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IBM

Natalie Gagliordi

Until 2021, Natalie Gagliordi was a senior writer for Red Ventures based in Louisville, Kentucky, covering business technology for ZDNET.

Latest Posts

Umm, hello, wristwatch technical support?

Umm, hello, wristwatch technical support?

This is the doubly-embarassingstory of how someone with more than sixteen years of experience in hightech couldn't figure out a wrist watch. As I'm travelling the next few days, Caroline and I celebrated Valentine'sDay on Friday night.  I received a wonderful watch, with a dual-timezone display -- very helpful in keeping track of family time versus localtime.  It's a beautiful thing, which I'll wear for a long time.  Theonly challenge was that I couldn't figure out, uh, how to set the dateand times and, oh, put the thing on.  No instruction manual arrived-- in the era where there are instructions shipped with bottle openers,this was a little surprising.  But maybe it's all self-documenting,right? I eventually figured out setting the times and date, but couldn't for thelife of me figure out the buckle.  It's a very fancy-looking clasp,certainly more complicated than the one on the super-cool Timex digitalwatch+calculator I've worn since high school (just kidding!).  Afterpushing the little clasp locks in a dozen times, I eventually gave up. The packing slip for the watch thoughtfully had printed on it, "Needassistance?  Call us at 1-800-XXX-XXXX".So, after a moment's consultation with the guy's guide to asking for help(rule #1 -- never ask for help), and an additional moment of embarassment,I gave up and dialed.  A very kind and helpful "product consultant"took pity on me.  But this lead to moment #2 of embarassment -- theinstructionswere right on the company's website. I'm not sure the illustration was perfect and clear, but it was enoughfor me to figure out how to snap up the one hinge I hadn't yet discovered,and moments later, voila.  Problem solved. If only it were this easy to explain why the reply action in Notes is onthe "create" menu and the forward action is on the "actions"menu.

February 13, 2006 by in Tech Industry

Mary Beth has been taking on the critics

Mary Beth has been taking on the critics

With all the kick up last week about theNotes user interface, it's important to understand how focused Notes architects,engineers, and developers are on building a leading edge, world-class userinterface for the Notes "Hannover" release.  One of thelead designers, Mary Beth Raven, appears to have made it her personal missionto find all Notes user interface critics worldwide and engage with them,quite publicly, one at a time. For example, on joe lamantia.com, Mary Beth posted a comment asking forJoe to help IBM recruit end-users to participate in usability testing. Joemade a new blog entry out of it:Provingthat a well-developed sense of humor is required for success in productdesign -- especially for Lotus Notes -- Mary Beth Raven, who leads thedesign team for the next version of Lotus Notes, recently posted a ratherfunny comment in reply to my suggestion that the Notes Design team offercustomers a choice of unpleasant but related user experience themes. Sheused this as the occasion to invite all members of the community of Notesto users to register as volunteers for usability testing. Thisseems like as good a time as any to remind you that Lotus seeks end-users(NOT the IT developers and admins in your organization) for Notes usabilitytesting.  Full details are on the Usabilitypage at IBM developerWorks: Lotus.

February 13, 2006 by in IBM

News.com: IBM patches Lotus flaw

News.com: IBM patches Lotus flaw

CNET and others have reported on new securitypatches that were already included in Notes 6.5.5 and now this week areavailable in Notes 7.0.1.IBM has issued a patch for ahalf dozen "highly critical" security flaws in versions of itsLotus Notes, which could allow a malicious attacker to execute arbitrarycode remotely when users access files through the Notes attachment viewer.I acknowledge a left-hand right-hand problem here.  Imade a particularly boastful claim about the Notes client not having hadto be security patched over the years during one of my Lotusphere sessions,while we had in fact put such a patch in the most recent version of thecode.  My mistake.  However, I'd still take Notes/Domino's historyin the security space over 20 other enterprise software products -- theythought it out right at the start, and even in this case, the file viewersare somewhat orthogonal to the "core" code.Link: News.com:IBM patches Lotus flaw >Link: Lotus.com/security(updated technotes) >

February 13, 2006 by in Security

The Age-Razor Blog: The nightmare of Lotus Notes

The Age-Razor Blog: The nightmare of Lotus Notes

"Pile on!" Oz's The Age newspapercites one example of where a FileMaker Pro application beat out a Notesapplication--back in 1998.  What is this fondness in the press thisweek for citing software efforts from more than six years ago?  Theythen ask:So how come so many companies have subjectedtheir staff to the Notes nightmare? According to The Guardian, it's becausewhen companies buy "enterprise" software: the people who choosea product tend not to be the ones who use it.Interestingto me that the comments on the Razor blog seem to be a lot more balanced. Sure, there's at least one "Notes sucks" comment, but thereare some from users who actually like using Notes and see the overallvalue from the product.Link: TheAge-Razor Blog: The nightmare of Lotus Notes>

February 13, 2006 by in Developer

Butler Group: Red herring and bull?

Butler Group: Red herring and bull?

Butler Group's weblog takes a look at MIcrosoft's"redbull" efforts on Notes migrations:Fear,Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) is, all too frequently in the IT world, partof a marketer's armoury, and well ahead pre-announcements of software arenot uncommon from Microsoft. However, to announce and then 'lose' a productsupposedly in Beta reflects badly on the industry as a whole.Whilst Microsoft's announcement mayhave been designed as a red flag to the IBM Lotus bull, the perceptionof bull that it leaves may make those considering migrating see red.Still, Butler's entry has cause for pause for me -- they indicate that somewherearound 10% of the customers they surveyed are planning to migrate awayfrom Notes.  More work to do.Link: ButlerGroup: Red herring and bull? >(Note that the permalink takes you to a plain text web page...the toplevel URL shows the full weblog)

February 10, 2006 by in Tech Industry

Lotusphere session evaluations

Lotusphere session evaluations

Finally had a chance to review my Lotusphereevaluation verbatims yesterday.  I didn't do the actual math, butfor both sessions, it looks like about 80% excellent and 15% good ratingson both content and speakers.  Considering that these sessions arenecessarily provocative, I don't ever expect to score 100% excellent.  So,this is good.  I do appreciate the feedback. I always enjoy reading the written comments on the evaluations.  There'snot a ton of them, but there are some funny comments and some good ones(and a few that the ego appreciates). TheBoss Loves Microsoft: Where does that leave Lotus?"Great use of up-to-date sourcesand third-party quotes" "Best session I've attended sofar" "Great knowledge, passion, humour""The highlight of Lotusphere"Thisone puzzles me, though: "Stop bagging the competition.  Itsnot a good business practise."  I think the abstract forthe session makes it clear that it is going to be a discussion of the competitivelandscape, right? Howto 'sell' Notes/Domino inside your organization"Speakers gave more ammo to convinceupper mgmt to take another look @ Notes.  Excellent info.""I am now 'armed' to for sellingLN 7.0" "Both Ed & Libby are seasonedpros -- they were born to do sessions like this!""This information should be evenmore readily available to the community -- such is its importance"Interestingly,the PDFs of both sessions are posted, but there have been very few commentsposted about them.  About 800 downloads of "Howto 'sell' Notes/Domino"...nota word.  And with somewhere around 5000 downloads of "TheBoss loves Microsoft...",the electronic silence was somewhat surprising.  Then again, a numberof those downloads came from *.microsoft.com IP addresses :)

February 10, 2006 by in Microsoft

Information Week: Credibility Of Analysts

Information Week: Credibility Of Analysts

An interesting subject that has been discussedhere in the past.  Information Week talks to the "big guns"of the analyst world: IDC, Gartner, Forrester.  There is a smatteringof discussion about boutique analyst firms, but there are so many thatit would be tough ground to cover. It's an interesting article, but I think it is difficult to apply a singlelens to all analyst firms.  Burton Group, for example, doesn't dovendor-sponsored work, as PeterO'Kelly notes on his blog. Other analysts exclusively do so, so-called "white paper forhire" analysts.  This class of analyst doesn't get much attentionin the Information Week article, yet I think it's more relevant for readersto be aware of.Predicting tech trends is notoriouslydifficult, and no research firm is perfect in its advice. But their motivesmust be beyond reproach. Gartner VP Larry Perlstein tackled the pay-for-playquestion on the company's blog. "Aside from the occasional commenton a blog or backroom chatter, we have not had any vendors complain tothe office of the ombudsman directly since the office opened in September2004," Perlstein wrote. "So my message is, if anyone believesthat they know of a legitimate issue, please step forward regardless ofyour client status."The article also doesn't reallytackle this subject -- track record.  The article quotes a readersaying that some analysts erroenously (and egotistically) see their roleas "market makers" rather than trend watchers -- I agree completely. It would be very interesting for those analysts that have been arounda long time to self-publish a scorecard, and one that is somehow indepedentlyauditable.  I know that, for example, I still think about Tom Austin/Gartner's"Great Train Wreck" report on the messaging market in 1996 --which was remarkably prescient for the time.  Can't say that I haveseen the same from certain others. Link: InformationWeek: Credibility Of Analysts>

February 9, 2006 by in CXO

MC Press Online: Collaboration: Building the Application Team

MC Press Online: Collaboration: Building the Application Team

Joe Pluta takes a look at the state ofthe collaboration software market:This category has longbeen the stronghold of the Notes/Domino products, having been virtuallyinvented by Lotus in the 1980s. The term "groupware" has untilvery recently been practically synonymous with Notes.Microsoft really has no competitive answer. Ironically, Notes' worst threatis IBM itself and the new Workplace product line. Although it seems thatIBM is putting into place a reasonable strategy to guide Notes/Domino usersto the new Workplace technology, there is still a lot of uncertainty amongIT professionals--so much uncertainty that if Microsoft had a real processmanagement product, it would be able to move in on Notes in much the sameway it displaced Lotus 1-2-3 with Excel.I could understandthis assertion if the article was published 12 to 18 months ago.  Butduring 2005, with Notes/Domino 7 shipped and "Hannover" announced,most of you tell me that the strategy and direction for Notes is clearand logical.  I understand that it can take very long time to recoverfrom mixed or erroneous messages, though.  I'll be reaching out tothis author to see where his market understanding comes from, and if thereis more to do.  Well, really, there's always more to do.(Note to Mr. Pluta: re your comments about Microsoft and CDO, " Ihaven't been able to determine what the future of CDO is in the .NET paradigm")-- that's because there is no future.  Microsoft is stabilizing ordropping all existing APIs like CDO in the Exchange 12 release.)Link: MCPress Online: Collaboration: Building the Application Team> (thanks, Domenic)

February 9, 2006 by in Collaboration

The Guardian UK: Survival of the unfittest

The Guardian UK: Survival of the unfittest

With a kickoff paragraph like this, youcan only guess where the article is going...Imagine aprogram used by 120 million people, of whom about 119m hate it. Sound unlikely?Yet that's the perception one garners in trying to discover whether LotusNotes, IBM's "groupware" application, is - as readers of Technologyblog suggested - the "world's worst application".Sowhat's wrong with this article?  It seems that the Guardian'snormal code of ethics wasn'tupheld.  See, the code of ethics talks about how anonymous pejorativequotes should only be rarely used, and must be approved by senior editors. Did the senior editors at the Guardian really approve quoting fromthe anonymously-published (and now full of advertising!) Lotus Notes Suckswebsite,and an anonymouslatecomer comment on a weblog?Ben Rose was interviewed for the article, in his role as founder of thenew UKLotus Notes User Group.  AfterBen's interview with the reporter, he asked me to call Mr. Arthur.  Idid, but apparently too late for his deadline.  It's unfortunate thatMr. Arthur seems to have taken a few anonymous opinions as authoritative-- and not, for example, taken a look at more recent versions of the product(Mr. Arthur uses Notes R5 on a Mac). There are other problems with this article -- StoweBoyd trotsout his old saw about Notesbeing able to only collaborate with other Notes users.  Stowe, I knowyou've visited this weblog -- you know it runs on Lotus Notes, and I'mcollaborating with thousands of unique visitors every day.I suggested to Mr. Arthur that he check out Michael Sampson's essay, WhoseFault Is It When Collaboration Software Sucks?since it addresses some of the perception issues that he wrote about.  Perhapsthat will get some coverage in the follow-up.  After all, the lasttwo sentences show precisely why the author could have done a bit moreresearch -- and find out that the nextversion of Notes is precisely"rip[ping] up the user interface." Link: TheGuardian UK: Survival of the unfittest>

February 9, 2006 by in Security

Damien Katz: Passion of the Notes

Damien Katz: Passion of the Notes

DamienKatz writes from a sort of former-insider-now-sorta-outsider-looking-inview of Lotusphere and the Notes market/world:Onething I was really struck by was how passionate so many people are aboutLotus Notes. The Notes community is a community that I was once a veryactive member of and I really miss. Is it any coincidence that the mostadvanced "social software" platform also has the most tightlyknit, passionate technology community?This energy andenthusiasm is one of the main principles of why I've been proud to workfor and with Lotus and Notes for almost 14 years.  Emotional responsein business can be good, useful, and lead to business benefits (creativity,better working relationships, etc.).But I was also struckby how many people were otherwise alone in their passion. Getting excitedabout this thing, a software tool, is something they feel like they aren'tallowed to do. Colleagues, friends, relatives making them feel like theirinterests are silly. Stories of coworkers being derisive or outright hostile,the typical Notes sucks stories, nitpicking every flaw while concedingnone of its strengths.This is not unique to Notes, of evensoftware, people everywhere with intense interests are brought down byothers. These people who like to squash enthusiasm I like to call "cynical@ssholes". These are people with no real passion of their own, andit annoys them to no end to see others who do.That'sexactly what it feels like to me when I view the competitive landscapefor Notes.  It's almost like we joined a club many years ago, andnow there are all these people who want to join but can't figure out thesecret handshake -- which is hardly secret.I believe as Damien concludes:It'sokay to have passion. It's better than okay, it's great. Go with it.Passionis why we are a community... a "family".  And it's whatI look forward to about every single business day, is knowing that I'llspend my day with other people who care, who enjoy, who relish, who grok,and who want to shout from the rooftops.  Let's keep it going.

February 7, 2006 by in Tech Industry

Yellow is the new black

Yellow is the new black

One of the things I'm most excited aboutcoming out of Lotusphere 2006 is that Lotus marketing has kicked it upa notch in so many ways.  The internal enthusiasm has infused thewhole marketplace -- in a way I haven't seen in years.  Lotuspherealways reinvigorates -- but 2006 did so at a breakthrough level.Yellow is the new black -- we even have websitesand signaturefiles to attest to this.ChrisByrne attributes at least some of this to new Lotus marketing VP SurjitChana (note that Surjithas been busily updating hisblog).  Actually, at least some of this goes to several members ofthe executive team -- Surjit, but also CraigHayman, Alistair Rennie inhis new role running the services team, Ken Bisconti at the helm of theproducts team, KevinCavanaugh with a huge set of Lotusphere newsfrom his team, and of course Mike Rhodin himself.  Not that the attitudeall has to come from the top -- It was hard for anyone to be at Lotusphere(or read about it) and not notice the upbeat, positive, and enthusiasticattitude of everyone -- from the stages to the labs to the hallways.  Butit's not just attitude -- it's actions, too, like the FUD-responderblog and the multi-year commitmentto future Lotuspheres and quoting bloggers in main stage presentationsand starting the planning for the IBM Lotus Technical Forum/DNUG and LotusphereComes to You events before we had even left Orlando.When I moved over from marketing to becomethe sales lead for Notes/Domino19 months ago, I said, "I believe in the future of Notes and Domino". Since then, IBM has grown the Notes business by double-digits eachquarter.  My management has recognized my indidvidual contributionto this, but I, in turn, am grateful and indebted to thousands of people-- inside and outside of IBM.  Now the real challenge is -- how dowe keep this energy going for the next 51 weeks, so that Lotusphere 2007exceeds the high water mark established last week?  If we can figureit out, this is going to be another great year.

February 7, 2006 by in IBM

On the notion of a need for a Lotusphere in Europe

On the notion of a need for a Lotusphere in Europe

In several of the post-Lotusphere discussions,I've seen a lot of comments from those unable to join us in Orlando lastmonth.  The logic applied tends to sayLotusphere is a great conferenceWe can't travel to OrlandoThere should be a Lotusphere in [Europe,Asia, Australia, etc.]I wouldlove to be able to run multiple Lotuspheres again.  But making ithappen is a challenge, and based on some of the data, not necessarily onethat makes sense.Let's look at the European scenario. Lotus ran several Lotusphere Europe events, with the 1998-1999-2000versions held in Berlin.  I am not sure if the attendance numbersfor those conferences were published but it was in the 2-3000 range...farsmaller than the US equivalent those same years.  A variety of reasonswere cited for the lesser attendance...location, travel expense, time ofyear, depth of event, etc.  I don't buy all of those, but I can understandthat the event's perception was different from the Orlando version.If we look at 2006, there were about6000 at Lotusphere in Orlando. It would probably surprise many of you toknow that somewhere around 20% of that number were Europeans.  I wasincredibly impressed to learn how large the European contingent was inOrlando.  I suspect there a lot of reasons for this -- Lotuspherebeing a premier conference in the industry, the "bootcamp" andother improvements in the technical depth of the conference, even the factthat off-season trans-Atlantic airfares are relatively low.  So, I'mofficially no longer accepting the complaint that it's too [difficult/expensive]for Europeans to get to "the" Lotusphere.But OK, there's a need to do some thingsin Europe.  The LotusphereComes to You 2006 events havestarted (check that link for updated dates/locations), and I know my Nordiccolleagues are booking me up solid for the week of March 6 [and my Asiancolleagues are asking me to extend my mid-April trip].  These eventshelp.  Upcoming, too, is the second instanceof the joint venture between IBM and the Deutsche (German) Notes UsersGroup -- the MayDNUG/IBM Lotus Technical Forum. The 2005 event in Hannover was quite successful.  More importantly,I want to reiterate how much support IBM is giving to this event -- similarin scope to the support given to Lotusphere Europe back in the day.  Theexecutives all attend and speak (in English).  Developers travel anddo panels and labs.  Major new product announcements are made.So, for Europe, there are options.  Seethe Lotusphere Comes to You events.  Come to Germany in May for theDNUG event.  Or mark your calendar now, as many of your fellow Europeanshave, for Lotusphere 2007 in January in Orlando.  You may find thatjustifying the trip for any of these is easier than you expected, thatyou just have to ask.For Asia and Australia, the LotusphereComes to You events are a great local option.  I know there continuesto be interest in trying to "bring back Fusion" in Australia....don't think it will easily happen, but keep asking.

February 7, 2006 by in CXO