So, Lotus Knows that I am no longer with Foundations

Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest.”~ Mark Twain

Some of you already know this. For the rest, I have moved into a more IBM software related role which allows me to focus more on the Lotus social media and web strategy.

Since, I’ve been in my new position for more than half of the year, I definitely owe an explanation to many of you. Frankly speaking, I was waiting for the right moment to announce this. Internally, I have been leading, partcipating and working on many different projects and one of them is our upcoming campaign – Lotus Knows. It is different, aggressive and allows us to work closely with you to help you achieve your goals. It also sets us apart from the competition – in a good way. I also want to thank many of you for your patience and support throughout.

Some of you had guessed it earlier through the shift in my blog posts. Along with Lotus Foundations, many of you read and commented on posts on emerging topics such as social software, social media culture, and ever-changing web 2.0 approaches.

This move allows me to contribute directly into the new IBM mindset and as you might’ve noticed already — things are changing, for the better.

For Lotus Knows campaign, I’ll be hosting a jam with Ed Brill, Chris Reckling, David Hsu and few other notables in less than 2 weeks. The jam will allow all of us to collaborate on what we like, dislike, want, and don’t want. We will need to focus on what appeals to us, from our audience’s perspective etc. The campaign will not stop there, this is just a pre-campaign activity.

I also want to thank Carl Tyler, Bruce Elgort, Keith Brooks, Henry Furlato, Stuart McIntyre, Sean Burgess and others for their support and patience throughout this process. Internally, a big shout out to Colleen Hayes!

But that’s just a start. There is much more coming. Stay tuned. In the mean time, if you would like to connect, I am available via Twitter, LinkedIN, Sametime over BleedYellow, Google Talk, Skype (bilal.jaffery) and MSN (bilal at bilal.ca). Heck, if you are on BB and nice enough, I’ll even ping you my personal BB PIN.

This blog will also feature live updates from Twitter for the keywords – Lotus Knows.

P.S. I still work closely with Lotus Foundations team and will still be focusing on it from social media perspective.