The Business Controls Caddy

The Business Controls Caddy Tue, 3 Nov 2009 10:16:59 -0500 http://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf http://www.controlscaddy.com/http://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/newcad4a.jpgThe Business Controls Caddy http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/This is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader. This feed may NOT be syndicated to another site without the express written permission of The Cayuga Group, LLC. Requests may be sent to info@thecayugagroup.com.Nyah Nyah, My Docs are Bigger Than Your Docs! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBusinessControlsCaddy/~3/GnTWTsezPSA/CBYE-7XFM4NCome on, you know we are all competitive. The guys among us, powered by testosterone, think that size is everything. We want bigger cars, bigger boats, more powerful computers. Lets not leave the ladies out. There are a few out there who crave the bigger ...Document ManagementChristopher Byrnehttp://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-7XFM4NCome on, you know we are all competitive. The guys among us, powered by testosterone, think that size is everything. We want bigger cars, bigger boats, more powerful computers. Lets not leave the ladies out. There are a few out there who crave the bigger diamonds, the bigger..well you know what I mean.

However, as technology professionals, we know that size can be brutal in our environments. We are constantly trying to find ways to reduce space, to get users to get rid of unneeded documents in their mail files, to clean up their in-boxes. etc. But what if we had people looking at simpler solutions at their end that would make our lives easier?

Over on Eye on Sports Media, I have started a "sports media best practices" section, and the first two case studies published have applicability across all organizations and verticals, not just the sports industry.

Best Practices: Resize Images Before Using in Press Releases

When Fox Sports sends out their press releases, they are always very large in size relative to the content of the documents. In addition to the normal code bloat added by documents created in Microsoft Office, there is another self-inflicted problem that Fox Sports, and other sports media entities can do to reduce file sizes: resize images before inserting them into the documents. Read more...

Best Practices: Don't Use Images to Convey Important Information

Shortly after publishing yesterday's case study, we received a one page announcement document from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The document size was 386 KB in size. This document included address, telephone, and web site information. The phone number could not be clicked to call via a Voice-Over IP (VOIP) telephony system. The web site link could not be clicked to open the NCAA web site. Read More...

Please take a look and share your experiences and suggestions on other ways people can cut down the file sizes of documents they share, email, etc.

]]>Tue, 3 Nov 2009 10:16:59 -0500http://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-7XFM4NLotus Knows About College Basketball On TVhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBusinessControlsCaddy/~3/jfBc0aPwkMw/CBYE-7XAM47It is that time of the year again: college basketball season in the United States. For the 3rd consecutive year, I have published the upcoming season's television broadcast schedule of 1, 275 games and growing for men (women to come soon) over on Eye on ...Notes/Domino DevelopmentChristopher Byrnehttp://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-7XAM47

It is that time of the year again: college basketball season in the United States. For the 3rd consecutive year, I have published the upcoming season's television broadcast schedule of 1, 275 games and growing for men (women to come soon) over on Eye on Sports Media.

This year I have finally gotten frustrated enough with the inability of the NCAA, the college conferences, the schools, and the television networks to have standard naming conventions for the information contained that it is time to vent. In fact, they do not even use spreadsheets for the data!

If you think I am kidding, take a look at these examples of data definition disparity.

Team Name	Day of Week	Times
St. Mary's St Mary's Saint Mary's St. Mary's (California) St. Mary's (Ca) St. Mary's (Calif.) St. Mary's (CA)	Tuesday Tues Tue Tues. Tue. Not at all	7 pm 7:00 7:00 pm 7:00 p.m. 7:00 pm et 7:00 pm e.t. 7:00 PM 7:00 PM ET Noon NOON 12:00 pm

This is just insane, especially for people in the media that have to assemble and collate this data in a consistent form. There are only 347 or so schools playing Division I Basketball, 32 or so conferences, seven days in a week, etc, etc. Why is it so difficult for them to define and use standard naming conventions? It is not as if it is rocket science or anything. Or is it?

]]>Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:16:12 -0500http://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-7XAM47What Do the ESPN Sex Scandal, Blogging Responsibility, and Facebook Risk Have in Common?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBusinessControlsCaddy/~3/V9TMamwkD4A/CBYE-7X3GKKI know that most readers of this site are not into sports. That is one of the reasons Bob Costas fell flat at Lotusphere a couple of years ago. But there is a firestorm that has erupted in the sports media industry that is, unfortunately, going to turn ...Social Software RisksChristopher Byrnehttp://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-7X3GKKI know that most readers of this site are not into sports. That is one of the reasons Bob Costas fell flat at Lotusphere a couple of years ago. But there is a firestorm that has erupted in the sports media industry that is, unfortunately, going to turn into a perfect case study covering what bloggers write about and how people reveal too much about themselves and their families on social media sites such as Facebook and with Social media tools like Twitter.

So what is going on and why should it matter to you, your families, and your companies/organizations? And this does get a bit tawdry, so be advised it may not be safe for work.

]]>Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:24:50 -0500http://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-7X3GKKThis is a Lotus Notes 8 Client Widget To Get Excited About!http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBusinessControlsCaddy/~3/7uiHgGEulHY/CBYE-7X2Q4XI have never been overly impressed with the Lotus Notes 8 Client widgets that have been put out by people. Not because they were not good and the result of a lot of hard, creative work, but because I did not have any personal need for what they did, or ...Lotus Notes 8Christopher Byrnehttp://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-7X2Q4XI have never been overly impressed with the Lotus Notes 8 Client widgets that have been put out by people. Not because they were not good and the result of a lot of hard, creative work, but because I did not have any personal need for what they did, or they did not go far enough for my needs.

But the File Navigator widget posted to openNTF by Lei XL Xiao and Jian Kang from IBM is a perfect win for anybody who works in the Notes client, whether they be novice end-users or power-users.

Now if we could only get that functionality in the Domino Designer client...hmmmm.

]]>Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:51:00 -0500http://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-7X2Q4XChris Miller Caught in Vegas With Known Gambler, Sports Bloggershttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBusinessControlsCaddy/~3/MGh1bp-zQl8/CBYE-7X267BChris Miller, our friend and colleague from IDoNotes, Connectria, Lotusphere, and more was in Vegas last week, Not only was he seen at a Poker event with notorious sports bloggers with balls, but he was seen cavorting with an internationally known ...Just for FunChristopher Byrnehttp://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-7X267BChris Miller, our friend and colleague from IDoNotes, Connectria, Lotusphere, and more was in Vegas last week, Not only was he seen at a Poker event with notorious sports bloggers with balls, but he was seen cavorting with an internationally known gambler, which was caught on camera!

Shocked? Don't be. Chris was out there for the Blog World and New Media 2009 Expo, and took the time to join the Charity Poker event put on by the concurrent Blogs with Balls 2.0 (sports bloggers) conference that was sponsored by Fox Sports, Sports Illustrated, and others.

You can see the evidence over on Eye on Sports Media!

]]>Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:33:12 -0500http://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-7X267BIs Google Wave the Future of True Collaboration?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBusinessControlsCaddy/~3/o3K_2HqVgxM/CBYE-7WVH28Following up on my thoughts around gaming, virtual worlds, and the how people work, here is a another question that came to mind. Has Google finally figured out a way to get people to collaborate in a chaotic, ever changing environment by tapping into the ...Collaboration ToolsChristopher Byrnehttp://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-7WVH28Following up on my thoughts around gaming, virtual worlds, and the how people work, here is a another question that came to mind. Has Google finally figured out a way to get people to collaborate in a chaotic, ever changing environment by tapping into the inherent chaotic, yet self-policing world of on-line gaming?

People who have been playing with the beta version of Google Wave have talked about how they have a hard time keeping up with the ebb and flow of information, the fact that people are making changes as you are typing, and how information priorities jump up and down depending on who is catching a wave at a particular time. But I wonder how many of the people having this difficulty are active online gamers? I wonder what the take of gamers is on Google Wave.

Criticisms of Wave talk about how it is a wild, wild west with know no rules. But is Wave like on-line games, with self-policing rules that evolve from the user community, rules that become part of the social norm?

We in the Lotus software community talk about how we "get" collaboration because IBM Lotus Notes and Domino is the top collaboration platform. But is it really about the platform? Or is it in how we succeed or fail in using and extending the platform to encourage people to engage and collaborate in ways that are comfortable to them in their paradigm?

]]>Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:48:18 -0500http://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-7WVH28Do User Images in Sametime Client Change the Interpersonal Dynamic?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBusinessControlsCaddy/~3/ecGA9YO7MRs/CBYE-7WVGU6I just finished reading a soon to be released book last night on gaming. virtual worlds, and how people work. A lot of the discussion talked about the role of avatars. Specifically, the authors talked about how the use of avatars make a world of difference ...Collaboration ToolsChristopher Byrnehttp://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-7WVGU6I just finished reading a soon to be released book last night on gaming. virtual worlds, and how people work. A lot of the discussion talked about the role of avatars. Specifically, the authors talked about how the use of avatars make a world of difference in how people interact in virtual environments.

This got me thinking. Does the nature of how we interact on IBM Lotus Sametime chats, and in other chat environments, change when the person we are talking to has their picture in the user profile? Do we change the way we type and react when there is not a picture?

Any thoughts?

]]>Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:38:33 -0500http://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-7WVGU6Lotus Domino 6 Programming Bible Is Still Relevanthttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBusinessControlsCaddy/~3/9gXvwkPaWhw/CBYE-7WTS95Remember the Lotus Notes and Domino 6 Programming Bible, written by Brian Benz, Rocky Oliver, and others? You know, the last major Lotus Notes And Domino development book written by a 3rd party publisher?Here is some food for thought. With Domino Designer ...Notes/Domino 8.5.1Christopher Byrnehttp://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-7WTS95Remember the Lotus Notes and Domino 6 Programming Bible, written by Brian Benz, Rocky Oliver, and others? You know, the last major Lotus Notes And Domino development book written by a 3rd party publisher?

Here is some food for thought. With Domino Designer 8.5.1 being released free to the masses, there are potentially a lot of people who may look at it without knowing anything about the traditional Domino development model. I believe that for anybody to step into the brave, new world of xPages, they need to have a basic and fundamental understanding of how things work "under the hood."

That is why Lotus Notes 6 Bible is more than relevant now, It should be considered the training wheels that any developer new to Domino development should read before diving into xPages and such. They need to understand WHY things work the way they do,

What do you think?

]]>Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:40:11 -0500http://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-7WTS95Lotus Notes 8.5.1: "Create Hyperlink" vs. "Create Hotspot"http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBusinessControlsCaddy/~3/llZNvGnjqb8/CBYE-7WTN2COne of the new user-friendly features of the IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.1 client is the new menu command of "Create Hyperlink"This should make things much easier for end users who want to create hyperlinks in a Notes mail message or in vanilla, frameless Notes ...Notes/Domino 8.5.1Christopher Byrnehttp://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-7WTN2COne of the new user-friendly features of the IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.1 client is the new menu command of "Create >> Hyperlink"

New create hyperlink menu option in Lotus Notes 8.5.1

New create hyperlink menu option in Lotus Notes 8.5.1

This should make things much easier for end users who want to create hyperlinks in a Notes mail message or in vanilla, frameless Notes client based applications.

But for users and developers who create web-based applications there is an important feature missing if you use this menu option.

]]>Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:04:30 -0500http://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-7WTN2CWorking with Chris Toohey and Devin Olson On Lotus Redwiki Teamhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBusinessControlsCaddy/~3/czaBJBRCyxQ/CBYE-7WTMTBI got the good news today that my application to work on the Lotus Remote Residency / Wiki Deliverable - Best Practices for Building Web Applications for Domino 8.5. The even better news is that I will be working on an outstanding team that includes ...Lotus RedWikiChristopher Byrnehttp://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-7WTMTBI got the good news today that my application to work on the Lotus Remote Residency / Wiki Deliverable - Best Practices for Building Web Applications for Domino 8.5. The even better news is that I will be working on an outstanding team that includes Chris Toohey, Devin Olson, and John Bergland.

I have never had the pleasure of working side-by-side with Chris or Devin, and I have not worked with John since 2000 or so when we were on an internal Lotus project with the old Architected Solutions Group (ASG).

This should be a lot of fun as I continue my search for that elusive full-time job,

]]>Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:53:15 -0500http://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-7WTMTB