Category Archives: General

02.19.15
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Engage UG In Ghent A Session And Rowdy Lunch

I’m very happy to say that Theo and the Engage.ug team have chosen one of my sessions (I sent in far too many submissions – sorry Theo!) to present this March in Ghent.   If you haven’t registered, it’s a great (FREE) European conference with a packed schedule and I can’t recommend it enough.  Go on and click the link above.  I’ll wait.

At 9am on Tues 31st in Room B I’m presenting “How To LDAP – Working With External Users In Connections ” where I attempt to show you all the options for adding and managing external users in your IBM Connections environment.

This isn’t the same session I did recently at ConnectED because I believe that attendees need some more detail on LDAP itself before they can make good decisions on how to configure and deploy it for external users so I’m modifying the presentation to add more technical grounding in LDAP to give context before moving on to external user configuration.  I hope you enjoy it.

I’m also doing a lunchtime session on Monday with Paul Mooney on “Changing your Technology”.  How do you adapt to changes in technology and how can you identify and harness the skills you take for granted?

“The Domino community is a vibrant, passionate world, but the market reality is now hard to ignore. You may be looking at the marketplace as it stands and thinking about the future. You may have spent a long time becoming well known in a technology set, only know to find it is going away. In this informal session, Paul Mooney and Gab Davis will share their own stories and explain how you’re a lot more valuable than you may think you are.  Expect a love of the Domino platform, a good dollop of positivity and a bit of painful honesty”

….We’re in Room A at 12.45 on Monday, bring lunch and shots of tequila..

02.03.15
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IBM Connected Part 3 of 3 – What Do I Do Next?

So ConnectED is over and the world has shifted a little bit more.  Going into this year the work I had been doing since 1996 on Mail systems had dropped from about 70%+ of my tasks to about 20% and had been replaced with projects around security, SSO, Connections, Sametime and other related WebSphere / DB2 systems.   Mostly that was because the use of mail systems has plateau’d and there is very little pushing at the boundaries going on so although everyone is still heavily dependent on mail , the systems pretty much ran themselves day to day.  The most upheaval we had last year was related to security updates.

I like working with complex technologies so my work around Sametime, Connections and SAML continues but I’ve also learnt that there are huge gaps in understanding around the supporting systems like LDAP and database servers that customers are struggling with along with their own ability to maintain and manage the built systems once in place.

Then there’s cloud.  As a system designer / installer / engineer / whatever – a move to the cloud in theory means I’m out of a job but I’ve never seen it like that.  I do this because I love to deliver systems that make people’s lives easier and continue to learn and develop myself.  An IBM’er said to me  “I don’t see why you are happy we are doing this in the cloud , surely you’ll be out of a job?”.  Leaving aside that I have no interest in holding customers back to maintain my own career, I wouldn’t get any sense of fulfilment from treading water.

I have projects spaced out across the year and I’m speaking at conferences hopefully in Belgium, Boston, Orlando (no not that one), Norway, Atlanta, UK etc.  However it’s the beginning of the year and I’ve been told no-one contacts me because they think I’m flat out busy – just to be clear, I’m never too busy to take on work 🙂

So where does that leave me?

Waiting

We’re in a transitional stage with Verse which is yet to appear outside of a limited beta in the cloud and is at least a  year away from on premises.  What that will change is still to be seen and I’ll wait and see and decide where I land once I understand more of what it delivers both in the cloud and on premises and the architecture behind it.  Other IBM products continue to add incremental features but nothing that would cause a seismic shift in my personal development strategy.

Teaching & Managing Supporting Technologies

The underlying technologies that these systems are dependent on are where many companies have gaps.  Nothing is as important as well structured and reliable LDAP.  LDAP directories are used for everything from authentication to data population , access rights and SSO.  One of the things I want to focus on this year is giving customers a better grasp of LDAP and how to build and maintain the best system they can.  Whether you are on premises or cloud, having a good directory is key to everything else you try to deploy.

DB2 and HADR.  Many IBM products require a Database server and all of them pretty much support Db2, where SQL and Oracle are supported and used there is usually an in house database server team.  However, many customers who come from a Domino background have very little DB2 experience because it’s never been needed and often what was the Domino team have to manage it.  DB2 databases need maintenance in the same way Domino databases need them. The server may keep running but your performance is going to take a hit.  I want to work this year on ensuring those customers who need DB2 systems have the right architecture and training to support it.  Basically what I’ve done for years with Domino.  You wouldn’t deploy Mail without understanding how to run a Domino server, and you shouldn’t deploy Connections without understanding how to run a DB2 server.

WebSphere is now pretty much aligned across products on 8.5x and it’s actually a fairly simple product to understand and manage. It’s just nothing like Domino.  There are plenty of WebSphere courses out there but most of them cover 10% of what you need to work with Connections and Sametime (maybe 25% of Portal) and the rest is irrelevant to your day to day work.  Along with doing lots of WebSphere only projects in the past 18 months I’ve also started doing WAS infrastructure design and workshop training for teams wanting to get up to speed with managing a  WAS environment.  I do the training via remote screen / web conference and it seems to work well as it has the advantage of me being able to use the customers own environment to train against.  I’ll be continuing to work with WebSphere architecture specifically related to Connections and Sametime but also standalone.

Connections101

I’ve fallen behind on Connections101 since losing my fellow editor Paul but I have content now written for building Connections 5 on a Linux platform.  Every time I think i’m done I decide to add a new piece like how to upgrade or add IBM Docs,  but I’m going to go ahead and publish what I have in hand and add to it once the site is live.  I’m also considering a Connections101 on deploying on iSeries. I just need to get my hands on an iSeries again (it’s been a few years since I owned one).

Are You Ready For Cloud?

With all the talk of Cloud and hybrid I believe many customers are at the stage of wondering if they should be moving and if they can move.  I have no incentive to recommend or not recommend someone move but I do understand that what salesmen often don’t tell you  or (to be fair) understand are the limitations of your existing business systems.

I am considering offering a provider agnostic cloud assessment to help you understand what your own technical barriers to cloud may be and whether a hybrid solution will ever be an option for you.   If I am able to review systems and highlight what could move, what could possibly move if it’s changed and what can never move – I’m hoping it will help customers clear out the noise and be able to make a good strategic decision.   I’d basically like to help people understand if a cloud deployment is a viable option for them now or in the future.

Domino 

I’m still continuing to work with Domino and now most of my work is around healthchecks, consolidation, clustering, security and performance.  It’s encouraging to see most customers upgrading Domino to newer versions, I see fewer and fewer EOL (v6, v7) versions out there and it’s still my favourite product to work with.  I’m always delighted to get a new Domino project.

Sametime / Connections Chat

I’m doing a lot of work deploying the A/V elements of Sametime and designing global deployments.  Once more it’s important that when the install is complete, the in house team are able to understand and manage the environment. Especially with the media elements in Sametime which are so dependent on each other and on their interconnectivity.

Summary

So if you’re interested in deploying anything WebSphere related, in DB2, in building and managing LDAP, in Single Sign On across multiple different systems, in workshop training or in understanding if and when you might consider a hybrid cloud strategy – that’s what I’m hoping to be working on and talking about this year.  I foresee another shift towards the end of 2015 (or sooner if no-one is interested in those things :-))

What do you think?

 

01.20.15
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A Conference Kind Of Year (Ch-ch-ch-changes)

As I come up for air having completed my presentations for ConnectED 2015, starting this weekend in Orlando, I am in a reflective mood.  I have 3 presentations this year (plus two halves) and I’m really excited about the content.  In fact I’m really excited about what I’ve been working on recently and I already have travel plans to be at (and hope to present at) Engage in Gent, Social Connections in Boston and MWLUG in Atlanta in March, April and August respectively.  This is the year of the conference..

I’m also delighted that many of my friends who can’t make ConnectED are still coming into town to hang out and visit. It’s going to be a very new and different kind of conference. I expect to go back 20 years to the days of quietly wandering the corridors unnoticed and going home to my rented house in the evenings and that’s OK – just so long as those of you who are going enjoy my presentations and say hi

BP201 Creating Your Own Connections Confection – Getting The Flavour Right
Swan, Mockingbird 1-2 Tuesday 5pm.
This is the session where I attempt to explain how to build your Connections environment and take into consideration all the additional products you can bolt on such as Forms Experience Builder, IBM Docs. What features do they give you and how do they affect your design.

BP206 Connections Directory Integration:  A Tour Through Best Practices for Directory and Security Integration With IBM Connections (with Terri Warren from IBM)
Swan Mockingbird 1-2 Monday at 3.45pm
This is a highly technical session looking at the structure and behaviour of directory services for IBM Connections.  How does LDAP behave, how do the Connections applications use the directory and what are the biggest traps people fall into.

BTE201 How to LDAP – Working With External Users in IBM Connections
Dolphin S Hemisphere 2 Monday at 1pm
Adding external users into your Connections environment was a new feature with Connections 5. In this session I’ll take you through the options for configuring external user access and what is the external user experience.  Includes live demos ! (oh yes.. i’m not scared)

Then there are the sessions I’m organising or “guesting” in.

Nerd101 Spark Ideas – What Are Your Inspirations?
Swan 3-4 Tuesday 2.30pm
If you have never been before then Sparks are 7 or 8 people talking for 6 mins on a topic of their choice, this year our theme is what or who has inspired you and we have great new speakers bravely talking about fear, challenging themselves, and what inspires them every day.

MAS101 #UserBlast2015
Swan 7 -10 Sunday 5pm
Let’s face it, this is Mat Newman’s show:-)

My first visit to Orlando was in 1989 – the year Tim and I got engaged and we went using timeshare certificates given by our parents.  In 1990 we went back for our first ever stay at a proper grown up hotel for our honeymoon (they Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress).  In 1991 we went for the last time, we were getting ready to be grown ups, get on that career path and start a family.  We bought a Magic Kingdom “brick” as a memory of our last trip (we expected) for 20 years (until our kids grew up).  Well life doesn’t do what you expect and in 1996 I was working with Lotus Notes for another company, Tim had a job he hated and we hadn’t started a family – we came back to Orlando to Lotusphere.  I remember sitting in our room at the Port Orleans trying to work out how to cram in sessions to as short of time as possible so we’d have a chance to go to a park.  I remember walking around and knowing nobody and nobody knowing me, just Tim and I isolated and looking in from the outside.  I remember sitting three exams in a row in an attempt to get my certification and finish early so I could – again – go to the park. My first exam scored 98%, 2nd 86% and third 77% – just passing.

Later than summer we both quit our jobs having no idea what we were going to do and started The Turtle Partnership with our friend and colleague Mike Smith.  We’ve been to Orlando every January since.  It’s time to say goodbye properly.

12.10.14
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What’s Up With ConnectED 2015 And What I’m Up To…

So it’s nearly holiday time which means it’s nearly panic finishing sessions time for the great January Florida adventure.  This year the conference is very different, more technical, smaller, modelled on the idea of a user group.  There are plenty of things you know and love like the Best Practices track curated by Susan Bulloch and some new things like the new Beyond track which are technical sessions demonstrating very cool stuff you can do when integrating IBM products with other technologies.

IF YOU HAVEN’T YET REGISTERED GO DO THAT NOW.. I’LL WAIT….

Done? Good…..

This year with things smaller and a bit less frantic it gives us all room (and spaces)  to hang out with friends, exchange ideas, catch up, as well as finalise those plans for world domination.  To me that’s ideal, it’s been years since I’ve had a chance to do the conference at anything less than a flat out pace.

In terms of sessions I’m doing a few things….

In the Best Practices track I have a session on Connections design called

Creating Your Own Connections Confection – Getting The Flavour Right
IBM Connections 5 comes in a variety of exciting flavours – fancy a vanilla install, or maybe you want to add some extra sauce like External users or IBM Docs? A sprinkling of File Viewer and a few Surveys or maybe a dollop of Sametime. In this session we’ll take a look at how to build the right flavour combination of Connections for your business from deciding what features you want through to architecting a solution. We will have plenty of “How Tos” such as how to add external users to your Connections communities securely and what does their experience look like? How much Sametime is just enough? What’s the difference between IBM Docs, File Viewer and EditLive in features and deployment? If you’re new to Connections, planning a move to Connections 5 or even considering what Connections features you might want to add, this is your session, low fat and calorie free!

In the Beyond track I have a session on LDAP and integrating external users into Connections.

Then I am working with Terri Warren @ IBM on a Best Practices session about integrating directory information into Connections applications and single sign on.

Finally I’m on stage with Mat Newman and Susan Bulloch (but let’s be honest, we all know who the stars are here) doing a User / Support / Admin blast type thing (still in formation).

… and then possibly more important than any of that.. SPARK IDEAS is back.  This year we want to hear about who or what inspired you to push past what you thought you could achieve or reach for.  Sparks is always a great session that people seem to really enjoy and yes i’ll be reaching out to some of you looking for volunteers to talk for no more than 6 mins.  If you want to see previous sparks visit our Vimeo channel.  Otherwise please email info@nerdgirlgroup.com or any of the Nerd Girls directly or send me a DM on ping me on Skype.  This could be your very last chance to attend and participate in a Sparks session in Orlando so don’t miss it.

09.30.14
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My Connections Migration Checklist

I’ve been doing a lot of Connections upgrades and migrations in the past few months and since I prefer to do a side-by-side upgrade there are lots of steps along the way to make sure the data is moved and upgraded from the existing servers to the new servers.  The documentation on how to do this in the Knowledge Center is good but there’s a lot of jumping around all over the place between tasks and I have found it helpful for me to have a checklist to make sure I don’t miss anything.

Here’s the checklist I’m using right now with some explanation and links to the documents in the Knowledge Center for each.  My steps aren’t  in the same order as in the documentation but they are the order I use

In theory the migration shouldn’t make changes to your production servers, but I’m risk averse and it’s worth the extra few minutes to make sure you can back out of the migration should you need to.

Before starting anything you should have created new empty databases on your new system using the scripts / wizard from the version you are moving from.  Even if you are moving to Connections 5 from Connections 4, you will need to use the Database wizard for Connections 4 to create the databases we are going to move data into.   That makes sense when you consider we are going to transfer the data over from the existing production environment so the format / structure and schema must be identical from source to target.

Begin by stopping everything, all WAS servers and DB2 (or SQL, Oracle) in your production environment as well as any TDI assemblylines you may have running.  The data migration requires the production site to be down and stay down until the new site comes up, that could be anywhere from a day to 3 days depending on how big your environment is and how much data you have as well as the connectivity between old and new environments when transferring the data.

Now let’s back everything up – just get the existing production configuration data somewhere you can access it and make sure you don’t lose any data during migration so backup all the DB2 databases as well as the Connections shared data /Connections/data.. /shared (I personally like to backup /Connections/data which gets local as well but that’s just me.

  • Backup Connections Dmgr Profile by running backupconfig.bat /.sh from the /Dmgr01/bin directory.  This will stop the Dmgr server if it’s not already stopped or if you don’t use the -NoStop parameter. (no need to backup Installation Manager when doing a side by side migration)
  • Backup the Connections shared data
  • Backup customisations somewhere you can access them for reading and manual copying over to the new environment
  • Run the migration.bat / sh to export the Connections configuration data ready for import in your new environment.  This includes the LotusConnections-Config.xml and application specific data.  This is exported to a directory you then copy to your new environment where you can import it
  • Migrate each of the databases, one at a time.  Each one has a pre-script to run to prepare the database, then at least 2 migration scripts, one to move the data and one to clear the scheduler entries on each database.   All the instructions are here however there are a couple of things to bear in mind.

When running the scripts I like to add >filename to the end of each command to pipe the output to a log file.  I usually create a “Logs” directory and call the file by the name of the script _app name e.g predb_blogs.txt.  This way I can check if the scripts ran OK by reading the logs and I have something to send to IBM if it comes down to opening a PMR

See my earlier blog for potential syntax issues running the scripts

To run dbt.jar which migrates the data you create an XML file and a matching Batch file for each application.  I like to create all of these at once and add them to a directory from which I can run for each application (again with the >logfile at the end).  Below are examples of XML and batch files I modify to use (I’ve avoided putting in carriage returns as that messes things up should you copy out of here)

XML (e.g. files.xml below)
<dbTransfer xmlns:xsi=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance“><database role=”source” driver=”com.ibm.db2.jcc.DB2Driver” url=“jdbc:db2://sourcedbserverhost:50000/FILES” userId=“db2admin” schema=“FILES” dbType=“DB2”/> <database role=”target” driver=”com.ibm.db2.jcc.DB2Driver” url=”jdbc:db2://targetdbserverhost:50000/FILES” userId=“db2admin” schema=“FILES dbType=“DB2”/> </dbTransfer>

BATCH (calls files.xml)
“e:\install\connections\wizards\jvm\win\jre\bin\java” -cp e:\dbt_home\dbt.jar;e:\ibm\sqllib\java\db2jcc.jar;e:\ibm\sqllib\java\db2jcc_license_cu.jar com.ibm.wps.config.db.transfer.CmdLineTransfer -logDir e:\dbt_home\logs -xmlfile e:\dbt_home\files.xml -sourcepassword typedb2passwordhere -targetpassword typedb2passwordhere

  • Upgrade database schemas.  Once all the migrations scripts have been run (don’t forget the clearScheduler and run/updateStats where needed) you can proceed to upgrade the databases.  I like to back them up one more time before running the upgrade though, but that’s just me.  If it took a day or more to migrate the data I don’t want to do that all again.There are two ways to update the databases on your new target server.  Either using the provided (Connections 5) database wizard and choosing “Upgrade” or by running manual scripts.  I prefer to run the scripts manually so I can see what’s going on and IBM recommend that for the Homepage at least you run the script manually rather than use the Wizard.

    Instructions for doing both Wizard and Manual methods are here .  The biggest issue with running the scripts manually is that there are slightly different syntaxes depending on which version you are coming from and it’s fiddly getting the right one, I still prefer it although  I have used the Wizard for several of the applications and it has worked fine.

  • Once you’ve upgraded all the databases, the Homepage requires another step and that’s to do a java migration of its data. This ensures the format and content of each individual’s homepage matches that required for Connections 5.  The Homepage database is by far the largest of all those used and this could take significant time.  Below is an example of the command I run (again I have taken out carriage returns and invalid quotes etc

e:\install\connections\wizards\jvm\win\jre\bin\java -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -Xmx1024m -classpath e:\ibm\sqllib\java\db2jcc.jar;e:\ibm\sqllib\java\db2jcc_license_cu.jar;e:\install\connections\wizards\lib\lic.dbmigration.default.jar;e:\install\connections\wizards\lib\commons-logging-1.0.4.jar;e:\install\connections\wizards\lib\news.common.jar;e:\install\connections\wizards\lib\news.migrate.jar com.ibm.lconn.news.migration.next50.NewsMigrationFrom45to50 -dbur1 jdbc://db2://targetdb2hostname:50000/HOMEPAGE -dbuser db2admin -dbpassword targetdb2password >java.out.log 2>&1

  • Importing artifacts.  Using the directory and contents created earlier one when we exported the Connections artifacts, we can now import them into our new Connections environment.  We’re basically doing the reverse of what we did to export but this time running migration.bat /sh lc-import.
  • CommunitiesMemberService.syncMemberExtIdByLogin(“wasadmin”)
  • Migrate or Rebuild the search index.  Migrating can be done if the source version is 4.5 because the search index structure is the same however I prefer to rebuild cleanly if I have the time
  • FilesDataIntegrityService.syncAllCommunityShares()
  • Custom profiles. If you have custom profile settings (strings, languages, profile types) in your existing environment and that is 4.0 these will need to be migrated / converted to the Connections 5 format.  There are also settings that should have come over when restoring your artifacts that it is worth validating

The items below tend to be optional depending on what is installed in your current environment but if these elements exist currently they will need to be migrated too

Cognos

Connections Content Manager

Media Gallery

That’s my list anyway.  Obviously the Knowledge Center is the definitive source for all you installation / documentation needs 🙂

 

09.26.14
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Speaking at ConnectED 2015, the mysterious “track 6”

This year the new ConnectED conference introduces a brand new track under breakout sessions – Track 6 entitled “Beyond The Everyday”.  The track is being put together by Christian Holsing and myself and it’s something very different we think has been missing from previous IBM conferences.  Although it has replaced the Show and Tell track the two aren’t connected in any way and the “Beyond” sessions are regular (60 mins) session length.  Best of all , these sessions are ideal for Business Partner and Customer speakers.

Let me explain why I’m excited by “Beyond” because I can think of at least 30 sessions without even trying that would be great. Beyond the Everyday looks to fill a gap as it encourages you as speaker to talk, not just about IBM products, but about how extending those products and adding other technologies bring your software to a whole new level.  In previous years I’ve heard from people who didn’t submit that they didn’t think IBM would care to hear what they want to talk about because it’s not on brand enough – well it may not have been true then (I honestly don’t know) but it’s not true now, at least for this track.

Business solutions today aren’t all from one provider, they aren’t all from one OS, many of them aren’t all on premises or Cloud but combining the most innovative tools in each area from different sources makes Connections, Sametime, Domino, Portal etc a very big part of a larger technological story.  It’s about what we can achieve when we reach further.   So I know you all have innovative ways of making things work, of bending technology to your will, of achieving your goals by forcing those technical barriers out of the way and and that’s what we want to hear about 🙂

In short, if you’re doing something freaky, weird, bent and exciting (in a software sense) share it with an audience who want to know how to work without limits.   As before I am very happy to help or advise on abstracts if you are considering submitting, but you only have a week or so to do so.  I’m hoping we were right and this is what people want to hear and hoping even more this is what you all want to talk about!

Send in your abstracts HERE

Beyond the Everyday

08.15.14
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The IBM Support Overnight Mystery

Several days this week I have worked on a different PMR (two ST bugs one CCM more on later) with people from IBM support who have been helpful, informed and as curious about the problem as I was (or faking it really really well) . We’ve had screen shares, investigated the problem and left it at the end of day the as “escalate to L3 development”.

Then each morning I wake up to an overnight email from someone new saying they are in charge of the PMR but who has seemingly never seen the problem and is asking me to do basic stuff like send in logs or apply a patch that was already checked (and updated in the PMR) at least a day earlier.

I understand the difficulties in providing 24×7 support and I’m sure there’s an alert somewhere that gives someone a kick overnight and tells them I HAVE to be followed up even if there’s no action task back from L3. Clearly there is a process for “following up” out of hours which does exactly that and only that based on the original call. I now reluctantly set those emails to ignore , or respond asking them to read the PMR history, but I worry what customers do .

Do they run around in circles doing this repeat “make work” until someone who has read the actual updates comes in ?

Oh and two out of the three PMRs are now closed. I will blog both which are interesting and apparently a googlewhack of problems (we were the first to report) later today. :-). So thank you to everyone who worked with me on them this week.

06.21.14
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Wrestling for Space

I like to build VMs for any customer projects I’m working on so the OS and environment will match theirs.  That means I have between 8 – 10 VMs on my machine at any one time and with 500GB of disk I have to be careful of space.  My usual size for a Windows 7 or Windows 8 VM is 30 – 40GB since they usually contain only the OS and some administrative tools like Putty, Winscp, Domino Administrator, Jexplorer, Softerra’s LDAP browser etc.  Windows itself eats up more and more space and I found on one 30GB drive today that the winsxs directory was 12GB.  After doing some research (surely I could clear up some space there?) I ended up running the following command from an administrator run command window

dism /online /cleanup-image /spsuperseded /hidesp

which removed the SP1 one files and cleared up nearly 4GB of space. Add to that clearing out the Temp directory and the Downloads directory and I free up nearly 9GB in total.

 

 

06.18.14
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Bye Bye Wikis – Hello Knowledge Center and Welcome Back PDFs

Just in time for the release of Connections 5 (on June 26th people – mark your diaries),  the IBM documentation team are slow launching the new Knowledge Center  that is replacing many of the existing Wikis and all of them going forwards with IBM generated content. (clap)(clap)(dance)(clap)(finger click)(more dance)

The Knowledge Center currently links back to the Wikis for some products (such as Connections 4.5) and has generated content for others (such as Sametime yay!).  Eventually all the newer Wiki documentation (for example Connections 5) will disappear and reappear in the Knowledge Center.  I’m definitely in favour of the documentation being sourced authoritatively from IBM once more and not open to general editing for a start but there’s also the option to create your own collections of useful content and then print entire topics to PDF.

That needs repeating WE CAN NOW PRINT DOCUMENTATION TO PDF (and therefore printers) once more by selecting only a parent topic.  I think you need to login first, create a collection and save to PDF but it works beautifully for me.

The Knowledge Center contains documentation for ALL IBM products in one place with Sametime, Connections, Domino etc under ‘Collaboration Solutions”. You can bookmark the products you go to the most to make it more useful or create your own collections.  This is a big step forward from googling and finding Connections 2.5 content higher in the search results than 4.5 or finding stuff by remembering that the databases for the wikis are stwiki and lcwiki!

A huge thank you to the documentation team for recognising the wikis just weren’t working for us and for giving me back my offline pdf documentation.  As the products get ever more complex, so does the documentation and nothing beats printing and reading content for me.

Here’s a link to the Sametime 9 section but you can easily navigate up to other products from there

 

 

 

 

 

05.26.14
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Norway & ISBG

Last week I was in Norway at the ISBG conference in Larvik.  You would know this if I hadn’t messed up publishing my blog entry talking about how much I was looking forward to going and what I was presenting on but I tried to set it to publish “in the future” and got the year wrong – so yeah.. I”m back!

At the bottom of this blog you’ll find links to my three presentations. Two of them are updates from ones I gave at Connect and the third is entirely new on how to configure Single Sign On / SAML / SPNEGO for your company.  I had 45 minutes for that presentation and even abbreviated I ended up with 55 slides but I think it went well – except for the bit where I kept stepping forward to hear questions better and nearly fell off the front of the stage.  You know the moment where one foot hangs in mid air and you desperately throw yourself backwards to stop falling forwards.  That.

Any-who , this was only my 2nd trip to Norway and since last year it poured with rain the entire time I didn’t see much. This year we spent some of the weekend in Oslo by the harbour and walked, walked walked.  A beautiful city and if you get a chance I highly recommend the Viking Ship Museum (get there early before the crowds as we did) and the Norwegian Folk Museum (thank you to Wencke Lorentzen for her guiding and the lefse ). The Folk Museum is huge and impossible to completely cover even if we had a whole day which we didn’t because we spent too long with the viking ships.  A very interesting takeaway for me is that without any form of written communication there is very little understanding of how the vikings managed to survive, sail huge distances, find their way home and live each day – all we can is make a best guess.   We also spent a long day walking, walking around Oslo which has some of the best public art I’ve seen (it was a gorgeous day so that helped the 9+ miles journey).

Oh and we ate some of the best food ever – if, like me, you love fish and especially raw fish and also cheese, and are happy for the waiter to bring out “whatever” until you say stop.. well Norway rocks 🙂

Thank you to the ISBG team for inviting me once more and everyone who attended.