Here’s an article from TechWeb which says that the next release of Lotus Notes/Domino will probably focus heavily on the Internet and will be built with multiple partners.

esna ltd. has announced that it has launched a free Domino hosting service. The service will allow any individual or company to host up to 5MB on a Linux or NT server running Domino R5. esna only requires that the user puts an esna banner ad on their Home Page.

Lotus announced that registration for Lotusphere 2000 has been closed, having reached its registration maximum for the eighth annual conference. The company is encouraging customers and business partners who are unable to attend Lotusphere 2000 in Florida to consider attending the 1999 Lotusphere Europe, which will be held October 25 to 29 in Berlin, Germany at the International Congress Center.

Eloquent announced that Lotus has chosen Eloquent’s Enterprise Communications Portal Server to communicate product and strategy information to the Lotus and IBM sales forces worldwide. Lotus is currently rolling out a series of Eloquent-based projects under the name Portable Presenter. Each is designed to keep the sales force informed of new developments and products such as Lotus Notes, Lotus Domino R5 and Lotus’ many knowledge management initiatives.

Trend Micro announced shipment of its Domino R5-compatible Lotus Notes virus protection software on Windows NT, ScanMail for Lotus Notes V2.0. ScanMail 2.0 provides enhanced protection by incorporating a new file blocking feature for emergency virus alert situations (which can also be used to block bandwidth- consuming non-productive email such as personal greeting cards), automatically cleaning virus-infected zipped file attachments, and detecting potentially malicious Notes scripts.

News.com has this article on Thoughtstar’s QuickTeam Express corporate portal software. This is a limited version that is available for free.

Here’s an article from the Australian Financial Review on Sausage Software’s acquisition of Knowledge Works. The article says that the newly acquired company will give Sausage Software Web development expertise in the Lotus Notes platform.

The Learning Continuum Company’s distance learning course teaches the JavaScript language and how to use JavaScript in a Domino R5 application. TLCC’s course is downloaded from their Web site and installed on your local computer. Instructor support is provided electronically by TLCC’s instructors.

PC World has an interview with Mike Zisman, executive vice president for strategy at Lotus Development and vice president of strategy for IBM. In the interview, he talks about knowledge management and real-time collaboration.

PC Magazine posted this chart which provides a side-by-side comparison of Nores/Domino R5, Novell’s GroupWise 5.5, and Microsoft’s Exchange.