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Or, more accurately, going fishing in a couple of hours. Or, even more accurately, not going fishing at all, but going to be holiday anyway

I shall return in a couple of weeks, having done serious damage to my liver, brain cells and waistline with a combination of Pims, Pims and more Pims, and also heavily laden with Lego (they have shops down 'Sarf)

C ya!

Posted by Warren Elsmore At 1:35 PM Location Edinburgh | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Category Lego Lotus
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Bear with me, this is a long one. And you might have heard the story before, but I think it needs telling. I'll start with something dear to my heart; Lego.

Not so long ago, Lego was in trouble. Big trouble. They were rapidly loosing market share and money. In fact, it's been said that Lego was within 12 months of going under. This, from a world leading company with a history going back over 50 years. In fact, things were so bad that some tough decisions were made and a re-organisation had to be undetaken.

One of the main reasons Lego was loosing its' customers was that it was failing to understand them. At this point I'll give you some background. There is such a thing in the Lego community as an AFOL or Adult Fan of Lego. I'm one, and so are many, many other people around the globe. In fact, AFOLs have probably been around since Legos' first customers reached 16. AFOLs have more income than kids, so we spend more on our hobby. We're also passionate, vocal and interested in the cause. We have forums and blogs and closed communities and open communities and software downloads and standards, etc etc.

As Lego sales went down, AFOLs and kids were unhappy. You see, Lego had digressed from its' original ideas. Sets were no longer boxes of bricks, but contained many special parts. This was designed to make them easier to build and hence lower the entry age - but it wasn't working. AFOLs and kids alike saw these sets and didn't like them. They wanted their boxes of bricks. So, we all stopped buying and carried on using what we already had. No need to re-purchase each year.

So, what did Lego do? Well, they had a re-org (always a good idea when things aren't looking so good) and split up the company into 3 main divisions - Markets and Products, Operations and Community, Education and Direct. Of course, lots more was done, but the short story is that the products changed back, they targeted markets and Lego are doing very well now, thankyou. I want to talk about the Community division though.

You see, one of the problems Lego had, is that although it was aware AFOLs existed, they didn't know who they were - or what they were buying. They didn't know what sets were popular with them and what weren't. They didn't know how their target market would react to something until they had already done it. The Community division were tasked with fixing this. One of their main roles was to work with the community at large and find out what they wanted to buy.

Today, Lego have 2 people (just two) working full-time as Community Development Managers. Their job is focused solely on working with the community. They go to local events all over the world. They start up customer focus groups and design groups. They run the First Lego League (a global teenage robotics championship). They bring in their best customers to help them plan new product lines - right from the outset. They have even employed a number of their best customers, as Lego realised that their customers were better with their products than some of their own people. They listen, they involve, they placate, they explain, they facilitate.

It turned out that those AFOL's actually made upto 15% of Legos' market. Not the majority of course, but a very sizable chunk. Of course, these AFOLs were spending much more per capita than children - perhaps many thousands of dollars per year. So, Lego tried new things. They brought out large, complex, expensive sets that only adults would buy. But they bought these sets in their droves, and soon a whole range of these sets came out, designed by ex-customers in many cases, and selling incredibly well.

Lego listened to their community, and it brought them away from the brink. Now, just imagine what a company that's already doing well, with a strong community, could do if they did the same?

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You'll probably guess that this isn't really about Lego, it's about IBM Lotus. Well, you'd be right - because yet again the community is up in arms, angry with things that are happening, angry that they weren't involved, and for those that are involved - they feel put upon. I'll call it out and say it - IBM, you need to understand the community.

I'll be honest here. We're make much more noise than we make money. We're quick to anger and difficult to please. BUT, if we are pleased, we shout it from the rooftops. We fight trolls, and bad press and competitor FUD. We hate not knowing what's going on, and we really hate being told to do something.

But, who are IBMs' Community Development Managers? Who are the people that help Paul organise ILUG, or sit in OpenNTF meeting shouting 'STOP!, you'll been shot down for this!'?, or take cool new software to influential bloggers and twitterers and show them cool, new stuff? Who from IBM is knocking on Stephen Frys' doorstep saying, 'Can I show you this?. Who is it? It isn't anyone. And I know it isn't anyone because I've never seen them.

I know IBM's answer to this is 'everyone plays their part'. And I know that Ed and Mary Beth have done a brilliant job of this for years. But it isn't their job. Their no.1 concern is not keeping the excitement alive and placating noisy bloggers. And guess what? The current approach is NOT working. Why the hell should we even be up in arms about a software repository that give everyone access to free code? I'll own up to throwing wood on the fire to see if it would burn - but I really get the feeling that there was no-one there at the start thinking 'this is a community project, how will the community react to this?' If they did, they sure as hell didn't get it right. All that's now happening is other IBM promises are being questioned, such as aircover etc.

What I find incredible, is that the leading provider of community and collaboration software in the world, doesn't have anyone whose job it is to work that community and get the best out of it.

Just think of what IBM could do if it really leveraged the community, instead of fighting against it.

Posted by Warren Elsmore At 9:34 AM Location Edinburgh | Permalink | Comments (45) | TrackBacks (0)

Category Moonwalk
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Well, here we are. Kitty and I are back in the flat, nursing our wounds having completed 26.2 miles walking, overnight, in just our bras.

I can't thank everyone who has donated to the cause enough - especially Mr Novak who re-tweeted alot of our babble as walked around and made a big 'ole donation himself. In case you didn't see it -here's what we said and links to a few pics we took as we walked around:

Got to site! Man bras in evidence, and not quite the silliest there! about 16 hours ago from Gravity
http://twitpic.com/7xkms - At the start! about 16 hours ago from Gravity
http://twitpic.com/7xsdb - Inside the big pink tent getting warmed up about 15 hours ago from Gravity
@lotusrockstar WooHoo! about 14 hours ago from Gravity in reply to lotusrockstar
http://twitpic.com/7y46n - At the start! about 13 hours ago from Gravity
http://twitpic.com/7y6o0 - Started about 13 hours ago from Gravity
http://twitpic.com/7yay7 - 2 miles - castle in pink about 13 hours ago from Gravity
6 down about 11 hours ago from Gravity
Just shy of 10 miles, dawn breaking and we're queing for the portaloo! about 10 hours ago from Gravity
Right brestical vibrated - txt from Rob - we're halfway done! about 8 hours ago from Gravity
http://twitpic.com/7z6du - Dawn over the Forth of Firth about 8 hours ago from Gravity
Coming up to 16 miles, only 10 left after that.... about 7 hours ago from Gravity
18 miles. Many parts now hurt, inv bum, legs and feet. 8 still left about 6 hours ago from Gravity
19!! 19!! about 6 hours ago from Gravity
http://twitpic.com/7zihd - Portobello Promenade. Get to the end of that, turn right, 5 miles and done! about 6 hours ago from Gravity
http://twitpic.com/7zkjc - 20.5 miles. Friend meets us and brings breakfast! about 5 hours ago from Gravity
2.5 miles to go - feels like home straight no.... about 4 hours ago from Gravity
24 miles, right knee *really* hurting now. But *will* make it about 4 hours ago from Gravity
http://twitpic.com/7zpnu - Our front door, but still 1.5 miles left! How cruel! about 4 hours ago from Gravity
http://twitpic.com/7zrja - Thank. God. about 3 hours ago from Gravity

So, we did it - in 9hrs and 55mins in the end. Not that it was a race of course, but after spending almost an hour queuing to use portaloos in a couple of places, we're pretty happy with the results. We kept an eye on the twitter stream and everyone's comments really did make a difference. At least a couple of times we were flagging but your comments helped us along.

So, now we're sitting in the lounge, watching an entire day of Star Trek Voyager. Just about right for our level of awareness. Out feet hurt, our legs ache, my bum (ass) hurts in places it should really never hurt, and of course neither of us have slept so we're pretty tired. But, raising over 2000 quid for breast cancer awareness has made it all worthwhile. Did we enjoy it? Yes. Did we curse ourselves for volunteering? Yes. Will we do it again? Hell no!

One final thing. The donation site is still up and running and will be for a while. So, if you'd like to donate, head on over to www.justgiving.com/elsmore and make someones' life a little easier.

Posted by Warren Elsmore At 12:58 PM Location Edinburgh | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

Category Moonwalk
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12 hours to go!

With such a short amount of time left, and signs already going up around Edinburgh to mark the route, we're getting seriously scared! Last night we stocked up on Italian (carbs), and this morning the plan is just to sleep. Kitty is doing better at that than I am (surprise, surprise!)

Thankyou EVER SO MUCH to everyone that has donated so far. We're really happy to have reached our target and for all the well wishes that have been sent. However, remember that you can still donate*via www.justgiving.com/elsmore. Thanks also to Rob and so many other friends for twittering and blogging about it.

Tonight, I will try to twitter some updates every so often as we walk around. My twitter stream is protected though, so if you are following me could I ask you to re-tweet anything you see tonight? It will probably just be some poor pictures and whining, but it might be of interest to someone!

OH, and to the people who asked if they could sponsor me to NOT see any pics of me in a bra. Yes you can. All you need to do is to sponsor us for MORE than the complete total from everyone else (which is at least 1500GBP!). You're in the minority I'm afraid, so look out for my beautifully decorated norks later on tonight


*Well, not as I write this, because Justgiving is down for maintenance. We also heard of some problems with the site yesterday afternoon, I hope we haven't slash-moonwalked it!

Posted by Warren Elsmore At 11:18 AM Location Edinburgh | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category Lego St Pancras
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A terrible joke, I'm sorry! Anyway, here's a pic I took at the weekend. This is going to be the main spire of St Pancras.

I've spent quite a bit of time on these, working out how I want them to look, and I think this will be the look I'm going to go for. There are lots of reasons, but it's mainly because I get some nice chamfered corners - and I can use mainly 1x4 tiles for the larger spire. 1x2 tiles are MUCH rarer than 1x4 - so that's going to save me alot of money!

Of course, this will need to *be* tiled, but once it is I'm hoping it will look as good as its' smaller partner - which is to go above the front entrance.

In other news, I've had parts arrive for that front entrance, though it's not yet finished, and I've finally completed the final layout of the building. So, once the Moonwalk is over and we're back from holiday - I can start building up with a vengance!

Posted by Warren Elsmore At 4:24 PM Location Edinburgh | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Category UKLUG
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Neil, Stuart and I recorded this the other night, 36mins of UKLUG goodness from yours truly.

Posted by Warren Elsmore At 9:24 AM Location Edinburgh | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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I'm talking of course about the Edinburgh moonwalk!

This Saturday, Kitty and I set off on a 26 mile walk, overnight, in bras. In fact, I spent most of last night with a glue gun, needle and thread, decorating said bra. So, if you'd like the opportunity to see me in bra, then please head on over to our sponsorship site and pledge us some cash!

If we meet the target, I promise to post pics and probably some video too - you have been warned!

Posted by Warren Elsmore At 9:19 AM Location Edinburgh | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

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I just wish I could say it this well:

Posted by Warren Elsmore At 5:44 PM Location Cardiff | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Category Notes
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If you missed John Heads' posting on his blog a few days ago, he announced that the OpenNTF IP Working Group have opened up a forum to take in peoples input around the issue of Apache vs GPL vs a.n.other licensing of OpenNTF projects, as well a number of other things.

If you've got a project on OpenNTF, or would like to - then you really should be involved in this. Part of their remit is education, which is very important to me as I'll openly admit that I don't know the ins and outs of each and every license. So, I'm interested to see what the debate will throw up.

Posted by Warren Elsmore At 12:27 PM Location Cardiff | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Category Notes
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One of the things that we commonly do is to remove the 'Optional database templates' from the Notes client install. Users typically don't need a local discussion database template really!

HOWEVER - In Notes 8.5, if you remove 'Optional Database Templates' from the install, it will also NOT install localfeedcontent.ntf and roamingdata.ntf. That means the RSS reader won't work (ever!) and you won't be able to roam either!

These two databases are classified as 'OtherOptionalTemplates' in the MSI package, when really they ought to be 'CoreTemplates'. So, be careful removing the "optional" templates! I have asked our customer to PMR this as well, as I don't really think roaming or feeds are optional components!

Posted by Warren Elsmore At 3:51 PM Location Cardiff | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)