Lotus Nut

Nope, I'm not talking about a blog for people into fast and furious 4 bangers (no offense to 4 banger drivers - like myself - who aren't fast or furious).

I'm talking about the new blog that IBMer Scott O'Keefe has started related to the Domino Configuration Tuner (DCT). You should go check it out at 'Tuner Blog. The first post is related to the "Check for Updates" option that's available with the template in which you can get the latest template from IBM as well as the latest updates to the rules. He also lists some of the new rules with the latest release.

You should really look into DCT if you haven't already. And with the 'Tuner Blog now active, I'm certain that Scott, et. al. will be looking for feedback!

Mitch posted some great details on how we planned our session for Lotusphere 2009. It's a great case study for how Connections can have some real-world applications. Kim Greene and I also planned our other session this way. Mac Guidera also blogged that he used Activities to plan his session.

While we could have done this using other methods, using BleedYellow Activities to get this done was extremely beneficial and helped to keep us on track!

Are you looking for a central location to manage the planning of your Lotusphere Session proposals? Feel free to do so using the Activities section of BleedYellow.com! This can be very beneficial just for single presenters, but if you are planning on presenting with others this can work exceptionally well!

And, to make things simpler, we have created an Activity Template titled "Lotusphere Session Planning":



If you wish to begin using it immediately, just click "Start an Activity from this Template". You can then make your own activity and manage membership. I recommend that you create a separate Activity per Session. New with Connections 2.0 is something called "Sections". We have added 4 sections to this template - comment back here if you think of some other things that could be added!

1. Proposed Session Titles - create new entries in here for different session title ideas.
2. Proposed Session Abstracts - create separate entries for different abstract ideas. You may be extremely creative and would like to have multiple ideas. (Hint, if you want others to be able to "vote" on your Abstract ideas, just add them to your Activity and ask them to comment on the various titles or abstracts.
3. Links - This is pre-populated with a link to the official Lotusphere website. Add more links inside this entry to other sites related to your topic.
4. Session Slides - Create an entry in here and attach your presentation file. (Hint, even though you may like to do that all locally, consider posting one here anyway for a hot backup in case anything goes wrong at 'Sphere with your laptop and/or usb drive!!)

Again, this is a work in progress - feedback is welcome!! We are also working on making some other templates available, so if something changes with our recommendation on this template, we'll let you know!