By Steve Niles
Pack your bags! It's time to head off to Florida once again for all the fun in the sun at Lotusphere 2002 (at http://www.lotus.com/home.nsf/welcome/lotusphereorlando). The event runs from January 27-31, 2002 at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. If you've never been to Lotusphere before, you can get an idea of what you're in store for by checking out DominoPower's coverage of Lotusphere 2001 in the February 2001 issue. The article, "Lotusphere exhibits and exhibitionists," by Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz presents a gallery of Lotusphere exhibitors and shares some of what he and the rest of the DominoPower staff learned during their journey around the showroom floor. That's at http://www.dominopower.com/issues/issue200102/exhibitors001.html. His article, "Lotusphere through the digital lens," meanwhile uses digital photography to try to capture the feel of the show, from the sessions, through the halls, to what it was really like to be there. For those of you who did attend last year, this can be a fond reminder of great times and help you prepare for next month's Lotusphere 2002. That article is at http://www.dominopower.com/issues/issue200102/day001.html.
But now it's time to look forward to the exciting sessions Lotusphere 2002 has in store for you. Let's dive right in and see what you can expect.
Track One: IT management
Lotusphere, like many major conferences, is organized into "tracks," groups of sessions that fit a particular interest area or group.
This year, Track One focuses on IT management strategy and planning. Sessions cover topics such as next generation collaboration strategy, the role of messaging solutions within your collaborative IT infrastructure, understanding the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of enterprise messaging solutions, strategies and trends for the electronic workplace, new collaborative product ideas, privacy concerns in your email and applications, and advice on software as a service.
Track Two: application development
This year's Track Two covers application development. It's designed to help you get up to speed up on the latest code, development tools, languages, programming techniques, and future technologies. Sessions include developing on the Sametime platform for real-time collaboration, development tools for working with Rnext, programing Java in Notes, installing and configuring Domino and WebSphere, developing applications for WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and handheld devices with Domino EveryPlace and Mobile Notes, advanced topics in Domino Designer Rnext, building applications using WebSphere Studio, Lotus Connector classes for enterprise data, programming with Web Services and Domino, processing "Any" XML (Extended Markup Language) with Domino Rnext, using public and private UDDI (Universal Description Discovery and Integration) registries, dynamic HTML topics and tips, and what's new in the Lotus C API (Applications Programming Interface) Toolkit for Rnext.