... and allowing myself to be talked into
doing karaoke with Andy Donaldson, at Kimonos, singing Sonny and Cher's
I Got You Babe was definitely "memorable".
It's Friday after Lotusphere 2012, one
week since I checked into the Dolphin for what has been an annual tradition
in my personal and professional life. And like all Lotuspheres, it's
a time of reflection, emotions, change, and renewal. This one was a bit
more difficult and bittersweet, however. Unless I'm totally off the mark
in how my professional life unfolds, this was likely my last Lotusphere.
It's hard to type that...
As many of you know, my employer brought
in SharePoint a couple years back, and we migrated to Exchange and Outlook.
Five years ago, I would have been devastated, as I was Lotus Yellow,
through and through. But after observing trends and seeing both sides
somewhat closer than I expected, I came to the point where the evangelical
fervor was gone. Pragmatism took over, probably flavored with a dash of
cynicism. You don't live through the Enron experience without becoming
a bit jaded. As a result, IBM and Microsoft became vendors instead
of representations of right and wrong. Notes and SharePoint became
tools to accomplish business functions, not causes on which to stake my
career and reputation. Do I still like Notes? Most definitely. It
has capabilities that no other software has, and I can work miracles for
users with it. Is it perfect? No. Is SharePoint inherently
evil? No, it's a tool, just like Notes. Each offering has good and
bad points, strength and weaknesses. And for every bad Notes or SharePoint
experience, you can find a matching success story.
If I had my way, I'd continue to work
with Notes until I retire (much closer than I'd like that point to be),
and the fun of Notes/Domino would go on forever. But... change happens.
For various reasons, I've tried hard
to maintain a strong presence in the Notes community while working on getting
up to speed on SharePoint. I've written two Sametime books with Marie
Scott and Gab Davis over the last two years. I've continued to travel and
speak at user group meetings and conferences (on my own dime). I still
write on Notes-related topics. But I've come to the point where I
know there's only so many hours in the day, and I'm doing both sides of
my professional existence a disservice. Notes/Domino has moved into
XPages, Connections, and various other "social" offerings, but
I've not been able to keep up there except for maintaining a general knowledge
of the topics. On the SharePoint side, I've put off a lot of learning
because we were migrating from 2007 to 2010 "soon." I've
learned enough to be dangerous on SharePoint 2007 and create sites for
users, but I know I'm only scratching the surface. And when I get
back to the office on Monday, it'll be five days until we go live with
SharePoint 2010. Again, that's the area where I'm now focusing my
career, and the "I haven't had time to get into topic <insert here>"
becomes an excuse, not a reason, for not being further along.
So where does that leave me in terms
of the Notes community?
The key word is "community."
I have made more friends and had more unforgettable experiences than
I ever thought possible over the last 16 years. I went from a reclusive
Cobol programmer who wanted to move into Notes and be "really good"
at this new thing, to someone who can stand up in front of hundreds of
people and present... and actually enjoy it. I went from someone
who had barely left the west coast, to someone who actually has stamps
in his passport. I've shared beers with friends in England, and drank sake
with mates in Ireland... propped up in the corner of the kitchen... at
2 am.
None of that goes away... ever.
What *does* change is that my technical
focus in the community shifts. I still use Notes, as I'm the only
Notes developer in our company, and we all know how long migrations take
(the answer being "forever"). I still plan on writing for
the Notes Developer Tips newsletter, as I believe I still have things I
can share there. But will I continue to do conferences and try to
present whenever and wherever I can? That probably goes away. Lotusphere
is not cheap, as we all know. I'm OK with spending the money to fly down
and stay in the Dolphin or Swan. I'm still reclusive enough that I want
to have my own room to retreat into. But I can't justify another
$2000 on top of all that for the conference pass. On top of that, I know
that realistically I don't possess the latest and greatest in-depth knowledge
that allows one to present and offer top value to the attendees. Yes,
there are topics I can speak to, such as Tivoli Directory Integrator. But
Marie's really the expert there. Yes, I seem to have a knack in helping
first-time speakers survive that terrifying moment when the music stops
and the mic goes live. You have no idea how proud I am of being part of
that for the people I've helped. But do I have the knowledge to stand
up there on stage and dive into the intricacies of Eclipse plug-ins or
explain how Sametime Proxies and MUXes work in real life? No. And
without that speaking slot to cover the conference cost, Lotusphere becomes
an event that I can't justify the cost of when weighed against other things
in my life.
I only missed one Lotusphere between
1997 and now, and that was in 2002 after Enron imploded and I was trying
to make it as a contractor. Knowing everyone was down here while
I was still at home was not easy. The week of January 27th, 2013,
probably won't be any easier. I can say now that it's the correct
rational decision, but I know that as it gets closer, I'll question it...
a lot. There was an extremely thin shell on my emotions yesterday
after the traditional blogger picture up on stage at the end of the closing
session. I looked out at the workers stacking the chairs, knowing
that I probably will not see that sight again. Right now, the shell
is cracking as I type this, because Lotusphere has meant *so* much to me...
it's shaped and defined who I am, both professionally and personally. Melodramatic?
Possibly... but when I look back at who I was and compare that to who I
am now, so very much of that can be traced to an annual week in January
at Walt Disney World. It didn't help much that with each good-bye
hug and handshake, I knew that virtual friends who became real for seven
days each year would now in many cases be forever virtual.
This isn't a good-bye, as I'll still
be in all the regular places. The Lotus Jobs site will continue, my writing
will continue, and I'll still annoy a number of people on Twitter by tweeting
way too much. I'll still be part of the afternoon entertainment when
Mitch Cohen and/or Andy and I get sent to an internet timeout by Marie
as she tries to get us to behave. I will also remember what a few
people have told me this week... Never Say Never.
But if this was my last Lotusphere,
thank you to everyone who made it a memorable one, and who have influenced
and shaped me over the years. There's no way I can ever fully express
my gratitude for allowing me to be part of your lives in this annual family
reunion. This is the family I got to choose, and I think I chose
very well.
Book Review - Stay Close by Harlan Coben
Sun, May 20th 2012 3:00p Thomas Duff I recently finished the latest book
from Harlan Coben titled Stay
Close. My favorite books
by Coben are the ones in the Myron Bolitar series, but the stand-alone
titles aren't too bad either. Stay Close is in the stand-alone category,
and I thought it was an enjoyable read. If I were headed on vacation
for a week or so, packing this book as reading material would have been
worth the weight...
The general story revolves around three
individuals who are all trying to figure out wh [read] Keywords:
253
User group meetings... the technology may be different, but the feeling is the same...
Sat, May 19th 2012 8:30p Thomas Duff Today I attended my first SharePoint Saturday
event here in Portland. For those who don't know, SharePoint Saturday
is a concept started a few years back where a group of committed people
in the SharePoint community decided to hold a one-day user group meeting
on a Saturday, complete with multiple sessions and various vendors, all
at no cost to the attendees. This idea has spread world-wide, all
community-led and vendor-sponsored, targeted to share information among
professionals and/o [read] Keywords: domino
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106
Book Review - Squeezed: Rear-Ended by American Politics by J. C. Bourque
Sun, May 6th 2012 8:26p Thomas Duff I generally steer clear of political
books... mostly because I'm fed up with *both* sides. Political humor
is still OK, however. And if both sides are being skewered, so much
the better. I was asked if I was interested in reading and reviewing
Squeezed:
Rear-Ended by American Politics
by J. C. Bourque, and the premise was enough to get me hooked. And
the premise is? Ultra-conservatives and ultra-liberals are both the
same, in that they are convinced that they have all the answers, [read] Keywords: network
174
Book Review - The Developer's Code - What Real Programmers Do by Ka Wai Cheung
Sun, May 6th 2012 3:20p Thomas Duff I like books that gather a number of
essays and thoughts about technology (in this case, software development)
and bundle them in a single volume so I can contemplate what it is I do
as a profession. The
Developer's Code - What Real Programmers Do
by Ka Wai Cheung (published by Pragmatic Bookshelf) fits that description
perfectly. I've often said that one or two gems from a book like
this can make it an excellent buy. For me, this one met and surpassed
that criteria.
None of th [read] Keywords: application
development
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Book Review - Illusion by Frank Peretti
Sun, May 6th 2012 10:50a Thomas Duff Frank Peretti is an interesting author
who writes in a genre not overly populated... Christian supernatural thrillers.
Yeah, it's an odd combination, but Peretti makes it work, and very
well at that. Illusion
is his latest novel, and I forgot
how much I like getting lost in his books. Illusion mixes magic and
hi-tech science fiction with a touch of romance for a story that left me
wondering how everything was going to play out.
The basic story line... Dane and Mandy
Collins were [read] Keywords:
136
Book Review - You Are a Writer (So Start Acting Like One) by Jeff Goins
Sat, Apr 28th 2012 5:30p Thomas Duff It used to be that to become a writer,
you had to hope that you could convince the gatekeepers to let you pass.
Publishers held all the cards, and your only option was to play the game
their way (or not play at all).
Those days are gone...
Jeff Goins is a great example of someone
who has figured out the new rules and freedoms that exist when it comes
to being a writer. He shares his insights as well as dishing out
plenty of encouragement in his new e-book You
Are a Writer (So [read] Keywords: connections
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124
Book Review - V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton
Sun, Apr 22nd 2012 4:11p Thomas Duff Seems like forever since Sue Grafton
published an installment in her alphabet series with Kinsey Millhone. That
wait ended when I picked up V
is for Vengeance from the library.
Actually, the gap between this and U is for Undertow was good, as
I was getting a bit burned out on Millhone. The stories weren't having
the same appeal as earlier efforts, and reading them seemed like more of
an effort to keep up instead of a pleasure. V revives some of that
pleasure once again, and this was [read] Keywords:
115
Book Review - Presumed Guilty by Tess Gerritsen
Sun, Apr 22nd 2012 1:30p Thomas Duff Going back to catch an early novel in
a writer's career is always a gamble. What you expect from them now
isn't what you'll end up reading (in all likelihood). I saw that
Tess Gerritsen had a "new" novel that showed up at the library.
I picked up Presumed
Guilty expecting vintage Gerritsen,
but I got a bit of a surprise. This is actually a novel that was
written back in 1993 and published as a mass market paperback at that time.
It's now being re-released in hardback. In effe [read] Keywords: community
Book Review - Shock Wave by John Sandford
Sat, Apr 14th 2012 9:19p Thomas Duff While I've grown a little cold on the
John Sandford novels that feature Lucas Davenport, I'm finding I like the
Virgil Flowers novels a lot. Shock
Wave has Flowers tracking down
a serial bomber intent on stopping a large Walmart-like store from setting
up shop in a small town. Flowers is a nice mix of irreverence, vulnerability,
and persistence, all wrapped together in a mind that never stops running.
Sandford does a good job in capturing
the small town atmosphere where the ac [read] Keywords:
