Connectr #6

#6

Church House Conference Centre, Westminster, London19th September 2008

Lotus Connections 2.0 and Beyond

Neil Burston + Stuart McIntyre +

Peter Thomond

Me + You

= Us+ Him+ Him

IBM Lotus Connections Special Interest Group . . .

I.L.C.S.I.G?

Why

?

W.I.I. F.M

What – Lotus Connections 2.0

How – Getting it working

Why – What can you do for your organization?

New thinking, new language

Interaction• Buzzword Bingo• “What’s the Connection”• Innovation Workshop

It’s all about connections . . .

• “What’s the connection?”

Why do we need Connections?

Why . . . #1 - Demographics

BB

XY

Why . . . #2 – Technology Adoption

BB

Why . . . #3 – Human nature

How to find the right people and information• Work environments are more complex

• Work environments are more disconnected

• More interactions with unknown people

Improve Business Execution and Reuse Best Practices

Need for Innovation

Need for Execution Need to Empower

Need to Connect

If those are the needs, what’s the solution?

Enterprise social software will be the biggest new workplace technology success story of this decade. 30% of enterprises will openly sponsor internal…social sharing spaces to help employees find others with similar interest, skills, backgrounds and experiences. - Gartner, “ Predicts 2007 – Big Changes Ahead in the High Performance Workplace”, Dec 5, 2006

What is Lotus Connections?

Communities

Blogs Dogear

Activities

Profiles

IBM Lotus® Connections social software

Home page

Lotus Connections is social software for business that empowers you to be more innovative and helps you execute more quickly by using dynamic networks of coworkers, partners and customers.

Profiles - Stay In Touch With Your Network

Communities - Vibrant Places of interest

Blogs - Improving Search and Discovery

Dogear - Share and Discover Information

Activities - Get Things Done The Way You Work

Keep up-to-date through the Homepage

Access Lotus Connections from applications you already use

IBM WebSphere® PortalPortlet integrates any / all services into portal pages / sites

Lotus Connections Services

Microsoft Office & Windows Explorer

Upload files to Activities, search profiles, create a blog, and make Activity To Do's

Extensibility

Browser BookmarkletsFeed readersBusiness cardMashupsMobileREST APIs

IBM Lotus NotesPowerful activity sidebar

IBM Lotus QuickrAdd page to Activities

IBM Lotus SametimeActivities and Profiles plug-in

Start your search with a person, from Lotus Notes…

27

… or Lotus Sametime…

31

…or from Outlook…

… or Microsoft Office ...

… or RIM BlackBerry…

Bring it all togetherSharePoint + Portal + Connections

Portal integration

Connections integration

… or your enterprise search solution…

50% of all intranet searches in IBM end in a click on user-tagged content, powered by Dogear.

HELP ME WORK MORE EFFICIENTLY AND SHARE BEST PRACTICES

37

Add an email or Notes document to an Activity in Lotus Notes

38

Add Lotus Sametime chat to an activity

Add a file to an Activity from Microsoft Windows Explorer

Add a website link to an Activity

Add a Microsoft Office document to an Activity

Then, you can work with your Activity…

Keep up to date with your social Homepage

Features

Benefits

Works with everything

Ok, I want one, what do I do?

Is it a . . . ?

Is it a . . .

It’s a set of Web Services

Lotus Connections Extensibility

• Simple– Easy to learn – ReST-style HTTP based API with XML, Javascript

and HTML formatted output– Enables “amateur” as well as professional developers

• Open– Access for all users to functionality, regardless of client or

platform– Based on Open standards: XML, HTTP, Javascript, Atom feeds

• Extensible– Utilizes Open Standards – Used internally by own plugins, mash-ups and partners

What are the obstacles?

Don’t Be Afraid!

Don’t Be Afraid!

Don’t Be Afraid!

Take a deep breath...Relax...

It isn’t as bad as all that!

Some recent Lotus Connections projects• LC2 Pilot - 50/1,000 users

– Windows, Domino LDAP, DB2, 2 VMs, All features

• LC2 Reference Deployment - 32,000 users– AIX, AD2003, Oracle, 1 x LPAR++,

Profiles/Blogs/Communities (first phase of production deployment)

• LC2 Pilot - 100/10,000 users– Windows, AD2003, DB2, 2 VMs, All features

• LC2 Pilot - 120/2,000 users– Linux, Domino LDAP, DB2, 2 VMs, All features

Why add Connections to your Domino environment?

““It's not what work you expect It's not what work you expect Employee #1234 to accomplish Employee #1234 to accomplish

per person-month of work.per person-month of work.

It's the work you never expected It's the work you never expected would happen, that suddenly would happen, that suddenly

creates new business.” creates new business.”

Access PointsBrowsers Lotus NotesLotus SametimeWebSphere PortalMicrosoft OfficeMicrosoft OutlookRIM BlackBerryFeed readers Other rich clients

Lotus Connections Operational Topology (high level view)

Lotus Connections ServicesWAS 6.1.0.13 + IBM HTTP Server 6.1.0.13 on

Red Hat Enterprise Linux® Enterprise Server V4.0 on x86-32 Microsoft® Windows® 2003 Server - StandardMicrosoft Windows 2003 Server – EnterpriseSuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10IBM AIX® 5.3.0.4

One or more features…Activities

HomepageProfilesDogearBlogs

Communities

RDBMSDB2 9.1 Fix Pack 2SQL Server 2005

Oracle 10G 10.2.0.3

Corporate LDAP DirectoryIBM Tivoli Directory Server 6.0.0.3 or 6.1Novell eDirectory v8.8Microsoft Active Directory 2003 SP2 / ADAMLotus Domino v7.0.2, v8, v8.0.1Sun Java® System Directory Server v5.2 / v6

‘Pilot’ Deployment

• Windows-only, non-LDAP, Wizard-based cut-down install– Install in less than an hour– All features (Blogs, Communities, etc.) installed on one application

server– DB2 Express installed on same system– Users loaded via text file– Only recommended for development/demo– Can be migrated to full install

Physical/Virtual Machine

WebSphere Application Server

App (Blogs) App (Communities)App (Profiles) App (Dogear) App (Activites) App (HomePage)

IBM HTTP Server

DB2 Database

Stand-Alone Deployment

• Single server with full LC2.0 install – Simplest form of full deployment/configuration– All features (Blogs, Communities, etc.) installed on one application

server– All features share one common Lotus Connections features

configuration file– Single admin console for six different application server instances– Only recommended for demo / test

Physical/Virtual Machine

WebSphere Application Server

App (Blogs) App (Communities)App (Profiles) App (Dogear) App (Activites) App (HomePage)

IBM HTTP Server

DB2 Database

LDAP / AD LDAP Database

TDI

A more scalable version:Each feature on a two-node cluster with one shared Deployment Manager

More likely infrastructure...

• You almost certainly have existing LDAP

– either Domino or Active Directory

– else is very easy to configure

• TDI for Profiles integration will be new,but all scripted and relatively simple for LC use.

• Many will have existing Database and relevant skills

– DB2, Oracle or MS SQL

– if not, go with default DB2 install, well documented and easy to maintain

– ‘One person to kick’

WebSphere

• The complex bit!– In standalone mode (not ND) is

relatively easy to install and configure, particularly on Windows

– Relevant experience/skills with other Java/J2EE infrastructures will help

– BUT troubleshooting much more tricky than Domino, and versions very delicate to manage

– This is where the training $ should go!

• IBM HTTP Server is ‘just Apache’

– Vast majority will already have HTTP skills and probably Apache somewhere in organisation

– WebSphere plugin may be new, but is well documented and is a ‘setup once’ in most cases

Anatomy of a successful pilot• Get business level buy-in and active

involvement• Use a sizable user population ~ 10%+• Extended evaluation period (90 days?)

• Cross-section of user types - not just IT!

• Find the influencers, passionates, collaboration hubs etc, and get them involved

• Train, train, train• Give users designated tasks, targets, projects

Conclusion

• Lotus Connections 2.0 is ready for deployment

• Many, many companies are already doing so

• It is complex, but not that complex!• If your organisation has J2EE/Java skills, get

them on-side• Pilot within your organisation, but do it

properly

What are the issues?

“empowers you to be more innovative”

What is Innovation?Innovation is a process

* Success is judged by whether the output is ‘implementable’, value-generating and actually adopted by the target audience (or indeed anyone else).

Thomond 2008 ©, Think, Play, Do Ltd

http://thinkplaydo.com/

What is Innovation?Innovation is a process with specific tasks and features


What is Innovation?Innovation is a process that needs the support of the organization


Types of Innovation: Sustaining and Disruptive

EssentiallySame

SignificantlyAdvanced

Essentially Same Significantly Changed

Customer’s perception of process, product or services capability

Technological capability of new process,

product or service

ContinuousImprovement

‘Sustaining Innovations’

CommerciallyDisruptive

TechnologicallyDisruptive

often STILL sustaining

Technologically& Commercially

Disruptive

e.g. Flat Screen TV e.g. CDs, disk drive technology

e.g. Sony Walkman

Adapted from Veryzer (1997)


Types of Innovation: Sustaining & “Low-end” Disruptive


Types of Innovation: “Sustaining” and “New-Market Disruptive”

PotentiallyDisruptiveBusiness

Area of displacement

Established Business

Area of newwealth / new net growth


What blocks Innovation?

Idea Capture

HolisticInnovation Management

Innovation Awareness

Rapid Customer Feedback


Dialog - Group discussions

Understand what your’e doing

Identify goals Run targeted pilotEncourage best practices

Define an adoption plan

Encourage Evangelists

“Harvest” the innovation and value

Overcoming the obstacles

Final thoughts

+ = ??Your Org

Connections places

What next? – Some suggestions

• Connectr #7 at Gurteen Knowledge Café?

• Standards + Policies• People + Places + Things

It’s all about connections . . .

• What’s the connection?

Prizes for Connections

Questions?

Sources & Thanks

• Luis Benitez & Socialize Me Blog– http://www.lbenitez.com/

• Stuart McIntyre – http://lotusconnectionsblog.com/

• Peter Thomond– http://thinkplaydo.com/

• Heidi Votaw + Suzanne Minassian– http://synch.rono.us

• Connectr– http://www.slideshare.net/search/slideshow?q=connectr