Here's to an awesome 2009!

I have a feeling 2009 is going to be an awesome year. Why? Because I'm committed to it!

After the Christmas tree is torn down and the party hats and horns are put away, I plan on pounding the pavement, knocking on doors, telling my story, and making some sales.

Here's to success...I can already feel it, smell it, taste it, and almost touch it.

Join me in making 2009 an awesome year!

Minnesota XPages Workshop?

It seems that IBM are willing to provide the XPages workshop if enough folks in a particular region are interested in attending. Word has it that if you contact Craig Wolpert and let him know of your interest, he can coordinate setting up the workshop.

So come on Minnesota, register your interest in learning XPages and ask to have it presented in Minneapolis.

Startup: The Long Tail and the Recession

As I lay the groundwork for moving to independence in my Lotus Notes development work I've been pondering the role of the Long Tail as I work to build a customer base during this time of economic difficulty.

In theory, the Long Tail should be a great place to look for opportunities. With all the recent investment IBM has made to our platform, we all should be in great shape to offer our customers some great solutions. I'm betting that the really good businesses out there are likely taking advantage of the current turmoil and coming up with initiatives to capitalize on when things finally turn around. My sense is that these businesses are fairly small in size (Long Tail inhabitants?) or are small business units within larger organizations.

If your business sits somewhere in the Long Tail and you're looking into ways to collaborate your way to success when things stop shrinking and start growing again, I'd be very much interested in having a conversation with you.

Ytria ScanEZ Update: 8.0.0

I spent a little time poking around Ytria's ScanEZ looking for interesting additions in this latest release. I found a few handy new features I will looking forward to using:

1. The ability to add multiple documents that I select from within my Notes client to a "My Selection" group.
2. Adding all the documents from a view or folder to a "My Selection" group.
3. The new design elements for Notes 8 appear (composite application, wiring properties, etc.) and I'll be digging a little deeper with these to see what they reveal.
   

I use ScanEZ every day and have come to rely on it to quickly troubleshoot problems, modify documents for use in testing or in upgrading, and to help build and test formulas during development.

If you're interested in knowing more about the Ytria tools, contact me and I will be more than happy to show you around.