In a meeting I was in today a conversation came up about Widgets in the Notes 8 client. Sure we all love widgets but what are we really doing with them?  I think Widgets are part of the answer (note I said part, I am not saying it is the complete answer) to marketing Lotus Notes and getting the end users excited about using Notes There are widget catalogs available on the Greenhouse, and  openNTF, but lets take a closer look at what it really out there The Greenhouse currently has 35 Widgets in the Notes/Domino Category, pictured here are the 11 top downloaded the other 24 have between 0 -10 downloads each The openNTF Catalog has a grand total of 6 widgets with a grand total of 104 downloads (I do realize that openNTF is in the middle of significant changes for the better and some issues are being worked out that should increase the number of contributions) Look at some of the widgets out there Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, Linkedin, Google Map, Google Docs, the Greenhouse even has a widget for MLBtraderumors.com, which is great for baseball junkies like me.   Installing a widget from either of these sites could not be easier, all you need to do is drag and drop them in to your Notes Client, and while some require a client restart others don’t even require that much effort to get up and running. I believe the average person would find something useful in these widget collections, something that would make their life easier in some way every day, something that would make them just a little more productive, and therefore make their lives just that much easier which would make them love notes just a little bit more, maybe even show their friends the cool things they can do in Lotus Notes.  Well it is not happening based on the download numbers shown above. So how do we make users more aware of the different tools available to them in Lotus Notes? Lets take a look, if I visit LinkedIn I see this Take a look at the instructions on TripIt this is a site that has received acclaim for it’s ability to integrate with Lotus Notes, but you would never know it reading their instructions or browsing their site. Hopefully you get my point, why isn’t IBM out there developing relationships and using their existing ones to get the word out that YES! Notes can do that! Resources for Lotus Notes Widgets Greenhouse Catalog (note you need a Greenhouse ID and Password to access the Greenhouse catalog) OpenNTF Catalog TwitNotes Sample Plug-ins from Julian Robichaux (Check out Scrapple:Drag ‘N Drop Scrap Collector a worthy successor to Alan Lepofsky’s Paste Information tool) I am sure there are more catalogs and widgets out there feel free to post then here as comments.  I am always on the look out for a good widget 🙂

Technote 4019898 Lotus Notes Traveler Fix Pack 8.0.1.2 contains the details and download information for Traveler 8.0.1.2 or fix pack 2.  The release notes list the following fixes in this version:

• LO27829– Traveler stops pushing data because file name case mismatch
• LO28880– Notice accept failed when SMTP routed
• LO29236– Underscores in subject with Danish Characters
• LO29261– Server Doc lookup failed during startup
• LO29250– Device Stop synching because mail file is not resolved
• LO29364– “Unable to open view ServerInternet Sites” message displayed
• LO29482– Compression error on SSL syncs with self-signed cert
• LO29215– Some WM devices can not send mail because of an exception in SubmitMessage
• LO29211– Device password screen hides Authenticator screen
• LO29715– Could not open database ntsclcache” message in log files
• LO30460– Lotus Traveler users cannot reply to email sent from addresses
• LO30553– ActiveSync constantly syncs traveler logs
• LO30955– Send/Receiver Email in inbox inverted on server

This is cumulative and can be installed on top of Traveler 8.0.1 or 8.0.1.1 (Fix Pack 1)

So apparently here in Europe being a Lotus Professional means something a little different then back home Lotus Professional

Lotus Traveler which was announced back at the Lotus Collaboration Summit in NYC  provides out of the box mobile support for Windows Mobile devices.   I have been testing Traveler for a few weeks now, and it is now time to set aside my Blackberry for a week and carry only the Windows Mobile device.  I thought I could use them in parallel and still do some testing , but  I have had a Blackberry since 2001, and there is no question I am a “crackberry addict”, it has become painfully obvious that if I have my Blackberry I will use it.  This is not in any way a comment on the Traveler technology, more a comment of me being a creature of habit.  I will reserve my full comments on Traveler until later in the process, since I am pretty much limited by the Beta NDA anyway in what I can say right now. I am about 6 hours in to the Blackberry free experiment now, I miss my blackberry, but I am getting my mail, I have Sametime for Windows Mobile, and my phone is being forwarded.  If anyone has any suggestions for IM clients for Windows Mobile, or any other useful Windows Mobile apps, please let me know, I am knew to the whole Windows Mobile thing.