Product Showcase
At the Product Showcase, pictured in Figure B, there are always some stands worth looking at. My favorites were SearchDomino, TeamStudio, Lotus, IBM, Pumatech, and Motorola.

FIGURE B


There's much to see at the Product Showcase. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Websphere: a 400 pound gorilla
I was particularly interested in looking at IBM's Websphere. I don't think I'm alone in seeing Domino as a chimpanzee in a cage filled with bananas, watching a 400 pound gorilla being led into the room with the calming words, "This is Websphere--he friend."

For larger projects not requiring any of the specialized Domino products, such as Sametime or Quickplace, I can see how Websphere will come to pose a big threat. Websphere has the structure to better organize a large project, whereas the Domino IDE (Interactive Development Environment) is still little more than a beefed-up version of the Notes designer.

Having said that, Websphere won't challenge Domino for quick, done-in-a-month solutions, especially workflow-based applications. Once a project calls for document management, knowledge management, collaboration, or specialized workflow, you have to keep Domino in the picture.

The two applications do appear to work well together. Websphere doesn't offer any substantial advantages over Domino in GUI (Graphical User Interface) design. Both are about as good or bad as the other (depending on your point of view), and both certainly fall far behind offerings such as Macromedia's Dreamweaver.

Still, developers should get into Java now. It really doesn't look like it'll be possible to ignore it in the greater scheme of all things IBM/Lotus.

The rest of the Showcase
As for the rest of the Product Showcase, well, lets just say it was an exercise in trying to score a t-shirt, cap, or other gimme without giving away money, your email address, or too much of your time to the sales staff.

Lotusphere online
Check your mail? Look up your sessions? Check out the presentation papers? There were so many useful things you could do at Lotusphere online, Lotus provided banks of ThinkPads, pictured in Figure C, to let you log into the conference site.

FIGURE C


ThinkPads were provided to let you check out Lotusphere online. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Synchronize your Palm devices
Another great improvement this year was the use of PDA cradles from IBM and Palm that allowed you to synchronize and carry around your mail, schedule, and calendar. It was a pretty handy feature, though I found the agenda too difficult to read, crammed on the Palm device screen. I used the printed pamphlet more. The scheduling synchronization was a great feature, however.

Discussion forum
There was also a discussion forum. (Unfortunately, there was no Sametime instant messaging. That would've been handy, eliminating the need to leave email for people you were trying to meet.)

The forum covered every aspect of the conference and included the perennial favorite, "Should smoking be allowed in here?" There was also the usual complaints list--food too stodgy, security staff doesn't speak English (though I thought the staff's command of English was pretty damn good for a non-English speaking nation), user names and passwords printed on the front of our badges where everyone could read them. Someone even asked if they could get a copy of the pre-session music. No comment.