Tagit
This is a Notes sidebar application that enable you to make up an active tag cloud from Notes documents, Web pages or files. You can then click on the tag entries to display a list of the things tagged in that category. I'd like to see this one appear in the product; a great way to manage references and use them in everyday work.

The Business Mashups platform
The Business Mashups platform, which is aimed at incorporation in LotusLive, enables simple workflows to be built diagrammatically, with forms or document templates available, Activities in Lotus Connections are generated as the workflow progresses, and email notifications sent out along the way.

SaND
SaND combined social networking and social discovery in a simple to use manner. Having searched for results, you can then filter the result set by content items, tags, or show the associated people to more quickly focus on what you need to find out and who might be able to help you get there.

Dandelion
Dandelion was my favourite. This is a toolset that enables document fragments to be created, stored and versioned, and then pulled into new documents, modified - which saved a new version of the fragment - so new and updated documents are completed more quickly and more collaboratively.

There's no more searching around for boilerplate paragraphs, or chunks of text for reuse. Managing document content in this was would, to my mind, make a significant difference. One application that sprang to mind is resume management for engineering and consulting firms, who need to be able to generate custom resumes for bid documents easily and quickly, but ensure that they can tailor them to the particular bid being written.

Usability lab
My highlight for the labs was the Usability lab. I went here to explore UI and functionality design ideas with members of the usability lab. You might be talked through and discuss non-functional on-screen demos, or even pencil and paper sketches, of how future features might work.

Or you'll be shown early prototypes of working code, and asked to do various tasks and discuss your impressions of how easily the tasks are performed, and whether you'd rather see this or that idea implemented.

This lab is a great way to have your ideas for improvements in the user experience got out into the open. If you've ever felt that a piece of a Lotus product could be made more usable, or an idea for new functionality, the team in the Usability lab will want to hear from you, and it's good to have the opportunity at Lotusphere to meet with them.

Q&A sessions
Just as Lotusphere winds down on Thursday there are two Q&A sessions. Gurupalooza places all the non-IBM speakers from the best practices track on stage, and gets the audience to ask questions of them. Following that is Ask the Developer. It's the same process, but with a stage full of Lotus development people.

And here, one Lotusphere old reliable is going to change: Bob Balaban is no longer going to be able to ask when the LSX toolkit will be fixed, because Bob's own updates to it, made when he was with IBM recently, are about to be released.