Search DominoPower's 10,675 Lotus-related article archive 
Home
EasyPrint
News details Click here for the RSS feed's XML code. This is not a browser URL.
Articles-only Click here for the RSS feed's XML code. This is not a browser URL.
Twitter Feed Click here for the Twitter feed.
LOTUSPHERE 2004
Looking forward to Lotusphere 2004: Lotus in transition, again?
By Mick Moignard

Ten years ago, January 1994, the first Lotusphere had just passed (it was in December 1993). I missed that one -- my first was January 1995. In 1994, Lotus was in transition. Transition from being a one-product company selling Lotus 1-2-3, to being a different one-product company, this time selling Notes. Yes, I know they also sold cc:Mail, but to most in the corporate world, Lotus was 1-2-3, and then it became Notes.

More importantly, Lotus was one of the first companies in the PC software arena to get to grips with PC applications that weren't stand-alone applications running on just one PC. In 1994, Notes was one of very few application software products where software installed on multiple computers interacted to deliver the total result, and enabled people to share those results -- collaboration.

It had servers that actively ran application code that dealt with many users at once. This was new to the PC world. And when you installed Notes, it just worked, too. Mainframe software vendors understood all this well, but it was pretty new stuff in the PC world, and of course by 1994, Lotus and Iris had been working on Notes for nearly 10 years, and selling it for 5. They really understood both the technology issues and the corporate culture issues of what they were doing, and that gave them a big edge. Lotus had a rather shaky financial existence around this time, but the technology edge was enough for IBM to buy Lotus in 1995 and give Notes a secure future -- one that's lasted nearly ten years already.

Ten years on, Lotus is at a transition point again; from Notes and Domino to Workplace. But it's actually a much smaller transition. Last time, the change was pretty fundamental, from a stand-alone killer app -- arguably the first PC killer app, and certainly one of the most important, the spreadsheet -- to a wholly different technology, that of client/server, solving an entirely different problem, and, I think it's fair to say, producing another killer app along the way.

The Notes to Workplace transition is actually rather simpler -- it's just the technology that is changing, from client/server to host/dumb-terminal. The business problems being solved are fundamentally the same ones that the Notes/Domino family already solves -- moved forward by the foundations that Notes has already built. We could spend quite a bit of time debating spending money on making a new solution to supplant a perfectly good one that we already have, but that's not what I'm writing about here. Nor am I debating whether Workplace lives alongside Notes, or whether it is the replacement for it. This should become clearer at Lotusphere.


1  ·  2  ·  3  ·  Next »
Other articles you might like
Home > Lotus Community > Lotusphere and tradeshow guides (68 articles)
   The Lotusphere 2009 experience wrap-up article
   Lotusphere 2009 explores Connections, Quickr, Foundations, Protector, and LotusLive
   Lotusphere 2009 showcases SAP, BlackBerry, Sametime 8.5, and more
Get Weekly Email Updates
Subscribe to our regular weekly email newsletter. It's packed with tips, reviews, deep analysis, and the latest news.
 
Recent DominoPower Articles
What to look for in a Domino-based document management solution
Understanding Domino.doc end-of-life options
When the debugger won't debug hidden code that isn't hidden
What to do if the LotusScript debugger won't single-step over code
Top 10 ways to launch and build a Lotus consulting practice (with a little help from the Beatles)
Troubleshooting an OpenSuse Notes install
Incident report: denial of service attack against ConnectedPhotographer.com
Latest Lotus Headlines
SnTT - Enabling ALL the bells and whistles!
Tivoli Data protection causes Domino to crash
Fun when running DB2 CLP scripts
Introducing Flippr, the easy way to admin Quickr
DXL and fake security
Using search forms in IBM Workplace Collaborative Learning 2.7
Schmidt, Freed, and Gering on the OVF Toolkit
>> Read all the news
More from the ZATZ journals
Computing Unplugged: Eight steps to successful and reliable home backups
David Gewirtz Online: CNN commentary and analysis
OutlookPower: Can Outlook run when it's not running (and other mysteries)?
-- Advertisement --

PDF Conversion for Lotus Notes
Convert Lotus Notes documents to PDF for sharing, archiving or web printing.

  • 1-step PDF: As easy as clicking a Lotus Notes toolbar icon
  • Archive email folders or views as a self-contained PDF
  • Convert any document collection into a PDF file
  • Produce print-quality output from Web applications
  • Client side or Server side conversion
  • Doesn't require any DLL files
  • LotusScript API for developers


Ready to learn more?
-- Advertisement --

Good Practices... Better Practices... Teamstudio.
Implementing good practices in your Notes environment doesn't have to be complicated.

Teamstudio provides software and services for efficient Notes development and simple, secure administrator control. Our new website also provides users with a library of resources to help, including:

  • Ready-to-implement policies for good practice development and deployment in Lotus Notes
  • On-demand webinars on topics ranging from tips for better coding, to securing your applications, managing agents, and streamlining your application deployment process
  • Free utilities for download to help you more more efficiently tackle several specific tasks in Notes development
Visit our library of white papers to help you take on difficult issues in your Notes environment.

Drop by our new website and take a look!
ZATZ Home  ·  News  ·  Back Issues  ·  Credits/Trademarks ·  Link To Us
Copyright © 1998-2009, ZATZ Publishing. All rights reserved worldwide.
Editor's Login