Okay, first here’s the caveats. Lotus Notes 8.5.1 will be released “soon” – I know when but I’m not telling you. Also, this post relates to a future product and as such some of the discussed features may change or be absent from the shipping product – it’s unlikely but I’m covering my own posteriour.

Notes 8.5.1 is primarily a maintenance release – in the past a maintenance release would usually be devoid of new features, but IBM Lotus’ agile development process allows new features to be slipped in where possible and provided that big changes to the core code aren’t required. So here’s a quick run-down of some of the new features. By the way, some people may look at some of these and say “huh, my mail client already has that” or “that’s a catch-up feature”. If you do, fine, knock yourself out.

1. Accept / decline a calendar invite from the preview pane, and other calendar actions like checking your calendar. Nice.
2. Auto-correct – type in ‘teh’ and it’ll correct to ‘the’, and of course many other common items of finger-based chaos will be corrected too. Oh, and double-capitals, and starting a sentence with a lower-case letter.
3. Mouse resizing of table columns, and dragging contents from one cell to another. And you can shift-click to create new columns and rows.
4. Text tools on the tool bar – such as a colour picker and highlighter pen.
5. A much-simpler and quicker method of inserting a URL or assigning a URL to selected text.
6. You can now select a preference for unread e-mail – bold black or normal red.
7. There’s some more roaming improvements, including roaming of the Notes workspace.
8. Empty your Trash folder with a right-hand mouse click.
9. Drag an e-mail onto the main or side-bar calendar to create a new calendar entry.
10. Drag shortcuts and documents onto the open button and bookmark bar.
11. Numerous archive improvements – a visual indicator that you’re looking at an archive, and a ‘Recently Archived’ folder shows you what you, errr, recently archived. It’s also easier to open an archived e-mail from the summary that remains in your main mail box.
12. Append a vCard to your mail signature.
13. Improvements to the process of creating a widget, including making a widget from a plugin. And you can look at widgets as a list in the side-bar.
14. Add a Notes view as a search engine to the search bar (very nice and very useful).
15. Add another web search engine to the search bar – for example, I just added dictionary.com.
16. XPages support for the Notes client – I’d be lying if I said I fully understood it, but I’ve had a go and it works. The offline support means that you can create what looks and acts like a web application when used through a web browser, but then run it offline with the same look and feel in the Notes client with a single design.
17. And there’s loads of new things in the Domino Administrator, on the Domino server itself, and in iNotes (like unread message count on folders).
18. Last-minute addition – you can now set up to ten sender colours to distinguish e-mails from important people. Previously you could have just three. I wonder if this is a good idea – setting ten colours could be seen as going overboard, and may take the focus away from those few important people. Still, if you like a bit of colour in your life, here’s to the rainbow inbox.

This afternoon I was putting together some material for the Sametime Unified Telephony events that are taking place over the next two weeks. One of the slides covers how we used to work many years ago (i.e. you went to the office, really no other option) versus how we can work now given the improved and more accessible means of communication (the Internet playing a fairly big part) and the increased capabilities of technology solutions. To go with this slide, I needed an example of what this actually means and how it can manifest itself… and I only had to recall an example from earlier this week.

Regular readers of dadams.co.uk will know that I’ve been to Denmark this week. Every Wednesday at 17:00 UK time I have a call with some colleagues in the US and around Europe – normally not a problem, but this week I was handed a dilemma. 17:00 UK time equates to 18:00 in Denmark, so I was faced with the fact that the call wouldn’t end until 19:00. I didn’t know the implications of being in the Lyngby office at 19:00 – I could find myself locked in. Also, I’d been offered a lift back to the hotel at 17:00, thus avoiding another extortionate taxi fare. However, having a UK mobile phone in another country means an expensive international call.

But here’s where these converging aspects of communication and technology play their part. The hotel offered free Internet access. My laptop has Sametime Unified Telephony installed (and I had brought my Plantronics headset with me). So the simple solution was to use SUT to dial the US conference call number, thus being a local call for the SUT infrastructure… but as far as I was concerned I was just using the free Internet connection. And that’s it. SUT solved the problem. I said it was a simple story.

Travelling from Heathrow to Copenhagen on the world’s favourite airline allowed me to pick up a copy of the Daily Mail, a newspaper well-known for it’s traditional values. I guess it depends which historical figures you judge to be traditional… Adolf Hitler maybe? Anyway, there was an amazing picture of a 25 foot great white shark on page 3, and while coming into land I had to turn off the Archos and my eye caught a reader’s letter. This wasn’t the usual old guff from people who still believe Britain has an empire and that National Service will cure homosexuality… oh no, this is, shall we say, priceless and involves the sweet wrapper seen here.

Taking a glance at the picture, you have to ask “what is the green chap doing”? I can’t really come up with any good explanation, but I do know it’s not half as questionable as the cherry version (don’t take my word for it, Google it). Even if I was to believe the worst, I wouldn’t be bothered to write an enraged letter to the Daily Mail. But that’s okay because Mr Simpkins from Pontefract has done it for us.

Angry Mr Simpkins describes the illustration as appalling and says that the lime (he’s not actually a lime, he’s just a green character) wears a “lurid and distasteful expression”. By the point I was so appalled I was laughing. The letter goes on to describe a heated exchange of words with the shop manager (yep, like it’s his fault) which resulted in Mrs Simpkins becoming so distressed she had to sit down in the car park. Mr Simpkins was glad he prevented his children from seeing the image – like most normal children I’m sure they study sweet wrappers intensely, checking the sugar and E-number levels before deciding whether or not to consume them.

After writing to the manufacturer, Haribo, Mr Simpkins received an unsatisfactory reply denying any intention of naughtiness, and he is now urging members of his church to boycott Haribo products. There was no further indication as to whether Mrs Simpkins was still in the car park in a sitting or standing position. I’m sure that if she saw the cherry flavour wrapper she’d need a lie-down.

Incidentally, Mr Simpkins isn’t the first to complain about the Maoam wrappers. Back in 2004 the Blasien Jesuit College claimed that “the sweets wrapped in bright yellow, red and green colours show lemons, limes, strawberries, cherries and oranges romping with each other”. This is clearly an inaccurate statement, as the green chap is clearly not a lime. But it’s a good job Haribo decided against the banana flavour.

I’ve noticed something strange. Opposite my hotel there’s a cinema surrounded by several cafes and restaurants, and last night the area was a hive of activity… loads of people in the cinema queue and waiting to be seated at the various eating establishments. Tonight, it’s like a ghost town.

Possible explanations… Tuesday is two-for-one night at the cinema… FC Copenhagen are playing a Champions’ League qualifier and the good people of the Copenhagen suburbs are staying in to watch it on television… or maybe there’s some other reason that I’ll never be party to because I’m not Danish.

Following yesterday’s post, I know you’re dying to know what the sign by the shower says and means. I’ll put you out of your misery… the sign reads:

Til forskel fra sæbe i bittesmå pakker gør denne sæbe både dig og miljøet renere.

And naturally this means:

Unlike soap in tiny packages make this soap you and the environment cleaner.

So not the first verse from Denmark’s 1997 Eurovision Song Contest entry. No, it’s the second verse from their 1983 entry which came 17th.

Good evening everyone. I am in Denmark, which is enormously exciting as I’ve never been to Denmark before. I’ve been telling everyone I was going to Copenhagen, which was true in a way – I landed at Copenhagen airport, passed through Copenhagen on the train, but eventually got off at Lyngby (which I think is pronounced Lungbu). So you’ve probably guessed I’m not on holiday – Lyngby is the location of IBM’s main office in Denmark. Some observations:

• Out of the window of the airplane I saw the huge bridge which stretches to Malmo (that’s in Sweden) and a huge wind farm. On the subject of Malmo, when I looked up hotels on IBM’s travel system it suggested Malmo. Malmo is in another country, but it is within 30 miles of Copenhagen… so it was so wrong but yet right.
• The first thing I noted after disembarking was a video screen sporting a Windows Blue-Screen-of-Death. I gave up taking photos of these a long time ago, but it’s comforting to see familiar things when travelling.
• The Danish train system is inexpensive and (based on limited experience) efficient. Mind you, compared with English trains… you know what I mean.
• If I could compare Lyngby to an English town it would be Staines, which is ironic and a tiny bit depressing.
• The hotel room doesn’t have tea-making facilities, which means that right now I’d rather be at (pick a location from the air) the Hilton at Manchester Airport.
• I have absolutely no idea what the sign by the shower means – it might be something to do with re-using towels or not wasting water, but it could also be the first verse from Denmark’s 1997 Eurovision Song Contest entry. Either way, I haven’t got a clue. If I get really bored I’ll type it into Google Translate.
• BBC iPlayer only works in Britain, so I can’t watch tonight’s episode of EastEnders.

Butler Group have published an in-depth report on IBM Lotus Connections. One important thing to note is that the report was based on Connections 2.0.1 so some of the comments are not up-to-date – for example, the lack of a wiki capability is cited as a weakness. With Connections 2.5 (shipping end of this week) that weakness is removed, and I’ll stand by my previous post and again say that the new version puts us even further ahead of the competition.

The report says good things about the activity-centric approach to collaboration and task management:

Unlike other offerings on the market, such as Microsoft SharePoint, Lotus Connections’ task management capabilities are organised around an activity-centric approach…

..and also states that Connections scores top marks for integration with Microsoft technology. The overall conclusion is that IBM Lotus is in the leadership position for enterprise-grade social collaboration:

Lotus Connections compares very favourable [sic] to other offerings on the market. IBM’s closest competitor, Microsoft, has its SharePoint-based offering, but this does not yet offer the features and level of integration displayed by Lotus Connections.

Lotus Connections puts IBM in a strong position in this increasingly important market.

All quotes are taken from Butler Group’s technology audit Lotus Connections version 2.0.1. The copyright of the report remains with Butler Group.

This is going to be a rubbish blog post, because on the way into the studio I had to sign a confidentiality agreement. I’d already left the camera at home having been told it would be confiscated, but I had planned a little report about a visit to the set of a major movie which is currently being filmed. However, part of the agreement was not to divulge any details via Twitter, Facebook or blogging. I wouldn’t want to incur the wrath of a film company but I also wouldn’t want to betray the trust of a close friend who arranged it.

So, what can I tell you? Not much, but it was an awesome day out. We saw movie sets, and walked in some of them. We saw existing props, some new ones in production and even held some famous items. We saw artwork and models. But best of all we saw some of the stars including ‘the big three’ and some other major names… the shooting schedule meant we struck lucky as it coincided with a scene including so many of the major characters. It’s incredible what goes on behind the scenes and on set, and the level of detail was unbelievable. It was pointed out that a small item may appear 10 foot high on a large cinema screen, so they can’t scrimp on the detail.

All I can say in summary is that we had a ‘wizard’ day, and I’m very grateful to our hosts and the many people who have us a tour of their departments.

In September, the Lotus team in Sweden will be holding their Gold Club event – a meeting (with dinner thrown in) for their most valued customers. Our Swedish country manager Kristoffer invited me (in my new capacity) to come over and talk to the assembled audience about how Lotus solutions were helping customers to reduce costs and improve efficiency. “No problem” I said – Sweden is a nice place to visit and there’s nothing I like more than hearing my own voice talking about our wonderful portfolio of products. Well, actually there are a few things I like more, but let’s keep this work-related.

After a few minutes mulling this proposition, I had an idea… instead of just me talking about customer successes, why not actually get in a real breathing carbon-based life-form from our customer base to present to this group of Nordic captains of industry? It would have to be someone from an organisation who had a presence in Sweden and who was a willing advocate of Lotus solutions… I knew just the man. And so it was that I got in touch with Mark Calleran, CIO of The Salvation Army.

If you attended either the London or Manchester-based Lotusphere Comes To You events this year, you’ll have seen Mark present. His content was a mixture of what The Salvation Army do and then how they use Lotus technology – it actually gives me a good feeling when I hear about our solutions helping this wonderful organisation to provide relief around the world and generally do work to improve the life of millions of people. And comments afterwards are generally along the lines of “I never knew The Salvation Army did so many things”.

Fortunately Mark agreed, and now we come to the point of the blog post. Suddenly it wasn’t just Kristoffer and me collaborating on content and logistics, we had someone from outside of IBMland taking part in the process… someone without access to the IBM network and certainly no ability to login to our Connections infrastructure. This is where LotusLive Engage came to our rescue.

As IBMers, Kristoffer and I have LotusLive Engage accounts, and I was already connected to Mark. Kristoffer found Mark, connected with him and invited him to the newly-created activity. And since then it’s been as simple as that… we’ve used the activity to track the agenda, the synopses of our talks, biography information, and hotel and travel details. It was very easy to allow people from two (very different) organisations to collaborate.

Of course, I didn’t get away without a small task to take to Product Management – when can Mark have an activities plug-in for Notes 8.5 which allows a view of both his internal activities and those from LotusLive Engage? Hmmm… answer: in a forthcoming version, probably / maybe. In the meantime, I’m sure that we’ll be demonstrating our Pokens to an audience of esteemed Swedes.

IBM Lotus Sametime Unified Telephony (let’s say SUT to avoid the mouthful) is garnering a huge amount of interest from our customers and analysts. To provide an opportunity to hear more about the solution and how it can benefit your organisation, we’ve laid on two events during September – in Edinburgh on the 3rd and at IBM South Bank (London) on the 8th.

To register for the SUT events, please click here. I hope to see you there.

Outside it’s August, even though the weather has been a bit September-ish, even October-ish, at times. But for collaboration guru Stuart McIntyre, today was like Christmas… although to be more accurate it should be Christmas next week as IBM Lotus Connections 2.5 will be released on 28th August. Like a small lad unwrapping presents, Stuart has been twittering and blogging about the new release during today – and like him I’m excited too.

Yes, I am excited, even though we’ve been using Connections 2.5 internally for a number of months. Our Connections deployment was upgraded half-way through the work on my Lotusphere Comes To You preparation – I should know, I had to re-record some of the presentation to incorporate the new features. So if you saw that presentation at one the three events, that was a preview of the new version. There’s two new major additions and heaps of improvements to the existing capabilities, so what follows is a quick tour.

Firstly, the major new additions are Files and Wikis. Files allows you to share files, either to everyone for public consumption or for targeted individuals. A file depositor has their own file space, they can tag the files, they see how many times a file has been downloaded, and also add them to ‘collections’ (something you’ll also find in LotusLive Engage). Collections are rather nifty as they allow you to package up a number of files to share with other people, and they can easily see the set of files rather than having to sift through the others to find them. Click on the Files image on the right to see a screenshot. Consumers of information can recommend files (nice for other people as they can see which have been downloaded and have been useful) and leave comments.

I may have mentioned it before, but I hate file attachments in e-mails – they clog up your inbox and constantly make you have to deal with your mail quota. It’s causes ME work when some thoughtless colleague dumps a huge attachment in an e-mail – their bad habit becomes my problem. This is why I love Files… more frequently now we’re uploading files and adding the URL to an e-mail, or letting the action of sharing notify the recipient. It’s better for the e-mail infrastructure and it’s better for co-ordination of content.

The new Wiki service really does what you’d expect it to – it allows you to create multi-page wikis, control the membership and editorship, and track changes in the versions created as the team works on the documents. Click on the Wiki image on the left to see a screenshot.

As well as these two new major components there are significant updates to some of the existing Connections components. The home page now has a number of interfaces to suit the preference and needs of the user – they can look at the Twitter-like update page, the ‘Discover’ page (which provides not just status updates but any public items updated within any of the Connections components), ‘Watchlist’ – updates from specific colleagues of your choosing – and also the updated ‘My page’ which provides customisation by dragging and dropping of widgets.

Profiles also display a Twitter-like status page and allow you to leave comments against the status of people in your network. The layout has been improved, and it’s easier to see your colleague’s communities, bookmarks, blogs, activities and files. Dogear has now been renamed to ‘Bookmarks’ – apparently Dogear wasn’t translating very well into non-English languages, and Bookmarks really does what it says and doesn’t need much explanation.

Personally I’m most fond of the improvements to Communities, and I think this is where the most useful improvements have surfaced. In version 2.0 a community was largely a list of people with some bookmarks, feeds and perhaps a discussion forum. In version 2.5 it’s fully embraced the concept of the ‘landing page’ – you land on this page and you can quickly see the important items for the community you’re a member of.

Click on the Community image (other there on the right) for a screenshot.

I run a community internally (Messaging & Collaboration Resources for NE Europe) and anyone coming to the community page can easily see the most recent blog entries (containing important news), the important files which I shared, the most important bookmarks and feeds, a discussion forum, and any wikis we’re using. I could also add an Activity for the entire community to participate in.

There’s loads of other improvements and additions, but I think that’ll do for an overview. So where does this put Connections in the market? Well, you may recall that at the Enterprise 2.0 event in Boston in June 2008, IBM Lotus wiped the floor with Microsoft – SharePoint didn’t stack up against Connections’ strong social collaboration capabilities. Analysts and press agreed that IBM Lotus were at least a year ahead. To my knowledge, SharePoint hasn’t boosted it’s social collaboration capabilities since, but here’s a major update to Connections… so I’d say that puts us a lot more than a year ahead of Microsoft.