person you’re looking for (even if they’re on a mobile device).

This is version 1.0, and I know that Chris already has some enhancements planned for the next upgrade (actually this should be version 1.0.1 because he did a small tweak to make it automatically collapsed when opened).

So, it’s a great example of quickly and easily extending Notes’ functionality, addresses a business requirement (quickly finding and connecting with people), and also demonstrates integration with other plugged-in solutions (i.e. Sametime). Nice one Chris. Try doing this with Outlook.

Today marked the 16th anniversary of the day I started with Lotus Development (now part of the IBM Software Group). After two weeks in Customer Support I wanted to leave, but I stuck at it, moved onto Technical Sales (eventually became the manager of North Region), and I’m now loving my current role of Messaging & Collaboration Sales Leader for UKISA.

When I started at Lotus, we were using Notes version 2.0a, and 1-2-3 version 2.4 for DOS was the top-selling product. Windows 3.1 hadn’t yet been released, and Lotus were actively supporting OS/2 as an alternative. All these years later, I’m still based at Lotus Park in Staines (despite the frequent rumours that the location will be closed).

Only once during the sixteen years have I actively pursued a job with another company, nothing came of it and I’m really quite glad about it.

After more than sixteen years Notes is still in the market and we have the best product ever. 2006 saw continued year-on-year growth, the Lotus brand grew by 23% for the year, 2,000 companies joined the Notes / Domino customer base… and according to IDC we grew market share while Microsoft slipped. The whole portfolio is the strongest it’s ever been and there’s more great stuff to come (I’m particularly excited about something coming in 2008 that I can’t say too much about).

Domino, in so many ways, knocks spots off Microsoft Exchange… if only so many companies didn’t have an inexplicable case of Microsoft-lust. Still in this quarter we have enough Exchange knock-out opportunities to keep me believing there are enough people continuing to see the light.

Having been handed a very unlikely life-line by Isreal at the weekend, all England had to do was draw (at home) with Croatia. Just a draw.

McClaren decided to drop Paul Robinson because, as far as we the public could see, he had been unreliable… so Scott Carson started in goal. David James, with years of experience under his belt and having a great season between the sticks for Portsmouth (ignore the Reading game), was the second choice. Irony, as we know, is a fickle mistress, and thus Croatia’s first goal was caused by Carson’s schoolboy error (apologies to any schoolboys reading this).

By the time the second Croatia goal went in, I was at the stage of not being able to decide whether the drama unfolding was comic or tragic. By half-time I had the awful feeling that I wanted a third Croatia goal so that McClaren’s misery could be absolutely, gloriously complete. England were utterly rubbish in the first half. While Croatia looked well-organised and dangerous on the break, England were a shambles.

Croatia obviously had better studs on their boots as they seemed to manage to keep their footing while England slid around like Oliver Reed appearing in ‘Magic Moments from the Keystone Cops on Ice’ (while pissed). And who decided it was a good idea to let our American friends pound the pitch wearing body armour in a game that’s based on diving headlong across the turf… in Autumn, when it’s wet and there isn’t much sunlight? Wembley Stadium, the pride of England, sported a Sunday league-style surface.

As the seconds ticked away, following England’s two goals and Croatia’s third (in the words of the Incubus song “you should be careful what you wish for”) it was pointed out that we could still qualify if Andorra pulled a goal back against Russia. Andorra has a population of about 72,000 but Andorran’s are a minority in their own country (more than 67% of inhabitants are of other nationalities)… you get the point, it wasn’t going to happen.

The BBC web site reports that Steve McClaren has insisted he will not step down. Well, if he doesn’t do us all a favour I hope the FA do, preferably tomorrow.

So that’s it, no UK teams in Euro 2008. Northern Ireland got very near and should be very proud - “something to build on” would be an understatement. Scotland (I’m proud to be half-Scottish) got very near too and did far better than was expected - just falling at the last hurdle, but against world champions Italy there is nothing to be ashamed of. England on the other hand… I’ll use Ports’ word… “pathetic”.

First bit of news… I’ve recorded yet another video, this time for VNU. It was an interview-style video, mainly about the Lotus brand and Notes 8, but also touching on other parts of the portfolio. I did it in one take, but we did another so they could get some flexibility in the final edit. A bit quicker than my ZDNet performance.

Secondly, my frolleague Brendan Tutt is this week’s star of ZDNet talking about social software… specifically, although not mentioned as per the rules, Lotus Connections. Brendan is a modest man, but I think you’ll agree he does a great job, a very polished delivery, on this subject. Click on the piccie to access this masterpiece.

Finally… oh I love this. The power of viral marketing. It’s a bit of a poke at the Redmond giants and an advert for Lotus Symphony all in one. Check out “Tired of Feeding the Machine?” on YouTube. You might be interested to know that there have been over a quarter of a million downloads of Symphony since it was first announced, and those downloads are continuing at a steady rate.

And while I’m at it I might as well mention that I’m now running Notes 8.0.1 (beta 1). A few new things (like e-mailing a Symphony document directly from the toolbar, and the mail quota indicator), it has Sametime 8 built-in (nice) and all-in-all it seems a bit more zippy and responsive than 8.0 (and this is on a old laptop which I’m using while my T60 is being repaired).

I wasn’t going to write anything about this match, but I can’t let this go. Following today’s 2-2 draw, Moan Utd’s whining old scrote of a manager Dame Alice Ferguson accused referee Howard Webb of favouring Arsenal. Hang on, was he watching the same match as me? In the match I watched, ManUre got a free kick almost every time Arsenal made a tackle on a Utd player. In the same match, Utd’s Anderson committed three bookable offences yet only got booked once (and hence he avoided being sent off). Also, during this match, Utd were awarded a free kick when the odious grease-monkey Ronaldo fell over with no contact whatsoever from Gael Clichy. And finally, the referee wouldn’t have given the second Arsenal goal had the assistant referee not spotted that the ball had clearly gone over the line. So if that’s favouring Arsenal, I hate to think what would have happened if he’d got it in for them.

There was a time when my beloved GameCube suited my needs. The graphics weren’t as good as some as it’s competitors, but it did offer Sega Soccer Slam. Enough said. Later in it’s lifespan I became addicted to FIFA 05, and I’m still progressing through the fifteen year career mode. Career mode is where you become a virtual manager, put a squad together and try to win as much as possible (and also control the players in every game, unless you elect to simulate the match and let the console take over).

Currently I’m managing Arsenal in the year 2015… I started at Leyton Orient (got them promoted and won the F A Cup), then managed Reading before moving onto Monaco (where I put Wayne Rooney, Fernando Torres and Ashley Cole in my line-up), then onto Real Madrid (welcome aboard Mr Steven Gerrard), and then AC Milan. Having brought more success to these already successful teams, I thought I’d bring some of my managerial magic to a team that needed it - Spurs. After two seasons of winning everything (the Premier League, domestic and European trophies) I moved onto Arsenal but failed to get many of my elite Spurs squad to join me. Not that it matters, I’m romping to success anyway.

Other fun aspects included buying greasy diving one-trick-pony Christiano Ronaldo from Man Utd, letting him rot in the Spurs reserves and watching his morale sink like a mafia informer wearing concrete wellies. I did also consider opting to manage Man Utd, selling all their best players, buying crap players, scoring own goals and guiding them to relegation, but I had my impeccable rating to preserve.

Compared to what can now be achieved on the modern consoles, the graphics on GameCube games leave a lot to be desired. But now I have a Wii, there seemed to be an obvious thing to go on my Christmas list… FIFA 08 Wii edition. But then I heard the news that was so catastrophic to my plan - the Wii edition doesn’t feature career mode. And let’s be honest, that’s a bit sh*t.

So now I have three options. The first is to wait until 2008 when Pro Evolution Soccer for the Wii is released. The second and third options are Xbox 360 or PS3 with FIFA 08 in whatever format. This is where I’m stuck (it’s a bit like the Archos versus iPod Touch argument which is still rattling around inside my head).

Choddo, a man who missed out on a mis-spent youth and now endulges in a mis-spent adulthood when he gets time, was absolute in his support for the Xbox. For a moment I thought he was going drive over and frog-march me into the Game store in Camberley to buy one… and they do have the Halo 3 editions of the Xbox in stock (nice shade of green, eh?). But while in the Camberley branch of Game the rather over-enthusiastic assistant manager all but declared his undying love and devotion to the PS3. According to him the graphics are better, the motion sensor controls are great, and the Blu-ray DVD player is an added bonus (assuming Sony win that format war).

Thoughts and opinions welcome.