This past Monday (yes, I know I'm late, but Monday was a holiday and I took Friday off too) the remote Lotus Connections Customization RedWiki was officially kicked off with a call at 7:30am EDT(to accommodate our international team).
According to the ITSO team, this has been the most popular residency so far, in terms of applicants. A residency had never had so many applicants in so little time before. I believe this goes to show the great interest and passion out there for Lotus Connections. And that feels good! 
Here's a snapshot of the introductory note:
The goal of this ITSO project is to create entries in the current online Lotus Connections Wiki that will enable customers and business partners to allow Lotus Connections and 3rd party applications (including IBM and Lotus apps) to interface. We have come up with a list of ideas on how that can be done and you have signed up for working on these. We will finalize that list during a conference call in the first week.
An interesting and unusual aspect of this project is that your work will take place on a live wiki that everyone in the world can view and even edit. (Since people must log in to view and edit, we will have change tracking by ID available, and the wiki has rollback capability.) The project sponsors and I feel that this aspect nicely captures the beauty of a wiki atmosphere, where the world can watch information being created, collected, and stored and even help out as appropriate.
Core team members:
- Mike Ebbers - ITSO Project Leader, New York
- Dean Jesson - IT Specialist, Germany
- Jun Liu - Atlas for Lotus Connections Team Lead, China
- Torsten Hoffman - IT Specialist Web 2.0 & Social Software, Germany
- Shu Sia Lukito - Sr. IT Specialis, Maryland
- Sergio Imperial - IT Specialist, Portugal
- Marcus Smith - IT Specialist, Illinois
- Amit Kumar - IT Specialist, India
- Zhou Lin Dai - Software Engineer, China
- Jamie O'Leary - Lotus Connections Home page developer, Ireland
- Chirag Barhate - Software Engineer, India
Key Lotus Sponsors / Stakeholders:
- Jennifer Heins - Lotus Technical Content Strategist and Architect, Cambridge
- Sal Mazzotta - Lotus Applications Architect, Cambridge
- Luis Benitez - Consulting Social Software Specialist, Puerto Rico (but you should know this)
- Suzanne Minassian - Lotus Connections Product Manager, Boston
- Jack Downing - Information Architect (Lotus Sametime & Lotus Symphony), Cambridge
- Mac Guidera - Tech Lead for Lotus Greenhouse, Orlando
Let's get going! Oh and in case you are wondering... yes, we are using Lotus Connections Activities to manage this project.
I think it is fantastic that this attracted so many applicants! We are seeing an enormous amount of positive activity with both existing and new customers.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that concerns me is that this panel seems to be 100% IBM. Am I reading the list wrong? I am surprised to not see any BPs.I know it isn't due to a lack of interest.
Hi Steve!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by! It's so great to always be in touch with our BP's.
The initial list is all IBM. We were so overwhelmed by applicants that unfortunately we had to put some on stand by. However, we have received even more ideas for the Wiki's content so we'll likely start adding more residents soon. Stay tuned!!
I concur with Steve. Nice to see the names associated, as I figured they would be. But there is a huge list of people that have alternate perspectives. What sorts of projects are coming that will need participation?
ReplyDeleteHi Ido,
ReplyDeleteNot sure I can say publicly yet, but it's more development "stuff". As soon as we have a firm plan, I'll post back!
BTW.. since we are still deciding, feel free to send us any suggestions on the table of contents.
ReplyDeleteI think it's important to note that this is a Wiki environment. The value of a wiki is anyone and everyone can contribute information. Just because BP's are not included in the first round of the residency doesn't mean they can't contribute content.
ReplyDeleteThe reason for this residency is to quickly populate, attract new users (hopefully some contribute), and have another stop for customization and integration of Connections (among many other things).
Hope this helps, just my view.