I've been involved with Lotus Notes (and then Domino) on and off for about six years.

It all started when the New York Times called me to find out if I could help them with a Notes problem they were having. I'd never really heard of Notes, but after a nice woman named Kunmi Kim told me all about it, I figured it might be worth a bit of my attention. In other words, if big companies were using and loving Notes, I might be able to make some money in this area.

So I decided to write a book on Notes. It turned out to be the second book on Notes ever published and the first on management issues. I didn't let the fact that I'd never even SEEN Notes stand in my way. I could write a book. I was smart; I'd learn Notes along the way. And I did.

I wrote Lotus Notes 3 Revealed! for Prima, got paid (yippee!) and figured I was pretty much done with Notes.

But little did I know, I was already infected with the Notes virus. You see, and no one warns you about this, once you've got Notes in your system (and more pertinently, your resume), you can never get it out. In other words, it's a virus. Hey, if a smile can be a virus, so can Notes.

Next came my first of four Notes and Domino publications (with a two-year long foray into cc:Mail thrown in for good measure). First, it was a gig running Workspace for Lotus Notes with Ziff-Davis. When they closed that publication down, I figured I was done with Notes for good.

But my resume was "infected," and when the guys at Lotus needed someone to honcho The Notes Enthusiast, guess who got the job? Yep, the virus struck again. But when we finished our four-disc commitment to The Notes Enthusiast, I (can you say it with me?) thought I was done with Notes for good.

A few months went by, and I got this call. The Ziff guys had acquired the newsletter operation from IDG, and they inherited a journal called The Notes Report. They needed an editorial team. Could I make it happen until their contract ran out. Well, of course we (ZATZ co-founder Denise Amrich and I) could. We finished out The Notes Report's editorial commitment and then (you guessed it), I figured I was done with Notes for good.

But then Denise and I started ZATZ and launched PalmPower. It wasn't anything to do with Lotus, Notes, or Domino. And it succeeded. Hah! But a few months into publication, we decided we wanted to launch another publication. But to launch a publication, you need contacts with the company you support, a supply of authors, and connections into the community.