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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

iNotes (Lotus Notes email in Browser (on intranet / w3) ) for IBMers

IBM India announced availability of iNotes on IBM Intranet (w3.ibm.com) in production. Although iNotes (Notes on the browser) has been available for quite sometime now, making it available in production to an employee base of 100,000+ is a significant leap. The moment it was announced, I accessed it and found it to be a great user experience. This was the first time, I accessed my emails using a browser. Delivering such a rich functionality inside the browser is'nt easy. Kudos to Notes and Domino developer team who made this happen- and yes the IT teams in India who made it to production. With this, expect that the configuration for the primary workstations / laptop will stay stable at 1GB/2GB RAM for a while now. Great relief to IT teams who juggle with the IT budgets and ever rising resource needs - RAM in particular.



Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Lotus Quickr (J2EE) / Lotus Connections POT for Partners/Customers happening on October - 28/29

Lotus: Connection PoT    Mumbai, India    28/10/2010    29/10/2010
https://www.ibm.com/events/swgeer/swgeer06.nsf/signin?openform&seminar=kwomrkr89fjhv&lang=en
                   
Lotus: QuickR/J2EE PoT    Gurgaon, India    28/10/2010    29/10/2010
https://www.ibm.com/events/swgeer/swgeer06.nsf/signin?openform&seminar=kwomrkr89fjct&lang=en
                   


Friday, October 22, 2010

about backlinks..

I just got to know about the concept of "backlink" and how it relates to webpage popularity, page rank and search engine optimization. I would call these web pages quite lucky and here's my explanation-
just think of an analogy of web pages and page hits with experts in large organizations (like the one I work for) and people approachng them informally for advise.
With the maturity in the SEO technology, viz : backlinks, page ranks and search engines etc. it is possible to identify and elevate the rank of a particular page and hence pages that offer valuable information can be easily spotted and recognized/ranked.
On the other hand consider "experts" - a lot of people approach them formally and informally to seek advise and most of these experts, give it away without actually caring to record the transaction - (backlink not tracked) and hence there is no record / ranking done as a result of the good work they do. However the people who approach to seek advise make the network aware of the presence of such an expert- which is an informal yet more valuable recognition for such an individual.


Thursday, October 21, 2010

few updates..

The first News - apparently Lotus OR WPLC will also be called / referred to as "IBM Collaborative Solutions"

Lotus Connections 3.0 is expected to be out today

I came across several interesting Youtube Videos on "Social Data Analysis" from "Social Data Revolution". by Anderas Weigend (http://weigend.com/)


Also came across loads of education material on "SPSS" on Youtube - it is now an IBM product.

Also bumped into a blog by one of my colleague (Dr. Ananth Chakravarthy) on wordpress - http://sdanalytics.wordpress.com/

I will be out on a Social Software Adoption assignment (second meeting) at a Pharma customer in Mumbai.


More (particularly about both my interactions on Adoption) when I am back from the assignment..

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Service Jam : Observations from Adoption perspective

Observation 5: mailers continue - "Just four more days until Service Jam!"
Priming - People need to be reminded repeatedly. There was another mail blast informing participants, registered and unregistered, of the event.. The users are also encouraged to invite people they know, not necessarily at IBM.



Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Crowd-sourcing for a better planet : Adoption Perspective


Oct 10-12th : IBM hosts a Service Jam
Yet another jam hosted by IBM which engages the general public to generate breakthrough ideas to help solve world's largest problems..

Adoption being my topic of interest, I thought of writing about some of the key factors that must be affecting / influencing adoption of this Jam.

Observation 1 : Touch the pulse
A large proportion of people on this planet want to live a better life. Most certainly do not plunge into community service, and some live with a guilt of not being able to do so... with this jam, they can at least get online to express their ideas, emotions and opinions. In "Adoption" terminology, there is a clear "business case" for a lot of like minded people to participate.

Observation 2 : start with a BANG !!

Here's the message that is loud and clear on IBM's website

http://www.ibm.com/ibm/responsibility/minijam/overview.html

 

Join us October 10th – 12th, 2010, for an important dialogue on "Service as a Solution."

Service JamThe Service Jam is an online event that will engage non-profit organizations, corporations, academic institutions, and government agencies in a discussion on how social innovation can help solve our world’s largest problems. By bringing together prominent leaders, professionals, and passionate individuals, the Jam aims to generate breakthrough ideas that will redefine service and social innovation. Through IBM’s Jam technology, participants can collaborate virtually and have the flexibility to log into the Jam from anywhere in the world at anytime most convenient to them during the three day event.


Observation 3 : Use of proven tools
What they use to drive this jam is a decade old proven technology - IBM's InnovationJamTM . There have been several jams hosted on this tool by IBM and other organizations.

Observation 4 : Get (hire) the celebreties onboard

Look who is participating...

Featuring special guests:
George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the U.S.
Ben Kernighan, Deputy CEO, National Council for Voluntary Organisations
C. B. Bhattacharya, Full Professor and E.ON chair in Corporate Responsibility, European School of Management and Technology
Elena Topoleva, Director, Agency of Social Information
João Falcão e Cunha, Professor, University of Porto, Portugal
Harris Wofford
, U.S. Senator, Pennsylvania
Jean Case, CEO, The Case Foundation
John Gomperts, Director, AmeriCorps
Justin Davis-Smith
, CEO, Volunteering England, UK
Luminita Oprea, Founder, Saga Business, Society Romania

Marc-Philippe Daubresse, Minister for Youth and Solidarities, France
Michael Bürsch, Former Member of the Bundestag, Founder of Centrum für Corporate Citizenship Deutschland
Michael Nutter
, Mayor, City of Philadelphia
Momo Mahadav, President, Maala Business for Social Responsibility, Israel
Oistein Mjaerum, Head of Industry Relations, Red Cross Norway
Ray Chambers, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria
Sam Palmisano, President & CEO, IBM
Dottor Ugo Castellano, Chief Operating Officer, Sodalitas Foundation, Italy

Observation 5 : Build up the momentum with mailers
Mailers - a traditional marketing approach, which still works...... got to send them just in time - not too early, not at the last moment - the first flash for the jam came to us in IBM 3 weeks ahead of the jam. I registered after a couple of alerts from the IBM's internal "On Demand Community" which engages IBMers worldwide in community service.

More when the jam begins....
Do you want to join ? Register here...




Friday, September 24, 2010

List of IBM Lotus Learning events (FREE) happening in October

List of IBM Lotus Learning events happening in October (FREE)

Event Name Location Start Date (dd/mm/yy) End Date (dd/mm/yy) Instructor
Registration Link

Portal Development WPF & RAD PoT Banglore, India 11/10/2010 12/10/2010 Anurag Srivastava (Lab) https://www.ibm.com/events/swgeer/swgeer06.nsf/signin?openform&seminar=kwomrkr89fg5z&lang=en

WebSphere Portal PoT Mumbai, India 04/10/2010 05/10/2010 Sumit Arawatia
https://www.ibm.com/events/swgeer/swgeer06.nsf/signin?openform&seminar=kwomrkr89fgks&lang=en

Portal and WCM – Install, Config, Admin PoT Pune, India 19/10/2010 20/10/2010 Anurag Srivastava (Lab)
https://www.ibm.com/events/swgeer/swgeer06.nsf/signin?openform&seminar=kwomrkr89fhej&lang=en

WebSphere Portal PoT Gurgaon, India 20/10/2010 22/10/2010 Pawan Rawal
https://www.ibm.com/events/swgeer/swgeer06.nsf/signin?openform&seminar=kwomrkr89fhkb&lang=en

QuickR/J2EE PoT Mumbai, India 20/10/2010 21/10/2010 Priyanka Sharma (Lab)
https://www.ibm.com/events/swgeer/swgeer06.nsf/signin?openform&seminar=kwomrkr89fhxr&lang=en

Connection PoT Mumbai, India 28/10/2010 29/10/2010 Nitin Talreja
https://www.ibm.com/events/swgeer/swgeer06.nsf/signin?openform&seminar=kwomrkr89fjhv&lang=en

Connections PoT Gurgaon, India 28/10/2010 29/10/2010 Priyanka Sharma (Lab)
https://www.ibm.com/events/swgeer/swgeer06.nsf/signin?openform&seminar=kwomrkr89fjct&lang=en

Sorry, This was originally a table (when viewed i Lotus Notes email), however neither Blogger nor Scribefire has ability to insert a table - dont have patience to use HTML. Not sure when these blog editing tools will handle tables better than what they do now.


Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Blog Stats and Social Data Analytics

Blogger offers an Author of the blog to review and analyze statistics of who (what source) is reading the blog and maps a trend along a time-line. An excellent tool for tracking visitors and popularity of your blogs online. While reviewing my stats, I came across various sources from where I got page hits. Quite a few might have been my own - that's my guess. However one of the sources happened to be "saidwot" which claims to be a service that helps one track reputation / brands online.

Interesting to see what Saidwot tracks a large number of online sites which have been categorized as follows - Search Engines, Social Networks, Microblogging, Forums, Social Bookmarking, Photo Sites, Wikis, Video sites, Review, Newsportals. Saidwot taps into conversations and all the social data online to produce sensible analytics for your brand.

The saidWot Online Reputation Management Tool:

  • Monitors your brand’s reputation online
  • Calculates your brand value online
  • Conducts brand health audit
  • Measures individual campaign response
  • Benchmarks competitor products and activity
  • Facilitates proactive online WebPR strategy planning
This is "Social Data Analytics" in action... in public space. tapping into the power of Social Media.






Tuesday, September 7, 2010

IBM's The Great Mind Challenge for Business Award - nominate before 7th September

IBM's The Great Mind Challenge for Business Award - nominate before 7th September
The Great Mind Challenge is an innovative contest that originally started with students from engineering colleges in India. It has made waves as it received wide participation from the student community - It is into Limca Book of Records now

This contest is now opened to business...

The Great Mind Challenge for Business Award
recognizes visionary IBM clients who have successfully implemented IBM software solutions to create exceptional business value. We aim to reward problem solvers who have brought about a change in their organization while creating value for their business. Here’s your chance to showcase what you’ve accomplished at your firm!

All solutions entered must have been developed using purchased IBM software products. While third – party products may be part of the nominated solution, the key components must be IBM software products.
Last year we received more than 130 nominations across categories. This year can you afford to miss out?
Here's what the winners get:
* A prized IBM trophy for your company.
* Felicitation at IBM Software Universe, a premier Software Group event.
* The possibility of presenting your solution at international IBM conferences.
* An invaluable certificate from IBM for your organization as well as an individual certificate for you.

Not to mention, the worldwide applause that recognition by the world's largest software and services multinational, brings you.



Most Innovative Solution Built Using Lotus Software
Lotus Software LogoLotus application development tools give an enterprise the flexibility to build innovative, robust, scalable, and security-rich applications that empower their people and enhance their productivity. Based on the latest web and collaboration technologies, open platforms and extensible frameworks, Lotus application development tools help increase IT flexibility and can meet the most demanding needs of the IT environment.
Speaking about productivity, Web Portals also offer a huge productivity benefit for an organization. They allow partners, employees and customers to choose their user experience, with personalized applications based on role, context, actions, location, preferences and team collaboration needs. IBM WebSphere Portal software provides a composite application or business mashup framework and the advanced tooling needed to build flexible solutions, as well as the unmatched scalability required by any size organization.
The winning solution in this category will illustrate how various Lotus offerings (including IBM WebSphere Portal) integrate the human element into business processes and make people more productive in the context of what they do – everyday, by leveraging one or more products from the Lotus family (Domino/Notes/iNotes/Traveller, Sametime, Portal/WCM/Portal Accelerators, Quickr, Connections, LotusLive, Lotus Symphony).

Most Innovative Solution Implemented Using WebSphere Software
WebSphere logoWebSphere is IBM's integration software platform. It includes the entire middleware infrastructure -- such as servers, services, and tools--needed to write, run, and monitor 24x7 industrial-strength, on demand Web applications and cross-platform, cross-product solutions. WebSphere provides reliable, flexible, and robust integration software.
WebSphere Application Server is the base for the infrastructure; everything else runs on top of it. It supports SOA and non-SOA environments. WebSphere Process Server, which is based on WebSphere Application Server, and WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus, provide the foundation for service-oriented architected (SOA), modular applications. Collectively, they support the use of business rules to drive applications that support business processes.
IBM WebSphere Application Server is the premier open-standards Java 5 Standard Edition (J5SE), Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.4, and Web services-based application server. It helps deploy and manage applications ranging from simple Web sites to powerful on demand solutions.
Using various WebSphere products one can easily build, integrate, deploy, manage and monitor web applications with greater availability and scalability.
This award recognizes the best integrated solutions or web applications that are deployed on IBM WebSphere range of products. The nominations will be judged on how IBM WebSphere product(s) have helped (with quantitative benefits illustrated) in achieving business goals.

Most Efficient Service Management Solution Implemented using Tivoli Software
IBM Tivoli software provides intelligent infrastructure management solutions that help customers understand and proactively manage the business value of their IT systems in an on demand world. Tivoli software goes beyond the individual components of customer systems to provide integrated views for managing and optimizing critical IT systems with policy-based resource allocation, security, storage and systems management solutions.
Tivoli software leverages open systems and automation technologies to enable on demand computing with quality, scalable and reliable systems management solutions.
This award recognizes a solution delivering the Visibility, Control and Automation needed to help manage and grow business and IT operations.
The winning organization in this category must demonstrate improved management of the IT infrastructure through an integrated set of IT services based on IBM Tivoli products beyond simply managing it as groups of servers, software, databases and networks.
Solutions should have used one or more products from the Tivoli family of products (i.e. Asset Management, Business Service Management, Connectivity & Integration, Network & Service Assurance, Product & Project Management, Security, Storage Management)

Most Innovative Solution Built Using Rational Software
From project design to implementation, IBM Rational helps bring technology and software together to help the team collaborate more effectively on software development and delivery projects. Today’s focus is on increasing productivity, reducing time to market and responding quickly to new technologies to drive innovation and increase customer value. The IBM Rational Software Delivery platform helps solve challenges ranging from understanding the impact of open source software to managing risk, from catching bugs in testing to improving communication across worldwide development teams.
The IBM Rational Software Delivery Platform is an integrated platform providing a complete solution for developing software and software-based systems. It allows practitioners to operate more efficiently and deliver innovative products and services that set their organizations apart from their competitors.
Winning organizations in this category are those who strive to improve the software development capability of their customers with the IBM Rational software development platform. A key measurement of the success is the use of multiple IBM Rational software solutions in the deployment of applications.

Most Innovative Solution Implemented Using Information Management Software
At the core of IBM's software solution for information management is a powerful family of relational database management system (RDBMS) servers like DB2, Informix, IMS, and U2. In addition, IBM has built information management software for purposes that include data warehousing, data analysis, data mining, media asset management, enterprise content management (FileNet) and information integration (InfoSphere) and business Intelligence (Cognos).
From structured data to unstructured content, from handheld devices to clustered server configurations, and from transaction processing workloads to data mining, Information Management software supports customers as they grow and succeed as on demand businesses. With this software, customers can take advantage of e-business on demand advancements and strategies such as Web services and grid computing.
This award recognizes a solution that deploys an information infrastructure (using IBM Information Management products) that enables organizations to deliver relevant and trusted information in real time to employees, customers and partners and become an on demand business — able to respond quickly to market demands, opportunities and threats.
Solutions should have been implemented using one or more from the following Information Management family of products - Data Management (eg. DB2, Informix, Optim etc.), Infosphere (eg. Infosphere Warehouse, MDM, Entity Analytics etc.), Enterprise Content Management (eg. FileNet, Advanced Case Management etc.). Please note that there is a separate category for solutions implemented using IBM Business Analytics software products.

Most Effective Decision Making Using IBM Business Analytics Software
Although technology can be a magic bullet for solving the most pressing business challenges, many organizations experience difficulty in translating the value these transformative technologies bring into terms the business will understand. They are also challenged to quantify the gains that are achieved. This results in an inability for organizations to recognize these gains, press forward and reach the full potential of these investments.
Decision-makers need to be able to quickly get a handle on the issues that influence business performance and secure the resources to deal with them efficiently and effectively. It is central to rising above the competition and securing profitability.
Unfortunately, creating this decision culture hasn’t been easy. With data pouring in from disparate systems, different departments, and different divisions, IT is constantly challenged to provide a single version of the truth.
The award recognizes the solution that has used IBM Business Analytics software (eg. Cognos, SPSS, etc.) to deliver complete, consistent and accurate information that decision-makers trust to improve business performance.

Most Innovative Green IT Solution using IBM Software
Information Technology accounts for approximately 2% of worldwide carbon emissions and focusing on IT alone limits the potential efficiency gains. Green computing software provides the intelligence and insight to not only green IT, but solutions that addresses the other 98%, energy efficient technology that can help people work in ways that increase business impact while lowering the carbon footprint.
Some of the ways that your organization could have contributed towards a greener planet include using collaborative work solutions to reducing business travel and commuting; allow multi-site software development; monitor, report and manage resources to reduce consumed energy; dynamically manage virtualized systems to optimize utilization and energy consumption; optimize HVAC ( Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning) for hotspots; optimize business processes; decrease data and server footprint by compressing and de-duplicating your data; deliver intelligent, greener products, schedule workload to off-peak hours; optimize applications or design workflows/ processes to reduce use of paper.
Solutions could have used one or more products from the IBM software brands and should be able to demonstrate an optimization and reduction of energy consumption and costs, impact on the environment, while addressing stakeholder expectations.

Most Strategic Enterprise using IBM Software
The world today, is substantially more volatile, uncertain and complex, and incremental changes are no longer sufficient in a world that is operating in fundamentally different ways. The key to success lies in being able to take advantage of these complexities through innovative solutions that allow both speed and flexibility and help position organizations for greater success. Tools that aid better and faster decision making; allow collaborative work practices for greater efficiencies; use technology towards enhancing customer delight, etc. while at the same time reducing IT costs, mitigating enterprise risks and leveraging automation to lower costs elsewhere in the business.
The winning solution in this category must demonstrate the use of products from two or more IBM software brands (i.e. Lotus, Rational, Tivoli, WebSphere and Information Management) to develop and implement solutions that have led to a remarkable difference in the functioning of the organization and making it ready for the inconnected, intelligent and complex world of the future.

Link to The Great Mind Challenge for Business group: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/groups/service/html/communityview?communityUuid=89bf6989-7e9e-480e-9d51-6ab64473892a

More information: http://www-07.ibm.com/events/in/tgmcforbusiness/index.html

Friday, August 27, 2010

Usability - amazing interface to reset password


This is great user experience... user interface for resetting passwords in this application that I used today was amazing. every app that expects to adhere to password rules must build this functionality...

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Tips to launch a Social Intranet : Adoption

I came across this interesting article related to Adoption / Launch.

Tip #1: Pilot around a specific event or project
MSP>> Use Cases - one of the most important success factor for adoption

Tip #2: Choose the right group
MSP>> Early adopters particularly should be a mix of Mavens, Brokers and Sellers - says so, Malcom Gladwell (The Tipping Point)

Tip #3: Include an influential senior person
MSP>>
Culturally in India this makes a lot of difference. When boss participates, I better do, I must...

Tip #4: Set up a basic navigation structure
MSP>> The tools are new, need to be inutive supported by education if need be

Tip #5: Populate some initial content
MSP>> Remember Technographics ? All are not content creators, there must be something for the others to chew.

Tip #6: Set up email notifications
MSP>> nothing beats emails, nowadays many people get notified on handhelds too. Part of traditional marketing tactic.

Tip #7: Assign specific tasks to pilot group
MSP>> This will be very useful to keep up the momentum, particularly where people are used to get directions

Tip #8: Promote, launch and follow up
MSP>> Marketing and Communication forms an integral part of adoption - measurements too...

Most of these tips synch with my earlier post and what is in generally advocated by Adoption consultants. A couple of weeks ago, my sales team asked me to put up a plan for driving adoption for a customer in Mumbai and I happened to randomly list down factors - high 5s of adoption and they were-
  • Organizational Will – to bring about cultural change
  • Value derived through meaningful use cases
  • Viral and Traditional Marketing techniques
  • Education and Support
  • Focus : Measurements and Course corrections
The LotusSphere Adoption lists following steps-
  • Identify business goals
  • Choose a pilot audience
  • Conduct a pre-assessment that aligns with business goals
  • Locate your advocates
  • Soft Launch: Brainstorm with early adopters and advocates
  • Train the Advocates and SMEs
  • Set up regular checkpoints with the early adopters and advocates
  • Monitor: assess how much the pilot participants have achieved
  • Integrate tools and data with other services
  • Begin expanding participation in the pilot
  • Publicize the availability
  • Track the usage and value
This post helps converge on what is advocated in general from Adoption of social Software in Enterprises.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Lotus Events this week

There are two events happening this week which could be of Interest to Lotus Notes/Domino Community -

Event 1 - ND 8.5.1 POT in Mumbai

IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5
AN IBM PROOF OF TECHNOLOGY

Date: August 25, 26 & 27, 2010.
Time: 9:00 A.M. - 6:00 P.M.
Venue: IBM India Pvt. Ltd.,
Nirlon Knowledge Park, Boardroom #622,
Western Express Highway, Pahadi Village,
Next to Hub Mall, Goregaon (E),
Mumbai - 400 063

This exclusive three day workshop has been thoughtfully put together to offer you an in-depth examination of the new capabilities of the latest Lotus Notes and Domino Version 8.5.x. It will also help you assess the additional value of an upgrade to Version 8.5.x and explore the potential impact it can have on your existing environment.

Who will benefit from this workshop?
This workshop is specifically suited to answer the needs of IT Managers, Application Developers, System Administrators and Architects evaluating IBM Lotus Notes / Domino. No prerequisite knowledge of Lotus Notes or Domino is required.

Why should you attend?
The Proof of Technology workshop will showcase how the powerful new features of Lotus Notes and Domino Version 8.5.x are designed to give you a competitive edge. It will focus on Notes® End User, Domino® Administration, and Domino Application Development enhancements in Version 8.5.x, and help you discover how these solutions can solve your most pressing business issues.
To Register : https://www-950.ibm.com/events/swgeer/swgeer06.nsf/signin?openform&seminar=kwomrkr88dcgs&lang=en

This intensive three-day IBM Proof of Technology session is offered to you absolutely free of charge. As a participant, you will only need to make arrangements for your travel and refreshments. To enroll for the workshop, simply e-mail us at manrkuma@in.ibm.com or click on the link above.


Event 2
Lotus User Group Meeting in Bangalore
A Lotus User Group meeting is planned in Bangalore on 26 August 2010. Lotus User Group meetings are a perfect way for Senior Managers, Developers, Administrators & Support Engineers to understand new features and offerings from the Lotus Portfolio as well as a great way to network with some of the top subject matter experts in the field of social collaboration and rich user experiences. There are limited seats available at first come first serve based - to reserve your seat - please register at http://www.luglounge.in/index.php/events/view/10.

What - Lotus User Group Meeting

Where - The Park Bangalore,
Oak Room
MG Rd, Bangalore, Karnataka 560001
Phone - 080 25594666
Web URL - theparkhotels.com
Directions

Registration URL - http://www.luglounge.in/index.php/events/view/10

When - 26 August 2010, 3 PM - 6 PM

Agenda
Overview of Websphere Mobile Portal Accelerator
Websphere Portal High availability - Best practices
What's new in Websphere Portal 7 & Project Northstar
LotusLive Collaboration in Cloud Demo
Sametime Audio/Video Meetings & Collaboration Demo
What's new in Notes/Domino 8.5.2 - Show & Tell

Sunday, August 22, 2010

hilarious Marathi radio FM channel prank - 2

Yet another hilarious conversation..


Mess Inquiry Hilarious Marathi Radio Prank

Amazing Marathi Radio FM Conversation-

CRM Failures at Bajaj Allianz

Bajaj Allianz guys have been calling me repeatedly since last two months. On Friday, I received probably the 15th call from the Sales guy asking me if I want to renew my car insurance.

Although I have renewed my insurance with them (have been doing so for last 2 years) I keep getting these calls.. An excellent example of how processes and CRM systems fail and lead to customer dissatisfaction. They are unable to record that the customer is already renewed and reflect this fact in their processes.. On every call, I asked the salesperson, not to call me henceforth and he in turn assured that I will not receive any call from BA - it never worked.

Finally I had to open up their web site and wrote a strong email - threatened to escalate to IRDA. Hope they act on this now.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Careers with Notes / Domino

Those who have made Notes/Domino as their Career and interested in knowing future directions should positively read this blog and listen to this webcast - http://www.edbrill.com/ebrill/edbrill.nsf/dx/joyce-davis-replay-of-july-community-meeting-future-opportunities-for-notesdomino-professionals

Notes / Domino 8.5.x version upgrade resources

Was at a meeting in Bangalore last week, with the IT team of a large UK based Domino customer who are currently running Notes/Domino 6.5. The agenda of the meeting was to help them understand / build a case for upgrade. Some of the things that they were looking for are listed here

v2v Resource list

A little about Total Economic Impact - TEI
Register to hear the Forrester webcast
Three Reasons to migrate : Video
Upgrade Best Practices on the ND Wiki
Cookbook for application upgrade


Monday, August 2, 2010

Second Innings - Tikona


Visited Tikona Fort yesterday along with a group of treckers at Aker solutions where my bil works. After a long long time got to do what I have been lasting to.. Incidentally one of the fellow trecker with whom I got introduced started talking about the forts/places in Sayhadris he visited and it got me talking about the places I had visited during my peak days (1989-1994).. the list was long.. Tikona, Visapur, Lohagad, Bhimashankar, Mahuli, Kalsubai, Harishchandragad, Mahipatgad, Rasalgad, Ratangad, Gorkhgad, Shivneri, Vasota, Nane Ghat, Peth, One Tree Hill, Rajmachi and may be a few more..





















Just realised have started the second innings with Tikona -


Tikona (also known as Vitandgad) is the dominant hill fort in Maval in western India. It is located near Kamshet around 60 km from Pune The village nearest the fort is called Tikona-Peth or Tokono-Peth. The 3500 ft high hill is pyramidal in shape and the name Tikona means "triangle".[1]

The fort is a trekking destination noted for the large doors, the temple of 'Trimbakeshwar Mahadev', a water tank and some Satvahan caves. Trek organisers also commend the views of Pawna dam and the nearby forts of Tung, Lohagad and Visapur.[1] There is a lake at the summit.[2]

Malik Ahmed Nizamshah of the Nizam dynasty conquered the fort in 1585 and aanexed it to the Nizam territory. In 1657 Shivaji Maharaj (The Great Maratha Emperor) brought the whole of Konkan, which had been Nizam territory, under his control when he conquered Tikona along with the forts of Karnala, Lohgad, Mahuli, Songad, Tala, and Visapur. This fort was a strategic nexus: the centre of control for the entire Pawana Mawal region. In 1660, Netaji Palkar was charged with ensuring the security of fort Tikona. Jaysingh invaded the regionn in 1665 and the local villages were by Dilerkhan but the forts held out. Tikona fort was surrendered to the Mughal warrior Kubadkhan, who had attacked the region together with Halalkhan and others, according to the Treaty of Purandar signed on 12 June 1665. Kubadkhan took over the fort on 18 June but it was later recaptured by the Marathas.[3]

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Lotus User Group Meet in Pune

It was the first time ever that I attended a lotus user group meeting - yesterday. It was great to see technical community (developers, IT Managers and administrators) from various companies (partners and customers) under one roof. There were 30-35 of them - that too with no motivation like food or bags/attractive brochures training material or writing pads... :-). An indicator of the fan following for Lotus products.
It was great to hear from various partners/companies about their ventures in Lotus Quickr and Lotus Connections. The LUG anchor, my colleague from IBM - Abhijit gave a mind blowing demo of Sametime Meetings with video chats... all of it done on a data card.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Domino/Notes : Driving v2v upgrades

Domino V2V : Planning to drive enablement for partners on Domino/Notes version upgrades.
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/dominowiki.nsf/dx/UC1_Planning.htm

Friday, June 25, 2010

planting trees.. started an initiative within the society

planting trees.. started an initiative within the society and hope to form a community of like minded interested people around. A note that I sent to invite participation
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Sigma One Residents

Most of us always think, read, appreciate and support nature conservation and related initiatives very passionately, however that is just NOT enough. As a community we can do much more and should really get down to some action...

Myself and Mr. Apte talked about tree plantation today morning and have decided to get started on this initiative. To begin with we intend to plant a few saplings along the road that approaches to our society (the road along the construction workers settlement). This initiative cannot be successful without a wider participation, because, we don't want to just plant the trees, we want to grow them and this requires a longer term involvement and commitment from the community. here are some of the things where we might need help

1. Need expertise - which trees to plant, where, what manure etc.. etc..),

2. Network contacts (particularly with PMC / Forest Department where we can get free
saplings and other support Private/Public owners of the property where we plan the trees

3. Adoption (people who can protect, water and give manure for these plants round the year)

4. Financial Support - to buy saplings, manure, labor, equipment etc..

Please assemble at 9:00 AM tomorrow - Saturday 26th June 2010 in our Play Area if you would like to get involved personally. If you happen to miss this tomorrow, and would like to participate actively/ passively OR want to make any suggestions, please feel free to contact me.

Hope to see you actively participate in this initiative.

cheers, Mahesh
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my blogs

Had originally planned to keep my personal and profession blogs separate.. however the poor pace and freuency of my blog make my blogs look sparse... hence merging these with immediate effect.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Social Software Adoption

what drives adoption of social software in enterprises- I think the high 5s include
  1. culture change
  2. use cases directly linked to business needs
  3. viral marketing approach
  4. education
  5. ease of use of the tools
there may be many more...

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Monetizing the blogs

Each time , I promise myself to keep this blog active and land up coming to it after months.. hope to keep it active going forward...

Things I did/learned new in last one quarter.. on the social networking tools.. of course
  1. Started using Blackberry - my first smartphone.. was indeed exciting. Have been using it for official and personal emails, facebook updates and twitter, occasionally to track IBM stock quote..
  2. discovered a location based service - foursquare, it is quite cool.. waiting to use the facebook lbs and consolidate.. use just one service..
  3. Just got the blog monetized using Google AdSense