IdeaJam(tm) feed for Chiang Kai Er

Notes Client / Calendar: One-click way to add participants to a Lotus Notes Meeting Invite

Fri, 14 May 2010 12:19:44 +0000

Author: Chiang Kai Er
Tags: lotus notes client lotus_notes_improvement productivity usability user_experience
Idea:

When you receive a Lotus Notes Meeting Invite (as a participant), there are many occasions when you would like to have more people in your team attend the meeting with you. This is a suggested Lotus Notes enhancement that would benefit many Notes users.

What would implementing this idea accomplish?

There is currently no easy way to add participants to a Lotus Notes Meeting Invite that is not initiated by you. You can do one of the following, but they all have downsides:

* Email the meeting organizer. The meeting organizer would need to see your email, and manually copy and paste your suggested participants into the meeting invite, and then click on send.

* Forward the meeting invite to the additional participants you would like to invite. The meeting invite is simply forwarded as text and cannot be "accepted" by the recipients. The recipients would need to create their own Calendar entries. The meeting organizer is also not informed of these additional participants. Should the meeting organizer make modifications to the meeting invite, these additional participants would not be informed.

* Delegate the meeting invite to someone else. This does not take care of the case when you would like to attend the meeting as well. If this idea is implemented, it would make it possible for any meeting participant to invite additional people to the meeting in a very simple way. The additional participants would receive meeting invites, and the meeting organizer would be notified of the additional participants.

How would it work? How might it be implemented?

In the Lotus Notes Calendar entry, have an additional button for "Suggest More Invitees". When the button is clicked, the user would be asked to add more invitees to the "to" and "cc" lists, in a similar way that a meeting organizer would go through. When completed, the following would happen:

1. Meeting invite would be sent to the additional participants.

2. A "meeting update notice" would be sent to the meeting organizer, and that allows him to update his own invitee "to" and "cc" lists. Some meeting organizers may want to restrict the audience of their meeting, and would thus want to disable this "Suggest More Invitees" feature. As such, we can add a "Prevent suggestion of more invitees" delivery option.

Why should IBM invest in implementing this idea?

This is a very useful Lotus Notes Calendering feature that most IBMers would find useful. Customers of Lotus Notes would likely find it useful too as long as there is a need to organize big meetings for which the meeting organizer may not have a complete list of meeting participants. For every meeting invite that needs to be forwarded to additional participants, this feature can save several person-hours, depending on the number of people involved. It would also make Lotus Notes much more usable and live up to its name of a "collaboration platform".

Internally within IBM, this idea is also posted on ThinkPlace as idea 123680.

Notes Client / Mail: Intelligent address book search when sending Lotus Notes email

Fri, 14 May 2010 12:22:45 +0000

Author: Chiang Kai Er
Tags: lotus notes client lotus_notes_improvement productivity usability user_experience
Idea:

There are many cases where wrong email recipients are chosen by Lotus Notes, especially if common names like "Michael" are entered. Lotus Notes should be able to intelligently determine the recipients that the message is most likely intended for.

What would implementing this idea accomplish?

If this idea is implemented, it would reduce the likelihood of emails being sent to the wrong recipients. This would, in turn:

* Prevent confidential information from being leaked to the wrong parties.

* Improve productivity since time is spent in making sure that recipients are correct. If email is sent out wrongly, the wrong recipient's time is wasted in reading the email, and the intended recipient does not get the information in a timely manner.

How would it work? How might it be implemented?

Lotus Notes client should intelligently determine who is the most likely recipient when the name is being typed in the "To" or "cc" list. Within IBM, it can make use of the following information:

* Direct linkage on Lotus Connections: people who are connected to the sender on Lotus Connections are most likely the intended recipients.

* Degrees of linkage on Lotus Connections: for people who are not directly connected to the sender on Lotus Connections, a person who is connected to a 2nd degree is more likely the intended recipient than a person who is connected to a 3rd degree, and so on.

* Tags on Lotus Connections: a person who has been tagged with info related to the subject and body of the message that is to be sent will likely be the intended recipient.

* Previous emails: previous emails that have been received or sent by the sender would indicate who are the more likely intended recipients. A further enhancement would be to allow non-exact name search. Since the search space is already narrowed, Lotus Notes should be able to make use of word sounds to suggest the closest match.

Why should IBM invest in implementing this idea?

This feature would make Lotus Notes much more usable and live up to its name of a "collaboration platform".

Internally within IBM, this idea is also posted on ThinkPlace as idea 128348.

re: One-click way to add participants to a Lotus Notes Meeting Invite

Fri, 14 May 2010 12:43:35 +0000

Author: Larry Helwig
Comment: If the initiator has a check box (unchecked by default) to "Allow invitees to add participants" it could be beneficial.
Otherwise not, since many meetings are focused and have limited capacities.

re: One-click way to add participants to a Lotus Notes Meeting Invite

Fri, 14 May 2010 12:58:19 +0000

Author: Chiang Kai Er
Comment: Yes, that is correct. I've suggested using a similar option: "Prevent suggestion of more invitees". Larry's suggested phrase sounds better.

re: One-click way to add participants to a Lotus Notes Meeting Invite

Thu, 20 May 2010 09:38:31 +0000

Author: Bill Malchisky
Comment: This has been discussed on many occasions, even in IdeaJam. Over the years, I've commened several times as well. My perspective remains resolute.

It's a best practice to have the person running the meeting determine who gets to invite whom to the meeting. There are several business dynamics at play in meetings, and having the incorrect resource mix can alter the outcome or impede progress on needed meeting items. No invitee should be able to usurp the meeting authority of the chair. That would be bad business.

If you want to have additional people invited to the meeting, send the names to the respective chair and ask permission.

re: One-click way to add participants to a Lotus Notes Meeting Invite

Thu, 20 May 2010 09:49:15 +0000

Author: Chiang Kai Er
Comment: I think it really depends on the nature of the meeting. I agree that some meetings require the chairman to have absolute control, and that's when he would set "Allow invitees to add participants" to "No".

The vast majority of meetings that I attend is not of that nature, and that's why I suggested the default for "Allow invitees to add participants" to "Yes". Of course, we should also allow the user to set his own default.

re: Intelligent address book search when sending Lotus Notes email

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:51:43 +0000

Author: Mike McPoyle
Comment: Might be an interesting idea for IBM internally, but I don't think it has much merit outside of IBM. You're looking at a small percentage of Notes users who are also Connections users, and an even smaller subset would likely find it worth implementing this. I just wanted to make sure I explained myself before demoting.

re: One-click way to add participants to a Lotus Notes Meeting Invite

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 15:23:31 +0000

Author: Leo Gonzalez
Comment: We have a need for this. Has anyone come up with a solution to this?