It seems only fitting that I learned of Steve Jobs' death on a device for which he was responsible. The new alert came up as a push notification from the AP News app on my iPhone 4. A visionary, he helped launch an industry and then with his laser-like focus on design and usability, re-shaped whole other industries for the first decade of the twenty-first century, profounding affecting our modern lives. Rest in peace, Steve and thanks for all the toys.
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I hate to stir from my long blogging hibernation with a posting like this, but last week I encountered the results of a study that I found, quite frankly, shocking. For years, Business Partners and others in the Yellowverse have harped on IBM about the company's marketing to and perception within the SMB market. At times, there has been productive reaction, but as often, dismissal of the severity of the issue.

American City Business Journals, publisher of local business-oriented newspapers across the country, conducted a survey of over 1700 owners and executives of small businesses (under 500 employees) to determine the most recognizable brands among SMBs. The survey brings IBM's small business problem into stark relief. Of course, most of us would probably be unsurprised to see IBM behind Microsoft (#8) or Apple (#2, iPhone #5) or sadly even Dell (#9), Blackberry (#12) and Intel (#13). But to say I was surprised to find IBM didn't even crack the top twenty-five would be an understatement.

I happened to be talking this weekend with a friend at a non-profit and the subject came up. His perception of IBM was one of being over-priced and completely irrelevant to their needs; after all, he's not looking to buy a Smarter Planet for his organization, just affordable, approachable technology solutions. IBM certainly has solutions for SMB, but he and the survey respondents seem mostly unaware of them. Smarter Planet jab aside, I won't beat the drum for advertising as the sole solution; winning mindshare in the market is certainly more complicated and multi-dimensional than that. I just hope someone, somewhere in IBM is looking at the small and medium picture, as it were, and this survey provides a clarion call to put a priority on the market.

View the top 25 or this other article on the survey for more information.

Technorati: IBM SMB
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A lovely gift on an historic occasion from tremendous artists. At once, clearly displaying America's diversity while celebrating excellence. It truly is a new day in America:
We now return to your Lotusphere reports...
Technorati: Inauguration, Music
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Today marks the somewhat ignominious one year anniversary of no posts what-so-ever on this blog. Having reached that milestone, it seems time to correct it. The last year saw many trials and, dare I say it, tribulations, but the past, as they say, is past. It's time to start participating and contributing again; coming up shortly, I have some thoughts to share about my experience with Domino on Linux, and my pet peeves about Notes 8. But first, the second anniversary hinted at in the blog title. A few weeks ago, several members of the Lotus blogosphere recounted their history with Notes and Domino and coincidentally about the time I was seeing those posts, I marked my own 15th anniversary working with this incredible platform.

Technorati: Lotus Notes
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The Pew Internet & American Life Project has a new report out yesterday describing a typology of technology users. They found that 8% of American adults are what Pew describes as "Omnivores". They say "Members of this group use their extensive suite of technology tools to do an enormous range of things online, on the go, and with their cell phones." I guess as a technology professional deeply involved with the Internet, it is no surprise I'm in that category although I blow the age demographic - they say the median is 28 with just more than half under age 30. If you're interested in what category you fall, you can take their technology typology quiz yourself.
Technorati: Internet

Check out the visual documation for this project by Aaron Koblin using FAA data for flight patterns over the United States. The east coast is unsurprisingly the densest related directly to the population centers. Florida air traffic seems amazingly dense owing I guess to the flight corridors for originations (ATL, CIN, CHI) to Florida destinations cities aligning with the peninsula. It's fascinating to watch the air network "wake up" and progress through the day. Watch this and then think back to 9/11 and the days following when all this activity was completely stopped.
Technorati: Air+Travel

If anyone is tuned in to this blog, apologies for the continued radio silence; it's been one of those months and while it doesn't explain the weeks before, last week was the week from hell.

The preceeding weekend entailed a full day commitment entertaining a friend that was in from out of town and then continued work on taxes as they were due on Tuesday of course (and I had delayed knowing I had to pay). First thing Monday morning, not long after the Viriginia Tech tragedy had begun, I found out my paternal grandfather had died. Needless to say that caused a fair amount of chaos in what was already looking like a busy week. After returning from the funeral Wednesday night, I woke up Thursday not feeling well and got progressively sicker through the day.

This past weekend already had a minimum full-day commitment (roadtrip) for the christening of my godson which I had to attend while still sick. Because the sinus problems have continued and I've felt very drained for most of this week, I'm still catching up with blog reading at this point, much less writing, given there was some major action in the Domino Blogosphere last week while I was pretty much completely out of touch.

The good news is the primary project I've been working on is drawing to a close, and I'm going to be able to catch up on some of the other projects I've been neglecting, so there should be much more activity here from this point on. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

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Ok, if you read my blog, you probably read Rocky's so you probably already heard that Bob Balaban is blogging now. No, not that Bob Balaban, but rather the guy who brought Lotusscript to Notes. Since his new job at IBM is to make Domino a "kick-ass development platform again." Because I am developer, his blog may very well be my new favorite in no time at all.

Also new to the blogosphere over at RezAir is an old colleague and friend who has been working with Notes/Domino since way back in the version 3 days just like myself. As you'll see, in addition to being a regular geek, Marc's a bit of a flight geek too. Perhaps he'll fit some Notes entries in between his air travel posts.

Technorati: Blogosphere