Groupware News

There is a fundamental difference between dissension and just being a douche.

In today’s entry, Nathan Freeman rightly really takes some to task about some of the bitching and moaning that’s going round.

Do people really forget Y2K, then when the Dot.Com bubble burst and how shitty things were? No one spent money unless it was Y2K related. And, once the bubble burst, people spent even less. Does anyone remember trying to find a Notes-Domino gig in the U.S. between the fall of 2000 and winter/spring 2004? It was next to impossible. How about trying to name names of who was running Notes at the time? That too was impossible.

I remember all of it far too well.

Today, we have perhaps the most exciting platform available anywhere in IT. There are more people discussing our technologies than ever before, major press coverage is outstanding and IBM finally has its act together with it’s yellow peeps. IBM is winning new business. It is sizable AND they are finally talking about some of the specifics. With more to come I’m sure.

This truly is a great time to be a Notes Professional.

If you doubt this, try explaining the Lotus Portfolio and what it can do to one of your non-Notes colleagues. Provided they haven’t drunk too much Red(mond) Bull, their heads will explode! I’ve had the opportunity to do this over the past few months and the jaw dropping has been nothing short of fantastic … AND I’M NOT EVEN A DEVELOPER! Some of the stuff you coders do amazes me. OpenNTF is stupendous!

I’m not saying that there isn’t room for improvement or even criticism. That’s the nature of our business and there always will be. However, you’ve got to realize that we are in an amazing time right now with our technology. It should be savored, enjoyed and lauded. You don’t know how long it will be here.

Now, everybody quit the complaining, hold hands and let’s all start singing F-ing Kumbaya!

No one said anything yet … so I thought I would. The description is there. We’re just waiting on the files. It should be any minute now…

I heard from RIM yesterday about the status of the Certification Beta Programs.

The beta program for “Supporting the BES in a Domino Environment” exam, BCX-211, has closed. There are, however, two other Domino related exams currently in beta.

* BCX-411 – “Maintaining a BlackBerry Enterprise Server in an IBM Lotus Domino Environment". This results in the BlackBerry Certified System Administrator certification and fulfills the administrative component of the BlackBerry Certified Solution Designer certification

* BCX-611 – “Designing and Deploying a BlackBerry solution in an IBM Lotus Domino Environment". This fulfills the Design component of the BlackBerry Certified Solution Designer certification

Both betas will run until September 13th. RIM is accepting applications and interest in this beta, but can’t guarantee everyone an invitation.

I received an invite to both. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do both by the 13th but will let you know how it goes. If anyone takes them, please let us know.

For more info, email the BlackBerry Certification Program Team: certification@blackberry.com or www.blackberry.com/certification

RIM is looking for a few more people to beta test the “BCX-212 – Supporting a BlackBerry Enterprise Server in an IBM Lotus Domino Environment” certification exam. The exam has to be completed by August 31st.

The beta exam covers between 150 and 180 questions that need to be completed in under 4 hours. When you register with RIM, you’ll receive a voucher for 50% off the beta test. Normally the exam is (US)$150 but the voucher makes it $75.

Should you pass the test, you’ll receive the corresponding BlackBerry certification. For participating, you’ll receive a voucher for 50% off a future BlackBerry Certification test. That voucher will come in handy when you go to take one of the other certification tests under development.

I’m sorry to say, other than the US, I don’t know to what regions this program is open. The contact info is below but if I hear, I’ll pass that along.

RIM has 4 certs under development. There is only 1 non-Domino test/cert. It is test “BCX-211 Supporting BlackBerry Devices in an Enterprise Environment.” As the name implies, it is device related. All others have a Domino related test and none have been released.

The certs are:

• BlackBerry Certified Support Specialist
• BlackBerry Certified Server Support Specialist
• BlackBerry Certified System Administrator
• BlackBerry Certified Solution Designer

Future certifications might include:

• BlackBerry® Certified Enterprise Application Developer
• BlackBerry Certified Trainer
• BlackBerry Sales Expert
• BlackBerry Expert User

Future certifications for organizations may include:

• BlackBerry Certified Reseller
• BlackBerry Certified Training Center

I took the BCX-212 test a couple weeks ago. If I recall correctly, I think I was lucky and got to answer all 180 questions. I’m not sure how they determined how many questions I got. I guess it means I’m either a great big idiot or really good?

For a review, all I really did was look at the documentation and maybe a few technotes. I don’t know how I did because RIM isn’t releasing that until after the beta closes. So, yes, I’m being selfish by putting this out there … I want to know if I’m a dope or a genius!

For more info, email the BlackBerry Certification Program Team: certification@blackberry.com or www.blackberry.com/certification

Wishing you and yours a Very Safe and Happy Ye118w Day … I think we should all go wassailing but I haven’t any good Ye118w Day carols as of yet.