January 7th, 2010
Nerd Girls Rule
Earlier this week, the Lotusphere Blog posted about the 2nd annual Nerd Girl Panel at Lotusphere 2010 - NERD101 in your programs. They (mistakenly) listed me as a panelist, but this is not so - I've been merely helping to recruit the panelists.
The well known and popular Gabriella Davis of the Turtle Partnership will be the Moderator of this year's group.
Last year, we decided to have the panel represent both IBM women and non-IBM women, and decided to keep that format this year. I'd like to announce this year's confirmed panelists......(cue the drumroll, please)
Mary Beth Raven, IBM Senior Technical Staff Member, Lotus Product Design
Sandy Carter, Vice President, IBM Software Group Channels
Akiba Saeedi, Program Director, Unified Communications and Collaboration, IBM Software Group
Marie L. Scott, Director, E-mail Services, Virginia Commonwealth University
Eileen Fitzgerald, Vice-President Product Management and Customer Delivery at GSX
We will also have front-row seats reserved for last year's panelists and other invited guests to make sure they get a seat - because the stage simply isn't big enough and an hour isn't long enough to feature every one we'd like to.
If you know who these fabulous women are, you'll know you need to get there early to find a seat. If you don't know who they are, start clicking the links or hit Google or YouTube and find out - you need to know......then get there early to get a seat.
So no, I won't be on this year's panel. I will be one of the ones near the front of the room, listening, learning and being a little star struck by this crowd. Come visit us - but get there early.
We also have other Nerd Girl activities planned and we'll blog and tweet those as they get confirmed. There will be a BOF where we'll offer mentoring and discussion, and a meet and greet function. Look for other Nerd Girl postings from other Nerd Girls - watch your tweeter feed - stand by. This Lotusphere will be great.
Oh yeah, I'm speaking this year also - I have 3 sessions - will post those later.
September 4th, 2009
Resource Reservation New Documentation and Open Mic goodness
I've been busy updating existing documentation on Lotus Notes C&S and even creating new documents this summer. I've been doing this in between several customer visits (hey y'all!). The latest new Resource Reservation document is in the Domino Wiki. It's
Clustering the Resource Reservation database in IBM Lotus Domino
It covers the finer points of clustering the system and includes a new server command you probably don't know about. (You're just going to have to read the article to find out what it is.)
If you have questions, you can obviously comment in the wiki. (You can also heap praise upon the author, she won't mind.) Better yet, join me and a bunch of other folks from Support to Development for an Open Mic call on Thursday, September 10, 2009 and ask questions about the Resource Reservation System.
The details for this call are below. There is link below that says this part, but PLEASE - go ahead and post your questions here if you have them.
URL: http://www.lotus.com/ldd/nd8forum.nsf/DateAllThreadedWeb/1c963bd3dec8fbfb8525762700597716?OpenDocument
That way, if you miss the call at 10 AM Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday, we can post an answer in the forum for your issue. Also, it helps us to keep the call moving during the long silences where everybody is thinking of things to ask. It makes us feel very good if nobody asks questions, but the replay of calls like that are very boring for the listener, so ask ahead of time. Some questions are already there!
And if you're just too bashful to post questions, email me at work or gmail or skype me or friend me or anything - I"m not hard to find.
Official Stuff here:
The IBM Open Mic calls are intended to provide you the opportunity to interact directly with the IBM Lab developing IBM software products,
On Thursday September 10th 2009, at 10 am eastern US time, the Lotus Domino team will host an Open Mic call on "Calendar & Scheduling Best Practices using the Lotus Domino Resource Reservation database". Open Mic calls are Question & Answer sessions with a panel of subject matter experts from the Development & Technical Support teams.
For details about the Open Mic call, please see the invitation document:
Title: Open Mic Conference Call: Calendar & Scheduling Best Practices using Resource Reservation database - 10 September 2009
URL: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=3651&uid=swg21402262
Dial-in numbers and the pass code are listed in the document above. NOTE: You will need a touch tone phone to be able to ask questions. You can submit your question in advance via our Notes/Domino 8 forum:
Title: Open Mic call on "Calendar & Scheduling Best Practices using Lotus Domino Resource Reservations database" September 10th 2009
Note: Please post questions as responses to this document
URL: http://www.lotus.com/ldd/nd8forum.nsf/DateAllThreadedWeb/1c963bd3dec8fbfb8525762700597716?OpenDocument
You can keep up to date with other upcoming Open Mic conference calls on our Lotus Technical Exchange landing page:
Title: Lotus Support Technical Exchange Events
URL: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=899&uid=swg27011126
During the Open Mic session September 10th, we will answer questions about the Domino Resource & Reservations database. Questions should be of general interest and by their nature help you install, configure, manage or optimize your software. We will collect questions, which have been posted to the forum and address as many as possible on the call. We will also take questions on the call, which have not been submitted in advance.
May 22nd, 2009
On Travel, Friends, and Work
I've been traveling more for work with my new assignment. I'm on the SWAT team now at IBM. We're the group they drop into your place when there's a crisis and you need a technical helping hand. We're also Support at about L3 level. So when your C&S issues or your client issues get 'escalated' by support, they're likely to come through my hands now. It's been exciting and hectic and the workload is astronomical. It also means that I'm back on the road after a few years with not much travel. Such is life. I have more tools now than when I was traveling for Field Support.
I still have the blogmonkey. He's a great comfort and companion when I'm traveling alone. He mostly stays in his bag except when he's at the hotel. Twitter, which I use rarely has been a great tool for road work. Sitting in an airport alone with a few thousand other travelers is lonesome and boring, but with Twitter, I sat in Logan after Admin2009 and knew that Andy was getting his flight home, Chris was over in another concourse and 3 pals were back at the hotel having one last meal together before heading out. Upon landing, we all checked in the see if we got home, and by some minor miracle, we did. It's nice to be able to stay connected.
Skype has become my office community. There are 3 or 4 little chat groups that sprung up for various reasons that serve as "the office" for a lot of us home-based types. Its great to be able to reach over and tap someone on the shoulder to noodle tings out when you need to. The communities span the Atlantic and the Caribbean, so I can talk to friends at all hours. Sometimes you forget the distances. Like last night I realized that Gab must be up at ...wait 4AM in London?
LinkedIn and Tripit offered me a great treat this last week. I noted that I was headed to Detroit on business thru TripIt, and friend, former colleague and all around good guy Rob Wunderlich saw this and offered to show me a GREAT Greek restaurant and give me a tour of Downtown Detroit from a native son's point of view. Rob, thanks for that fantastic tour - it made me sort of sad, but I see that people do still care about that city - and that's cool. The food at Pegasus was wonderful too! And if anyone reading this needs a Rob to work for them right now, hire him!
The customer I visited this last week supplied me with a list of local restaurants in the Detroit suburbs, so for the past 2 weeks I've had some pretty tasty, non-chain food. Chris, thanks for the tip on the burgers at Miller's Bar and thanks for the company!
Now its a nice long weekend here in the states. I could work, but if I worked all weekend, I'd still be behind on Tuesday, so I won't.
Cheers
March 26th, 2009
Free Stuff
We all like free stuff! I like free time, a free lunch, free money. Now, those things are mythical, but free articles from the View - that's for real. Paul Mooney told you about it already. Go here to get free articles from the View for 4 weeks. And while you're there - sign up for Admin2009 or LotusDeveloper2009.
I'll be doing 4 sessions this year, including a new Jumpstart session in C&S Troubleshooting. I'll teach you my techniques for getting to the root of the problems. I'm also doing a 30 Tips session on C&S. What type of tips you say? Well here's one for free. I call it:
Protect your free minutes
You’ve had those days when you rush from meeting to meeting, right? There are several ways to protect that precious hour - or half hour between meetings. You want to keep people from booking 'just a few minutes" with you. You REALLY need to just grab some coffee and hide for a few.
Do this: for meetings your are invited to, make a habit of accepting the meeting and then editing it to add 7 or so minutes onto the end time. It doesn't put a meeting on your calendar, but when people look for a free hour to meet with you, its not there - most people won't bother to dig deeper, they'll just look for another time. Any updates to the meetings from the chair will remove your little 'buffer', but most of the time, this works great. So look at your calendar and fix those 'crazy days' now while you're thinking about it.
And while you're still thinking about things of value, sign up for Admin 2009. Times are tough right now, and while its not free, this event is by far one of the best values there is. Especially if within commuting distance of Boston, now is the time to sharpen your skills. Come on up and see us - and get free stuff!
January 21st, 2009
Late Wednesday/Early Thursday
Wow - 33,922 steps I've taken since Sunday here at Lotusphere (according to my pedometer). I gave 3 sessions - including the singularly most insane one I've ever done - Speedgeeking - where I gave the same 5 minute presentation 12 times in a row. I have 2 hours of lab duty left tomorrow, then its Meet the Developers and the closing session, then dinner with friends and home on Friday morning.
Thoughts
Its cold here
There's a lot of new stuff - many announcements, most of which I didn't know were coming - not unusual.
I'll post the tips I gave at speedgeeking eventually.
Mail me for the code if you want it.
At least I haven't caught Kathleen's cold yet.
I really enjoyed the nerd girl sessions.
You can have my staff shirts - and those of several of my friends if you stop me and ask for them or stop by the Lab that's till down on the Exhibit floor tomorrow morning after 10. I will take a backpack in trade, but its not necessary.
If you don't want your backpack - give it to me.
Late night for the monkey at Kimonos - Pictures tomorrow - I promise
I'll post more next week - after the exhaustion fades - and pictures too.
I love this gig, I'm just always exhausted though
January 15th, 2009
Lotusphere Schedule
Lotusphere is going to be busy for everyone who is working there, and anyone who is trying to attend all the sessions they want, while attending all the social activities. Since others are telling, I'll tell my schedule here.
By the way, bring warm clothes for maximum fun on Sunday and Wednesday night - it IS going to be cold - not Florida cold, but almost REAL cold.
I'll be attending other sessions when I have time, but those are last minute decisions - I get distracted easily........I will also be using Chris Miller's new tracking tool, Brightkite to announce my location. Check his web site for details.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
03:00 PM - until Big River, then ESPN
Sunday, January 18, 2009
01:30 PM - 03:30 PM JMP102 IBM Lotus Domino Administrator Jumpstart - presenting with Kathleen McGivney
06:30 PM - until Reception until frozen - then Kimono's
Monday, January 19, 2009
10:00 AM - 04:00 PM Staffing the IBM Solution Developers Lab - Come See Me
8:00 PM - 10:45 PM Jamfest - Dance Hall
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
12:30 PM - 05:20 PM Staffing the IBM Solution Developers Lab - Come See Me
06:00 PM - 07:40 PM SpeedGeeking - C&S Tips
07:00 PM - 08:00 PM Symphony Karaoke
8:00 PM - until Somewhere.....
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
08:30 AM - 02:30 PM Staffing the IBM Solution Developers Lab - Come See Me
03:00 PM - 04:00 PM BP210 Making the Most of the Administration Process - presenting with Kathleen McGivney
06:30 PM - until Universal Studios
Thursday, January 22, 2009
10:30 AM - 12:30 PM Staffing the IBM Solution Developers Lab - Come See Me
01:30 PM - 02:45 PM ASK101 Ask the Developers
03:00 PM - until If still standing after the CGS, somewhere holding an adult beverage.
December 28th, 2008
The year ahead
Not wanting to do a year end review like everyone else, I thought I'd look ahead. I recently received an invitation to attend a "Break your Resolutions" party in NYC in early January. It seemed like such an absurd expenditure (although most of it is being done with FF miles), that I decided to do it. What with the economy in the gutter, my 401K so potentially toxic that I haven't even looked at it since about March, the insecurity of any job, and the general gloom and doom spewing from the TV news channels, I decided to turn to the only thing that's helped me in the past - humor. And possibly stupidity.
The last time the economy was really really bad in the 1980s, I worked at a major electric utility. We had layoffs, we had management resistance to change, we were scared and cynical it felt a lot like now. What I did back then was to take over a struggling underground PROFS newsletter called "Friday's Note" and proceeded to publish a weekly broadcast of management and employee foibles and fun, risking promotions and employment because people thanked me for writing it and for the sheer joy of walking down the hallway on Friday morning to watch my colleagues laughing out loud at a green-screened terminal. We got through it. (Side note - I got through it still employed only because of friends in high places and a CEO who actually read and liked the newsletter.)
Flash forward to now. It's grim out there, and many - maybe most of us are worried about things. Each week brings news via LinkedIn updates of another friend or colleague who has changed jobs. None of us really knows if we're going to be essential to our companies in the near term. Blogs have taken the place of underground newsletters, so there are things to read when we need humor, but its still not easy to stay positive.
So next year awaits at the end of this week. Awesome - it's about time. Whether you like it or not, political change has come to the US. Change is different, its good. The economy will do what it does, most of us will try to spend less, do what we can to keep money trickling in. Me? I am working hard to remind myself that I can control only one thing - me. I'm older than the last time the economy tanked, but still worry doesn't help, so I'm just working harder to learn more stuff. I've had a line from a song called "Watusi" stuck in my head for a month or so now. It was written by good friend, songwriter, storyteller, and singer Michael Reno Harrell. and goes:
"People say time flies when you're having fun
Hey - it flies if you have fun or not
So blow out your candles and give me a call
And we'll dance till we both drop" *
So find me on the 2nd weekend in January in NYC, breaking my resolutions, then find me in Orlando on the 3rd Saturday in January where I'll be preparing to work hard at Lotusphere, and in the evenings will be breaking my resolutions and maybe dancing the Watusi.
* "Watusi", from the CD, The River , Michael Reno Harrell, 2007
October 17th, 2008
Here’s your chance - talk back about Notes C&S
I get a lot of feedback from you when I do presentations on Notes C&S, particularly when I do them at places like the upcoming Admin2008 Europe conference. Mary Beth's team has been incredible at seeking your input at places like Lotusphere also. One item that almost always comes up when I talk to you is categories in Calendars and the colors that are offered.
The design team is asking for guidance on these issues right now - so go fill out this survey and send a link to all of the admin assistants in your companies who work with Calendars every day - Link to survey here
September 15th, 2008
DDM Survey
The Lotus Domino Admin Developer team is looking for input from YOU. Go over here and respond if you have a forum ID.
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/nd8forum.nsf/DateAllThreadedWeb/0805852bf7efd436852574c4007073c9?OpenDocument
If you don't have a forum ID, you can answer here - at my blog and I will forward the info to the Admin team. Do it , please.....
The Domino Admin team is collecting information on the usage of Domino Domain Monitoring (aka DDM) by our customers. Please take a moment to answer the following two questions to help us improve the usefulness of this feature for you:
1) How would you characterize your use of DDM?
A. What's DDM?
B. I tried it but don't really use it.
C. I use it occasionally.
D. I use it all the time and rely on it to help keep my domain running smoothly.
2) What improvements to DDM would provide the most value to you? Please pick your top 3:
A. Make it easier to get notified of DDM events via mail, pager, etc.
B. Make probe configuration easier and more intuitive.
C. Make it easier to filter out uninteresting DDM reports.
D. Improve the workflow for DDM events (e.g., assigning owners, tracking changes made, etc.)
E. Make it possible to assign a priority to DDM events and then view & filter them based on priority.
F. Automate the corrective actions, allowing DDM to automatically fix problems when they are detected.
G. Other: please specify
Feel free to include any other feedback re: DDM usability and how we can make it work better for you.
July 17th, 2008
Happy Trails
Well, my pal, fellow Foodie, co-presenter extraordinaire, second-favorite redhead and former co-worker Kathleen has decided to make the jump away from the mother ship. She tells of her plans here: http://kmcgivney.typepad.com/kathleen_mcgivney/2008/07/ch-ch-changes.html. I was lucky enough to know it was coming, so didn't have to pick myself off the floor when she announced this morning. Since we only see each other at big life events and Lotusphere, our relationship isn't going to change, except she finally managed to do something nobody else has...she made be actually USE twitter this morning. We'll still be texting, emailing, chatting and yes, even twittering.....So wish her the best over at her site.
Kat - study the concept of escape velocity - it didn't work for you last time, maybe this time.
