To those attending IBM ConnectED, a humble request…

I’m president of a local homebrew (beer) club, and we are looking for 4-6 bottles of Samuel Smith’s Taddy Porter direct from its homeland… If anyone could bring some over, we could trade for 4-6 bottles (or a growler) of fine craft beer from Michigan (home of Bell’s and Founders Breweries among others).
In fact, if you have any porters (or other ‘great but hard to get in the US’ beers) you would be interested in parting with or trading, let me know! Thanks!

The website and mobile apps for IBM ConnectED 2015 have been announced!

I’ve been wondering about this… They just officially announced the website and apps for IBM ConnectED 2015:

IBM Event Connect for ConnectED 2015 is available now – build your agenda, download the presentations and engage in the conversation!

Point your desktop or mobile browser to http://ibmeventconnect.com/ConnectED and create your profile using your registration email id as the user id and your Event registration confirmation code as your password. We recommend that you change your password by clicking on the “Welcome….” in the top right corner. Although this site does not contain any confidential information about you, you’ll want to protect your agenda and any information you choose to share. Once your profile is created, upload a picture and tell us more about yourself!

If you’re logging in from an iOS or Android device, and don’t already have the mobile app installed, you’ll see a link to download and install IBM Event Connect Center, the mobile companion app.

Username: *************************
Password: ************************

NOTE: If you have already created a profile for a previous IBM conference that used Event Connect (Insight 2014, IBM Digital Experience 2014), use that user id and password – it is still active! If you have forgotten your password, please use the “Forgot your Password?” link below the login link the website.

Built on IBM technology, Event Connect includes a personalized agenda builder where you can search sessions by track, day, time, speaker or keyword. Build your agenda and find conference highlights, special events, and logistical information to help navigate the event. If you choose, you can create a profile that can be viewed by all conference attendees, post comments and questions in forums, set up your own network of ConnectED attendees, share status updates — and more. During the event you can view the latest conference news and updates, access session presentations, and complete conference surveys. Event Connect can be accessed from your personal computer, mobile device or from conference kiosks located in the event venues.

If you have any questions or feedback, e-mail IBMEventConnect@us.ibm.com.

Thanks to fellow IBM Champion Keith Brooks for giving me the heads up on this before the official announcement!

See you all there!!!

2015 Class of IBM Champions for ICS have been announced… so humbled and honored!

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After the evening, night and morning that I had, I was surprised by a text message by my brother, Devin Olson:

Congratulations Champ!
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/ibmchampion/entry/announcing_the_2015_class_of_ibm_champions_for_ics?lang=en

Needless to say (but saying anyway), I am SO HUMBLED and HONORED to have been selected as a 2015 IBM Champion for ICS! Last year was a complete whirlwind of energy, excitement, and knowledge sharing. I thought that I would be ‘one and done’, and I was okay with that! With this honor, I will not only continue to ‘learn and share’, ‘collaborate and teach’ and ‘exchange knowledge and ideas’ to the community at large.

One way I’m hoping to do this is by bringing back and enhancing a user group here in Michigan! There have been a couple of them over the years, including my ‘home’ UG, Detroit Notes Professionals, but they have really been in need of some attention. In 2015, they will get that attention… at least from me!

Congratulations also go out to my friends and fellow IBM Champions, and welcome to the new IBM Champions selected for 2015!!! See you all at IBM ConnectED 2015! (The rest of you are coming, right? If not, you should… register HERE!)

Thank you to Amanda Bauman (IBM Champion Program Manager) and Oliver Heinz (ICS Community Manager) for all of their hard work in 2014. Let the fun (and hard work) continue in 2015!

A revolutionary way to look at your email… but not from IBM!

It looks like IBM is not the only one that wants us to look at mail in a new way:

Today, we’re introducing something new. It’s called Inbox. Years in the making, Inbox is by the same people who brought you Gmail, but it’s not Gmail: it’s a completely different type of inbox, designed to focus on what really matters.

Email started simply as a way to send digital notes around the office. But fast-forward 30 years and with just the phone in your pocket, you can use email to contact virtually anyone in the world…from your best friend to the owner of that bagel shop you discovered last week.

With this evolution comes new challenges: we get more email now than ever, important information is buried inside messages, and our most important tasks can slip through the cracks—especially when we’re working on our phones. For many of us, dealing with email has become a daily chore that distracts from what we really need to do—rather than helping us get those things done.

If this all sounds familiar, then Inbox is for you. Or more accurately, Inbox works for you.

Sounds familar…

Learn more about Inbox by going here: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/an-inbox-that-works-for-you.html

 

Domino getting support for POODLE and SHA2

I’m being cautiously optimistic on this! Thank you IBM for finally addressing one of the many elephants in the room!

How is IBM Domino impacted by the POODLE attack? (IBM Technote 1687167)

Planned SHA-2 deliveries for IBM Domino 9.x (IBM Technote 1418982)

Notice that the second technote indicates that support for SHA-2 will be for Domino 9.x only. There are plenty of posts out there about ways to get around this… off the top of my head, my friend Darren Duke posted one here: Here is a freely available VM to reverse proxy Domino – shoot the poodle

And now… WE WAIT!

Reminder: Nominations for the 2015 IBM Champions for ICS are due by 17 September at 5PM EST (Tomorrow)

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Just a quick reminder to everyone that the nominations (and self-nominations) are all due by 5PM EST tomorrow, September 17th, 2014. You were going to nomination someone, right? Of course you were, so go do it NOW!

Get more details in my earlier blog post: Nominations for the 2015 IBM Champions for ICS are now open!

Nominations for the 2015 IBM Champions for ICS are now open!

IBMchampion-250x65As usual, I’m late to post this (seriously, do some of you people work?), but IBM has opened nominations for the 2015 IBM Champions for IBM Collaboration Solutions. What is the IBM Champions program? Per the IBM Champion homepage,

The IBM Champion program recognizes innovative thought leaders in the technical community — and rewards these contributors by amplifying their voice and increasing their sphere of influence. An IBM Champion is an IT professional, business leader, developer, or educator who influences and mentors others to help them make best use of IBM software, solutions, and services.

IBM Champions are not employees of IBM.

I have been HONORED to be an IBM Champion for ICS for this past year. The things that I do for the ICS community are the same things I would have done if I had not been an IBM Champion, and I tried to the best of my ability to live up to the designation.

Current IBM Champions have to be nominated again each year… we are not ‘grandfathered’ in. If you think someone should continue to be an IBM Champion, you have to nominate them again! Don’t assume someone else is going to do it.

If you feel like you have been helped by someone in the ICS community, honor them by nominating them! Just click here to get started: https://ibm.biz/NominateChamps – You do not have to fill in every field. Just fill in what you can and hit submit. It may not seem like much, but to those of us that get nominated, it means a lot! (By the way, you can also nominate yourself!)

Click here and here for more information.  Again, click here to nominate someone: https://ibm.biz/NominateChamps

Nominations for the 2015 IBM Champion program will be accepted through 5 PM Eastern on Wednesday, September 17th, 2014. Go nominate someone TODAY!!!

MWLUG 2014: SA108: Homebrew Your Own Metrics-An IBM Domino Administrator’s Guide to SNMP

Tom Bilan and I would like to thank everyone for attending our session at MWLUG 2014Homebrew your own Metrics-An IBM Domino Administrator’s Guide to SNMP. (I also want to thank everyone that grabbed some of my homebrew as well!)

Here is our slide deck for the session:

Personally, I want thank Tom for speaking with me. He’s a great presenter, an awesome person, and one of the smartest people I know. I’m constantly learning from him, and hope to continue to work with him for years to come.

Please feel free to provide us with any feedback on the session, both from the session evaluations and by email/comments below. We have some ideas for additional sessions in the future, and we strive to be better every time.

Also, for those of you that took some of my homebrew, please feel free to provide me any honest feedback. I’m trying to get better with that every day as well.