Keynote:
Lotus Software 2.0: Success and Strategy for Quickr, Sametime, and Connections

Show Then Tell:
Your Speakers Share Results First: So You Have the Goal in Mind

Underlying Technology:
Introduction to DB2 (Yes, you need to know!)
Single Sign On, LDAP, and Other Fun Acronyms

Sametime:
Customizing and Extending the Sametime 8.5 Meeting Center
Customizing and Extending the Sametime 8.0 Meeting Center
Using and Customizing the Sametime 8.5 Web Client with the new Proxy Server
Sametime 8 and 8.5 Toolkit Overview, Differences, and Examples *
Sametime Telephony Overview – TCSPI, Plugin and Unified Telephony options
Deploying Sametime 8 on Linux – Getting to the Root of the Install
Sametime 8.5 Infrastructure – How all the Pieces Fit Together
New ST Client features and New “zero download’ client; Working with the new Sametime Proxy *
Installing and working with Sametime Community server 8.5
Installing and working with the new Meeting server
Websphere Administration for Sametime
Managing your Infrastructure with the Sametime Solutions Console – Installation and Use *

Quickr:
Installation and Configuration of Quickr 8.2 – Best Practices
Open Your Eyes – Development Possibilities with Quickr: Three Complete Solutions Deconstructed
Themes Part 1 – Extending the Standard Theme Server-Wide and Custom Themes by Place *
Using Forms & Placebots for Automation: Three reusable examples *
Quickr 8.2 Performance: Getting More from your Server and Clients
Top 10 Quickr Support Issues 2009
Quickr Data – In. Out, Everywhere: A wide array of approaches and tools
Themes Part 2 – Adding Functionality With JavaScript
Quickr & Domino Integration Strategies & Concepts
Sizing for Quickr Servers: Load Testing and Deployment Planning
REST and Web Services APIs for Quickr *
Quickr & Sametime Integration – Beyond the Basics

Connections:
Installing and Configuring Lotus Connections 2.5
Your First Lotus Connections 2.5 Customizations Made Easy
Lotus Connections 2.5 Integration with Sametime, Quickr, and More

Strategy:
Collaboration Strategy: Applying your Skills and Collaboration Tools to Enhance the Business

Wrap-Up:
Futures and Strategy for Lotus Collaborative Documents
Bringing it All Together: All the Speakers’ Best 10 Minutes!

Hands-On Workshops:
Developing Collaborative Applications for Lotus Quickr – Zero to Hero in Three Hours
Quickr for Domino Administration – Deploying, Updating, and Troubleshooting the Environment and Applications

*These Sessions have Hands-On Lab Content

Hurry up and register while discounts and great IBM-sponsored hotel deals remain!

http://CollaborationUniversity.com

From Rob Novak’s blog:

I’m pleased to welcome two new faces to Collaboration University 2009 to help us kick off the most exciting year we’ve ever had for CU! With Sametime 8.5, Connections 2.5, and Quickr 8.2 all hitting the streets this year – and with the major technology changes there and in the near future, it’s great to have IBMers back this year to keynote the event and give us a heads-up on Lotus’s  strategy in the Web 2.0 space.

In Chicago, we’ll hear from Louis Richardson, Lotus Worldwide Sales Executive for Lotus Collaborative Document Services. Louis, at IBM the past five years, has been instrumental in helping get the word out about Collaboration University inside IBM, where all the events, dates and even links on the IBM website are helpful. I’ve known Louis for several years and know he will be an exciting and insightful speaker. Besides, anyone who gives me a picture on a sailboat has to be cool.

In London, we’re joined by Darren Adams, Messaging and Collaboration Business Unit Executive for North East Europe. Which, as it turns out, includes the UK, Ireland, Switzerland and Austria (fairly south and west for northeast!). Many of you know Darren from his blog at http://www.dadams.co.uk where, among other things, he shares his insights on Lotus software. Darren was recently promoted to this very long title, so please congratulate him when you see him in London! Dareen’s a long time friend of Collaboration University, having helped out with arrangements a little more each year.

Please join us in Chicago and London to learn about the strategy and direction of Lotus’s Web 2.0 lineup of software – Quickr, Sametime and Connections!

Ability to change the drop zone image

Just updated PandaBear to version 0.53. This version adds a feature many of you have requested. The ability to select another drop zone image. In this first version of this new feature we have added two more images on top of the default panda head.

Where PandaBear is aimed at end users for uploading, downloading and locating files from/to your Quickr server, Flippr is aimed at administrators. The application makes everyday Quickr admin tasks a breeze. Some of the functions that you can accomplish with Flippr are:

• Lock and unlock places
• Create and remove places
• Archive places
• Add persons and groups to places
• Rename person and groups in places

Flippr is using a friendly interface including type ahead for selecting places, people and/or groups from the server or LDAP directory. It also features three intuitive screens.

• On the Commands screen, you get tree-style navigation of the most common QPTool commands.
• On the XML screen you create your own XML to upload to the server. For the advanced cases where you want to do send in many commands at the same time.
• On the Settings screen, set up your connection to server(s), check for updated versions and check the latest release notes.

Designed on the Adobe Air framework, Flippr runs on Windows, Mac or Linux using the same application code. Just as PandaBear, Flippr features automatic check for newer version and will download and install it with a one click operation.

Flippr is free during beta, and is not time-locked or disabled in any way. Post-beta plans are still under consideration.

To download now with your QuickrTemplates.com ID (a new one takes just a minute), visit http://flippr.snapps.com

Designed on the Adobe Air framework, PandaBear runs on Windows, Mac or Linux using the same application code.

Use cases for PandaBear include:

• Quickr places designed primarily for file sharing
• Organizations with Mac and/or Linux desktops
• Transient users of Quickr, who just need access to files
• Archiving folders, rooms, or even entire places full of files
• Your unique use case!

PandaBear features three intuitive screens.
On the Download screen, you get tree-style navigation of servers, places, rooms, folders, and files. Highlight a file, folder, room or place, and you can download the file contents to your machine. Double-click a folder and you have a temporary “drop zone” for uploading files. Just drag and drop files or folders over the drop zone and they’re uplaoded to your Quickr place.

On the Favorites screen, set up a list of places where you will commonly upload files, then double-click them to open the drop zone(s).

On the Settings screen, set up your connection to server(s).

PandaBear is free during beta, and is not time-locked or disabled in any way. Post-beta plans are still under consideration but will include a free version with all the capabilities of the beta version.

To download now with your QuickrTemplates.com ID (a new one takes just a minute), visit http://pandabear.snapps.com

From Rob Novak’s blog:

As we enter our fourth year, Collaboration University is evolving, just like the collaboration software we know and love. With new versions of Sametime and Quickr released in the past 12 months, the release of Lotus Connections 2.5 (which we’re covering as well), this is going to be a great year to come to Collaboration University in September. The dates are:

Chicago: September 14-16 at the IBM Innovation Center
London: September 21-23 at IBM South Bank

There are 250 CU Alumni and 200+ people who requested personal notification from the CU website. They’ve been notified personally, but I though I would add this to my blog as well. Registration will open Tuesday, May 12 at 12:01 AM. Plus, there are some great Alumni discounts and discounts for registration by June 20.

We have even more speakers this year – see the previous blog entry – with five participating partners and four special industry guests. We are covering Lotus Quickr 8.2 and Sametime 8+, and are adding Lotus Connections 2.5 content.

Here’s where your investment pays off. Not only are we not raising the 2009 registration fees, but in addition to the Early Bird registration discount of $200 and up to $150 discount for Alumni:

I am extending a $100 “DAY ONE Discount” to anyone registering on Tuesday, May 12.

Head over to Collaboration University and register today!

From Rob Novak’s blog:

I’m pleased to announce that we’ll be producing Collaboration University 2009 at the great venues we found last year in Chicago and London.

In Chicago we’ll once again be at the IBM Innovation Center, located on the Chicago River a few blocks from Michigan Avenue. It is a great place to have the size and type of conference we produce – last year we sold out, the venue size and food were terrific, and the location was central to a lot of Chicago activity. In London we return to IBM South Bank, just a few blocks from Waterloo station, Marriott County Hall, the London Eye, and accessible from all over central London. Our dates (both start on a Monday and run through Wednesday):

Chicago: September 14-16, 2009
London: September 21-23, 2009

We’ll open registration next month, and even though we sold out both venues last year we will not be raising the fees! In fact, for alumni we are continuing last year’s introduction of a discount per year of attendance so your fees may even go down. More details will be available when we open registration, or you can email info@collaborationuniversity.com or me directly for budget planning purposes.

So head over to the Collaboration University website and sign up! See you there!

Watch D.O.G.S.

Yesterday for the third year in a row I was a Watch Dog at my sons elementary school.

If you never heard of this program I encourage you to check out their web site. Watch D.O.G.S. (Dads Of Great Students) is an organization that was started by Jim Moore in response to the 1998 middle school shooting in Jonesboro, AR. It’s an initiative of the National Center for Fathering and the program goal is:

To help every school in America be positively influenced by the committed involvement of fathers and father figures in lives of their children and students.

As always the administration at my sons school was great. They had my schedule for the day waiting at the front desk when I arrived in the morning. The day was full of attending classes and helping students with various tasks. Everything from reading, spelling test and helping special needs students with getting paper that needed recycling. I also helped in the cafeteria during lunch hour.

I make sure that my Watch Dogs day is on the same day as my sons birthday. That way I know what day I’m suppose to be there and my son loves having his “pappa” there that day. They make sure you have at least part of your day in your child’s class room.

It is very fulfilling to take a day and do this every year. Everybody at the school are so appreciative to you all day. The students, teachers and other personnel at the school love you being there, and they tell you all day.

I encourage you to try this out. Talk to your kids school administration to influence them to add this program if they don’t already have it. I promise, it’s worth it.

BlackBerry Bold

I got my BlackBerry Bold in early December and I could not be happier. I LOVE the screen resolution on it and I can easy watch movies while I’m on a plane or going on a longer car ride (when I’m not driving of course). It has the same resolution as the iPhone but I think it is much sharper on the Bold.

The browser on the Bold is much improved over the 8700c I used to have. I can browse everywhere and actually see the page, zoom in and click links.

There are a lot of great software out there for the BlackBerry, and I have tried many of them. Some of my favorites include:

• AT&T Navigator
  Wouldn’t leave home without it.
• Audible
  I love listen to audio books.
• Google Maps
  The GPS feature built in makes it really cool to watch the icon move while I’m walking around my house.
• Facebook
  Great to catch up on peoples status.
• BlackBerry Messenger
  We use this at SNAPPS all the time, especially at conferences abroad.
• SlingPlayer Mobile
  It’s great to be able to watch my TV stations at home, included recorded shows.
• TwitterBerry
  To set my Twitter status.
• vlingo
  This is probably the coolest one of them all. I can call contacts, dial numbers, set my status on Twitter and Facebook, create tasks and email my contacts by just speaking to my BlackBerry. Try it out, it’s free.

I can’t say enough positive things about my Bold and the only negative would be it’s battery life. I never get more than 1.5-2 days out of it. It does not bother me much since I can charge it in my car, through AC/DC or through my computers USB port.

Macbook Pro

Where to start? I guess from the beginning. I started my professional career in computer graphics back in Sweden many years ago. That was obviously on a Mac. They still are the leader in the graphics, desktop publishing and movie department. After a few years I slowly moved towards Windows based PCs, mainly because of of HTML work but also because of Lotus Notes/Domino. It was just easier to code on a “PC” because everybody else was on one. I have owned many PCs over the years and loved most of them. Then a little over a year ago Rob Novak, got himself a Macbook Pro and I’ve been jealous ever since.

Right before Christmas, in the middle of coding for our Lotusphere sessions, Rob surprised me by taking me to the Apple store and getting me a Macbook Pro. My co-workers definitely know, by me constantly talking about it, I LOVE THIS MAC. It’s small and light, have a great battery time and is just beautiful. I can’t get this thing to slow down either. I usually have quite a few programs running; Lotus Notes with Sametime, Ecplipse with Aptana, Firefox, iTunes, Skype and VMware Fusion running a Windows XP guest that has both Domino Designer and a Domino Server running. They all just run without any delay or waiting. The few times I have turned the Mac completely off I can start all those programs at the same time without much more delay than waiting for them to start one at a time. Do I like it? Yes I do.

Prerequisite:

This application needs to run on a Domino server version 7.0.2 or above. Some Widgets may need version 8.5 or above to run.

This application uses The Dojo Toolkit JavaScript library.
The following is only needed, but required, if you are installing this application on a version of Domino below 8.5.

1. Download version 1.1.1 or above of Dojo
2. Unzip the download
3. Rename and place this directory on your Domino server in the following path:
   path_to_root_data_directory/domino/html/domjs/dojo-1.1.1

This path is hard coded into the MyDomino form. If you want to change the path you can by modifying the HTML shown below in the MyDomino form:

<script type="text/javascript" src="/domjs/dojo-1.1.1/dojo/dojo.js"></script>

This application was tested on version installed with Domino 8.5 (1.1.1) and downloaded version 1.2.3

The application was tested on:

• Internet Explorer 7.0.5 on Windows
• Firefox 3.0.5 for Windows
• Firefox 3.0.5 for Macintosh

Installation:

1. Change the ACL to match your current environment
2. Make a non replica copy of the application on your Domino server
3. Sign it with an appropriate administrators ID

Usage:

Browse to the application and log in as a valid directory user. It should create a myDomino document automatically for the user.
HAVE FUN!

The code is released under the Apache license. You may obtain a copy of the License at:
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Have fun with it.