Lotus Rock Star

Category Collaboration University

Byline: Guest Blogger Liz Novak, Loyola of Chicago Graduate

As reported here last Thursday, the Chicago hotels with the IBM rates have filled up. So, we got busy – and creative! – and did extensive research to help you find reasonably priced rooms at locations easily accessible to the Collaboration University Chicago campus, a.k.a. the IBM Innovation Center. Our criteria? Great neighborhoods, proximity to the famous "El" trains, and less than $200/night (Note from Rob: "El" is short for "Elevated" - trains that are mostly 25 ft above the Chicago streets...). Here's what we found for you …

One great option is to stay at any of the hotels near Midway Airport (click here for a list of hotels and contact info). All these properties cater to business travelers, so they're well-equipped with Internet access, many provide complimentary breakfast every morning, and all offer a free shuttle service to Midway Airport and the "Orange Line" El train. Just hop on the train going downtown and disembark at the Quincy Station. From there, it's a short walk to the IBM Innovation Center at the corner of Wacker and Franklin.

We also found some deals on hotels near the "friendly confines" of Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. This vibrant neighborhood is full of great restaurants and night-life, and there's just something charming about the El stop right next to the venerable ballpark. A quick look at the pennants flying over the stadium shows you the rankings of the National and American league teams that day! The El trip is a bit shorter from there than if you're staying near Midway Airport, and it would be a great place to target if you want to truly experience Chicago.

If you're looking for something a little quieter, check out the hotels we found in Evanston. Home to Northwestern University (Note from Rob: ..."and birthplace of Rob Novak"...sorry, couldn't resist honey...), Evanston is just a little north of Chicago proper, right on the lake. Again, it's an easy El ride from the Evanston hotels to the Quincy Station, and the Chicago Transit Authority maps seem to indicate that there are express trains during rush hour from Evanston into downtown Chicago.

Click here for the list of hotels near Wrigley Field and in Evanston. And check out this great printable map of the entire El system. It's fast, easy, convenient, much less expensive than taxis, and ready for you to explore!

Common Sense Disclaimer: We've tried our best to provide accurate, detailed directions for walking to the El stations from these various hotels, as well as which El lines to take. However, we've done all that from maps, and not by going to every property and pacing it out ourselves. Therefore, please verify directions with your hotel's front desk before taking off. They might be able to give you better directions and let you know about things only the "locals" know.

Posted by Rob Novak At 6:27 PM Location SNAPPS Glactic Headquarters | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category SNAPPS Projects Quickr

Continuing what may be a series (maybe of three, who knows, I could get bored...) of anecdotal approaches to development and customization, the next topic is the concept of managing and expiring Quickr content based on a set of business rules. The rules may be defined by a corporate mandate, regulatory issues, or simply best practices in keeping content fresh.

In this installation, I'll discuss two different approaches taken by two companies to the same issue. Each one was innovative and helped the client meet their specific business needs.

Clients:
International Beverage Company, International Insurance Company

Project:
QuickPlace/Quickr Document "Expiration"

Project Sizes:
Small to Medium

Features:
Project #1:
The firm had a mandate that all content posted on the Extranet, which was a QuickPlace server, be revisited by the author of the content within 180 days to be either a) re-saved, or b) removed. This was driven by a company-wide "document retention" policy. Now of course, there were some exclusions to the rules based on the kind of content entered into QuickPlace. For instance, calendar entries, discussion items, programmatic elements in QuickPlace applications, etc. were not required to be monitored. It boiled down to items in Library folders.

So how do you take this concept of "look at it every 180 days and make sure it's still relevant" and apply that simple rule to an environment like QuickPlace/Quickr, where content may be in hundreds of rooms and authored by hundreds of people? What happens when people move around, or leave positions? There are two approaches to this, and one of them is dead wrong.

Traditional QuickPlace/Quickr development, as discussed in forums, the documentation and Infocenter, would focus on using Lotusscript and Java Placebots in each QuickPlace to gather the information and send off emails. The problems with this approach are numerous when the number of places goes beyond ten or so, but I'll save that list for another post. It's sufficient to say that scheduled placebots are not the way to go when you have numerous places in which to run them.

Solution? A separate Domino application with agents, forms and views designed to aggregate metadata about the documents contained in QuickPlace/Quickr, pair the author information with their email address based on the record in each contacts1.nsf database, and hold that metadata for weekly agent-driven email "newsletters" to inform people of the titles, places and links to library documents. When an author is discovered to no longer be a member of the QuickPlace/Quickr, the Manager of the room in which the document resides is used instead.

Project #2:
This firm had a requirement to manage content, but only certain documents and not a whole category like the Library. They also wanted granular control over two things instead of a global ruleset - how long the document was "live" before a review was required, who was responsible for it when the expiration date came.

We borrowed from the aggregation concepts of the first project, with a twist. In this case, the additional control needed required us to build a custom form in the Quickr placetype. The form became known as the "Managed Content" form, and a description was created so it was obvious that this form was to be used when the content needed to be reviewed after a certain time.

Another difference with this application was that it went into a very large QuickPlace/Quickr environment - 2,500 places, 20,000 rooms. So even by consolidating the processing into a Domino database, it was unreasonable to ask an agent to comb through all the content looking for forms based on these documents like in the first project. A more targeted approach was required.

Upon submission of the custom forms, an Ajax call triggers an agent in the separate Domino database. This agent is passed some parameters including the place name, document UNID, author, email, date for review, etc. and it creates two metadata documents in the Domino database. One is simple, it just has the placename for each place that has triggered the agent. This way, when we do go searching for the documents later, we know exactly which places they are in and can focus the search. The other document is a placeholder for the individual documents that have been created or edited. The weekly agent targets each place and room that has a trigger, then compares the metadata documents to the real content to ensure nothing has been deleted from the place (deletions cannot trigger a placebot, so this cleanup stage is required). Then, an email consolidating all of the links to documents requiring review is sent to the designated author, or as before, the manager of the room if they're no longer around. A mime email is used for good formatting, and the user has a single email to link to all of the reviewable documents, where they can extend the dates, and reassign for the next round of reviews. This feature is useful for delegation or when people change assignments.

The End.

Lesson:
Quickr document management isn't that complex, it just takes some creative thought and use of the tools it presents us with - agents, forms, Ajax, and the judicious use of real Domino databases.

Next up, the flexible view.

Posted by Rob Novak At 8:27 AM Location SNAPPS Glactic Headquarters | Permalink | Comments (1)

Category Birthday
Thanks to Rocky for the inspired birthday wishes and to everyone who responded with such creative limericks. Some I will comment on later tonight...in limerick, if I can be creative enough.

Yes, Rob 4.1 was released today. I'm a prime again, finally, after four years of being divisible.

Thanks also to my dear friend Gabriella, who in a surprise move baked me a cake. It took some effort to get it through customs, but it was tasty nonetheless...

Posted by Rob Novak At 4:09 PM Location SNAPPS Glactic Headquarters | Permalink | Comments (5)

Category Collaboration University

Melissa just did our "hotel watch" on Chicago hotels for the week of September 8, and two of the three killer deals are now gone. For those who have yet to make arrangements, please make sure you visit the Collaboration University website's Locations page for the latest downloadable list of hotels and rates we've researched. Of course there are more online, but this seems to be a busy week in Chicago!

If you're still on the fence, consider this - the remaining killer deal is the IBM visitor rate at the Drake Hotel (where I've stayed at full rates several times, it's gorgeous) at $130 per night. In Chicago. For a 4-star Hilton hotel. Expedia shows $379. That has to be the best deal in town. There's a similar price at a 2.5-star Midway hotel (not an IBM rate), but of course the transportation is a little more involved. The Drake is walkable on a nice day, about 25 minutes, or a sub-$10 cab ride. Of course, you may have a corporate rate somewhere else, but this is really a good deal as long as rooms are available.

UPDATE Monday July 21: Looks like you filled up the Drake on Friday. Looking for more good deals...

If you're procrastinating on travel planning, or need a good reason to get your manager to push the paperwork through, this is it. 53 days seems like a long time, but it isn't when it comes to getting a great deal on accommodations in a big city.

Travel tip: If you stay at the Drake, or even if not, visit the John Hancock building, seen in the photo above. There's an Observatory on the top floor that's educational and dizzying at the same time. And for a very swanky drinks hour, definitely visit the Signature Room on the 95th floor. You can usually get a booth or table at the bar, and if there's one by the window grab it fast. Spectacular views.

Posted by Rob Novak At 6:03 PM Location SNAPPS Glactic Headquarters | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Farrago

I've played this for a few people after cleaning it up. In 1986, I was a member of the elite honors Jazz Choir at the University of Kansas. That spring, we held several performances and ultimately went to a studio in KC and cut an album. That's right, kids, vinyl.

Well thanks to the advent of turntable-to-USB recorders, the Mac, Audacity, and MP3 Trimmer, combined with the fact that I could even find this one-of-12 album (I don't know if we ever sold any, but we definitely each got one), here I present one of my favorites. Me and 11 much-more-talented-than-me friends, 22 years ago. More to come as I have time.

We were directed by Dr Ron McCurdy, pictured above, who has gone on to have a very distinguished career.

Enjoy!

Posted by Rob Novak At 5:10 PM Location SNAPPS Glactic Headquarters | Permalink | Comments (2)

Category Projects Quickr Domino Sametime

When discussing my next newsletter topics with Viktor and a few others, it occurred to us that every year, we do thousands of hours worth of high end design, customization and consulting that go largely unnoticed by anyone other than the client who benefits from it. So in the spirit of case studies, but with total anonymity, we're going to write short blurbs about the kinds of things we do with Quickr, Sametime, and Domino in the newsletter and sometimes on the blogs. In that vein, here is one of our current projects at a very high level:

Client:
Major US Advertising Firm

Project:
Quickr Theme and Blog Enhancements

Project Size:
Small

Features:
This client is in the advertising business, so appearance and branding are core to their outward appearance and client interactions. So first order of business was a custom theme - which if you've worked with custom themes, got harder in Quickr 8.1, our target version. After a good deal of CSS injection and pushing pins into the JavaScript voodoo doll, however, Viktor produced a very nice theme. Lessons learned in this exercise - don't assume things are as they always were, really know CSS well before working with a moderately difficult theme, and never, EVER try to do theme work without FireFox and Firebug installed.

Once the theme passed muster with our client, they asked for a few more enhancements. In the blog template, some features are disabled - for instance drag and drop to Library folders. They wanted this enabled, so we decided the best approach was to incorporate the blog design elements into a standard place, then make it a placetype (template). So far so good - but then we added the following features:

--Categories on blog postings, with navigation by category at the main level. Categories build on each other.
--Tags on blog postings, with a tag cloud generated at the main level. Tags are available from a picklist as they're built.
--"Pinning" of blog postings - like you sometimes see on forums - so certain posts stay at the top until an expiration date. A hybrid model.
--Last but not least, the ability to see comments with an Ajax "Show/Hide" at the main level, without having to open the entry, making it easy to read comments for many entries at once.

This list of features enhanced the standard blog template into a hybrid Quickr template that will help this organization meet its client communications goals, providing value for the company and its clients with only moderate customizations.

The end.

So - in some cases, I'll be able to post code snippets for these stories, in some I won't. But the idea is to get you thinking about how Quickr, Sametime and Domino can be extended beyond the base installations and freely available templates. That said I have two questions for you - is this valuable, and what other information would grab your interest? I have years and years of value-ridden project descriptions.

Next time, if it seems worth it, I'll discuss an application we built to avoid obsolescence in the documents posted to a Quickr/Domino application. It helps the client keep up with their need to balance regulatory compliance, "fresh" content, and document retention policies. If it's not worth it, I'll probably just post pictures of dogs.

Posted by Rob Novak At 11:56 AM Location SNAPPS Glactic Headquarters | Permalink | Comments (2)

Category Collaboration University

In the past year it's become pretty apparent that there's a guy out there who has significant experience with Lotus Connections in a real, corporate setting. As we were working on our Lotus Connections 2.0 content for Collaboration University, it became pretty clear that while the development lab stuff is pretty cool, it would be even more interesting to have some content based on real life.

So I'm pleased to announce that Mitch Cohen, a CU alumni no less, will be joining us in Chicago to share his experience and deliver a couple technical sessions with one of the partner presenters - designed to get you up and running in the most rapid fashion. We're very excited about having Mitch as an expert industry speaker who has been in the trenches and has lessons to share. And, no less proud that Mitch actually started blogging a year ago July while at Collaboration University 2007!

A preliminary list of the things he'll cover in the first session of two:

1) Introduction
2) Components of Lotus Connections (5 Min)
-      Supported OS (AIX, Linux, Windows)
-      WAS
-      DB (DB2, Oracle, MS SQL)
-      LDAP (Domino, AD, TDS, Sun, Novell)
-      Tivoli Directory Integrator
-       HTTP/Caching Proxy
3) WAS Basics (5 Min)
-      Definition of Node
-      Definition of Cell
-      Definition of Profile (Not to be confused with Lotus Connections Profiles)
-      WAS Port numbers
-      HTTP Server and application mapping
-       The integrated solutions console
4) Lotus Connections supported configurations (5 Min)
-      Pilot
-      One Profile
-      Multiple Profiles
-      Clustering
5) Preparing to install Lotus Connections (15 Min)
-      Install TDI
-      Create Databases (DB Creation Wizard)
-      Populate Profiles Database
-      Install WAS, WAS Fix Pack Installer, Fix Packs
--      Create WAS Profile(s)
--      Configure Federated Repositories
--      Configure Administrative Security
6) Installing Lotus Connections (15 Min)
-      Compact
-      Typical
-      Custom
-   Lotus Connection Fix installer and fixes
7) Post Install Steps (5)
-      Map HTTP server
-      Blogs – define administrator and create home page
8) Additional Resources

We're hard at work on the rest of the Connections content and have great support from IBM. We're even setting up a lab - in both Chicago and London - so you can get hands-on experience with the product during the conference. IBMers and CU partner experts will be on hand to answer questions and discuss your own configuration options.

Posted by Rob Novak At 12:17 PM Location SNAPPS Glactic Headquarters | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category

As part of the "end of the month, last day at this pricing" accounting work, it was my job this morning to count up the countries represented out of the Collaboration University registration - 11 so far and counting. So I'm starting to think that not only will translation be an interesting topic, but we might need to set up a translation server at the London registration desk! Seriously though, I'm hoping to have some RTTS (real time translation services/server) content lined up soon. There's a demo on Greenhouse using more advanced Statistical Machine Processing (SMP).

The good news on our multinational audience at CU - so far, there's at least two registrants from all but one of the countries, so almost everyone will have someone to speak to in their native language during the reception! And it also means I have to brush up...in 2006, if you were there in London, you heard me welcome you in 12 languages...

Here's a Wordle...we'll fill in more countries as we go:


Of course there's still an afternoon left in June, so who knows, we might get another country before I have to do the midnight development work changing prices and the website!

Posted by Rob Novak At 12:28 PM Location SNAPPS Glactic Headquarters | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Collaboration University

The first three weeks of Collaboration University's new website and registration for the 2008 events have been quite eye-opening. The community is crazy for Quickr, Sametime and Connections this year...I suppose when you release two versions of everything, folks can use a little technical training. A few days into the "soft launch" of CU registration - which is what I call blogging and letting Alumni know about it - we had registrants calling saying "did you get my registration 10 minutes ago...want to be sure I get into the workshop..."  Big thanks to the Alumni who signed up right away - you get the best deal as we extended a discount to you in appreciation of your prior attendance. That discount is good regardless of any early registration deadlines. Huge thanks to those who are coming for a third year - Juniors, we'll call you.

Just a few minutes ago, out went the newsletter email notice about Collaboration University - if you read my blog you'll probably get one - with more info on the workshop concept we've cooked up this year. In short, we've designed a workshop for admins and developers to work together on a deployment (cats and dogs, living together!), and then again on a set of changes to an application. Critical changes! Must haves! Unreasonable business sponsor! (Me). All this in three hours...for about a month of experience.

A surprising percentage of registrants are choosing the do the workshop - so much that they are halfway subscribed in BOTH Chicago and London. We may have to figure ways to expand them if this keeps up.

So while I'm on the topic, it's probably good to mention that the super-duper-earlybirdy registration for June ends, well, when July starts. That's next Tuesday.

Posted by Rob Novak At 8:26 AM Location SNAPPS Glactic Headquarters | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category SNAPPS Travel

Some of you know that Troy Reimer, SNAPPS Quickr guru and LotusScript deity extraordinaire, is moving this week from Lawrence, KS to Abbotsford, BC, Canada. Driving two massive trucks (well, not himself) containing all your worldly belongings, with four kids, across the country is daunting to say the least. I've been keeping tabs on his progress since he left yesterday morning - he keeps replying "have I got a STORY for you". Anyway, he'll be settling in tonight in Evanston, Wyoming - just passing through Laramie now. This puts him just past the halfway point on his journey. We're all wishing Troy and his family safe travels!


Of course Troy will continue to be a full-time SNAPPS employee, with simply more use of Sametime, Lotus Quickr, Voip phones (we LOVE our Aastra 57i CT phones), Skype and a VPN. That reminds me, I need a VPN. Jeez.

UPDATE Thursday afternoon 3 PM CDT...Troy is in Washington now, on his way to Seattle for the night. Just a couple hours of driving left for the day, then 2 hours to Canada tomorrow. I wonder how long it'll take to cross the border with two huge trucks holding everything you own?

Posted by Rob Novak At 7:06 PM Location SNAPPS Glactic Headquarters | Permalink | Comments (1)