For iPhone fans, it really was too good to be true. A pair of Apple executives had just described the latest model of the iPhone — the 3GS — onstage at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2009. The audience loved it. The 3GS was twice as fast as its predecessor, it included a camera that shot video, and the updated iPhone operating system enabled multimedia messaging and tethering — the ability to use the phone as a modem. Just one problem: While many customers in Europe and Asia could enjoy all those features, AT&T, the iPhone’s sole US carrier, wouldn’t allow video messaging or tethering at launch. In other words, the most advanced features wouldn’t be available to AT&T customers. What’s more, some current iPhone users who wanted to upgrade wouldn’t get the subsidies that new customers enjoyed. Incensed iPhone fanatics vented their fury on Twitter. “AT&T has been one disappointment after another.” “Is AT&T trying to squeeze more money from us poor suckers?” And they punctuated their complaints with a hashtag — the Twitter convention for grouping conversations — that became an eight-character protest slogan: #attfail.

It’s an interesting read on the Apple and AT&T love/hate relationship. With the launch of iphone and associated negative stigma around it, I am not sure if they will just walk away from AT&T and blame them for the ‘antenna’ issues.

Read the rest of the article here. >>

CIO Update published an article on office productivity applications and the shift to cloud computing. The writer, Robert McGarvey, highlights this shift and the many benefits that go along with it, mainly, lower costs.  IBM’s Sean Poulley is quoted throughout the article positioning IBM as a thought leader while touting Lotus Symphony as an open alternative to Microsoft Office.

We are at an historic inflection point, insists Sean Poulley, VP of Cloud Services at IBM.

The move into cloud-based computing is in full swing. That, added Poulley, is an unexpected reversal of the great business computing revolution of the early 1980s.

Of course, there also is IBM’s Lotus Symphony, another free, open source tool, presently still running on desktops but there, too, new plug-ins are enabling it to operate in the cloud. Suddenly, for the first time in a generation there is fresh interest in creating new office productivity apps.

As businesses struggle to control IT costs, today’s low hanging fruit has emerged as productivity software — especially with perfectly adequate tools available in the cloud at much less cost. “Productivity at IBM did not grind to as halt when we stopped paying for Microsoft Office licenses,” said Poulley.

Link to the article. >>

Months ago, many people had the pleasure of seeing this hilarious ad by Oldspice. In it an extremely attractive man, let’s call him Mr. Oldspice, tries to informs women that though their boyfriend/husband can smell like Mr. Oldspice despite never living up to his looks. It was a highly successful television advertisement.

Then it turned genius. On Tuesday, Mr. Oldspice started responding to questions asked by the community via YouTube videos. Most of the videos answered queries from major influencers and celebrities. Already, this is being labeled one of the best campaigns of the year.

Key Takeaway: Traditional media translates well into new media when you create spot-on content that engages influential people.

Check out ReadWriteWeb’s notes on How Old Spice Won the Internet.

As we move towards actually earning vs demanding attention on the web, there is more attention being paid on bringing the external social networking tools into the internal network. We have moved away from the static intranets to the dynamic social collaboration environments.

According to the 2010 IBM CEO Study, 98 percent of CEOs need to restructure the way their organizations work. 5.3 hours is wasted per employee per week due to inefficient processes. 2 hrs is spent per employee per day looking for the right information and expertise within an organization. Imagine what 2 hours a day can help you achieve? Improve retention, loyalty and productivity.

Social software can help alleviate this problem because it helps keep global work teams better connected and more able to deliver results. We use these tools inside IBM to manage our own business and it has helped us build and recruit teams from all over the world. The brain mass is accessible worldwide.

In the economy of tomorrow, it is the user experience which will dictate commerce for our organization. It no longer matters if you have been around for 200 years, what you provide now will determine your fate tomorrow.

Worldwide, the IDC report states that revenue for social platforms was $369.7 million, representing growthof more than 55 percent.

This is the first time that IDC has published a report on worldwide social platforms by revenue.

According to IDC, social platforms emerged as one of the leading technology trends for organizations, based on the recognition that people –- customers, employees, business partners, and suppliers –- are looking for ways to more easily collaborate interact and share data.

The report states that “social platforms are centered around, but not limited to, social networking applications that allow people to connect share, and interact on the Web around a common goal or interest.”

IBM’s portfolio of social computing, mashups and Web 2.0 technologies, including blogs, communities, profiles, activities, shared bookmarks and more, can help organizations of all sizes work smarter, become more agile, and foster innovation.

The way we work is changing rapidly. Business professionals are using social software tools inside and outside the workplace to connect across organizational boundaries to build dynamic networks, share knowledge, and test ideas. Social software has probably already taken root in your organization. We are hosting a webinar on social software tomorrow at 11AM est.

Join us to learn how social Software to unify, energize and empower your employees to build professional networks, share ideas and information, and innovate in ways that deliver business results that improve your bottom line.

Register here: https://www.ibm.com/events/wwe/grp/grp004.nsf/enrollall?openform&seminar=7ZCE9GES&locale=en_US
Date: Wednesday, June 23rd,
Time: 11am EST (New York City).

According to analyst firm IDC, there will be more than one billion mobile workers worldwide by year end 2010.

We are announcing the beta availability of Lotus Notes on the Google Android phones. If you have been following my blog, you have surely checked out the availability of Lotus Notes on the iPhone and iPad. Now it’s Android’s turn. Additionally, my friends in Lotus Connections tell me that the next version will support Android as well.

Like our other versions, Lotus Notes Traveler for Android will be a no-charge software that can be downloaded by Lotus Notes customers and provides two-way, over-the-air synchronization of information between Lotus Domino and mobile devices.

The software allows Lotus Notes users who synchronize their Domino mail, calendar, contacts via Lotus Notes Traveler to view that data on the devices that run the Android 2.0 or higher operating system. This includes the Droid, Nexus One and many other devices.

For more information about Lotus Notes Traveler for the Android beta pilot program, visit www.ibm.com/ibm/software/lotus/notesanddomino

By 2015, it’s estimated there will be one trillion connected devices. People with pacemakers will be monitored by wireless systems. In the near future, automobiles will run on 64-bit, multi-core processors, running millions of lines of code.

It’s a future that IBM believes will be increasingly dominated by a “system of systems,” where software scales on devices that interconnect to create a convergence of mechanical, electronic, and digital technologies.

ReadwriteWeb did a post on it from our Rational conference. It’s an interesting read. Check it out.

It’s another example of how data is changing all aspects of how products are developed. It’s also a grand view of our future that almost seems like science fiction.IBM is making its pitch this week for a smarter planet. It’s almost like a mantra here at IBM Innovate where the company is positioning its Rational software as the environment for managing the massive complexities of managing products in a super connected world.

IBM maintains that customers need to view products according to how they ft into complex systems that flow in and out of the organization. The system needs to be a core part of the product development. Fittingly, IBM announced Integrated Product Management today. The service brings together more than 30 IBM offerings from IBM Rational.

IBM aside, the new complexities of developing products for a dynamic supply chain means changing view about product development. Companies are responding by developing Agile development processes. Test and development is moving to the cloud, helping companies get products more quickly into production.

There are any number of examples for how the complex interconnections of data and connectivity will affect the enterprise.

But perhaps the most immediate example comes from Apple.

The iPod is an MP3 player with software. An iPhone is a product of interconnected systems. That’s a big reason for its success.

It’s also a model for what we are seeing in a world with 1 trillion connected devices.

Enterprise 2.0 attendees, definitely participate in this photo scavenger hunt!

Lotus Knows that you want to share the best of #e2conf ~ Follow @LotusKnows to play our photo scavenger hunt. Upload your photos to our group http://www.flickr.com/groups/lotuse2conf/ and tag them with #e2photos.

How to play:

There are seven “photo target” events throughout the conference. Participants will upload photos that show they were at three of the seven targets. Be creative with your photos – it can be a picture of anything identifiable as occurring at a photo target event – the speaker for the session while talking, one of the slides from the session, or anything that shows you were there.

Here are the seven photo target events – just upload a photo from any three of them:
1.    Monday Black Belt Workshop with Luis Suarez (@elsua)
2.   Monday  Black Belt Workshop with Rawn Shah (@rawn)
3.   “Evening in The Cloud” Cloud Collaboration and Cocktail Reception
4.   Tuesday or Wednesday IBM Booth Demo
5.   Tuesday Kevin Cavanaugh
6.   Tuesday Attendee Party
7.  Wednesday Rawn Shah Book Signing at the IBM Booth

Take a picture at any three photo target events (or more) and use the tag #e2photos when uploading to our group http://www.flickr.com/groups/lotuse2conf/

When you’ve completed your three photos tweet us with this message:
Mission Accomplished! @Lotusknows my #e2conf photos are here http://www.flickr.com/groups/lotuse2conf/

Top Photo Scavenger Hunt participants will be announced at the end of the Rawn Shah session “Evolution of E2.0 at IBM: The Frustrations and the Glory” and invited to an intimate group meeting with Mr. Shah.

Getting started on Flickr?

• Set up your Flickr account so that you upload pictures. It’s easy – just follow this quick Flickr tutorial on uploading photos by email. This will save you tons of time and be useful even after the conference is over.
• If you want to share via twitter, visit this flickr tutorial.

Yes, you heard it right. Lotus Notes on the iPad is here and it is available for free for existing Notes users.

It is offered through the Lotus Notes Traveler software package on iPad. It allows for a two-way, over the air synchronization of enterprise class, secure email, calendar and contacts between the Lotus Domino servers and mobile devices. (Yes, blackberry, iphone and now, an, ipad).

If you are interested in reading first hand review of the device, please check out Ed Brill’s post right here.

Several organizations in a wide variety of industries globally have begun using Lotus Software on the iPad. Here are some references for your review.

“Lotus Notes Traveler on the iPad is convenient and helps me stay on top of my e-mails. I don’t have to go home at night and fire up my laptop to see my messages,” said Dave Stall, Lotus Notes Manager, Roto-Rooter Services Company. “The iPad is sitting next to me on the couch and I can respond to anything that needs my attention quickly.”

“I like when forwarding an e-mail, you can type the first letter of a person’s name and get a list of people. You then select that person by tapping the screen. This saves a lot of typing and time,” added Stall.

“I can see this taking the place of a laptop for the executive and sales staff, and they live on e-mail. Lotus Notes Traveler makes that transition easy,” said John Roling, IT Director, Czarnowski, an IBM client and business partner.

“When Lotus Notes Traveler iPad users are in a meeting, they can now have up to date ‘push’ mail and calendar,” said Almar Diehl, Groupware Consultant, e-office.

Lotus Notes Traveler is available in the App Store at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibm-lotus-notes-traveler-companion/id346633404

If you are attending the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston, might as well take advantage of the Lotus Knows discount code, CNRREB20 to get 30% off their passes.

I’ve been tweeting about it, you are welcome to share it with your network as well. It does not make us anything. It’s just something that I wanted to share with you.

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As some of you have probably noticed via my twitter updates. I am currently attending the Make Web Not War conference in Montreal. The focus is on web development, social web and open data infrastructure of tomorrow. A refreshing change from typical corporate events, the energy at this ‘startup/web 2.0′ along with passion at this conference is to die for.

I loved the panel discussions on passion and authentic social behavior required to succeed in this world of Web 2.0 – 3.0. On a surprising note, I am shocked in awe to report that Microsoft has done a great job in promoting this conference in a very subtle community building manner. Their logos are barely seen, yet they are the main sponsor of the event.

Their Open Data architecture to enable open data collaboration is also an interesting concept. It does tie in with the Government 2.0 effort currently in place. FYI: Canadian cities sharing their data include: Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Naomi. Vancouver’s pilot is online at http://vanguide.cloudapp.net/. Sadly, it requires you to install Silverlight but worth installing to check out the implementation from true social web nature. Rocovery.gov is also a prime example of this shift.

If you are interested in learning more, follow the #webnotwar twitter stream. I’ll be posting my summary and possible integration with IBM’s Digital Strategy (in my opinion) when I get back to Toronto.

If you haven’t heard already, the LotusLive team has just released its first app for Lotuslive on iTunes for free.

In my recent digital strategy role shift, the MI work has lately been around paying close attention to the newest and the greatest in the mobile, social web and network engagement methodologies. And, yes, to “try” to have it incorporated in a practical manner in our business and marketing strategies. Notice I didn’t say social media because I don’t think it will exist in its form in the next few years. My new upcoming project, EarnedWeb, will go into depth on that. More on that later.

So, it was no surprise to me when the analyst firm IDC, indicated in their latest report that there will be more than one billion mobile workers worldwide by year end 2010. The United States has the highest percentage of mobile workers in its workforce, with 72.2 percent of the workforce mobile in 2008. Further, the U.S. will remain the most highly concentrated market for mobile workers with 75.5 percent of the workforce, or 119.7 million workers, being mobile in 2013.

With that being said, 2010 is also the year for mobile marketing to take off — augmented reality, location based apps like foursquare, gowalla, facebook & twitter’s own iterations.  I am glad to see that our development roadmap also takes advantage of this industry trend and is providing mobile applications to the SMB’s and enterprises to take advantage of the shift in knowledge worker behavior.

With the immediate availability of a free iTunes download of LotusLive Meetings, users can now access cloud-enabled LotusLive web meetings on the iPhone from anywhere, at anytime. Similarly, LotusLive users can access Web meetings on the Blackberry smartphone as well.

LotusLive Mobile is a smartphone application that enables users to access the LotusLive network and collaboration services — including joining a webcast, sharing files and accessing your LotusLive business network right from the Blackberry smartphone.

And a little snippet from my Lotuslive team, there will be a Android and iPad version coming very shortly.

It’s free for both the iphone and the blackberry. Check it out and let us know here how you liked it.

Straight from Waterloo, ON

it is the first ever live video of the mythical BlackBerry Bold sliding device coming out of Waterloo. The quality of the video is also decently clear, so check it out, okay? We’re still trying to confirm the model number of the handset, but it’s definitely in the Bold lineup as has been rumored, and now confirmed via the branding on the back of the phone. Oh, the device is also running OS 6.0

I am actually very excited about this. As the Web 2.0 guy for Lotus, this totally excites me and as you already know, I am a huge fan of startups and do routinely consult from web development, user experience and user interaction design perspectives. The creativity and out of boxing thinking that comes out of these young buck startups cannot be seen anywhere else.

As most of you are aware, our latest Lotus Notes client is very Web 2.0 friendly and has an open architecture for developers which allows for limitless social-web possibilities.  As a result, many start ups have incorporated Lotus Notes and rest of our portfolio in their web strategy. Our Lotusphere Comes to You event today in Toronto is dedicated to our partners who make this all possible.

Today, Montreal-based start up Tungle released a Tungle.me app for Notes users. This free application allows you to easily setup meetings across various platforms. Instead of 9 steps, you can do the same task in 2. From Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo to Notes and vice versa. Check out the video demonstration of Tungle.me for Lotus Notes.

Today’s news follows a slew of new free apps for Notes from TripIt, LinkedIn and just last week, from the cloud start-up called Gist.

The hip new Gist app allows Lotus Notes users to add dynamic profiles for people in an inbox, calendar and contacts list. Gist for Notes allows a users to have news, blogs, and tweets all in one place, quickly find related people, emails, links, and attachments. It allows you to connect to LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. That is available for free as well at www.gist.com/lotus.

If you have been thinking about trying out our small business server platform from infrastructure and email perspective, do check out the new trial version of Lotus Foundations v1.2 that is available now.

Download a free 30-day trial of IBM® Lotus® Foundations Start 1.2, an on-premise software appliance and a complete solution for businesses with 5-500 employees that have limited or no in-house technical resources. Lotus Foundations Start can be launched within 30 minutes and leverages self-managing and self-healing capabilities that minimize the need for human intervention.

With Lotus Foundations Start, customers can establish a company network; use e-mail at the office, from remote locations, or from mobile devices; create and share documents; centrally manage files; backup data; and protect a business network from unwanted disruptions. Also included in Lotus Foundations Start is the IBM Lotus Symphony office productivity suite, which allows you to work with spreadsheets, documents, and presentations.

Trial Link: >>