IBM Connect went to the west coast of the USA, to the famous Moscone Center in the middle of San Francisco.
Last week I have attended and spoken at IBM Connect. Here are some thoughts about the event.
San Francisco
I had visited San Francisco for 3 years as end point of our road trip through the west coast. I found it and still do it a pleasant city. Not that all American, but with a bit of Europe. It is a very expensive city, especially the hotels.
I stayed at Powell Street near Market Street, a very convenient location between Union Square and Moscone Center.
Hackathon
At Monday I attended the OpenNTF Hackathon. The day started with an inspiration of Jason Gary, the new man on IBM Connection. He explained about the story behind Connections Pink.
Next, to my surprise, I received the award of the ICS World wide Development Competition, which we won.
The actual Hackathon was for our team not very successful, but that can happen. It was fun to try to build an idea into a real application.
Connections Pink
In the OGS there I saw for the first time Connections Pink, it looks impressive. Good bye Websphere and DB2 and hello NodeJS and MongoDb. Modern tooling to speed up the delivering model, in the cloud and on premise.
Later on I attended a session of Maureen Leland an Martin Donnelly about the development possibilities in Connections Pink. Looks very promising both for non technical people and the power developer, LiveGrid and Important To Me, will be your friend. Almost everything is opened up with REST API’s. Good work IBM
Domino App Development
When I first hear and see the information about the App Development strategy on Domino, I was a bit disappointed. IBM will adds a few API’s to open up Mail Contacts, Directory and Database changes and for the rest they rely on 3rd party tooling for the modernising of the applications, like Darwino and Aveedo.
After some thinking I am more positive about this approach, with REST API’s IBM will totally break free from the IBM Notes Client. And I think that is a very good thing.
As front end you can choose what you like, XPages, AngularJS, React or what ever frontend framework. It is also a clear message by IBM for all Domino Developers, to take action. Go to learn Javascript or Java. As Stephan Wissel stated in his ‘Beyond the Designer’, go learn NodeJS, Source Control and Javascript.
With this directions it opens up so many possibilities it can be overwhelming. So look around which new technologies fits you best, but also have a look which skill is needed in the marketplace. It is a good indicator where to look into.
IBM Champions
As an IBM Champion you have a good visibility, not only on the big screens with your photo and quote, but everywhere. Amanda Bauman and Libby Ingrassia did an incredible job to feel very special. Kudos for both of them.
My session
I did my session at 8 AM on Thursday morning, not the ideal time, just after the special event. Before the session I was a bit tense, not nervous, and I had the feeling it went well. Received some good feedback. I hope everyone who have attended my session has the same feeling. More details and slides, see my previous blog post.
The Future
As a developer I think it would be a good idea to merge IBM Connect in one of the bigger conferences, like IBM InterConnect or World of Watson. I think the latter will be the best fit. You can still attend the sessions from the ICS track, but ,as I am curious, you can also attend sessions from other tracks which give you the opportunity to learn new technologies and widen your focus.
Next…..
In 2,5 weeks I will fly again to the USA, to attend and speak at IBM InterConnect in Las Vegas. Looking forward to attend a very different conference with some very interesting topics. As far I know, my session will be at Wednesday 22nd of March at 2 AM.