This afternoon, while chatting with Joyce Davis about the agenda for our August 2009 Lotus Technical Information and Education Community Meeting, we had the following exchange:

Chris Toohey I worked on an article last night. Sure, might not be everyone's cup of tea but it's showcasing a development technique that will be the basis for future-proofing applications - regardless of the technology platform used. Readership so far is luke warm.

Joyce A Davis you posted it in the wiki?

Chris Toohey no, not too sure if it fits in there.

Chris Toohey it's stuff that, well, out of context would be confusing to say the least - it might be too niche.

Joyce A Davis Chris, nothing is too niche for the wikis. People won't read it if it's not interesting/important to them.

Chris Toohey ok, you've convinced me.

Admittedly, it wasn't a hard sell. I absolutely believe that the Domino Designer Wiki is an excellent resource for the greater Lotus Development community... but I was hesitant nonetheless.

I'll explain.

On my site, I can post whatever nonsense I want. I can post about some off-the-wall concept that's crawled into my brain that hour or bang out a few quick examples of the playground-level thing that I'm working on at the moment.

The idea of cross-posting my Now() + n series to the Domino Designer Wiki just never occurred to me, more because I felt that the Wiki is a location for more best practices approaches while (especially in this series) my work is often intended for non-RAD developers.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that I'm some uber-l33t coder or something like that - I just don't that most of the things I discuss here will really find their way into the day-to-day development practices for the occasional reader of this site.

Back to the point: Joyce is absolutely correct. The Domino Designer Wiki is the perfect place to put such an article. It's not only a concept that I believe it, but it's something that - if properly adopted - can save a developer countless hours of hack-work to achieve the ever-changing functionality that your customers demand.

So I plan to cross-post each of my Now() + n articles to the Domino Designer Wiki, and have started with my first: Leveraging MVC-style design techniques in Domino Application Development.

This way, my article not only has the potential to reach more readers, but I can work with the Domino Wiki Leads - as I mentioned the other day - and get developerWorks Author Achievement Recognition Program points... for something as simple as copy/pasting my own content.

And I'm not the only one doing this. Another member of our community - who has recently been producing some truly amazing content - is in talks with the program leads to ensure that the cross-posting of his content is recognized.

So whether you run your own website or not, just keep in mind that no content is too niche, too simple, or too "well everybody knows that!" for the IBM Domino Designer Wiki.

Tomorrow - July 28th @ 11:00AM EASTERN - we're having our monthly LTIE Community Meeting.

This month we'll cover news from the information development team, welcome two Lotus Online Community members to share their stories with the audience, and - our special topic of the month - discuss how we can leverage social networks and social media to proactively answer the questions of IT professionals and Lotus customers.

For more information - including dial-in and online web conference info - please see the post for the July Lotus Technical Information and Education Community Meeting.

And for those of you actively using some of the social networks that will be discussed during tomorrow's meeting, feel free to check out the Lotus Technical Information and Education Community on Facebook as well as the LTIEC's official Twitter feed @LotusTechInfo.

And if you already do plan on attending, do your part and bring a friend; the more people that get the message the better!

Option 1 of our Community Kickoff meeting today went without a hitch! We defined the objectives of the initiative, showcased not only the IBM Lotus Notes Domino Wiki but also the previewed the XPages-based Wiki template that will soon hit developerWorks, and established what Lotus Advocates already knew: this IBM initiative is about using the technology and collaborative tools in and beyond our products portfolio to establish and maintain connections with customers, subject matter experts, business partners, and IBM key players.

Joyce Davis, the Community and Program Manager, has published today's presentation online in case you missed the meeting (or, like some were stuck in your car during the call!):

If you missed this morning's conference call and presentation, there's always Option 2, which takes place tonight at 8PM Eastern (click-thru the link for all conference information).

And if you haven't done so yet, check out Lotus Greenhouse, which will act as the home for this community initiative, which you can find here (Lotus Greenhouse Login Required).

Once you've signed up, feel free to connect to me via their public Sametime server at sametime.lotus.com, where you'll be able to connect to other community members as well!

You are cordially invited to the Lotus Technical Information and Education community kickoff!  Our community consists of IBMers, business partners and customers who contribute to or use technical information for Lotus & WebSphere Portal products, as well as those who have worked with the Lotus Information Development Center to provide feedback to help improve our offerings.

I believe I will be - despite all logic and good taste - speaking as the LTIEC Lead Advocate. So feel free to attend to hear about our community building strategy and learn how you can get involved, as well as listen to me stagger through being given the mic and trying not to sound too foolish!

Get more information on the LTIEC's team blog including the date, times, and call-in information!

I haven't had a Nokia phone in years (last one was an E-61), but this service alone makes me want to go back to the E-series... not that it's required (from what I can tell) for Easy Meet.

Not a cheap-shot, but rather a genuine desire: I'd love to see similar product "real world" demo videos for our beloved Lotus products!

[ via EngadgetMobile.com ]