I must admit I'm getting a bit tired of the paranoia in the Domino community over Lotus Workplace.  At the UK Admin-Developer conference, Bill Hume spoke about Workplace and some of the plans, and I again had the odd feeling that IBM has pulled a reverse Trojan Horse on us.  Imagine you are in an embattled city, and your enemy pulls up a humongous, villainous monster horse with fiery eyes and dark smoke coming from its nostrils.  In abject fear, you open the gates to surrender and the horse rolls in.  Fearing the worst, you fall to your knees and await sure death, when you hear an odd creaking noise and open your eyes to see dancing girls with garlands in their hair dancing out of the horse and handing out flowers to everyone.

OK, maybe it isn't quite that rosy, but the more I hear about Lotus Workplace, the more I think it may be like IBM buying Lotus the first time.  Doom and gloom, and the savior of the dream, all in one fell swoop.  I am not sure even IBM planned it this way, but rather than slowly fading into obscurity, as Notes/Domino has threatened to do a few times over the last few years, Lotus Workplace may be breathing new life into collaboration.  Along with Microsoft finally, belatedly, getting the idea that collaboration might be worth something, IBM has gotten the idea that they might have an ace in the hole with Notes/Domino as part of their Lotus Workplace vision.  Sure, they are a bit clumsy about expressing it, but I think the barbarians at the gate might be just what we needed.  Invite them in, fellow Notes/Domino advocates, and see if they don't bring some flowers for us all.

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