And here I'm writing about Lotusphere. 'Sphere 2004 hasn't generated the levels of pre-event buzz of earlier Lotuspheres, and that's a pity, because this is going to be a different Lotusphere, and there will be a lot more to learn. This one is going to be the first one for six or seven years that hasn't been entirely about Notes and Domino and their extended family, Sametime, Quickplace (who uses those new names, huh?), Domino.doc, Discovery server and so on. Looking at the schedule now available on Lotus.Com (see http://www.lotus.com/events/govfor.nsf/wdocs/lstrackslist), a fair chunk is about Workplace and it's underpinnings of WebSphere Portal. Look at the AD and ID tracks to see how much there is of that.

I'm sure that some people will want to go just to immerse themselves in Notes and Domino, and they might be a little disappointed. There just aren't as many Notes and Domino sessions to go to, but then again, the scheduling of these may mean less likelihood of overlaps. There are certainly some Notes/Domino sessions that I plan to attend.

But I see this Lotusphere as a key opportunity to learn, quickly, a lot of dirt about Workplace -- what does it really do, how do I implement it, what development opportunities do I have, what tools are there out there, and what more must I learn? It's also an opportunity to talk to experts in the labs to fill in gaps, and maybe have some "ah-ha" moments of understanding. There are Workplace and Portal labs alongside the old favourites. Then I can go down to the Showcase and see the spin that the Business Partners put on all of this -- or just get bombarded with all sorts of hype by them.

Is 'Sphere 2004 a turning point for Notes and Domino? Very probably. I think we will learn here exactly what the future of Notes and Domino is. We already know about some of the investments that Lotus is making in the family, from NSFDB2 coming in Domino 7, to the new Lotus Rich Client that's slated for its first appearance in Workplace 2 and with Notes/Domino 8. But after that -- will it wither away, or will it, as stated at the Workplace 1.1 launch (see my report on that at http://www.dominopower.com/issues/issue200311/00001146001.html), converge with Workplace in a seamless manner?

Here's where we will learn all this. So for a Notes/Domino professional, Lotusphere 2004 will be where we actually get to see the real future, in enough detail to start to work out how we will meet it. See you there?

If you do see me there, by all means stop me and chat. Tell me your spin on all this, where you stand. How will Workplace affect you, and what are you and your company going to do next? Tell me what you think of DominoPower, too, if you have a moment. David and Denise and many other editors and authors from DominoPower will be there as well, so don't hesitate to say hello to us all.