If you get to this, I'd love to toss some stuff your way about how I'm integrated with Asterisk.

Martijn, usually, Astroturfing is a reference to two things. "Astroturf" which is the fake grass used in sports stadiums; and "grass roots" which is the idea of support for an idea that comes from a desire of the masses rather than from a specific key person. In other words, "Astroturfing" is doing something that fakes or falsely states a broad support for a statement or arguement.

The most obvious form of astroturfing is logging into blog sites with different names to support your own idea -- but anything that causes the support for a statement or idea to be inflated using a method out of line with the expectation of the people viewing it would be considered astroturfing.

If I went to all the guys in my fire station and asked them to log on to this ideaJam thing and vote to promote all my ideas, that would be astroturfing. It would be fairly obvious, because they'd probably send that call out to other departments and soon I'd need four digits to hold the votes (love those guys, but they're not really subtle) but you get the point.

In this case, at the very least, there is a voting pattern that doesn't match a single other ideajam voting set. Regardless of intent, it is an example of why you can't count on voting numbers with an unvalidated authentication "Open" site. The ideas are not competing in a limited fixed pool of users. It becomes a contest to see who can solicit the most positive feedback regardless of the detrimental impact such skewing would otherwise have.

It shouldn't matter, really. Your session idea is a good one and deserves attention at lotusphere (provided your history as a speaker is also good). Rocky and Mac both know the issue and aren't the least bit fooled by it. By rights, I should should have just let it be. The thing is, astroturfing pisses me off for no good reason. I hate manipulation.

Cool. Maybe I can demonstrate Defenestration.

UGH. I hate PHP. There isn't much to "Integrate" with so much as it just basically runs as a cgi shell, but I suppose we could go there.

I'm giving something away here, but guess what? Its not really about scanning tools. Everyone goes right for the tools. That's a validation mechanism suitable for an audit, but not really a focus item for a review.

I LOVE going into shops that do their security reviews with scanning tools. The findings are always really a lot more fun.

Fair enough. I'll stand with my opinion but not pursue it further here. I know Mac and Rocky personally and both are aware of my opinion on paying too much attention to specific details within IJ.

I think the session itself is a good idea -- scale and security in the enterprise needs more attention. Even if what i believe is astroturfing is backed out, there are still plenty of people who voted strongly in favor.

That's an interesting point, Martijn. I've always wondered why this session, of all the sessions I've delivered, tends to get less people in the door. Its one of my favorite to deliver, and those who do come give it amazing reviews. The presentation is one of the most downloaded on my site. Odd, for sure.

I'll think about it as a hands on.

I almost voted against this based on the title. I don't care for the system or other such systems.

On the other hand, I think Eric has some good ideas here and while its not what my best ideal of a bp track would cover, I can't see Lotus putting it into any other track and it does have a lot of value for people at Lotusphere.

This gets my promote based on the "I'd hit that" criteria. I would attend this session if it were available at a time I could make.

I'm breaking one of my own rules, in that I'm promoting this even though I don't think it belongs in BP as the best place.

Given what Alan is best at in terms of showing you how to make use of the features that we take for granted, I think this belongs in a track that customers are more likely to see. Unfortunately, I don't think IBM is likely to put it in there, so the BP track once again picks up the slack.

In essence, I'm promoting because I'd love to be able to tell a lot of customer level people to go and watch this session.

I love your stuff about HOW, but I don't think this kind of WHY goes in the BP track -- at least I would say it isn't something I'd be likely to attend, which is the criteria I'm trying to use voting on this stuff.

IMO, this would be a good session, but should be in a jumpstart. I've given it a non-vote (no opinion) based on that.

I can't favor any recommendation on modifying the Name and Address book.

The #1, #2, and #3 nightmares at my client sites when an upgrade goes wrong or when a problem isn't resolved by an update that should be, directly result from mods to the directory.

Further, telling admins to perform code based directory updates is in general a very bad practice.

I'm not saying I haven't done it, but it needs to be done in an extremely rigid change control environment and as part of a long term project that depends on automatic updates -- not for on the fly fixes.

Giving a "No-Opinion" vote because I think this should be a jump start session rather than a BP session.

This one makes more sense. There's are several good ones to look at. I'd also suggest YUI -- I find it to be one of the best documented and easiest to work with.

Done right, this could be an interesting session.

I'd personally like this in a Show and Tell session. I've set this to a non-vote because I think its valuable, but a show and tell would be ideal.

Chris, while I respect what you do a great deal, I can't agree with the idea that the use of views should be reduced. They are, to me, a large part of what makes Domino and the Notes Client so powerful.

Views should be designed so that the act of easily moving to the specific information you're looking for, actually result in you seeing that information in the context of similar information. This is where anomalies stand out, unexpected trends captured, and important management feedback is generated.

The view is a critical design feature. It just needs to be built in a useful way, and made to look good.

Interesting idea. I almost said it should be at BP day, but as I think about it, its not a BP specific issue. I hope IBM picks this up, but I also hope they put it in the management track. Your position would give that kind of session in that track added creditibility.

I think this is a very poor title for a good idea of a session.

IMCO, this is a Vendor Product session and should go in that track. VMWARE is a great product line, but I don't see it as a best practices session. Particularly given that VMWARE is owned by EMC (I believe), an IBM competitor.

Knowing how much work Daniel has done on this, and on his skill level, i can't imagine missing this session if it is available for me to attend.

I suppose its just me, the only one left, but I don't see need for distinction of "Web 2.0" and I am not a big fan of the approach.

In this case, a session that is about promoting a product belongs in one of the IBM product tracks, IMCO.

the Ext.nd is just one framework among many and not the most popular. If it were me picking, I'd be looking for something covering frameworks in a more general way.

I know you're good at what you do, and I'm sure your presentation would be excellent. I'd just personally need to see a more broad approach -- in pacticular Dojo and YUI would be tops on my list.

Hi Dan -
I thin compliance is important, but needs to be driven by internal compliance officers. Compliance at Lotusphere would of necessity be very US centric. May I suggest that this would make a better BOF?

My point, Martijn, isn't really about this post or that post carrying votes like this. If Bruce wants to know which are really a problem, server logs are easily checked.

The bigger issue is one I've discussed with Mac and others on several occasions, which is that unless there is a cost of some kind to vote -- some risk in the game -- this isn't really a market based idea management tool.

In a corporate environment, where all the people are known and authentication is more well tracked, the issue is much less important. I don't like seeing IdeaJam used in any official capacity by IBM for any issue that really matters, however, because it is frankly too easy to game.

I've said before that in the past I'd shown Bruce a couple of much more sophisticated ways to game the system; as I've also down with Yancy over on Planet Lotus. In those instances, it would be extremely difficult to tell. It doesn't really matter much unless and until someone starts using systems like this for valid data.

I think if you take a look at the other items in this category, the voting patterns do not match this one. This is the only one so full of names that do not otherwise participate in the community. To me, that inference is fairly obvious.

In the case of using this category for Lotusphere sessions, you're essentially polling a small group of friends who do not represent the majority of skillsets at Lotusphere, and who are unlikely to attend many sessions themselves. There's no harm in posting her, unless you make the mistake of believing the results represent anything but a list of ideas.

I posted my sessions here because Mac has requested it. I know for a fact that there are speakers who do not use this method for the very reasons I'm talking about.

My pointing out what is to me an obvious case of astroturfing -- regardless of your knowledge of it -- is to point out how easy it is to play those games and what a tricky thing it is to track down.

In essence, I simply want to point out the invalidity of the data.

I can make the same point by saying that in a few hours I've achieved several more votes for my own items simply because I have a blog that is widely read, and I've posted links to my ideas. Does that make the idea more valid? No, it does not. It shows that I can get people to click links more, because I'm asking more people to do it.

Is there more vote farming here? If so, I am disgusted. If not, I am amazed by some coincidences.

Are all of these regular IdeaJam users? If I am wrong, you'll have my deepest appology -- and its likely at least one or two of these are perfectly valid. Still, this represents 10 of 35 current votes, and all I did was a very quick first pass look.

7 of these have never voted before or since.

of the remaining:

1 voted 36 times in 12 minutes, but never before or since

1 voted 5 times in 5 minutes, only NO was for the leading idea in the space, never voted otherwise before or since

1 had two other yes votes for a total of 3 in 3 minutes, but none before or since

7 out of 10 votes were made between 1:45 and 5:45

6 out of 10 votes were made at 45 minutes after the hour, (+/-) 2 minutes

If this was my server, I'd be checking IP ranges on these and posting them -- not because it matters for anything, but because it would really [anger me].

Danny Mo _____Ilionx__________9-Sep_____5:44__________Only vote Ever
Frank Visser_____No Company__________9-Sep_____4:18__________Only vote Ever
Peter Penning_____No Company__________10-Sep_____4:47__________Only vote Ever
Sjaak Ursinus_____No Company__________10-Sep_____3:01__________Only vote Ever
Mark Beijer_____No Company__________12-Sep_____14:42__________Only vote Ever
Edwin Dekker_____Ilionx __________13-Sep_____6:45__________Only vote Ever
Mac Mac _____No Company__________16-Sep_____3:45-3:57__________28 No Votes, 8 Yes Votes -- in 12 Minutes; no other IJ votes ever
Sander Zwart_____No Company__________16-Sep_____4:21-4:46__________5 Votes, all in 5 minutes, only "NO" was the current category leader
Michel Evers_____No Company__________18-Sep_____1:45-1:48__________2 other yes votes, same idea space
Jan Hariot_____No Company__________22-Sep_____8:07__________Only vote Ever

Submitted, posted here, and linked to this idea.

I don't know which is more sad -- the seriously uncool nature of it, of the truly sad and pathetic attempt itself. I mean, if you're gonna astroturf a site, at least have the respect of the audience enough not to make it so obvious.

I could do this. I've built it about a dozen times and have some fairly generalized code. It sounds pretty specific though for a whole session. I think I'd run out of things to say after 20 minutes or so.

Thanks, Bruce. Whenever I'm creating a new presentation I start with the question "If I were just starting to tackle this subject, what would I need to know?" -- and then I try really hard to make sure as much of the answer to that question ends up both in the presentation and on the slides themselves.

As far as "dry and general" -- have you ever been to one of mine?

As the author of software specifically designed to do this, I can tell you there is a big demand for simple search tools that let you control exactly what you return to the users. I'm voting yes here, though I think Domain Search needs a whole log more than just this.

lol. Why? From notes version 2.0; validation formula. @IF(fieldname !=""; @Success; @Failure("You must enter a value in this field"));

Unless I'm mistaken, I just saw that 15 minutes ago in the mail rules on my Domino 8.0 server.

James, thanks for the explanation. The difference between a script library and a code template is exactly to resolve the issues you describe. A script library is a working set of production code you can change, that impacts all the apps which use it and is shared by developers across a database or set of databases.

A code template is almost the opposite. It's a place to start from, and nothing more. Its a running start that saves you setting up your personal favorite "framework" for your code. Most of us start 90% of our agent code with the same 10 or so lines.

Why on earth should "someone like Andrew" have to go to the trouble of creating tools like that?

libraries are global, first of all; and globals are bad for things like this. Libraries are also tied to databases.

The idea here is to just define the starting point of any agent I care to write. I find that 90% of the time I start my agents with the dozen or so lines.

"ideas" in this context of "ideaJam" don't have to be huge. Some of the biggest and most obvious are unlikely to get done. Example: "Get rid of the 32k limits" or "better multitasking" -- to which my only reply could be "Duh? But are you up to writing that?" What I'm talking about here is very simple, would be a big help to my day to day work, and could actually be accomplished.

Notes isn't something you can just hand someone in a reader and expect to gain anything valuable from the experience to either party.

What in the name of the FSM are you talking about?

The ICO format allows for several sizes stored in a single file, allows transparency, and allows varying levels of color depth.

As a speaker for several years now, and one consistently in the top 10% of overall ratings -- I find it fascinating that people who do not speak have so much to say about what speakers must do.

Let me give you some speaker perspective:

1. Hundreds of submissions, many are good. Many are submitted just to try and get the discounted rate. Many are not good or are duplicates.

2. Everyone thinks they'd be good at it. It's like Steve Martin said about stand up comedy. "Everyone thinks they have a sense of humor". Speaking is exhausting, requires serious effort and requires practice and skill. More than you might think.

3. There are two or three weeks between acceptance of your submission and when slides are usually do. Sometimes, the presentations templates come out less than a couple of weeks before this due date.

4. It can take several days to prepare a good presentation. Do the math.

5. Lotusphere is the only conference I attend that does not pay 100% of my travel, hotel, conference fees, and still pay a stipend for the speaker. I'll be delivering at least six, maybe as much as 8 hours of content this year. That comes from a 2 hour jumpstart already scheduled to repeat, and two best practice sessions each an hour. This may or may not repeat depending on who goes.

Each year, at each show, the comments I get look like this:

99% are excellent, and say nothing at all or something complimentary.

At least one person complains about the room temperature. Sometimes, that person evaluates the session with all negative marks and ONLY cites the temperature in the room as a reason.

A few people complain that the content was too basic.
An equal number of people complain that the content was too complex.

1 Person complains that there is too much on the slides.
Many people thank me for putting so much on the slides.

Personally, I treat my slides as a take home parting-gift. There's way too much on them to read during a session. There are often specific url references and command line parameters or syntax. You're meant to have the slides. If they're not on show cd/dvd or web site, its because the show isn't flexible enough to deal with my changes or timeline. They are always posted to my web site within days of a show, and never require a login or registration to download them.

I've had arguments with other speakers who say you should keep your slides sparse, so people have call you and hire you. There are many who say keep your slides sparse so they are not distracting or hard to read.

Don't read my slides in the session. You don't want me to read them to you in the session either. They're illustrating a point. I'm talking. If you're reading my slides, I'm failing to be interesting.

I put these in as file resources, but its not as good.

It should be like moving files from one explorer window to another.

I should be able to grab a url from firefox or IE, drag it to the task bar entry for the notes client, (which opens that client in the window) and drop it on any document opened in edit mode. THAT part works. BUT, once its dropped it should automatically become a url hotspot. That it does not do.

Some perspective here people:

@Craig - You can insert a fully blank slide in the deck and make any diagram you want. I've done it for years.

@Mika - My own slides are created to serve two purposes. The remind me what I wanted to talk about at that point in the presentation, and they contain the data you may want to use later.

I don't read my slides, and I don't really mean for you to read them too closely either. I mean for you to take them with you. Many of my slides contain syntax examples or other such things that there is NO WAY you should remember from the presentation. Take home (or download from my site) the slide deck, and you're ready to get started.

I've had heated arguments with other speakers over this. One person (I won't name him, but I attended his xml presentation once and found it incomprehensible) swears by the method of putting nothing of value on the slides. He says if you put value on them, then people can download them and use them without paying you to come help. He wants people to call him because they have to. I want people to call me because they want to.