Trade Magazine Writer Offers Mea Culpa on Lotus Notes/Domino

Back on January 5, 2005 I wrote a critique of Stephen Swoyer's "Conquering the Spreadsheet Compliance Nightmare" that appeared on the web site of the IT Compliance Institute. My biggest problem was with the way Lotus Notes and Domino was seemingly pulled out of left field and trashed as a tool to assist in compliance efforts.

In my last paragraph, I challenged the author (and the consultant he quoted) with the following:

"If you are going to bring a discussion of a technology out of left field, make sure what you write or say about reflects a basic understanding of the strengths and weakness of that technology. Making bold statements as was done in this article does nobody any good. There is good information in the article, but it loses credibility when one technology is criticized without understanding and the article turns into an advertorial for other products."

I then sent an email with a link to this critique to the editor of the publication and Stephen responded today, giving me his permission to reprint his response here. That is the kind of writer I like: one not afraid to take the heat for what they write.

Hello ... and Christopher,

Thanks for your e-mail. First of all, I do see your point re: singling out
Lotus Notes/Domino in the story. I did not intend to suggest that this is a
unique problem in Notes/Domino environments, but -- having read your e-mail,
Christopher -- I understand that some readers will (not unreasonably) take
it that way. The example in question was actually gleaned from Mr. Kugel,
who suggested it in my interview with him. (I excerpted his remarks in the
story.) This in no way exculpates me, of course: As I now know, thanks to
the analysis on your Web site, it was a bad example and I should not have
used it. There are other, better (and technically feasible) examples I could
have used.

I do think that Mr. Kugel was offering a generic example -- he could easily
have used Microsoft Exchange or Novell GroupWise, for example (although I do
not believe that either of these offerings has spawned so extensive an
ecosystem of custom applications) -- and did not intend specifically to
desparage (sic) Notes and Domino. Nevertheless, the use of Notes and Domino in
this context was, as you've astutely pointed out, question-begging and
technically incorrect. It was, I concede, a decidedly unfit example.

I would like to say that I do try and keep an open mind about all technology
platforms. I have just written a piece on Notes and Domino for Application
Development Trends magazine for which I spoke with several Notes/Domino
programmers and administrators, all of whom had uniformly positive things to
say about the strengths of that offering. Once again, it was not my
intention to specifically single out and desparage Notes and Domino.

My apologies, and thanks for your thoughtful criticism.

So here is my challenge to the members of the Lotus Community. Take a moment to thank Mr. Swoyer for his candid response. He will be covering Lotusphere 2005 remotely from Athens, Georgia hopefully doing some interviews via teleconference with selected IBM Executives (maybe even Ed Brill?). You can find some of his writings about Notes/Domino (and other products) via a Google search.

When I get back to Athens from Orlando, he and I are going to sit down for a cup of Joe.