Executive Panel questions
Via Ed, there's a forthcoming Lotus Executive Panel session on ND 8, Quickr and Connections. I've submitted a couple of questions that I'd like to see if I can spark some feedback on. It might be a little gauche to post them here, but in the event that they don't get asked, I think they might be interesting and esoteric enough to spark some discussion at least among my 10 readers.
And yes, official and unofficial IBM responses are more than welcome here.
1) Lotus Connections is a fabulous post-social-Internet rethink of knowledge management. One of the features of the social internet is its extensibility through SOAP- and AJAX-driven extensions. Does Connections provide an API so we can replicate this success inside the firewall?
2) What are some of the visions for extensions to the Connections platform in the future? I've heard Doug Wilson talk about discoverable best practices via Activities. What about Hansonian Prediction Markets? Can social networking tools offer us internal visibility on the origin points of successful ideas, so we can uncover the real sources of innovative thinking in the organization?
3) Speaking of the real sources of innovation, IBM's LCTY presentation on Connections walks through a social networking model for bringing innovation to the market. I find it interesting that while the walkthrough speaks of getting feedback from early adopter and VIP customers, only Notes/Domino 8 seems to have followed this model with an open beta and regular blogging about the product futures. Quickr and Connections seem to have been built in a relative vacuum of social feedback. Putting aside the irony, does Lotus intend to open up the model more, and make Greenhouse, for instance, globally and openly available to public users on a long term basis?
4) Sal Palmisano has announced that SMBs in the 250-1000 employee range are IBM's most important market in coming years. How do the forthcoming Lotus offerings fit into this plan? Does Lotus intend to make products such as Connections, Quickr, Portal and the RTC Gateway more accessible and auditionable by smaller companies? Can we look forward to Express licensing packages for these platforms?
Anyone have any other ideas? Want to expand on these? Don't be shy.
Comments
Posted by Ed Brill At 05:18:17 PM On 06/04/2007 |