Collaboration Technology 2.0

This blog is going to formally launch next week so I thought I would check out CW virtual front page today, first we have UK government loses data on 25 million Britons followed closely by Fortnum & Mason improves store flexibility with new LAN. Now I am not decrying the Queen's grocers transition to the 21st century but juxtaposed against the former article it goes to show how little the general public get to understand the issues and activities that will change all of our lives as time moves on.

The Chinese Army is after your company's budget. That's the bottom line of reports in the Times and BBC. Jonathan Evans, Director-General of MI5, recently warned 300 chief executives and security chiefs in banks and accounting and legal firms that they are under attack from “Chinese state organisations”. You don't have to be doing business in China to come under fire. Apparently, competing with a Chinese backed interest is enough. That'll be most of us then. Bump defensive counterintelligence to status 'black' and gird up your security loins. Doing business with Chinese interests has immense cultural hurdles to overcome but if the person with whom you are negotiating a contract already knows your bottom line position then what was a profitable deal might become marginal.

Dear Diary

Last Thursday I attended the BCS / Computer Weekly Annual jamboree. Gosh is was fun, met lots of spiffing people and was fed lots of tasty tuck in the Refectory. The Headmistress and staff then gave out the house prizes to the chaps and chapesses who had excelled themselves during the last three terms.

Mostly is was usual suck-ups but one of the school houses did very well namely Spinvox. I was very impressed with their project. They will go very far when they leave school and join the rest of us in the big world of commerce.

BBC News is reporting on the death of the Netscape browser.

San Francisco back in 1994 had me standing in in the car park of the Lotus subsidiary cc:Mail being pointed towards a building nearby. 'That company is called Netscape" I was told, 'they are going to be big'. The web was a foetus, the internet was a primitive transport layer for the occasional SMTP mail and Microsoft had just bought a MHS based email system called Network Courier.

In the days before Lotus Domino there was Lotus Notes - yes I know that is a bit of a strange statement but until 1996 there was only Notes (Notes clients and Notes servers), everyone could develop applications and populations of departmental servers sprouted across small, medium and large enterprises.

In the meantime IT departments lived their lives in blissful ignorance of the impending loss of control of corporate unstructured data. Eleven years on and the echoes of those times have re-emerged in a set of predictions for 2008.

IBM super-blogger Ed Brill has pointed his large audience to an interesting set of predictions.

This is my first Lotusphere 2008 blog and I have a captive blog source. As I travel from London to Orlando there are a number of delegates on the flight who I have asked to share with me their expectations of next weeks IBM event.

In the season of American election Primaries there is a local fascination for a candidate labelled as the ‘come back kid’. This Lotusphere could herald a similar situation for IBM. Prior to the tomorrows Opening General Session the events attendance is approaching an all-time high of around 12,000. This reflects renewed interest generated last year by the introduction of Collaboration 2.0 products, Quickr, Connections, Activities and Eclipse based versions of Notes and Sametime.

According to Antony Savvas recent article in CW, a group of surveyed users indicated ‘E-mail is the most desired service for mobile phone users’. Today at Lotusphere IBM announced immediate availability of business grade email for the iPhone.

Lotusphere is not for the the faint-hearted, as I move into day two I have already been to four presentations, two one-to-ones and a couple of receptions. However I think I understand what is really important here today.

Wednesday’s theme (yes another keynote) was Social Networking for Business. Lotus Connections and Quickr were the lead products. Both of these products address elements in the delivery of social collaborative applications (wikis, blogs, affinity, etc). However they do overlap in some places and this will need to be addressed by IBM in coming product releases as customers on the whole respond better to a streamlined set of offerings.

Microsoft's bid for Yahoo has got myself and my fellow bloggers somewhat stimulated. There are assertations from Cliff and Jean-Paul that this is the end of MS as we know it. I agree to a small extent, but for me it is a leading indicator of something new. In a similar way to devices - if you can see and feel it then you are handling something that is out of date - Microsoft, like IBM, Cisco et all have been heavily re-inventing themselves over the past couple of years and what we see today making news is a pre-requisite to enable the new beasts that will emerge from the carcasses of the past.

I have been a bit frugal will my posts over the last few weeks. This is mostly due to the large number I posts I made during Lotusphere and a need to recharge my blogging batteries. However a small altercation has broken out on Ed Brill's most excellent blog that is worth bringing to your attention.

One of the big rumous prior to January's Lotusphere was the imminent arrival of some sort of Lotus Notes integration with the iPhone. When the annointed time came we were dissapointed with just a 'light' version of the web client being touted as the Apple solution.

Rumour had it that someone (high up) in Cupertino had thown their iToys out of the collaborative pram as the timing of the announcement did not suit them.

IT people know that the one thing you should never do if you want to retain access to all your applications, is change your name. Today one of my companies changed its name, from one nonsensical moniker to another. We risked more than just access to applications but we had two companies and now they are one, so one name had to go. Lincoln Burnett Associates vanished.

About this time last year I was taking a short break with my SO in Vegas, no business just pleasure.

This year the hordes of conventioneers have been led to Sin City by Microsoft at its third annual MIX event. To quote the event introduction:

Now in its third year, MIX is an intimate opportunity for cutting-edge technical, creative and business strategists to engage Microsoft in a conversation about the future of the web.

This seems very promising, however trolling through the news posts I have found a mixed bag of attitudes to MS (they will be a bit thick skinned to these by now). Considering it has only really started today (Tuesday) the nay-sayers seem to be jumping the gun a bit with thier prophecies of doom for Redmond !

I have known Ray (very slightly) for a long time now and I have watched his progress as the legendary progenitor of Lotus Notes moved from Iris to IBM and then from Groove to Microsoft (maybe he will get to rename it 'MicroRiff').

Earlier this week I predicted that Apple (and IBM) would be make some interesting announcement around Lotus yesterday (Thursday 7th March) - how wrong can I be.

It seems that the rumour that escaped just prior to Lotusphere really peeved the boys from the Infinite Loop and now a stony silence that has set in.

With Microsoft getting the drop on Lotus, Ed Brill has moved into a very effective defense mode (and its tough) to deal with the dissapointment that is already pervading the community.

I do hope that positive news comes along either before or at the same time as the upcoming Lotusphere comes to you events which are being held in Wembley and Manchester at the beginning of April

Mr Darling if you want a modern Britain then you have to enable change. Today's budget did nothing to stimulate or facilitate the adoption and renewal of IT infrastructure in this country.

My man Michael Pincher is back. He has not been loafing around as some have speculated but has been attacking the hounds of the establishment. The result is bite-marks - hey ho life is like that - but amongst the trials and tribulations MCP (as he is affectionly known) has had to suffer he has had time to ponder life, the universe and collaboration.

If you talk the talk you have to walk the walk (or so they say). My eye was caught by this posting on the BBC technology page:

'Web 2.0 is set to be embraced by Enterprise 2.0 as businesses prepare to spend nearly $5 billion by 2013 on social networking tools.....The news comes as San Francisco plays host to the Web 2.0 conference on next generation of the web.'

and

"This is where we see the future of the web," said conference co-chair Jennifer Pahlka. "The companies making announcements here are building that future."

Today at Web 2.0 we have seen Microsoft's pre-emptive strike (or is that 'we can do that too' strike) at all of its competitors (read this posting for details) however its all been avialable to see in bits for some time, considering this has been so predictable its doubles or trebles my frustration with IBM.

The recent Microsoft Mesh announcement at Web 2.0 provoked some calls of 'bias' by the BBC favouring MS. Some felt the coverage was disproportional with respect to the level of product being delivered beyond the usual promises and slide-ware. In a former life I worked for the Beeb so I have some interest in the veracity of this claim.

Simple research points to a broad market share figures (rounded on my part) which gives MS a 90% share, Apple a 7% share and all others (mostly Linux) a 3% share. Therefore it would be reasonable to expect news coverage in roughly the same proportion, using the following search terms 'Microsoft Windows', 'Apple Mac' and 'Linux' and out of curiousity 'IBM' the results were as follows:

The search was run on the BBC 'news' section only and I know the percentages are sort of spurious and that if I added in iPhone I would boost the Apple numbers, but by my reasoning the bias looks to be towards Apple not towards Microsoft.

By the way a search on IBM Lotus gave me 11 stories (and some of those are very interesting)

Last week I spent much of my 'after pool' time reading up on what was coming out of the Web 2.0 conference. Load and loads of stuff attracted my attention, however right now as I sit in a damp Cafe Nero in London, the key message that came across (to me) in a loud and clear voice was Ray Ozzie's pronouncement for support of OS's other than Microsoft's own.

This was of course greeted with howls of derision from those who have been both the benefactors or victims of Microsoft prior behaviour. I know Ray and I know his commitment to standards (proprietary and open), cross platform and scaleable solutions is fundamental of the man.

Time alone will tell, the scoffers may be right, my bet it that the model developing in Redmond right now is based on a broader appeal outside of its traditional patch and whether it controlled by MS or by some holier than though open-standards body will be moot to the outcome.

Love or hate Microsoft it is not smart to treat their stated directions with disdain.

All of this comes on the back of an 'upgrade' to ease the problems associated with the current version of the blogging platform used across the Reed Business Information titles here in the UK (and elsewhere for all I know). For months all of us have been dealing with instability, poor performance and a general lack of facility mainly due the old system was about 3 full releases behind the latest supported release. The first tentative upgrade was scheduled for the 14th April and the upgrade has been on and off since then.

You can guess what has happened, Computer Weekly (and the rest of the titles) has experienced the sort of 'gremlins' that we in the real world of organisational computing face on almost daily basis. It was not for a lack of planning, there appears to have been a lot of that. It was not for the lack of testing, that too was extensively undertaken. As my fellow blogger Michael Pincher loves to say 'it was due to the law of unintended consequences'.

It is working now otherwise you would not be able to read this. I know it has been very embarrassing for them although the problems do not represent the end of the universe. It is however it is a salutatory lesson for the professional journalists who must have got very frustrated over the last few hours because of the service failure. They now know first hand the knife edge that afflict so many systems in the 'real world'. In future they might take a few more thought cycles before taking a 'pop' at some new IT disaster.

• Full featured software appliance 
• Self-managing, self-healing system 
• Email and advanced webmail 
• Office productivity tools 
• Network level firewall, antispam & antivirus protection 
• Remote connectivity and VPN 
• File and print services 
• Central file management 
• Automated disk backup 
• Disaster recovery

One thing is for certain - the era of cheap electricity is over.

I have not started mainliing, the Opium in question was Barcleona's cinema / night club of the same name which provided  the location for the UK Tech-Ed reception. It was good to chill-out and meet a few colleagues and customers as the wifi in the hotel is amazingly flaky.

To me yesterday's highlight came from outside the conference. In particular the BBC's story anouncing the demise of Windows 3.1! 'On 1 November Microsoft stopped issuing licences for the software that made its debut in May 1990 in the US.'

I am sort of nostaligic for gold ol' 3.1 is was the first really useful version of Windows and without it I would not be here today so with all its glitched and idiosyncratic behaviour I for one tip my hat to mark its passing.

Like they say, "The King (Windows 3.1) is dead, all hail the King (Windows 7)

I am defrinately going a bit exhibition gaga. This is manifesting itself as an irrational desire to pull the plug on the DJ who has been mixing an unbridled diet of Moby-style music for the last 9 days and at a pretty loud volume.

We moved to anonomised jazz-funk this afternoon and I could stand it no more. I marched over to the desk and pleaded for a tune with some soul - Average White Band was quickly agreed and at least for one track a musical smile was brought back to my face.

It did not come a moment to soon as I was visited by the chairmain of the Ionian 'awkward squad' who insisted on grilling me for a feature on a product that I have a limited relationship with. My protestations that we should find out what the customer actually needed fell on deaf ears. Ho-hum.

Its reception night tonight - I can't wait (I can really) to see who is going to royally embarrass themselves !

"KPMG audited IT Factory's accounts from 2005 through 2007. Deloitte did the same in the previous two years. From 2003 through 2007, IT Factory reported that its revenue grew 69 times and its profit rose 288 times, to 121 million kroner ($22 million). This year, says Mr. Jensby, the chairman, IT Factory expected to roughly quadruple its profit. 

KPMG in Denmark says it is "shocked" and "cooperating with police." Deloitte's Danish unit said it has double-checked its 2003 and 2004 audits and found no problems. 

Ernst & Young, for its part, has now withdrawn the three awards it gave to IT Factory on the day Mr. Bagger took flight. "We feel deceived," said Søren Strøm, head of Ernst & Young's "Entrepreneur of the Year" program, in a statement. The accounting firm, he added, is "unable to understand the last few days' developments."

"A few months after Mr. Svensson's warning, IBM Denmark named Mr. Bagger's company as the year's "Best Partner" in a software business line. The head of IBM Denmark this year hailed IT Factory as "creative and visionary." IBM has now filed a claim with IT Factory's liquidator to try to get back the 125 million kroner ($23 million) it says it is owed by Mr. Bagger's now defunct company."

"Google Apps was definitely bought as an additional tool set, but Lotus Notes will be disappearing as a result of this," Beale said. "It will take a while because we have a range of applications running on Domino but Notes as a mail platform will be phased out, I suspect. "

I spent some time with Gareth this week pondering on what makes a good business in the recession. Unfortunately and not unexpectedly we did not achieve any startling clarity from our musings.

Gareth (having done lots of research) has confirmed that many businesses are simply 'on hold', they know that there is lots of stuff to be done, but right now no one is willing to commit to any sort of investment 'just in case'.

In case of what? In case we never come out of recession? - well even the most pessimistic of economists will agree that whether we are going through a 'U', 'L' or 'W' recession, at some point in the future there will be an upturn (which could be small, medium or large).

It is clear that most businesses will want to build revenue /profitability as it regrows on their current cost base, i.e. not employing more headcount before it becomes absolutely necessary. However in order to do this, efficiency, preparedness and scalability need to be invested in. On top of these foundations for growth, new rules and regulations are going to make compliance, governance and business continuity much more important that they have ever been to-date.

So 'doing nothing' is not really an option for businesses with a medium to long term view of the world. Doing nothing is a false economy which will lead short term-ist businesses to lose share, lose competitively or lose out altogether due to some man made or natural disaster (swine flu?) that could have been prepared for.

Only time will tell who were the wise and who were the fools - I know I would rather do business with the wise.