Carl Tyler's Blog :: The Lotus Community is so great!

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There have been a few posts along these lines lately in various blogs, and I agree IBM is now getting the Lotus Product message much much clearer than it did 2-3 years ago where basically the competition was able to sit back and say look at these guys confuse their customers. A lot of people, and deservedly so, are still high from Lotusphere 2006, it was a great event with a consistent message that Domino is not dead, and IBM realizes they make money form this.

So you knew it was coming, where's the "but"? Well I don't buy that our community is unique, I have attended lots of other tradeshows focused on products and the people that attend those shows are just as passionate and party just as hard, I went to a couple of great SAPphire conferences, great bands and solo artists, and single minded passionate SAP users (who knew that was possible). Microsoft TechEd, well we know straight away these guys are crazy for loving Microsoft, so you better believe they're crazy passionate at their events. Apple Expo, it used to be held in Boston and these people are just as nutty as us Lotus folks.

Do Lotus fans collaborate and help each other more than Microsoft fans? I'd like to think so, but I don't believe so. Microsoft for years has ran very popular forums, first on Compuserve and then as Newsgroups. They even recognize officially their really helpful fans and call them MVPs. MVPs get rewarded with free software and hats, bags etc. from the Microsoft Store. Imagine how much crap Bruce Elgort and the other folks at OpentNTF.org would have now if IBM did the same. Are Microsoft Fans good and Lotus fans evil? It depends on who you ask, MS Fans think Lotus fans are evil and vice verse.

So I think everyone in the Lotus community is great, and we all share many common goals and passions. I have friends that I have gathered because of my 17 year association with Lotus Software that I hope will continue to be into the distant future. But are we a unique community? I was once sitting next to a shrink on a bus between the airport and a hotel, and we got to chatting, obviously I was paranoid they were going to discover something about I didn't yet know, anyway, I was chit chatting with him, and I said at least you always have job security and he said "Everyone thinks they're the first to have some issue, fetish, fear etc. but 99% it's a slight variation on something else, or just something very common. If people spoke to each other more I'd be out of a job.", so perhaps that's us in the Lotus community, we think we're unique, but really we just don't experience enough of the rest of the world to know for sure? What are your thoughts?

Comments

1 - I completely disagree with you on this one...

You see, I've been part of online communities since using a 300 baud modem on my C64 to hit BBS systems. I've been members of a zillion online groups, in all different types of interests and I really believe that this Lotus community (and Lotusphere as a conference) are very unique.

For example, I think Lotusphere is so cool because of the level of interaction you really get with IBM/Lotus. The labs alone, and getting to talk with the people who actually compiled the code last night make a huge difference. You've also got big execs who are very approachable and tend to want to be a part. Is the head of worldwide sales for Exchange hanging out at gatherings and leading BOF's? I really haven't seen it.

Maybe it's just because mainly Lotus is one main product (Notes/Domino) that we can all focus on, and because of this we can be a little closer knit. I think in the example of MS, they have so many different products, that a conference from them seems all over the map. Maybe you just don't get cohesiveness because the products are so fragmented? I dunno.

But honestly, out of every community I've ever been a part of, or are still a part of, the Lotus one IS special.

-Grey

Posted by Greyhawk68 At 03:40:53 PM On 02/07/2006 | - Website - |

2 - I just want to say I am comparing more than just Lotus to Microsoft in this case. There are many tradeshows out there, some not even technology related. So a comparison to just Microsoft is not really what I am trying to do, I just used their fourms as an example of how they do collaboration with their installed base, but with different tools.

Be assured though, opinions different to my own are welcomed here

Posted by Carl At 04:05:39 PM On 02/07/2006 | - Website - |

3 - Well, I've been a member of a multitude of gaming communities, Macromedia communities, Adobe communities, Canon communities, digital photography communities, remote-control programming communties etc. etc. I've used usenet since the early days, forums when AOL was cool

and much more.

In all of those interactions, is that experiencing enough of the rest of the world?

I've been to tradeshows from Macromedia, Microsoft and Lotus, and the Sphere really is more of a geek nirvana. There is more transparancy into Lotus than into the others. There's more interaction, and in recent years, more technology meat. Really.

I've been to MS events, and they just don't seem to have the same cohesiveness and excited feeling that I get at Lotusphere.

If I really analyze it, I think it boils down to this. Everyone knows and uses Microsoft. Techy, non-techy alike. Everyone that's used a computer has had to deal with it one point or another.

No one outside of certain businesses has even heard of Lotus. Even though we have 125 million seats, your average teenager, housewife etc. hasn't heard of Lotus. As such, maybe we feel a little like outcasts, or maybe we spend all day defending Lotus from the MS-lovers.

So, when we come together at the Sphere, we truly feel we're among family. Maybe that's why we are so nice to each other, and have so much fun together. No one is telling us to use Outlook, no one is saying we should switch our back end to Exchange. That feeling of being among other people who "get-it" is what fuels the Sphere for me. It's what recharges for the year.

There's no doubt other people like their tech, but these are different forms of zealotry. Apple fans are maniacs, but it's for hardware and an OS. Linux fans are incredible, but once again, it's a different niche.

Ours isn't a niche, ours is being one of the top two business messaging and collaboration systems in the entire world. It's a much wider swath...

And in that context we are VERY unique from the MS folks... and I use them simply because they are the other big player in our "space" per se.

-Grey

Posted by Greyhawk68 At 04:52:48 PM On 02/07/2006 | - Website - |

4 - well, obviously, I think your nuts..!

---* Bill

Posted by Wild Bill At 06:14:34 PM On 02/07/2006 | - Website - |

5 - Well, I think we're rare - there are probably other geek communities with the same fun and passion, but I am not sure if they're the same size (or have the same longevity/history) as this community.

Also, if you talk to the "Advisor chicks" (the women who run the Advisor conferences) they say that the only group that comes close to use with regard to passion for the product, a reckless abandon for fun, and a cohesiveness of community is the Filemaker show. I have heard that they can rival us for party attitudes

.

Rock

Posted by Rock At 11:00:38 AM On 02/08/2006 | - Website - |

6 - I think the comparison to the Apple community probably isn't far off. We Lotus geeks are similarly passionate, we're the underdog, we're justly convinced of the superiority of our product, etc. Now we just need a LotusPod!!

Posted by Rob McDonagh At 10:39:18 AM On 02/09/2006 | - Website - |

7 - i had a good laugh right now reading the "hats and bags" sentence.

I am a member of the atnotes community. A german speaking forum formed around Domino/Notes with a question/answer relation of roundabout 5 Minutes, highly spirited diskussions and some folks there who are real good programmers or admins. Kind of a virtual consulting thing where every question around Notes/Domino can be asked and 99.9% of them will be answered in the native language of the one who asked (if it is german at last).

We had a privately held moderator meeting two weeks ago and our super admin tried to talk some "hats and bags" out of a IBM sales manager before that event.
Well he got some things such as BallPens, little yellow boxing gloves (as keyring pendands), badge holders and three or may be four electronic alarm clocks (for 13 persons).
He described the procedure to get them as "difficult". And overall those things had a value of ... might be 50 €. That gave us a good laugh and for me makes a sad point on what you stated.

While IBM might recognize that the community that has formed around Notes/Domino has a lot to do with the fact that this software is still alive and kicking, they are not able or willing (do not know what is worse) to reward those people.
Sad but true and another marketing part where microsofts approach is simply better.

Posted by Thomas Schulte At 08:44:49 AM On 02/15/2006 | - Website - |

8 - I think you should be careful and not sit next to shrinks or insurance salesmen on busses or planes.

Posted by Tim Latta At 05:48:34 PM On 02/16/2006 | - Website - |

9 - @Rock: Yep the FileMaker show is a rival for Lotusphere party attitude...of course FileMaker is an Apple company. I've been to a FileMaker show and know for instance that one speaker gave his entire presentation in boxers. He had a point in doing so, but I think it may have been lost....