Partner panel onstage now. Includes John Carini (iEnterprises). I've known him awhile now. The panel also includes Xerox; they point out that this is unusual, as they have been a competitor. But now there is integration points between them and us.

OfficeNow - Foundation server, Notes, and Xerox's stuff such as their multifunction device. Uses Web 2.0/web services for communication. This makes sense, because the Xerox multifunction devices are often an integral part of a corporation's productivity environment, and being able to seamlessly integrate Lotus stuff with that Xerox platform is nice. Targeting towards SMB it appears.

Allistair - "these printer people are really feisty". LOL

John C. is now talking about what iEnterprises offers (CRM). They have both installed offerings and cloud offerings, and includes mobile interfaces. John has done a very nice job keeping his offering portfolio relevant. Since I've worked for a CRM app company - Synergistics (Prevail was the app) - I understand how tough that business is. John has survived in this space, where others have come and gone - Synergistics and MFJ International/Relavis to name a couple. Glad to see him being successful, he's a nice guy.

After the panel, some awards were announced. Can't type that fast. Someone else will catch it.

Mike Rhodin is now Senior VP for Software Group. He's here live.

What if? What if they build on stuff. Announcing IBM Project Vulcan. It is a sneak peek at the evolution of collaboration. Extends the products we have now, focuses on continuity, convergency, innovations, new opportunities. It is a vision for the evolution of the Lotus business products. Loosely-coupled architecture. Consistent interface across all client form factors, including mobile and browser. Sets the stage for next generation of apps. Embraces open programming model, REST apis, widgets, mashups, and HTML5. Supports SSO, search, etc. Now a demo (Ron and Suzanne)....

New inbox, very slick. Seems to seamlessly integrate with LotusLive without the need to feel like you're bouncing from app to app. Calendar is clean, and is able to seamlessly integrate peer and group calendars, ad-hoc. Can use older apps, and modernize them. Home page will aggregate info from a variety of sources, including external (twitter, etc.). Designed for fast processing, less context-switching. Search filtering happens character by character. Searches can be saved as a collection (that could prove to be handy). The dialog boxes are VERY elegant and pretty; preview is a nice touch. I like the way metadata is integrated and displayed for a resource such as a file. This will make collaboration more content-rich as well as contextual. It is even GPS-integrated for mobile devices - that is great for location-based collaboration, and I find that I like this ability in all of my mobile apps (re: GPS integration). Me likey. So far, it is slick. I'd like to play with it. It got some nice applause too.

Vulcan will be available via LotusLive Labs this year sometime.

I think Allistair is wrapping up. That's about on-time, not bad. Hope you found this useful/interesting!

Rock