Lotus Connections and Lotus Quickr are now generally available :-)

Here are the announcement letters: -

IBM Lotus Quickr provides a way to exchange business content quickly and
easily, enabling effective collaboration between connected teams

PDF

http://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/5/897/ENUS207-145/ENUS207145.PDF

IBM Lotus Connections delivers social software for businesses

PDF
http://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/2/897/ENUS207-112/ENUS207112.PDF

Off to download ...................

IBM Web Content Management (WCM) Open Mic conference call on June 28, 2007

Following on from this dW article: -

Understanding syndication in IBM Workplace Web Content Management

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/workplace/library/wwcm-syndication/

IBM will hosting an Open Mic conference call with Lotus Development and
Support Engineers to discuss WCM Syndication on Thursday, June 28, 2007.
This call will take place in two sessions at 10:00 AM EDT and 9:00 PM
EDT, to facilitate participation from customers worldwide.The call will
last 60 minutes. Please dial into the call 5 minutes before the
scheduled start.

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/nflsblog.nsf/dx/wcm-open-mic-call

4th July .... now important for another reason ..... Connectr "Making the most of your connections"

Thanks to Neil, Stuart and co. for arranging this.

http://lotusconnectionsblog.com/index.php?itemid=43

Will hope to see you there ....

Portal - A solution rather than a product

During the course of this year, I've spent a lot of time elaborating the
value of portals to businesses; small, medium and large.

The more I do this, the better it gets - the more clearly I'm able to
focus on the deliverables - return on investment, time to value, user
experience etc. - rather than on the technology which is, when all's
said and done, getting better and better by the day.

There are a number of enablers that make this easy - they allow us to
focus on the "What" as well as the "How" - these enablers include other
software such as WebSphere HATS ( taking green-screen applications to
the web ), WebSphere Portlet Factory ( rapid application development ),
WebSphere Dashboard Framework ( showing line-of-business what can be
done ) and Workplace Forms ( automating business processes, and getting
it right first time ).

IBM has also produced an excellent set of resources, known as
Accelerators, as per this demo: -

*IBM Demo: Accelerators for WebSphere Portal: Recorded Demo*

http://demos.dfw.ibm.com/on_demand/Demo/IBM_Demo_Accelerators_for_WebSphere_Portal-Apr07.html?S=XL

I first got into WebSphere Portal in 2002/3, when we were very dependent
on Java development skils ( remember WebSphere Studio Application
Developer ), which customers often saw as an inhibitor - especially if
their background was RPG, .NET, Notes/Domino etc.

The world has changed - the products have improved, the customers are
more portal-savvy, and the market is more mature.

In short, the future begins .... now

8-)

This Modern Life

Thanks to Paul ( pmooney.net ) for finding this site - this one
describes me best (!): -

http://www.wellingtongrey.net/miscellanea/archive/2007-06-03--this-modern-life.html

and I'm proud to admit it ( which is a statement in itself ).

Free software !

I did know about this, but had forgotten :)

Use the IBM Omnifind search engine to help your employees search for content, using your own search indexes, featured links, symantic searches, themed front page etc.ALL FOR FREE.

See: -

http://omnifind.ibm.yahoo.net/index.php

and: -

http://demos.dfw.ibm.com/on_demand/Demo/IBM_Demo_IBM_OmniFind_Yahoo_Edition-Dec06.html

Just downloading now ............................

Unashamed Plug ( not for me, but for others ) - Programming Portlets: From JSR 168 to WebSphere Portal Extensions

Experienced programmers and developers who are new to portal programming
or to WebSphere Portal will find accessible and essential information on
the features and functionality of portal development with this updated
reference. Covering the building blocks of developing portals and their
applications, particularly JSR 168, this handbook offers software
engineers advice on enhancing their current skills, staying current in
the latest portal developments, and developing portlets for specific
standards. This new edition has extensive JSR 168 material and revised
technical information including WebSphere Portal (v6), Portlet Factory,
and Workplace Forms.

*About the Author*
*Ron Lynn* is a software engineer for IBM. He lives in Exeter,
California. *Peter Blinstrubas* is a portal consultant on the IBM
technical sales team. He lives in Prospect, Connecticut. *Joey Bernal*
has an extensive background in building portal and web applications. He
lives in Houston, Texas. *Usman Memon* is an IT architect with IBM's
Software Services for Lotus Raleigh Portal Technology Group. He lives in
Raleigh, North Carolina. *Cayce Marston* is a senior IT specialist
within the IBM technical sales team. He lives in Victoria, British
Columbia. *Tim Hanis* is the coauthor of /Mastering IBM WebSphere
Portal: Expert Guidance to Build and Deploy Portal Applications/. He
lives in Pearland, Texas. *Varadarjan Ramamoorthy *is a portal
consultant with IBM Software Services. He lives in Morrisville, North
Carolina. *Stefan Hepper* is the coauthor of the book/ Pervasive
Computing./

http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Portlets-WebSphere-Portal-Extensions/dp/1931182280/ref=sr_1_2/102-4289918-8021702?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1178043418&sr=1-2