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10 Concrete Steps IBM can take to Reinvigorate the Developer Community (and Notes/Domino in general) or The Domino Developer's Manifesto
Category IBM Lotus Domino Developer Manifesto
Like many out there, I've been intently reading the blogs and blog posts the past few days. I have refrained from commenting, mostly because I have been too busy to put together a meaningful, coherent message beyond what was already being said. But yesterday two blogs really started my gears turning. First, Ed's post that basically said, "Ok, there's unrest, we're listening ... talk to us" and a couple of posts by Andrew Pollack (that I somewhat disagree with, but I understand) that shined the light upon seeds of ideas I had in the back of my head.
The discussion around all of these posts really set me off thinking about what makes Domino Development attractive and what gets in my way personally, and what do I see getting in the way of other developers, and finally why is that Development is "suddenly" such a critical piece of the puzzle for Lotus Notes and Domino's success when the discussion revolves around the platform's competitiveness. I've put my thoughts to the page now in what I am coining as the Domino Developer's Manifesto (to be dramatic of course - why not have a little fun with this too.).
So here we go.
The Domino Developer's Manifesto
If you are superhuman ... I.Am.What.Makes.You.Super.
I, the Domino Developer, my ability to quickly create that notes application that you depend on. I am the Domino Developer that turns your 4 days of work and 2 days of rework into the click of a button so you can milk your cows on Farmville for four hours, and still be 1200% more productive than you were before Me.
I am efficient.
I am practiced.
I am out of date.
The world has passed me by.
I write my applications in RICH TEXT for god's sake ... rich text ... my god, it's like I live in a word processor with bells and whistles duct taped to it.
I yearn for the fancy, the shiny, the new.
Where are my rails?
What the hell is CSS?
They say the future is XPages, but rich text on rails it is not. Its new. I don't understand how to get there from here?
I.need.help.
I am a developer. I am not a power user. Power users are not developers. Stop treating us the same. Power users don't create applications. That is a misnomer. Stop tailoring my tools to help them, you hurt me. Trust me, I want raw, untamed, and unharnessed power. Give it to me. If you want to give power users access to some development tools, do it ALL in the confines of the Notes Client. Where a USER lives. I am a Developer. I live in Designer, not the Power User.
IBM Action Item #10: Every morning, wake up, look in the mirror and say to yourself: DOMINO DEVELOPERS ARE REAL DEVELOPERS, NOT POWER USERS.
Take off your kid gloves. Stop hiding eclipse from me. DDE is built to hide eclipse from the everyday developer. But eclipse is what I want. It's what I need. TIGHTLY INTEGRATE with eclipse as a development tool. Stop creating new editors to replace good ones already in eclipse. Why do we get a new JavaScript editor when one exists elsewhere already? Why? Read my next point.
IBM Action Item #9: Take a good hard look at Aptana, Make DDE more like that. Make DDE better than that.
I want to tap the Eclipse Universe. There is a plethora of already developed tools to help me do my job better. Tools built to extend eclipse. But most I can not use. They give me the power to pick lint out of my code. To compress my code for end users, to do things you haven't been able to conceive I want yet, let alone will have time to develop.
IBM Action Item #8: Architect and Design DDE as ECLIPSE with Domino Designer features. Expose more Eclipse capabilities and extension points. If I install Domino Designer, automatically enable things like "Install Application" ... help us become not only Domino Experts but Eclipse experts. Then we can help make Lotus Notes shine like fireworks on the 4th of July.
Foster the development community. IBM. Bravo on your support of OpenNTF. We need more. Create an online environment for Lotus Developers to congregate, share, communicate, and learn. MAKE THE HOME PAGE IN DESIGNER THE PORTAL TO THIS COMMUNITY.
IBM Action Item #7: I mean a real online community. Not developerWorks. Not OpenNTF's home page. I mean a new place, where I can create an account, create a profile, share my information, learn from others, join in discussion groups, learn about new features. Participate in focus groups with the DDE development team. Read the latest documentation. 98% of Domino Developers don't know there is a community out here. Be the conduit to bring us together, we'll make you strong.
Open up the design process. The design partner program and the managed beta program are great. But we need to hear almost daily from the people that design the tools and programs we are going to use. You do this well overall., but not nearly well enough when it comes to the developer community. Developer's CREATED open source. We started the movement to be let information and process flourish in the "wild" ... without having it be wild.
IBM Action Item #6: We need constant, two way feedback with the team that is designing XPages, DDE, and other aspects of the tools we use. You need to create "Developer Advocate" positions within IBM that are tightly integrated with your development teams. Both they, and the dev team needs to actively blog, participate, and illicit feedback from the community you create in Action Item 7. I get and understand the need to have the design partner program. Focused immediate feedback during dev cycles is key. All I am asking for is some of that same information be shared with the rest of the world as well, maybe not in the same time frame, but when and where appropriate. Right now, its never. Let us see your direction, let us see your progress, let us see your warts. We want to succeed. We want you to succeed, we can only do it together.
Wikis and Red Books are not substitutes for good product documentation. Honestly, your documentation and helps system right now leaves a LOT to be desired. Its feels and acts as an afterthought to the product. It is the life blood of your community. We need and deserve better.
IBM Action Item #5: I hate to say it but, take a page from Microsoft here. MSDN. Document everything, religiously, and frequently. Get it out there into the community. Make it online. DO NOT BE CONSTRAINED BY PRODUCT LIFECYCLE. You are always playing catch up on your documentation and help, and it erodes developer confidence. I am not saying Wikis should go away, I am saying do a better job with them. I am saying turn ALL your documentation into a wiki. Get it out of the product life cycle, and make it an organic every growing, living site, with community contribution and support.
We need education. Lots of It. Free. XPages should have been done years ago. It wasn't. It has created a massive earthquake style shift in the direction of Domino Development. Coupled with the lack of documentation, there is a growing rift of developers that understand and use, and those that don't use these technologies. Some through out the years have stayed strictly in the rich text world. You have created an environment of displaced Designers ... afraid of their future, This unease creates cracks and opportunity for the competition to slip in. You need to proactively fill those cracks.
IBM Action Item #4. Education. Education. Education. Whitepapers, Books, seminars, monthly or quarterly free training. Online and in person Don't just tell us there is a road from where we are now to where you are taking us. Show us. Teach us, Help us along. Arm the developers with the ability, power and DESIRE to use your new tools to create and add value to your product line. Build us up, we'll build you up.
Connect the Developers to the Admins, the applications to the users. A Lotus Sponsored App Store. Yes. I said it. There has been a lot of hub bub around this lately, its need is real.
IBM Action Item #3. There needs to be an online version of this (for non-admins and users). There needs to be a version of this that plugs into Domino Administrator. Let the Admins connect to developers to find and deploy solutions easily. Promote and hi-lite applications that make it big in the App Store. Apple doesn't sell lots of iPhones because its cool hardware. It's the apps. Notes/Domino doesn't sell because its a great client or a great server, it sells because its got great apps. Mail, discussion, etc ... Find more of those and promote their success (which will solve the jealousy problem Ed, its the community that picks and causes the successes to be hilighted not IBM)
Lower the cost of entry for ISVs to create Domino Based Online Applications. With XPages, and the domino infrastructure you've got a great platform to build web-based applications. Your licensing and pricing model kicks start ups that want to build these applications square in the nuts.
IBM Action Item #2. Create an ISV pricing model that allows small and growing ISVs to implement online apps without having to quickly pay tens of thousands of dollars to get into online application market. They can start out with Domino Utility Express, but are limited to400 1600 (Darren Duke notes this is now 1600 PVUs,
or maybe always was, I remember working with 400 but i could have been
wrong. 1600 definitely help, more can still be done here). If you want
to create a stable environment with redundancy and a bit of power, you
quickly out strip the Utility Express model, and jump straight to Utility
server. This can be as simple as upping the limit on PVUs for ISVs under
the express licensing, or create a sliding scale on costs (ie don't jump
to unlimited users, let me purchase a higher user cap or something). DON'T
MAKE IT SO DIFFICULT TO GET AN xSP LICENSE ADDENDUM. I'm still trying to
get this done for an app we want to launch. I have to do end-arounds and
back flips and know somebody who has enough sway to get a rep to talk to
me long enough to walk me through signing the xSP licensing agreement.
There is no incentive personally for the rep to do it. Create some
sort of program to help identify these sites as based on Domino, promote
them, actively. Let corporations see the cool things that can be
done with a Domino Server.
Keep doing what you are doing, IBM Lotus, You create great tools, you create great software. You get it. Like very few companies your size do. You see the value of social software, You see the direction Lotus Notes and Domino should take, keep doing it. Keep enabling me to be Super.Developer, so I can make my users Super.Human. But take it one step further.
IBM Action Item #1. Help make the Lotus Notes experience ubiquitous across thick and thin clients. Create a Notes & Domino Thin client. Extend what you are doing with iNotes and Project Vulcan, and do it all as seemlessly as possible both through the the Notes Client, and through the browser. Do not underestimate the "cool factor" of the browser client and the "uncool factor" of the thick client. Concentrate on this being a "going forward" effort ... Don't worry about trying to shoehorn old applications into this new model. This is the time for Domino and XPages to shine bright. For Domino to become the Sharepoint killer it is. This is what will do that.
Signed,
The Domino Developer.
Like many out there, I've been intently reading the blogs and blog posts the past few days. I have refrained from commenting, mostly because I have been too busy to put together a meaningful, coherent message beyond what was already being said. But yesterday two blogs really started my gears turning. First, Ed's post that basically said, "Ok, there's unrest, we're listening ... talk to us" and a couple of posts by Andrew Pollack (that I somewhat disagree with, but I understand) that shined the light upon seeds of ideas I had in the back of my head.
The discussion around all of these posts really set me off thinking about what makes Domino Development attractive and what gets in my way personally, and what do I see getting in the way of other developers, and finally why is that Development is "suddenly" such a critical piece of the puzzle for Lotus Notes and Domino's success when the discussion revolves around the platform's competitiveness. I've put my thoughts to the page now in what I am coining as the Domino Developer's Manifesto (to be dramatic of course - why not have a little fun with this too.).
So here we go.
The Domino Developer's Manifesto
If you are superhuman ... I.Am.What.Makes.You.Super.
I, the Domino Developer, my ability to quickly create that notes application that you depend on. I am the Domino Developer that turns your 4 days of work and 2 days of rework into the click of a button so you can milk your cows on Farmville for four hours, and still be 1200% more productive than you were before Me.
I am efficient.
I am practiced.
I am out of date.
The world has passed me by.
I write my applications in RICH TEXT for god's sake ... rich text ... my god, it's like I live in a word processor with bells and whistles duct taped to it.
I yearn for the fancy, the shiny, the new.
Where are my rails?
What the hell is CSS?
They say the future is XPages, but rich text on rails it is not. Its new. I don't understand how to get there from here?
I.need.help.
I am a developer. I am not a power user. Power users are not developers. Stop treating us the same. Power users don't create applications. That is a misnomer. Stop tailoring my tools to help them, you hurt me. Trust me, I want raw, untamed, and unharnessed power. Give it to me. If you want to give power users access to some development tools, do it ALL in the confines of the Notes Client. Where a USER lives. I am a Developer. I live in Designer, not the Power User.
IBM Action Item #10: Every morning, wake up, look in the mirror and say to yourself: DOMINO DEVELOPERS ARE REAL DEVELOPERS, NOT POWER USERS.
Take off your kid gloves. Stop hiding eclipse from me. DDE is built to hide eclipse from the everyday developer. But eclipse is what I want. It's what I need. TIGHTLY INTEGRATE with eclipse as a development tool. Stop creating new editors to replace good ones already in eclipse. Why do we get a new JavaScript editor when one exists elsewhere already? Why? Read my next point.
IBM Action Item #9: Take a good hard look at Aptana, Make DDE more like that. Make DDE better than that.
I want to tap the Eclipse Universe. There is a plethora of already developed tools to help me do my job better. Tools built to extend eclipse. But most I can not use. They give me the power to pick lint out of my code. To compress my code for end users, to do things you haven't been able to conceive I want yet, let alone will have time to develop.
IBM Action Item #8: Architect and Design DDE as ECLIPSE with Domino Designer features. Expose more Eclipse capabilities and extension points. If I install Domino Designer, automatically enable things like "Install Application" ... help us become not only Domino Experts but Eclipse experts. Then we can help make Lotus Notes shine like fireworks on the 4th of July.
Foster the development community. IBM. Bravo on your support of OpenNTF. We need more. Create an online environment for Lotus Developers to congregate, share, communicate, and learn. MAKE THE HOME PAGE IN DESIGNER THE PORTAL TO THIS COMMUNITY.
IBM Action Item #7: I mean a real online community. Not developerWorks. Not OpenNTF's home page. I mean a new place, where I can create an account, create a profile, share my information, learn from others, join in discussion groups, learn about new features. Participate in focus groups with the DDE development team. Read the latest documentation. 98% of Domino Developers don't know there is a community out here. Be the conduit to bring us together, we'll make you strong.
Open up the design process. The design partner program and the managed beta program are great. But we need to hear almost daily from the people that design the tools and programs we are going to use. You do this well overall., but not nearly well enough when it comes to the developer community. Developer's CREATED open source. We started the movement to be let information and process flourish in the "wild" ... without having it be wild.
IBM Action Item #6: We need constant, two way feedback with the team that is designing XPages, DDE, and other aspects of the tools we use. You need to create "Developer Advocate" positions within IBM that are tightly integrated with your development teams. Both they, and the dev team needs to actively blog, participate, and illicit feedback from the community you create in Action Item 7. I get and understand the need to have the design partner program. Focused immediate feedback during dev cycles is key. All I am asking for is some of that same information be shared with the rest of the world as well, maybe not in the same time frame, but when and where appropriate. Right now, its never. Let us see your direction, let us see your progress, let us see your warts. We want to succeed. We want you to succeed, we can only do it together.
Wikis and Red Books are not substitutes for good product documentation. Honestly, your documentation and helps system right now leaves a LOT to be desired. Its feels and acts as an afterthought to the product. It is the life blood of your community. We need and deserve better.
IBM Action Item #5: I hate to say it but, take a page from Microsoft here. MSDN. Document everything, religiously, and frequently. Get it out there into the community. Make it online. DO NOT BE CONSTRAINED BY PRODUCT LIFECYCLE. You are always playing catch up on your documentation and help, and it erodes developer confidence. I am not saying Wikis should go away, I am saying do a better job with them. I am saying turn ALL your documentation into a wiki. Get it out of the product life cycle, and make it an organic every growing, living site, with community contribution and support.
We need education. Lots of It. Free. XPages should have been done years ago. It wasn't. It has created a massive earthquake style shift in the direction of Domino Development. Coupled with the lack of documentation, there is a growing rift of developers that understand and use, and those that don't use these technologies. Some through out the years have stayed strictly in the rich text world. You have created an environment of displaced Designers ... afraid of their future, This unease creates cracks and opportunity for the competition to slip in. You need to proactively fill those cracks.
IBM Action Item #4. Education. Education. Education. Whitepapers, Books, seminars, monthly or quarterly free training. Online and in person Don't just tell us there is a road from where we are now to where you are taking us. Show us. Teach us, Help us along. Arm the developers with the ability, power and DESIRE to use your new tools to create and add value to your product line. Build us up, we'll build you up.
Connect the Developers to the Admins, the applications to the users. A Lotus Sponsored App Store. Yes. I said it. There has been a lot of hub bub around this lately, its need is real.
IBM Action Item #3. There needs to be an online version of this (for non-admins and users). There needs to be a version of this that plugs into Domino Administrator. Let the Admins connect to developers to find and deploy solutions easily. Promote and hi-lite applications that make it big in the App Store. Apple doesn't sell lots of iPhones because its cool hardware. It's the apps. Notes/Domino doesn't sell because its a great client or a great server, it sells because its got great apps. Mail, discussion, etc ... Find more of those and promote their success (which will solve the jealousy problem Ed, its the community that picks and causes the successes to be hilighted not IBM)
Lower the cost of entry for ISVs to create Domino Based Online Applications. With XPages, and the domino infrastructure you've got a great platform to build web-based applications. Your licensing and pricing model kicks start ups that want to build these applications square in the nuts.
IBM Action Item #2. Create an ISV pricing model that allows small and growing ISVs to implement online apps without having to quickly pay tens of thousands of dollars to get into online application market. They can start out with Domino Utility Express, but are limited to
Keep doing what you are doing, IBM Lotus, You create great tools, you create great software. You get it. Like very few companies your size do. You see the value of social software, You see the direction Lotus Notes and Domino should take, keep doing it. Keep enabling me to be Super.Developer, so I can make my users Super.Human. But take it one step further.
IBM Action Item #1. Help make the Lotus Notes experience ubiquitous across thick and thin clients. Create a Notes & Domino Thin client. Extend what you are doing with iNotes and Project Vulcan, and do it all as seemlessly as possible both through the the Notes Client, and through the browser. Do not underestimate the "cool factor" of the browser client and the "uncool factor" of the thick client. Concentrate on this being a "going forward" effort ... Don't worry about trying to shoehorn old applications into this new model. This is the time for Domino and XPages to shine bright. For Domino to become the Sharepoint killer it is. This is what will do that.
Signed,
The Domino Developer.
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Comments
Posted by top baby names 2012 ideeas At 06:14:21 AM On 11/07/2011 | - Website - |
Posted by deccccorative At 02:51:45 AM On 11/07/2011 | - Website - |
Posted by bob haircuts for 2012 ideea At 02:47:52 PM On 10/26/2011 | - Website - |
Posted by pole barn house prices At 04:27:41 AM On 10/05/2011 | - Website - |
That being said, there have not been any improvements for power users over the last couple of years either. In fact the last push was when 6.5 came out.
I think the Domino society at IBM has been getting an Ivory tower syndrome over the last couple of years.
I'm happy they are "inovating" but I hope that afer they drop 8.5.2 that they go back and correct some of the long outstanding issues.
Posted by Wayne At 12:38:30 PM On 06/16/2010 | - Website - |
Posted by Paul Withers At 08:51:09 AM On 06/16/2010 | - Website - |
Still the price needs come down for both express and non express application licenses.
Posted by Darren Duke At 08:45:55 AM On 06/16/2010 | - Website - |