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Next week: RSDC 2007! Tue, 2007.06.05

Posted by tevirselrahc in blogging, ibm, rational, systems.
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Until last year, I had not missed a Rational conference since Seattle. I was always one of the last ones to sit down on opening day. Last year, I was doing governance stuff, and I did not get to go. This year, I am back at it, bringing Systems Development to the masses – at lease, the RSDC attendees.

RSDC is in Orlando, FL. More precisely, at the Swan and Dolphin, right next to Epcot – yes, on the Disney lot. This may seem exciting, but if previous conferences are any indication, I will not have time to see the attractions. This year, I will be manning the Systems tech preview pedestal in the solution centre^H^Her. And if you want to see what we will be doing, you will have to some and see me. And if you’re really nice, I may even give you nice demos…

I guess I should really take that occasion to start blogging again. I have been rather sporadic. Mostly because of work (and process…).

One of the interesting aspects of this year’s RSDC is that many events will be held in Second Life. IBM has spent a lot of money within this virtual world and I guess we need to expand our (already large) presence. I do have an avatar in SL, but I can’t access from my laptop. I hope there will be computers at the conference where I can get it – but I would probably have to let customers have their fun…

Rational Software Development Conferene 2007

Old blog: imported! Tue, 2007.02.06

Posted by tevirselrahc in blogger, blogging.
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Thanks to Kelly (who thanked Andy), I learned that I could now import from Blogger the few posts I had over there. The process was very easy and all was done very quickly (considering I had very few posts to start with…).

Thanks to the WordPress crew for the good work!

Technorati Mon, 2007.02.05

Posted by tevirselrahc in blogging.
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Well, I have created a Technorati Profile and I needed to create this post to claim it. So now it’s done!

User + Great Product = Passion Fri, 2006.12.29

Posted by tevirselrahc in blogging, product-management, user-centric.
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Passionate users are what anyone would want for their products. They are what causes viral marketing and are a major factor in retention. And the best part is that you typically don’t have to goad them to talk about your product! But how do you get these users?!? The simple answer is “make a great product”! Well, that would be too simple… Making a product is easy, making a product that users will use is difficult, and making a product about which users will be passionate is close to a miracle!

For example, look at all the blogs out there. How many are truly popular blogs? Well, this one is not (yet!). It was very easy to create this blog and there are a few readers, but I do not think it has created a passion just yet. Interestingly, my internal blog at IBM is faring better – but then there are things I can say on the internal blog that would get me fired if I put them here… And what about all those open source applications on SourceForge? What makes one succeed and another one fail?

All that to say that there is a blog that can help open up your eyes about the user experience: Creating Passionate Users. This one has been in my syndication feed for a while, but I have renewed my interest in it since I am getting back into product management – and will therefore be looking for those users who are passionate!

In the interest of research, I will leave you with a question: Have you ever found a product for with you were passionate? If so, what pushed you from content to passionate user?

IBM Bloggers Wed, 2006.11.29

Posted by tevirselrahc in blogging, ibm, secondlife.
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There are many blogs and sites out there that list the myriad of IBM bloggers. I actually have a few listed in my own blogroll, but that is just a small list of the people! You have to realise that IBM is a huge company, so there is bound to be a bunch of IBMers who blog out there. I would not dream of recreating such a list – the maintenance would just be a nightmare. However, I do believe in trying to publicise what IBMers do! So here are a few links to where you can find other IBMers who blog on their own:

One of the interesting blog to check out is eightbar (named, I assume, in reference to the eight horizontal bars making up the IBM logo). This blog is all about the presence of IBMers in the SecondLife virtual world. [Note to self: I do have to get a new video card so I can join that community!]

IBM also has a thriving internal blogging community and I would invite any IBMer out there to go visit it (contact me if you have no idea where it is)!