What's New in Lotus Notes by release - Great Doc for Upgrade

Starting to Blog again after a  long time. Came across this doc which contains details of all changes made in previous versions of Lotus Notes. A great read. This will certainly help people who cannot decide "Why to Upgrade to the Latest Release of Lotus Notes"..

Link to the doc - http://goo.gl/PrGZI

IBM LotusLive Notes Hosted BlackBerry Service 1.3 now offers a fully hosted service offering for BlackBerry Enterprise Server

As a followup to the announcement at Lotusphere 2011 LotusLive Notes 1.3 now announces Lotus Traveler with Android support and BES service for Blackberry Devices. Hurrah !!!. It is now fun living in the cloud and being connected while being mobile...

Please find all the details of the press release out here..

IBM® LotusLive Notes® 1.3 enhancements:

• Option to purchase cloud-based services for BlackBerry mobile device users
• Support for additional platform -- Android OS -- for users of the optional Traveler for LotusLive Notes service
• Additional mail management controls
• Advances in user experience

Additional enhancements:

• Traveler for LotusLive Notes subscription supports Android operating system, expanding the mobile needs of virtually anyone.
• Additional Mail Manager controls are available as part of the web-based LotusLive Notes Administration experience (including automatic management of content older than "n" days and administrator-controlled User Exclude lists).
• Support for limiting the size of inbound file attachments for email messages (administrator controlled at the user or group level).
• User experience modifications in the area of calendaring and scheduling to further improve visual parity with the Notes client when working in LotusLive Notes via a standard web browser (including full support for alarm preferences plus font, background, and color updates).
• The ability to import contacts within LotusLive Notes web in any supported language.
• Support for purchasing subscriptions to the LotusLive Notes service.

February 22, 2011: Electronic availability

Lotus Sametime Bandwidth Consumption

Audio/Video Bandwidth Consumption by Sametime

Use the information below as a baseline; obviously there are a lot of variables that control the ultimate bandwidth used and we can safely assume every customer is different.

We can discern three different bandwidth consuming activities:

1. Chat or Instant Messaging
2. Sending files
3. Screen, slide and application sharing
4. Using Sametime for Audio and Video purposes

Sending Files:

The amount of data transmitted is highly dependent on the nature of the data itself. Text slides with a plain white background will consume very little bandwidth, whereas fancy slides with lots of images and gradient backgrounds will take up a lot more bandwidth.

Application sharing:

This is essentially just a high resolution video image, with constant updates. Bandwidth will also vary depending on how often users join and leave the conference, since we have to sync up any late joiners with a burst of data.

Slide sharing

Much more efficient than application sharing. In fact, for conferences of 60 users or less, we do not think it would create substantial network load at all.

A/V:

Audio:

1. iSAC: 10-32 kbps (adaptable, average ~20 kbps)
2. G.711: 64 kbps

Video:

H.263:

1. SQCIF: 50-100 kbps
2. QCIF: 100 - 200 kbps
3. CIF: 300 - 400 kbps

H.264:

1. QCIF: 50 - 128 kbps
2. CIF: 256 kbps
3. VGA: 512 kbps - 1 Mbps
4. HD: 1.5 - 4 Mbps

Video resolutions are as follows:

1. SQCIF: 128 x 96
2. QCIF: 176 x 144
3. CIF: 352 x 288
4. VGA: 640 x 480
5. HD: 1280 x 720

Please note that all numbers are approximate, and are based on the information we have right now. It may change over time, but this is representative of what we expect.

OOXML put on hold amid concerns from India

This is my first post on this issue. From Economic Times...

Following appeals by four countries, including India, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has put on hold its earlier decision approving Microsoft’s Open Office OXML (OOXML) file format as an international standard. OOXML is a format for word-processing, presentations and spreadsheets.

You can read the whole article at Economic Times.

Great press which ratifies IBM UC2 Strategy

Great press articles which demonstrates IBM committment to the Unified Collaboration space. Please provide your comments.

Hindu Business Line - http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/03/20/stories/2008032052200400.htm

Deccan Herald Edition- Bangalore - http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Mar202008/business2008031958366.asp

The Economic Times Online - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News_by_Industry/IBM_announces_major_initiative_for_unified_communications_market/articleshow/2881947.cms

The Financial Express Online - http://www.financialexpress.com/news/IBM-announces-initiative-for-unified-commns-mkt/286371/

Express India.com - http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/IBM-announces-major-initiative-for-unified-commns-market/286371/

Channelworld.in - http://www.channelworld.in/news/index.jsp/artId=4260247

Ciol.com - http://www.ciol.com/News/News-Reports/IBM-gears-up-for-UC,-collaboration,-IBM-Research/19308104574/0/

Lotus Sametime Advanced eGA and other updates from Voicecon

Momentum and Excitement
Steve Mills, Mike Rhodin, Bruce Morse and Laurence Guilhard-Jolie at a press event laid out the IBM Unified Communications and Collaboration strategy for CNN, Bloomberg, the Financial Times, and other. IBM has talked about their plans to invest $1 Billion over the next three years in this space -- across software, hardware, and services. IBM also talked about their IBM UC² strategy to foster innovation and business agility by making it easier for people to find, reach and collaborate with others through a unified user experience.

Lotus Sametime was recently announced as Frost & Sullivan's 2008 North American Enterprise Product of the Year Award; Unified Communications Magazine's Product of the Year; and NetworkWorld's 2008 Best of the Tests winner for Convergence and Collaboration.

IBM knows that Unified Communications and Collaboration is more than just software and technology -- it's about expertise to apply solutions to business processes and ultimately to helping customers make the right kind of difference to their top-line. IBM is the only vendor than can bring the full spectrum of technology, expertise and business partners into a single solution.

VoiceCon Wrap-Up
IBM had an excellent presence at one of the premier Unified Communications events, VoiceCon in Orlando. Avaya, Microsoft, IBM and Cisco were all keynote speakers. Mike Rhodin delivered the IBM keynote (watch it), challenging the industry to join IBM in a commitment to interoperability, and that challenge was picked up by the event's moderators and became a theme throughout the week.

Mike Rhodin has also laid out his vision for the five future trends that will drive Unified Communications -- and demonstrated a virtual, 3D meeting mashup using technology from IBM and Forterra (one of our newest virtual world technology partners). CNN has been talking about IBM and Forterra working together "...in Virtual Worlds to Solve 'Tower of Babel' for Intelligence Agencies."

IBM Lotus has also announced Shortel as a new telephony partner, who has exciting plans, and also a new partnership with VBrick who is delivering the first plug-ins for live broadcast and on-demand video streaming for Lotus Sametime.

View of our latest viral video which has had almost 4,100 views

Sametime's Facebook page; and how about the swarm following Sametime on Twitter?

This week: Lotus Sametime Advanced eGA
This week's big news: delivering on what Mike Rhodin announced last week -- the newest member of the Lotus Sametime family which includes the capabilities of Lotus Sametime Standard, and expands them with advanced personal, team and community collaboration capabilities. Keep an eye on the Lotus Sametime Advanced home page tomorrow for more information and screenshots.

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