Software Soapbox

Groupware at SF Tech Sessions on February 23

Link: SF Tech Sessions.

Three new products will be released this quarter to help small business better manage their e-mail, calendars, contacts, and files. Startups Joyent and Zimbra will compete against products such as Microsoft Office Live all hope to introduce small teams to new methods of collaboration. Startup companies Joyent and Zimbra will present their industry vision and product at the first meeting of SF Tech Sessions on Thursday, February 23, at 6:30 p.m. at CNET’s headquarters in San Francisco.

OK, I'm starting a Mayflower/DominoFiles/Inside Domino Domain List

As I’ve pointed out here and here, the folks at Mayflower/DominoFiles/Inside Domino can’t seem to help themselves when it comes to deceiving customers.

They used to send emails from Dominofiles.com.  Then marketing@dfmktg.com.  Now Domino2@dfmktg.com.  Why? Because they know about spam. They know that people don’t want to see their messages simply put the domain or the address in a spam filter. How do they know? They sell a spam product to unsuspecting customers. This product wins awards – but only when they created a company and then pretend to “award” the prize.

Memory Lane via Edbrill.com: Netscape vs. IBM

There’s an interesting read via Ed Brill’s site about Netscape and Collabra.  Jamie Zawinski recounts Netscape’s in-house experience with groupware when they bought Collabra.  But his take on Groupware is somewhat simplistic:

"Groupware" is all about things like "workflow", which means, "the chairman of the committee has emailed me this checklist, and I'm done with item 3, so I want to check off item 3, so this document must be sent back to my supervisor to approve the fact that item 3 is changing from `unchecked' to `checked', and once he does that, it can be directed back to committee for review."

Of course, there’s much more to collaboration and Groupware than just workflow, which was one of Collabra’s downfalls. 

What happened to my visitor stats?

Oh yeah.  It’s Lotusphere week and I’m not there…..

It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code. 
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code.
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code. 
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code.
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code. 
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code.
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code. 
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code.
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code. 
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code.
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code. 
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code.
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code. 
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code.
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code. 
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code.
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code. 
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code.
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code. 
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code.
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code. 
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code.
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code. 
It’s much more fun to be in Vegas writing code.

Nope, didn’t work.  after all the repetition, it still sounds like bullshit.  Oh well. 

Here’s a list of the lucky ones, and an RSS feed…..

A good comparison of collaboration strategies

IBM, Microsoft Chart Collaboration's Course.

At the hub of it all sit the industry's big guns, IBM and Microsoft. Both have been pushing collaboration aggressively this past year, launching new wares and services and, in particular, selling partners on the chance to create an unlimited number of solutions using their tools. From a technology perspective, the rivals' approaches vary (IBM hews to its server-side middleware foundation and a browser; Microsoft anchors collaboration at the desktop), but what both companies are doing has helped propel the market far beyond e-mail to a state of real-time collaboration and workflow that marries both front- and back-end data.

Good history of email

With way too long a title....

Social and Technical Interoperability, the Construction of Users, and "Arrested Closure": A Case Study of Networked Electronic Mail Development

Behind email's success lies a history of extended social interactions among ARPANET developers, programmers, and users from relatively heterogeneous backgrounds. An analysis of social identifications present in online discussions about email development found that inter-organizational computer networking allowed an increasingly wide variety of programmers and users to interact; assumptions about users to be openly stated and challenged; and the prototyping and testing of new technologies in heterogeneous social and technical contexts. Technical interoperation and its social analogue, social collaboration, became key challenges in the development of networked email and led to "arrested closure" in the form of flexible standards.

Hello? Domino. Domino! DOMINO! HELLO?

FBI May Have to Scrap New Computer Program

The FBI has had several failed attempts to revamp its computer system. Over the last few years, the agency has bought new computers and hardware but was waiting for the software to provide an efficient way to manage, store and share data.

Although the bureau has gone through the cumbersome task of scanning all of its paper files related to counterterrorism and downloaded it into a computer database that can be accessed by agents, it does not yet have a system that allows agents to directly input complete reports electronically.

Virtual Case File was meant to help do that and more. But the version of the software that has been created is lacking in many respects, the official said at a briefing with reporters.

The software could not properly manage records or documents or create the proper security access control.

Fun with “Recuiters”

I get a few of these a week:

Hi,

We are looking for Lotus Notes Develpers & Admins, we have few positions available with our clients. Please forward your updated resume along with your contact details and salary expectations.

Rgds,
Some guy in his basement, AKA ResumeFisher Staffing Solutions
Uselessprojectoverhead, NJ
USA

So today I sent back this:

I have experienced Lotus Notes Develpers & Admins skills, I have few hours available each day. Please forward your updated business plan along with your contact details and rate offerings.

No response so far.  I think I’ll make this an auto-reply…….
And what's a Develper, by the way? 

More deceptive marketing from Mayflower/DominoFiles/Inside Domino

I received an email from dominofiles.com today. The subject line was (sic):

How come you did not generate up to 200 new leads in the last 48 hours? Our customers do!

I opened it, and saw four “customer testimonials”. The second one caught my eye:

"I Love DominoFiles! Our server downloads increased to 25 times our normal daily rate (from 4 downloads per day to 100 so far today), and we haven't even gone a whole day since you sent our blast. Thanks!!!" Frank Paolino, MayFlower Software

Social Software – something old is new again

I have to say that this crusty old collaboration software geek was unimpressed with my first look at the "new" Social Software offerings. Wikis? Having worked with Lotus Notes and Domino for years and years I just couldn’t see anything new there.

I’ll even admit that Blogs didn’t really look that special the first time around. They reminded me of the first MS FrontPage templates I looked at way back in 1994. Remember those? They had four or five menu items along the top, usually titled “About Me”, “About this Site”, “My Photos”, “My Links, “ “My favorite Music”. Sound Familiar?

To someone who has been working with Lotus Notes Discussion databases, advanced collaboration software applications and Knowledge Management technologies for more than a decade, these new kids on the block looked like they had a lot of growing up to do before anyone would take them seriously.