Blog Archives
Hot Press: HCL Announces Dates for End of Support for older versions of Notes/Domino. v12.0.2 coming soon.
HCL just announced the dates that v9.0.x and v10.0.x of HCL Notes and Domino (Lotus Notes) will no longer be available for download and the date when HCL will no longer offer technical support for them.
Dec 1, 2022 – End of Marketing (EOM) – HCL will remove the software downloads from Flexnet. If you want a copy of this software, you have just 5 months to download it.
Jun 1, 2024 – End of Support – HCL will not provide customer support after this date and there will be no option for extended support on it. But seriously, why are you running a 12-year-old version of software for mission critical apps anyway?
While we’re talking about software versions, HCL continues the hot pace of prolific software development. You can see the progress of version 12.0.2 right here. It also shows progress on the maintenance release 11.0.1 FP6.
This is great news as it will push the laggards along on the Innovation Adoption curve. When organizations cling to an older version of software (imagine if you were still using Windows 8?), their employees develop an inaccurate, bad opinion of the software. That inaccurate publicity hurts the success of the software which feeds upon itself, causing the company leadership to think the problem is the software rather than their failed maintenance of it. So Kudos to HCL for driving customers to do the right thing and upgrade.
You can read more about their announcement at HCL’s blog.
You can read more about how versions are named, numbered, and supported here.
“It doesn’t matter, it’s in the past!”
Updated Zoom Plugin for HCL Notes V11
[blog post update: The new software and documentation from Zoom can be found here.]
HCL Notes users: If you are using Zoom instead of HCL Sametime for your video meetings, you may have discovered that the Notes integration plugin provided by Zoom that made it easy to schedule Zoom meetings in your Notes calendar broke with Notes V11. Well I have good news. Zoom is finally releasing an update that works with Notes V11. See their response in the Zoom support forum. You can find the earlier release of the Zoom plugin for Notes V10 here. The update is scheduled for release on Monday. If that is at a different URL, I will add it here when it is available.
If you want to eliminate this problem altogether, your company should be using HCL Sametime for video conferencing. It is more secure; you have total control of the software; it allows you to keep all of your data inside your company with no harvesting of user data or chats; it is — and always will be — tightly integrated with your HCL Notes and Domino environment; and it’s less expensive.
Congratulations to the 2021 HCL Ambassadors!
This has been a challenging year for all of us. In the beginning of March, I was in Holland attending the Engage user group conference when the pandemic started and I returned home just 2 days before the border restrictions would have left me stranded in Europe. It turned out that was the last time that any HCL Ambassadors would gather this year.
What is an HCL Ambassador? As described at the HCL website:
“HCL Ambassador is a distinction that HCL awards select members of the community that are both experts in their field and are passionate about sharing their HCL knowledge with others.
HCL Ambassadors are exactly that, ambassadors. Importantly they are not employees, but their commitment to sharing their expertise has a huge impact on the HCL community. Whether they are blogging, writing books, speaking, running workshops, creating tutorials and classes, offering support in forums, or organizing and contributing to local events – they help make HCL’s mission of making technology play nice, possible.
HCL Ambassadors are eager to bring their technical expertise to new audiences both in person and online around the world.”
This year it has been exceptionally difficult to contribute in the typical ways, but this group of individuals managed to make the transition, holding several more user group conferences online, which actually made it possible for more people to attend than ever before. Certainly these heroes are the glue that keeps our software community together to make it possible for all of us and the companies we work for, to maximize our success. There is no stronger brand loyalty in the industry. See the entire list of HCL Ambassadors here. I am honored and humbled to be surrounded by such a team of positive, generous, innovative people dedicated to our profession and the HCL Digital Solutions community, I am! If you know or work with any of them, please take a moment to thank them.
Domino Jeopardy! at CollabSphere 2020
I recently had the honor of playing the role of game show host of a Notes/Domino edition of Jeopardy! at CollabSphere User Group Conference. This was the Day 2 Lunchtime entertainment.
The contestants were Helen Mendoza, an HCL customer from Chicago, IL, USA; Roberto Boccadoro, an HCL business partner from Milan, Italy; and Luis Guirigay, an HCL employee from Boca Raton, FL, USA.
Hosted by me, HCL Ambassador David Hablewitz.
Many requested it, so here is the replay of that fun game.
It opens with the pre-game chat to relax the contestants and wait for the audience arrive. The actual game starts at timestamp 5:00 and ends around 38:00 followed by more conversation. Actual attendance was about 60 people. Event organizer Richard Moy (Donna) did have a gift certificate for the winner.
Sadly, on November 8, less than 2 weeks after this event, Alex Trebek, the host of the actual TV game show for 36 years, passed away from pancreatic cancer. It was a great honor and tribute to have the privilege to serve as moderator and will make this event so much more meaningful to me. While you’re watching, please take a moment to view the video in youtube and subscribe to my youtube channel or click the subscribe button at the end of the video.
A few logistical details for those interested:
The meeting was run as a webinar in Zoom, though it could have been done in any online conferencing software. Helen and Luis chose to use the virtual background feature in Zoom. Roberto used the IRL background feature (in real life). For my background, the introduction bumper, and some game controls and audio effects (which were muffled) were managed using Open Broadcaster Studio (OBS Studio) software. The website used to host the online game was https://www.playfactile.com/
The game website does provide for a method of using a buzzer, but I opted to keep this as simple as possible to avoid potential technical difficulties and it really was entertaining to hear the contestants’ voices when they buzz. This also switched the speaker view in Zoom to the person when they buzzed. The recording of the event only shows one camera at a time, but during the live event, the cameras of all 3 contestants and the host were visible at all times. This was really fun to do and it was a great success, especially considering I had only a week to pull it all together. Freddy The Bassett also made a cameo appearance at the very beginning.
Blooper Reel for my CollabSphere 2020 intro
Just a little fun with @FreddyTheBassett as he joins me in creating our promo video for the upcoming conference.
Time to share your knowledge at CollabSphere 2020 Live
Are you a Notes/Domino administrator, developer, or user?
Remember that crazy problem you had that took a bit of work to solve using the software?
Maybe you have a mission critical business application that seems so simple in Notes, but others might benefit from seeing how you solved it?
CollabSphere is calling for abstracts. Gather your session ideas, write your abstracts, and submit them.
This year it will be easier than ever to present at the CollabSphere user group conference. It will be held online. The hope is to also draw new speakers and attendees who may not have been allowed to attend conferences in person in the past. Submission period closes September 30, 2020 at midnight Central time. The event is October 27-29.
You can also sign up to get the news and announcements for the conference. Enter your abstract ideas here. And they don’t have to be strictly about the HCL collaboration solutions.
After you have submitted the abstract, you might want to start practicing presenting online. I highly recommend checking out Toastmasters as a place to practice your online presentation skills. I have also posted a few tips on the topic.
Cheers!
Are you getting the most out of HCL Notes (Lotus Notes)? Subscribe to HCL’s youtube tips
If you support HCL Notes and Domino (formerly Lotus Notes and Domino) environments, you can get many great tips on how to be more productive and discover the wealth of features that only come with 25 years of software development. Follow HCL Digital Solutions’ Youtube channel. Here is one example: How to Delegate a User’s Mail and Contacts https://youtu.be/rEijwzyAshA
Watch for tips that your users might appreciate and share the videos with them.
Follow Up to What’s New in Sametime V10 and Beyond?
Good news with persistent chat and with eliminating WAS and DB2. Persistent chat is coming in V10. WAS and DB2 will be eliminated in V11 or V12. System Console is also eliminated in V10. V10 also supports login on multiple devices concurrently. It is worth listening to the replay (at 1.5x speed). Be sure to listen through the Q&A and the conclusion. There were many useful questions answered. The slide deck should be available in the replay too. But I think the two slides of most importance are these tables showing what features are coming in which release. (these folks are going to be busy!)
You should be able to watch the replay using the same
link to register: https://lnkd.in/dR4cHik
And here is the complete slide deck: letschataboutsametimemay2019rev71558616324635
What’s New in Sametime V10 and Beyond?
Did you know that if you have Notes licenses, then you also have Sametime Chat and online awareness…
FREE
If you don’t have Sametime Chat deployed in your environment, you may want to re-evaluate that. Start by watching the webcast tomorrow (May 23, 2019) to see what’s new and what is coming that YOU ARE ALREADY LICENSED TO USE.
Sametime Limited Use V10 and Beyond webcast:
Overview
Title: Let’s Chat about Sametime (again)!
Date: Thursday, May 23, 2019
Time: 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Duration: 1 hour
Summary
Join Kathleen Brady Jackson and Pat Galvin to learn what new value Sametime Limited Use V10 offers to Domino customers.
You’ll also hear HCL’s vision for the future product roadmap of Sametime, which includes integration with third-party conferencing vendors, Docker support, and improved co-existence with Domino.
This is a webcast you do not want to miss! Sign up today here -> https://lnkd.in/dR4cHik
If you want some assistance deploying it, I can connect you with experts.
IBM-Panagenda Partnership yields powerful FREE IBM Notes upgrade tool
Panagenda also has a free version of The software can be downloaded here:
I will be speaking at CollabSphere 2018!
My abstract has been accepted and I will be speaking at the CollabSphere 2018 conference in Ann Arbor, MI next month. This is the place to be if you want to learn about collaboration software and in particular IBM collaboration software. The conference is put on by a user group, NOT IBM. The sessions will focus on technical information targeting the I.T. professionals and decision-makers without sales stuff. I expect we will also see more insight into the upcoming release of Notes & Domino V10.
Details of my session:
Title: DIY: How to build your SmartCloud Notes Hybrid environment. Easy as 1-2-3.
Abstract:
This session will cover everything you need to know to build your SmartCloud Notes / Connections Cloud hybrid environment. Getting it right the first time will save headaches and lengthy rebuild time later. Also learn some of the pitfalls and best practices that will make your move the cloud smooth and seamless and how to implement it using the just-announced Domino Applications on Cloud service (DAC) and move ALL of your Domino infrastructure to the cloud.
The cost of the 3-day conference is only $75. Click to Register Now.
The Notes Guy in Seattle 