Here are my impressions of the sessions I saw this afternoon:
AJAX Fundamentals for Web Development -
Scott Good
This presentation provided background material on how to use AJAX to provide seamless client-server interaction in a web site by using the XMLHTTPRequest object and the JavaScript innerHTML property. Unfortunately, several weeks ago, I read all of Scott's and 11tmr's weblogs on how to implement a Web Nab Picker using AJAX, so I was already familiar with just about everything Scott discussed. No matter, Scott did a great job engaging the audience and even garnered applause as well as several laughs. I can definitely learn a lot about presenting from him.
Advanced AJAX for Domino Developers - Viktor Krantz
Viktor provided more definition as to what AJAX is, and what it can do. A common misconception he discussed is that AJAX can be synchronous as well as asynchronous, and reasons why you'd want to do one over the other. He also showed how AJAX doesn't need to retrieve an XML document all the time. JSON also leverages the use of the XMLHTTPRequest object to bring back essentially pure text from a web request and format it into either an object, an array, an array of objects, an object of arrays, and so on. He also demoed some code that SNAPPS created that creates a dynamic calendar that can be based on either one or multiple calendars. Way cool. I can see how I could use this to solve more than one client need I've heard about recently. I asked Rob Novak why he's giving this code away. He said that it makes more sense to give it away than to try to sell it to a few customers and essentially get minimal press over their available Notes/Domino expertise. I can see his point. Kudos to SNAPPS for giving this valuable resource to the Notes/Domino community!
The Consumer Side of Domino 7 Web Services -
Rob Novak
Rob demonstrated the many different ways to consume (or invoke) a Domino Web service, including:
Notes client
WebSphere Portal - via a portlet
Rational Application Developer
MS Word - via the Microsoft Office 2003 Web Services Toolkit v2.01
Yahoo! Widget
Mobile Devices
Since I haven't been able to cross-over to the WebSphere/Rational side of things yet, the Notes/Office methods were the most interesting to me. Of course, the Microsoft way requires that every computer invoking the web service have the aforementioned toolkit installed--damn you, Microsoft!
This session was sparsely attended, which was surprising but not a complete surprise. With the conference winding down, I figure most people were taking the time to go to the strip one last time, or buy souvenirs, or whatever. All in all, a very good presentation.
Deborah and I had lunch with
Chris Byrne and
Devin Olson, which turned out to be one of most entertaining lunch we had during the conference. Folks that passed by Chris' table don't know what they were missing. Devin has also
written articles for the Advisor. He also worked for InfoImage back when they were the world's largest Lotus Business Partner. Those of you who are familiar with your Lotus history probably know this story already. InfoImage was
convinced by Microsoft to forgo their Lotus heritage and instead take $25 mil in seed money to develop new and interesting stuff for Microsoft. Within twelve months, InfoImage's total offices were a third of what they were previously. With eighteen months, InfoImage was caput. Devin said that some of the code written by InfoImage back in 2000 has made its way into Sharepoint, so I guess Microsoft is good at recycling, if anything. (Devin, please correct me if I have erred in the timeline or any of the details!)
I have a similar story from my days with
Superior Consultant. Enterprise Consulting, one of Superior's divisions, was offered a bag of money back in early '99 to convert its website to Frontpage and internal e-mail to Exchange. Additionally, Superior would be charged with converting its consulting staff to experts in ActiveX for Healthcare. This whole insane enterprise was announced at Superior's annual meeting in May '99. Seeing the writing on the wall, I left for NuTechs in August '99. Superior went from a growing consulting firm in the healthcare industry, with a division that had just one the Best Business Impact award at LotuSphere, to a company roughly 1/4 the size. But the top Superior brass got their bribe money and made off like bandits, so who cares if 1,000+ people lost their jobs as a direct result of management hubris? But I digress. Anyway, Devin also mentioned the Advisor DevCon back in '98, which I'd also attended. He mentioned how one of InfoImage's more comely employees helped them pilfer a pile of free drink tickets from a distracted barkeep. The free drinks made the ensuing polo exhibition much more entertaining, from what I heard. (I actually missed all of this. Two co-workers of mine from Superior and I went to downtown Palm Springs to gamble the night away with some senior citizens. What were we thinking?!?) Devin also mentioned that he was considering relocating from Phoenix to Grand Rapids Michigan. My wife and I let him know that he would be in the minory of people who have intentionally moved to Michigan, as the equivalent of a busload of people every day leave Michigan, likely never to return. But, Grand Rapids is a very nice part of Michigan to live in, and they could use some of the character Devin brings!
My wife and I said good-by to Chris and Devin so we could get ready for the rest of today's travels...
Advisor Summit: Day 3 - pt. 104/12/2006
