Monthly Archives: January 2018

01.26.18
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Producing A Champions Expertise Presentation (since you asked)

A few people have asked how I created the Champions Expertise presentation on containerisation that I published last week.  There are lots of Champions out there keen to produce their own next month so hopefully this helps someone.

I wanted a structured presentation with my voice overlayed describing each slide. I deliberately didn’t want video / my face on screen alongside the presentation.  That’s good because it’s a pain in the bum to do but mostly I find that having a talking head is distracting people from reading slides. That’s may not be true to everyone but not having video is my personal preference.

Equipment:

Macbook Pro (2014)

Keynote 7.3.1

BeatsX headphones connected via bluetooth.
I find having a good headset ensures there is no bleed or sound in from the surrounding space and these are the best headphones I’ve ever owned, plus they are really fast to charge so rarely run down.

Rehearsing:

I use Keynote on my Mac but Powerpoint does the same thing.  I wrote the presentation including speaker notes for myself , the speaker notes contained the key points I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss when going through each slide.  I try not to write too many speaker notes because I end up reading those instead of presenting so my notes are usually one word prompts.

Once I finished writing I ran through it in presenter mode which shows me a clock countdown as well as the speaker notes. That way I can get comfortable with what I am saying so it flows better when recorded.  I was aiming to run for 10 minutes talking quickly which, in my opinion, is a good length for wanting people to watch online.  I rehearsed 3 times but then I’m a committed over preparer, I suspect most people would rehearse less or not at all.

Recording:

So now I’m ready to record.  Keynote (and Powerpoint) has a feature called “Record Slideshow” when I choose that I go into presenter mode and have a “record button”. The clever thing is that the audio is recording as part of each slide not as a separate file.  I can stop anytime and pick up the recording again or clear a particular part of the recording and do over.  I chose to do it all in one hit.  My secret weapon was to ask someone to sit near me so I could present to them rather than into thin air. I felt that made me sound more natural (hopefully) and it was certainly easier to get into the flow. It did mean I ended up stumbling when he asked me a question part way in but that’s OK, it highlighted where I wasn’t being clear enough so I fixed the slide and started over

Publishing:

Once I was happy with the slides and audio I just saved the file and uploaded it (80MB) to my blog. I could have shrunk it down more and had lower quality, certainly with only audio it wouldn’t have made a lot of difference and I may go back and do that. My blog was also cross posted to twitter and linkedin

And that’s it.  If you have either Keynote or Powerpoint and a decent headset then it’s very easy.  I hope you enjoyed listening and look forward to more expertise presentations next month.

01.26.18
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What’s A Conference Without A Dolphin Rotunda?

Those of you that understand the heading to this post know what I mean but for those that don’t.. through 20+ years of Orlando IBM conferences around ICS products, the general gathering place, the place where you’d sit and catch up with people walking by, the place where you could always go to find someone to talk to - was the Rotunda in the lobby of the Dolphin hotel.

This year at Think in Las Vegas there is no Dolphin hotel and no rotunda but I believe we still need a gathering place.  A single location where people can go, get a drink and meet up or catch someone walking by.  Having been to Vegas a lot (don’t ask) and InterConnect last March, I’m suggesting this place - Mizuya at the Mandalay Bay https://www.mandalaybay.com/en/restaurants/mizuya.html

It’s right outside the conference entrance so probably a <5 minute walk

It is basically a bar that opens at 11am and serves sushi all day

It has a live band in the evenings

It doesn’t have to be that place (I’m open to suggestions) but I think we need to put our stake in the ground and choose “A PLACE” so everyone knows where to go and where to find each other.

Anyone?

 

01.23.18
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Champions Expertise - 2018 Technology

IBM Champion Expertise presentations are a new initiave we are starting this month whereby Champions can provide audio presentations on a particular topic.  This month is “2018 Futures and Technology” and here is my presentation on what I think is going to be big for 2018, containerisation vs virtualisation and where it goes next.  This presentation has audio and I tried to keep it short but feel free to double speed me if 14 mins is too long.

I mention in my presentation that I have a more detailed presentation on docker architecture on slideshare and if you want to see that it’s here.  I’d also be grateful for any feedback on the length, style or other aspects of the presentation and what you think of the Champions Expertise idea.

01.19.18
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THINK Adventures

IBM Think is fast approaching in March (19-22) in Las Vegas.   I enjoyed the larger scale and scope of InterConnect and this is going to be even bigger so here we go….

Speaking:

I currently have one confirmed session on the Think site, I will be presenting on single sign-on both the technical aspects and the behavioural ones focusing on working across hybrid systems and with external solutions.

I am also confirmed to do another session on Domino that i’m very excited about but more on that later when I can share..(VERY excited)

Finally I will be at Champions day which is taking place on Sunday 18th and hope to be speaking there too.  This is open to all IBM Champions.

Show Floor:

At InterConnect I spent one entire day walking the showfloor (or whatever it’s called) visiting booths and really learning what is new, what is interesting, and what I had no clue about in sectors I don’t usually work in.  I plan to spend a day doing that again. I was very interested in the security products for instance and I particularly enjoy walking up to a booth and watching them look surprised when my response to their “we are out of giveaways” is “I’m not here for those, I want to know what you’re selling”

Make sure you give yourself enough time,  at InterConnect last year there were lots of labs dotted around the show floor between the booths as well.  I’d say you want at least 4 hrs.

Sessions:

So. Many. Sessions.  Make sure you download the app.  Previously I tried to plan sessions in advance but the day and my interests move too fast and there is simply too much choice so my plan this year is to wing it slot by slot “OK what are my options for this morning? - that’ll do”.   Don’t miss out on some of the talks either, there are many theatres doing short and longer talks which have a broad subject matter. Last year my favourites included a talk on Robotics Engineering from Dr Sabine Hauert of Bristol University, a talk on new media from the editor of Buzzfeed, and Linden Tibbetts CEO of IFTTT discussing how they work with large amounts of data.  None of those theatre talks are recorded or come with shareable presentations so you have one shot to see them.

Networking:

The size of Las Vegas actually provides great opportunities for smaller networking meet ups (you can’t go 5 steps without coming across a bar)|.  I will be there along with my colleagues in The Penumbra Group as well as my fellow Champions across all IBM sectors and I really hope to see some of you too.  If you see me (even if I look stressed and caught up with work which apparently is my resting face) please say hi, I love to talk to people about what they’ve seen, what they think and I love to talk about what I think. Sharing ideas and feedback is a very big reason to do this stuff in person.

Vegas:

I won’t lie, I’m a fan of Vegas which is odd because I’m not a fan of masses of people or noise.   I do like sun though.  And cheap high quality hotels.  And bars where you can ask for a cocktail and they know how to make it.  And music everywhere.  And really good food.  Vegas is notoriously cheap in the week and expensive at the weekend.  The last I looked the Luxor which is right next to the Mandalay where the conference is had rates as low as 60 USD per night during the week.  Even if you’re not coming to the entire conference (and I do have a 100 USD discount code for those that might want it), consider coming to Vegas to meet everyone.

So that’s it.  I’ve got lots to do beforehand to prepare but I have 1000 ideas of what I want to do and I’m already getting excited.  OK that’s partly because I really want to see what the sun looks like . but only partly.

I really hope to see you there, it’s not the same without you.

 

01.15.18
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{blink}So THAT’S the future{blink}

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted here.  The end of last year was a juggle of many different pieces of work and learning new technologies but more on that later. I did however take my eye off the ICS (IBM Collaboration Solutions) ball waiting for the HCL deal to firm up and find out more what was going on.

As you may know from my previous post, at the end of October IBM entered a partnership with HCL whereby the latter took development ownership of all Domino products including Verse and Traveler as well as Sametime whilst IBM continued to own the license model, support and most importantly strategy.  As part of that announcement we were told of an upcoming series of workshops around the world called Domino Jam 2025  which were to determine the future path of both Domino and Sametime (so not just Domino and nothing to do with the year 2025!).

Last Friday I (along with about 50 other people) attended a London Domino Jam at IBM South Bank which was hosted by the senior development team at HCL (who transferred in from the same roles at IBM) and the product management team at IBM.  Up until a week or so ago I would say I was more curious and cautiously optimistic than excited.  I had been in coversation with someone in the development team at HCL who I have known from IBM days for 20 years and his introduction to HCL and his enthusiasm for the future sparked my own.  Let’s just say the HCL team seem to be people who have been long immersed in these products, believe in them and are now being let off the leash to develop for the future. During the day we were casually told that there would be new product releases guaranteed in 2018 including

Domino 10

Notes 10

Traveler 10

Verse (10?)

Sametime Instant Messaging 10

That was and is very encouraging news and IBM seemed bemused that several of us in the room kept asking for clarification and confirmation of a thing they thought we already knew.

As part of the Domino jam workshop we were split into groups and asked to brainstorm things like “your biggest pain points” and “what features would you like to see in the future” and then prioritise and present them.  These workshops are going on around the world right now (there’s one in Geneva I believe today) and you can register for them here https://www.ibm.com/collaboration/announcements/domino-jam2025.  In addition if you can’t attend in person IBM are hosting a Domino Jam Forum from Jan 16 - Jan 19 where you can provide your feedback directly online.  See this blog for more information https://www.ibm.com/blogs/collaboration-solutions/2018/01/11/announcing-domino2025-online-forum-january-16-18-2018/

“the “#domino2025 Online Forum” will be active for fifty-five hours across the globe to gather your business and technical input and prioritization.” (I prefer “priorities” but I get what they mean :-).

If you are in any way invested in the future of ICS products either mail or instant messaging or conferencing then this is a serious effort to hear what you want and don’t want.  I can tell you there was some very honest and harsh feedback as well as some pretty extreme ideas thrown out by the teams last Friday and we were encouraged to do that.   I know for some of you it’s asking a lot but dig deep, find that kernel of optimism that’s still left, or just throw in your lot because it does no harm to do so and may do a lot of good.

This is an opportunity to help form the long term strategy and direction of products many of us love and believe in.  Take it.