The most important thing I heard at Lotusphere
January 31 2010 07:00:43 PM
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I have about 10 pages of notes from Lotusphere that I want to turn into blog entries. However, since Orlando I've been involved in project PDL, been working on some awesome upcoming Socialtext stuff, and had a family party this weekend that brought my siblings to town, so I've not had a spare moment. I don't even want to think about my laundry nor the pile of bills on my desk!
Anyway, I'm going to begin my Lotusphere posts with what I think is the most significant thing I heard at the show. Yes, it is about Project Vulcan, but it may not be what you think. While I'm excited about a potential new user experience for Notes, that is not it. It was the announcement that right from the very start of the beta program, the API would be available for developers. Contrast that to Lotus Notes, where after a decade of promises, there is still no C&S API.
One of the keys to Twitter's success is that from the very start, developers built applications around it. There are literally thousands of tools that enhance the Twitter experience, and the team at Twitter could not have made all of those things on their own. Ask 3 people which Twitter client they use, and you'll get at least 5 different answers.
For Vulcan to succeed, the same thing must occur. People should not rely on Lotus to do everything, especially not right at the start. Instead, developers should get their hands on the API, and start making Vulcan into what they want it to be. For example, I would hope that the API would allow Socialtext events and actions to be written to and acted upon from the Vulcan UI. Time will tell.
So go forth developers, explore strange new worlds where IBM is open, seek out new integration points, and boldly go where Lotus has rarely allowed you to go before.
Congrats on a great decision IBM, it is a great move.
Anyway, I'm going to begin my Lotusphere posts with what I think is the most significant thing I heard at the show. Yes, it is about Project Vulcan, but it may not be what you think. While I'm excited about a potential new user experience for Notes, that is not it. It was the announcement that right from the very start of the beta program, the API would be available for developers. Contrast that to Lotus Notes, where after a decade of promises, there is still no C&S API.
One of the keys to Twitter's success is that from the very start, developers built applications around it. There are literally thousands of tools that enhance the Twitter experience, and the team at Twitter could not have made all of those things on their own. Ask 3 people which Twitter client they use, and you'll get at least 5 different answers.
For Vulcan to succeed, the same thing must occur. People should not rely on Lotus to do everything, especially not right at the start. Instead, developers should get their hands on the API, and start making Vulcan into what they want it to be. For example, I would hope that the API would allow Socialtext events and actions to be written to and acted upon from the Vulcan UI. Time will tell.
So go forth developers, explore strange new worlds where IBM is open, seek out new integration points, and boldly go where Lotus has rarely allowed you to go before.
Congrats on a great decision IBM, it is a great move.
Ha ha.. Live long and prosper..
Anway, the drum i would like to beat is a serious ramp up of PAAS providers. This is where the rubber hits the road. Some Darwinian elements are needed to help filter the best work. I see this as a whole new class of BP that IBM can tap into, and also free up the bottlenecks within IBM's bureaucracy.
You can develop any number of widgets to the world, but unless there is a good medium to get "real people" to use the gear, it will spend alot of time just doing revolutions in the yellowverse without the brutal honesty of real world use. ok.. i said it.... ill move along now...
Alan: spot on. Guilio makes a good point too. Platform PLUS API == a big win. Here's hoping :-)
Giulio, thank you for the comment. I'm not sure what IBM's cloud platform plans are. LotusLive seems to be about offering their own services, I've not heard any mention of hosting BP apps, similar to Amazon S3 or SalesForce. You are correct, this is an important area.
Thanks Ben. Again, it was great to hear, and we'll see how it pans out.
"Contrast that to Lotus Notes, where after a decade of promises, there is still no C&S API."
How is this still possible? Is anyone even bothering to complain about it at "Ask the devs" at Lotusphere anymore?
Tim, Steve Nikopoulos IBM Senior Software Engineer did present AD105 - Futures in IBM Lotus Domino APIs, that talked about the work they are doing, but still no C&S as far as I know.