The "Yellow Bubble," or the
most vocal people that you see on PlanetLotus,
has me perplexed. Not only that, but you can add some percentage of the
total Notes users (somewhere around 140 million). IdeaJam
is a good site for an example. From what I have seen, and there are others
can be much more specific, it appears to me that the same people contribute
and vote. I understand that there is no closed feedback loop from IBM/Lotus,
but why aren't more people contributing to IdeaJam? Specifically, there
are ideas there, in the LS09
Best Practices Sessions IdeaSpace,
that could affect the attendees of Lotusphere. Why is the most popular
idea getting only 34 votes? Especially since both Mac
and Rocky
have TOLD people that they are looking at the voting? Is it too difficult
to vote? Too difficult to add ideas? Apathy? As for adding your own idea,
is it a sense of fear that you are putting yourself out there, where your
idea could be criticized?
While there are 140 million (or so) people using Notes, and I know that
many of them would never, ever, contribute to any forums anywhere, why
do we see the same people speaking out about Lotus? According to PlanetLotus,
there are 295 Lotus Notes/Domino bloggers. And yet, a proposed Bloggers
Lounge, spearheaded by Keith
Brooks, has generated very
little interest on Bleedyellow's
Activity site (login required).
If there is more activity on Facebook, great, but I'll say, without creating
a Facebook account to confirm, that Keith isn't seeing a lot of input.
Why so little interest, even from the bloggers? I expected more from
us, especially for a specific space dedicated to us, our readers, and the
Lotusphere speakers from our midst. Is it Keith? Is it the lack of official
backing from IBM? Apathy? "All of the Above?"
Upwards of 6,000 people (or more) attend Lotusphere, where they have the
opportunity to be exposed to IdeaJam, Planet Lotus, Taking Notes, OpenNTF,
Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., and still, there are only a few that take the
time to contribute. Should we be posting links on Notes.net? Chris
Blatnick, at the recent NEOLUG
meeting, kept mentioning Twitter. 35-40 people in attendance, and we only
have 2 people sign up for Twitter and follow some of us. Two. Twitter has
probably the lowest barrier of entry of any social network and only two
people get around to creating an account. Or is what I am seeing only the
few that care? And if that is the case, why does Lotus care about 290+
bloggers in the Yellow Bubble? Especially if only the Yellow Bubble is
reading/commenting, creating an echo chamber? While those comments and
blog posts hit the internet, where anyone can find them, I am talking about
a number so low (in the grand scheme of Lotus customers/Business Partners)
that, frankly, what does it matter?
I recently heard an idea where a person, or persons, uses the Dolphin rotunda
as a platform to talk about Lotus/Lotus-centric sites/Twitter/etc. Get
up on the edge of the fountain, or up on a box, and expound on a topic.
After hearing that, I thought "Heck, why limit yourself?" Have
a platform between the Dolphin and Swan or on the bridge to talk about
stuff. Maybe engage people during the Welcome Reception, instead of hanging
out with other bloggers? My kids know that I will talk to anyone at anytime
on nearly any subject. I have no problem walking up to complete strangers
and engaging them in some sort of Lotus Web 2.0 Community conversation.
In any event, the result should be awareness of something else is out there,
places where you can find answers, places where you can make a difference
in the Lotus community and, quite possibly, with the software itself.
I guess that I just don't understand people in the Lotus space. I'd love
to know why so few people are voting for proposed content at Lotusphere
2009. I'd like to know why there is so little participation in the Blogger's
Lounge idea (and, for the record, Microsoft seems to have a kick
ass Blogger's Lounge at their
conferences). Finally, I'd like to know why, in this brave new Web 2.0
world, we still have so few people joining in the conversation.
Star Island by Carl Hiaasen
Wed, Sep 1st 2010 11:50p Gregg Eldred The emergency medical technicians have
been called to a hotel in South Beach, responding to call concerning a
twenty-two year old female who has swallowed a "mix of vodka, Red
Bull, hydrocodone, birdseed, and stool softener." A rather typical
call for South Beach with the exception of the appearance of Bang Abbott,
an overweight, intrusive paparazzo. He wants to have exclusive right to
the pictures of the woman on the stretcher. However, when the EMT's wheel
out the woman, he realizes that this [read] Keywords:
207
Do You Know This Person?
Mon, Aug 30th 2010 8:20p Gregg Eldred Sorry, this is just too good not to share, and I actually received permission to post it. :-) [read] Keywords:
Backroads of Ohio: Your Guide to Ohios Most Scenic Backroad Adventures by Miriam Carey and Ian Adams
Wed, Aug 18th 2010 12:00p Gregg Eldred After reading several Backroads books on
other states, I decided that it was time to discover what the series had
to say and show about my home state of Ohio. Much like the other books
in the series, Backroads
of Ohio: Your Guide to Ohio's Most Scenic Backroad Adventures,
by Miriam Carey and Ian Adams, will appeal to residents of the state of
Ohio or those vacationing within its borders. For residents, this book
will provide you with short, interesting trips that would appeal to every
family mem [read] Keywords:
267
eWeek: Why Sharepoint 2010 Has Developers Excited
Wed, Aug 18th 2010 10:10a Gregg Eldred Microsoft's SharePoint 2010 may be one of the industry's most under-rated products, largely because it means so many different things to different people so no one group or demographic claims it over another. However, Microsoft has been adding more and more features to enable developers to better leverage SharePoint 2010. And as such, developers have responded, prompting SharePoint's popularity to rise among developers, according to Microsoft. SharePoint Server is one of the fastest-growing prod [read] Keywords: application
development
microsoft
office
server
sharepoint
workspace
111
MWLUG Logo in LEGO
Tue, Aug 17th 2010 11:51p Gregg Eldred Number Two Son's creation, 2 foot square. It's "sad" to report that he needed to purchase no new bricks. [read] Keywords:
American Craft Brewery Hops Across The Pond
Mon, Aug 16th 2010 11:50p Gregg Eldred This past weekend, I enjoyed a Stone Levitation, an excellent beer but one that seemed higher in IBUs than the quoted 45 (I'm certainly not complaining, a beer with high IBUs is perfect on a hot day, and Sunday, it was hot and humid). Now, from National Public Radio's Marketplace, I heard this today. One of the big guys in craft brewing, Stone Brewing out of Escondido, Calif., is looking to expand up and out of the U.S. market, into Europe -- a place known for a fiercely, shall we say, traditio [read] Keywords: wiki
107
Were Any Of These Yours?
Thu, Aug 12th 2010 3:40p Gregg Eldred Lunch boxes in the cafeteria of the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC. [read] Keywords:
