About

Yeh, It’s all about ME….

I am a Lotus Notes/Domino developer living in Northern Virginia. What does THAT mean? Take a look here to see what Domino is all about.

I started using “Notes” back in the early 90’s, with v3.0. I was working as a technical support manager, and the department had the need for Notes. Our company had purchased another company that used Notes, and the IT department didn’t want to support it, so my team and I set out to install it and learn as much as we could about it. We built a computer network and a Domino domain completely from scratch. When I say “from scratch” I mean that we also built the computers, as well as the network. We also installed all of the software from scratch. My team had some basic knowledge of computers and networks, but we cracked the books and became very proficient at it.

From there I began developing applications that we could use internally, and that morphed into applications that our field engineers could use. Since our IT department did not want to support Notes, it was once again up to my team and I to purchase laptops, load the software, set up the applications and provide the training necessary for the field engineers to be able to use the systems. What an experience! We used to call ourselves the “Pioneers” because we were forging new ground with every project.

That first glimpse into what Notes could do was the beginning of an evolutionary learning process. I’ve been through Admin, Development, Architecture, Consulting, and always learning more about the product and what it is capable of.

When the Internet was first gaining popularity, people at the company that I worked for would say, “We need an Intranet”, and my response would be “We already have an Intranet, it’s called ‘Lotus Notes’ “.

As the Internet developed over the years, Lotus has added much functionality to the product to accommodate the new technologies that encompass Web development. This has also been an interesting experience because as the web technologies grew, and Notes support for those technologies grew, it meant that Notes developers had to keep up with the new technologies.

I’ve enjoyed the challenges I’ve faced in the Domino environment, as well as the opportunity to learn the new web based technologies, and how to mash them together for use on the web.