There is a slew of announcements from Sphere 2007, and one sort of unannouncement, expanding yet simplifying the product portfolio, once you get your mind round it all. Expected, and coming soon (beta in February, Gold in mid year), Notes and Domino 8, aka "Hannover," the new Eclipse-based Notes client, with a new Domino to support it, service it and provision it. News that Notes and Domino will go on for as long as there's a demand--20 years more, if need be. We've not seen ND8 yet, but ND"Next" is already on the drawing board, and some ideas may even have to wait for ND"Next"+1. Then Sametime 7.5.1 will add a Mac client, a Linux server, video chats and more, in or around April. WebSphere Portal Express 6.0 will ship in January--this month, now, with a whole lot of new portal stuff. And really new: Lotus Quickr replaces Quickplace (well, really it's QP 8) in Q2, and looks quite cool. More cool is Lotus Connections, business-oriented social software, also round the end of Q2 or early Q3. Unannounced? Lotus Workplace. It's gone, subsumed into other things or just gone. More in detail when we get back from Orlando and have time to make sense of it all.

Mick Moignard
Senior Technical Editor