In The Next Version

There is no doubt that technology is changing everything around us.  Wi-fi connections are everywhere.  Mobile devices that fit in our pockets combine features of phones, organizers, cameras, radios, and music players.  Cars have screens that plays DVDs and video games to keep passengers entertained, while global positioning systems make sure drivers know were to turn.  At home our computers, televisions, and stereos are becoming one.  We watch television "time-shifted" or on demand.   We make phone calls via our computers to anywhere in the world.  We text message our friends and loved ones, e-vite people to parties, purchase almost everything on-line, and connect with others via social networks.  Many people spend hours on-line via massive multi-player video games, and some play, learn, and shop in virtual worlds like Second Life.

For the most part, these technologies currently touch our "home" or "consumer" lives more than they do our "work" or "business" environments.   But that is quickly changing.

Over the last few weeks I've been completely immersed in customer visits and technology conferences.   My days and nights have been spent absorbing a mind bending (and physically exhausting) amount of content discussing how vendors such as IBM, MS, Google, Yahoo, and a variety of "web 2.0" companies are changing everything we currently know about how we use our computers.

For those of us that spend our days developing, marketing, and selling software solutions, times could not be more exciting.   But I've been thinking more and more about how challenging these time can be for the average "user".  As a result, I find myself torn in two directions.

One side of my marketing mind is filled with thoughts of the new, the cool, the cutting edge, the generation 2.0 technologies.  I want to shout from the rooftop about blogs and wikis, social networks, tagging clouds, activity based computing, and mash-ups or composite applications.

On the other side, I've come to the realization that while all these amazing new technolgies are "emerging", for many customers simple email is still a challenge, and a phone is still just a phone.  The basic concepts of enterprise calendar and scheduling, instant messaging, web conferencing, blogging, editting a wiki, synching mobile devices, shared content repositories, and discussion forums are not second nature to everyone.

I've been frustrated by the fact that so many of the topics now being discussed in the industry around "collaboration" are things that Lotus has done for years.  But rather than getting defensive about this the way I have in the past, I've decided that I am going to learn from this, and re-think the way I discuss our products and strategy.  Perhaps being so close to the technology has lead me (and others) to take for granted that not everyone knows what we who work intimately with these products know.

Inspired by this epiphany, I hope I can help IBM tell a more compelling, and simpler story than we have in the past.  As we head into exciting times around the next releases of Notes and Sametime, I think this is very important for us to keep in mind.  While I work on pushing this message internally, I ask that you help by letting me know what areas you see where IBM (or the industry in general) needs to improve our messages.  Lotus offers amazing products, and I can't imagine a customer, small or large, that could not benefit from using them.  Let's get the message out there.

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