2005 in review
This is the review that was never meantto be. At the beginning of the year, a predictionwas made that "Bloggingwill fade away from the corporate world and be considered a consumer tool,no longer a credible source of news. " Here at the end ofthe year, when I think about things like IBM'scorporate blogging policyand the substantial increase in IBMbloggers that resulted, someof the incredible blogging going on from companies all over the industry,and the use of blogging by companies as diverse as GMand Boeing,I don't think blogging has faded from the corporate world. At all.In my little corner of the blogosphere, my Technoratiranking has dropped from 5000to 6000 -- still pretty impressive considering that they are now tracking23.5 million blogs. The daily blog hit count has increased 50% sincemy 2004 review, so thank you and welcome to all the newer readers. 10-20%of all browser hits daily are google searches -- and after the October"google dance", those searches tend to be mostly relevant. About30% of page hits daily are new visitors, and I'm glad to see some of youare staying around. Yet one interesting thing about there now being 23.5 million blogs is thatthere are simply too many blogs to read every day. I know I've discovered20-30 new "Domino blogs" this year that I should have supportedmore by adding to my blogroll or linking to or whatever. I just can'ttrack them all. I'll even admit that I don't read all the blogs onmy blogroll regularly -- some have gone days without me getting time tolook at them (other than my evil twin Alan,of course), and I've been too lazy to add some of them to my RSS reader. I wonder when (or whether already) it's all gotten too big. Inthe last few months, for example, there are a half-dozen topics I've coveredthat I expected to attract a diverse set of comments and voices. Perhapsthe explosion in blogs has made readership a bit more self-selecting --while attempts to solve the problem through blogdigger, memeorandum, technorati,del.icio.us, etc. haven't really fulfilled that mission IMHO. Anyway, without further pontification, here are my top ten events coveredon edbrill.com in 2005: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Releaseof IBM Lotus Notes/Domino 7. A top-notch release that continues to be the best technology in ourindustry. Over 20,000 people attended 200 launch events worldwide,with first-rate advertising and marketing activities. (Category:Notes/Domino7) 2. Celebrating the 15th anniversary of shippingNotes at Lotusphere 2005. He may have gone on to bigger and better(?) things, but havingRay Ozzie on stage in the opening session was an electric moment-- as we knew it would be when designing it. 3. The announcement and planning for LotusNotes "Hannover"has re-captured attentionand imagination for Notes. From what I heard out of the Lotusphere rehearsals this week, thedemos are going to knock you out of your seats. 4. A business school dream fulfilled as I hadmy firstmention in a Forbes magazine cover story. Notquite how I imagined it... 5. Throughout the year, I chronicled Microsoft'slatesteffortsto migrateLotus Notes customers to the Microsoft platform. At year's end, Gartneradvised that the efforts hadmet with limited success, despite all the noise. The market now hasa clearer understandingof Microsoft's "Notes Compete" effortand its "trojanhorse" characteristics,and a few funnymoments.6. Microsoft's roadmapfor Exchangecontinued to be litteredwith potholesand detours. The focus now is on the entire sixteen products in the Windows/OfficeSystem that willat some point possibly provide a collaborative framework.7. Customersuccesseswith Notes/Domino were regularlydiscussed,includingcoverage of cool applications, templates, even podcasts. The continuedgrowth (four consecutive quarters)of IBM's Notes/Domino revenue is testimonialto this market success. 8. Ijoined the Machead crowd with an iMac G5. It's still early days, but I've been incredibly impresed with thismachine and it's all-around coolness and fun (Thanks to Bruce,vowe,Bob@Apple and others for helping me find my way around it).9. Meatspace: While it wasn't my top travelyear ever, I did speak at a diverse set of events around the world. Travelhighlights are below, but I would like to acknowledge and thank many ofyou who hosted the incredible events I spoke at throughout the year --forgive me for not linking all of these. The list includes edcom,Workflow Studios, Paul Mooney/Declan/Bill and the Irish Notes UG crowd,Jack Dausman and the DC UG crowd, Brian Benz and the new Vegas UG, theBoston UG, the Pittsburgh UG and partners, the Columbus UG, the WesternMichigan UG, The View for Admin2005/Admin Europe 2005, DNUG for the Hannoverevent, and the Jamaican Computer Society. Apologies if I left anyoneoff the list. 10. The tenth event for '05 is the one I didn't blog, butthat those of you I'm fortunate enough to count among my friends know allabout. Thanks to you for everything.Travel highlights from 2005: ------------------------------------ Miles flown: Approximately 120,000nautical miles, including the eight-minute flights to/from Inishmor, Ireland.Countries visited: Canada, Jamaica,Ireland, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, France, Austria, Bulgaria,Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Australia. (Four new countries)Airlines flown: American, United/Ted,Delta, Southwest, Airtran, Air Canada, AerArann Islands, Air Jamaica,KLM, VLM,Lufthansa, Privatair, TAROM, Adria, Qantas. (Six new airlines) -- 2006status: American Platinum, United Premier Executive.New airports: DTM, MBJ, BWI,SMF, SOF, OTP, LJU, NNR,IORLong(ish) distance trains: Acela,Deutsche Bahn, Sydney CityRail. Selected memories:Driving a Porsche911 at 211 km/h on the Bavarian autobahn,with my dad, vowe & Ute, Wolfgang and Markus. VisitingAustralia's Blue Mountains HooverDam, Lake Mead, and the Valley of Fire Seeing the incrediblebeauty of Western Eire Londonand Amsterdam in December-- more about the company than the placesWishes for 2006 -------------------- As I've said in my twopreviousyear-in-review blog entries, I never expected blogging to turn out likethis. Interacting with all of you on a daily basis gets me up inthe morning, makes every day interesting, and inspires and assists me todo my professional best, Thank you for reading, writing, calling,mailing, chatting, and txting, and best wishes professionally and personallyfor 2006. --Ed
