Lotus Notes + Internet = Facebook?

Remember how "groupware" software such as Lotus Notes was supposed to make it easy for knowledge workers to collaborate, share ideas and track work in progress,.

Lotus Notes never conquered the world because of a kludgy interface, the need to maintain multiple Notes servers and the slow and network-hogging replication of databases among those servers. Companies I worked for tried and failed to use Notes for everything from story scheduling to a "knowledge base" where reporters could share sources. (Sociologists take note: Reporters hate to share sources the way salesmen hate to share leads.)

In each case, Notes eventually was used only as an email client - and a very slow and ugly email client it was.

Now, fast forward to "MySpace," "Facebook" and other social networking sites where users (mostly those younger than yours truly) are constantly checking each other's status, schedules and general well-being. These sites have replaced, or at least reduced, the need for, email and IM because they let people:

Quickly update schedules or make plans without scrolling through dozens of spam emails;

Create, promote and communicate within groups organized around a common interest without searching for email addresses and creating custom email lists, and

Send and receive information on their own schedule without the interruptions of IM.

Why have Facebook and similar sites taken off when Lotus Notes didn't? I draw three lessons:

Keep it simple, stupid - REAL simple. If the user interface is hard to use, it will never make it really, really big - especially if you're depending on viral marketing via the Web.

Infrastructure counts. Lotus didn't have the advantage of using the Internet as a low-cost wide-area network, and couldn't have predicted it was coming. Hence, installation and maintenance costs were too high for too long for too many customers.

Business models count. Social networking sites spread site development and maintenance costs across hundreds of thousands or even millions of users, and offer the service at little or no cost by selling ads. You can't charge company employees for access or sell ad space on your internal company site (although I bet someone will try someday.)

Timing is everything. Ray Ozzie saw a real problem, but tried to solve it before the appropriate technology and business models were there to make the answer possible.

Speaking of Web-based groupware, Wikis are supposed to be the new age, Web 2.0 collaboration tool of choice. Is anyone out there using them, and do they work?

Comments

[Ed Brill]

Interesting use of past tense to describe Lotus Notes. There are 46,000 organizations around the world using Notes today, and it has been gaining market share. Today, Notes/Domino offer blog, wiki, and other social networking capabilities. Check out the Domino site at http://ideajam.net for one example.

Lotus also offers a product now called Connections (lotus.com/connections) which is built all around the notion of social networking and user empowerment.

[Bob Scheier]

Hello, Ed, and your point is well taken that Notes is still around and well. My point was that it never reached the broad level of acceptance that social networking sites have, and its use hasn't penetrated (I would still argue) beyond organizations with the substantial technical resources needed to maintain it. I would also argue that wikis are in some ways a reinvention of what Notes was meant to be originally -- allow people to share ideas and work in progress. But again, point well taken and thanks for your interest.

[Arne Sigurd Rognan Nielsenwww.mynotesblog.com]

Bob;
I used to be a journalist and chief editor for 18 years. In my time we always did research before we wrote articles or comments. Your comment here indicates that you forgot that - it seems you are, or may be don't want to be, updated on what has happened to IBM's Lotus brand for the last years. Check out the URL's that Ed gave you - and then comment. Lotus is the first company that brings social computing into the professional world.

- arne

[Bob Scheier]

I have checked out those URLs. Arne, and even the links from those sites to stories in Business Week, CIO, etc. show Notes as one of applications being used for professional social networking -- but not the only or even leading application. My point is that while Notes is still a viable tool for many organizations, it took applications like Facebook and MySpace and the Web to drive the exponential growth in collaboration and social networking.

Am I missing something re: Notes' market share or market leadership? Thanks for your interest and posting, Arne.