Thomas Duff has started a discussion that falls well in line with my original intent of this blog:
http://www.duffbert.com/duffbert/blog.nsf/d6plinks/TADF-94Y7KP
For 5 years, I had a healthy mix of both platforms. In the 2nd half of 2012, I did not touch Notes for 6 months, while working a 100% SharePoint contract. Now, I have a permanent job in a Notes shop, where SharePoint does not exist, so I am not even thinking about SharePoint.
And you know how I feel about the discussions of Notes vs. SharePoint now? Happy to NOT be part of it. I tossed my one and only piece of advice to the community out into the comments, to be taken or left as you will.
But so much of Notes vs. SharePoint gets caught up in emotion, politics, marketing, and money… not just from the community, but from the product management coming out of both IBM and Microsoft.
I cannot be an evangelist for either platform. I am competent in both platforms, and I evaluate the platforms on their own merits (and faults). I am happy to work with whatever platform will meet the needs of my organization.
I sense that most Notes folk who move away from Notes end up in this same place — more technology agnostic, looking at technology platforms simply as toolkits, and not letting any one vendor become part of your own self-identification.
And really, when people get to that place, work environments improve. People work together to reach common goals, not personal agendas. It is a better place. A happy place. A lot of us are already there. We hope the rest of you can join us.
I couldn’t state it any better myself. It’s taken me a while to come about to the view of “it’s all just technology for solving business problems”. Now that I’m there and can view things a bit more dispassionately, I cringe when I see people who are out to change the world based on sold-out commitment to a vendor or platform.If you love that work and it’s paying the bills, great. If it touches something deep within you, that’s wonderful. But at the end of the day, the vendor will go in whatever direction they want, and it may not be where you were all set to go. Cue the panic, anger, disillusionment, and confusion as you desperately reassess your technology and career choices in the midst of a personal (and potentially a financial crisis).
At my age, I’m too old to go through that again…
My goal with the series of blog posts is not to “convert” anyone. There’s nothing to convert TO! It’s to offer up some basic information about SharePoint, given from the perspective of something you already know… Notes and Domino. Then, when your boss comes in and asks if you want to lead a SharePoint project, or if you’re on a plane and your seatmate offers up his (it’s almost always a “him”) informed opinion that “Notes sucks”, you can engage or disengage with a basic understanding of what each side offers, where they might work better or worse, and decide if you really want to get involved.
And true confession time… I know certain people in the Notes community have, over the years, moved to Microsoft and/or SharePoint, and attempted to do something similar to what I’m looking at taking on. I was not convinced or complimentary of their efforts, as I was certain that the end goal was to get people to leave Notes and embrace “the Dark Side”. I couldn’t conceive of a vendor (Microsoft) hiring someone to give Notes/SharePoint integration demos at conferences and such, unless there was something in it for them. Warm fuzzies and harmonious kum-ba-yas don’t cut it when it comes to quarterly goals and financial statements.
I would *like* to think I’ve moved beyond that “us vs.them” mentality now, and that everyone has a goal to sell you something. Having said that, I would not blame anyone if they looked at me and wondered what I’m trying to get out of this. The answer to that question is… karma? Cosmic kudos? I really don’t know… Why do people spend time and money to develop content for conferences, and then take the risk to present that in front of hundreds… especially if they don’t work for a vendor who will find a way to monetize that time and effort? It’s because we like sharing with others… nothing more (I think) and nothing less. We get a rush from speaking and writing, sharing with others, and having people thank us for helping them out.
I feel a sense of gratitude and debt to those who have helped me get to where I am today. They took the time to share what they know and invest in others… Think of it as the “pay it forward” concept. I’m trying to do the same thing from a slightly different (but no less common) angle. You’re being presented with a challenge/crisis/opportunity that will upset your status quo, and you don’t even know what you don’t know. I would like to be that person who gives you that basic roadmap that shows large landmarks, and from there you can decide on your individual path based on what you now know and what is of interest to you. That’s really about it.
And now I’ll return this blog to it’s regularly scheduled programming, and let the moderator kick me off my soapbox.