Caledonia

I have to say that I had such a great time at GWAVACon this year. Part of it was because I’m still a San Diego girl at heart and I got to see some old friends, but mostly it was because I just really like this conference. Over the years it has grown so far past being just a “GWAVA” conference into being a vital can’t miss “GroupWise” conference. I love BrainShare for all of the bustle and excitement and being able to stretch my brain into areas that I don’t often look at holed up in my GroupWise World. But GWAVACon is where I want to be when I need a real GroupWise shot in the arm. For me as a speaker that means some one-on-one time with folks I “chat” with in my virtual world all year long, taking the time to appreciate some face time and discussions with my peers/friends/family. For attendees there is plenty of that as well. Certainly seeing that you are part of a bigger GroupWise family is heartening. But the pure “GroupWise” knowledge and expertise that GWAVACon gathers together cannot be matched at any other conference.

So why not join me there in January? This year the conference is in Las Vegas (near enough to the strip to give you other diversions if the sheer thrill of GroupWise is not enough), the last week of January. Run over to www.gwavacon.com and register! They are having an early-bird special through December 6, 2008. Plus you can get an extra $100.00 off by putting “goddess” in the discount code area.

As far as what I will speak on this year, I’m still up for suggestions. Drop a comment here and let me know what you’d like to hear about!

Danita

I just spent a really great week in Austria and Germany for the GroupWise and Friends conference (and then on to Switzerland for a couple of days of R&R).  I had a WONDERFUL time, and have to thank Marco Mikulits for being a WONDERFUL tour guide during my stay.  I was especially grateful for the time he spent showing me Vienna, and feel that for a 3 day stay I got to see quite a bit considering that a good portion of 2 days was spent inside the conference center!

For each of the Austria and Germany events, I presented a 4 hour “GroupWise on Linux” session as a “pre-event special day”, and then a short presentation on the GWIA during their “big day event”.  Marc Conradty was a co-presenter in that session, and I believe it was well received.

While I attempted to do the sessions in German, I was often side-swiped by my slides and forced back to English when my poor brain wouldn’t translate quickly enough in my head.  While I might be able to speak decent German, I realize I will never make a living as an interpreter!

Thanks to everyone in the GroupWise and Friends community who made this trip possible. Hope to see you again soon!

Danita

A fellow GroupWise enthusiast contacted me recently to let me know that he thought an “I Love GroupWise” group should be initiated on Facebook.  There were a couple of less positive groups on the site, and while there were also a number of pro-GroupWise groups, none was really “active and visible”.  So, we created the I LOVE NOVELL GROUPWISE group.

There has been a lot of discussion of Social Networking lately among various groups that I’m associated with.  Some people think it’s a vital part of a total “Web Presence” for a company.  Others find Social Networking a waste of their time.  My take on it is as long as it’s important for one of Novell or Caledonia’s customers, then it’s important to us as well!

So, if you are a fan of GroupWise and Social Networking, come on over and join in.  You can find us here.  And as a GroupWise fan, you will also be interested in Omni-TS’s Facebook Integration tool for GroupWise!

See you there!

Danita

My phone turns of the sound from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. every night.  Normally this works just fine, even on weekends, but this morning at 6 a.m. my very pleasant chime that I’ve put on my Nokia E61i for email notification started chiming every couple of minutes!  I was getting hammered with “comments” added to my site (which are always moderated), and then I got a message from Google that my blog had been compromised.  It’s fixed now, but it’s annoying!

Being in the anti-spam business myself, I DO know that there must be SOME return on “investment” for these folks.  I mean, if every site blocked their missives, if no one clicked on a link, if no one bought their wares, they would stop right (well, all but the most anti-social of the bunch I guess)?  But my WordPress “spam” has become almost as back as my email spam!  All I can say is “grumble”.

So anyway, I’ve fixed the problem, and asked Google to recheck the problem, but for those of you who got a warning accessing the site this morning, so sorry!

Stay cool (I have that on the brain right now, living in the Denver area!)

Danita

I had a really good time in San Diego for GWAVACon, even though I was soooooooooo sick.  I thank all of you who attended my Saturday “Afternoon with Danita” where we pondered the ins and outs of GroupWise on Linux.  Sorry I had to sit down in the chair a few times, but that was preferable to falling down I think!

For those of you who missed it, (both the Afternoon with Danita AND GWAVACon itself), I think you missed an excellent conference.  As usual the GWAVA folks put on a wonderful show with first quality accommodation and venue.

I took some time while I was there to spend some time in my old home of Ocean Beach, and visited a friend I haven’t seen in 10 years (and her husband who I haven’t seen in about 20!).  Good times were had by all.

While I was walking around Ocean Beach, down the street where I lived, I noticed the following house, which I think embodies the spirit of the place, and made me want to go home, pack up the family and move back to Ocean Beach <heehee>.

Have a great February!

Danita