The History of Lotus Notes
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The document details the history and evolution of Lotus Notes, starting with its origins in the early 1970s as Plato Notes, through its development by Ray Ozzie and his team at Iris Associates in the mid-1980s. It outlines key features, major releases, and the growth in user adoption, culminating in significant sales numbers across various versions until 2013. Lotus Notes transitioned from a personal information manager to a comprehensive groupware platform, incorporating innovative functionalities over the years.
The History of Lotus Notes
- 1. The History Of Lotus Notes learn. do. dream. www.redpilldevelopment.com
- 2. PLATO Group Notes Ray Ozzie Tim Halvorsen The origins of Notes can be traced back to some of the first computer programs written at the Computer-based Education Research Laboratory (CERL) at the University of Illinois. In 1973, CERL released a product called PLATO Notes. The sole function of PLATO Notes was to tag a bug report with the user's ID and the date and to make the file secure so that other users couldn't delete it. Ray Ozzie, Tim Halvorsen, and Len Kawell worked on the PLATO system in the late 1970s. All were impressed with its real-time communication. Halvorsen and Kawell later took what they learned at CERL and created a PLATO Notes-like product at Digital Equipment Corporation. At the same time, Ray Ozzie worked independently on a proposal for developing a PC-based Notes product. Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Development Corporation, saw potential in Ozzie's work and decided to invest Lotus's money for its development Len Kawell learn. do. dream. www.redpilldevelopment.com
- 3. Iris Associates In 1984, Ray Ozzie founded Iris Associates, under contract and funded by Lotus, to develop the first release of Lotus Notes. He was soon joined by Tim Halvorsen and Len Kawell. They modeled Lotus Notes after PLATO Notes, but expanded it to include many more powerful features. The original vision for Notes included on-line discussion, email, phone books, and document databases. Because networking at the time was rudimentary the developers decided to position Lotus Notes as a personal information manager (PIM) with some sharing capability. Eventually, as networking became more capable, Iris began to speak of Notes as groupware. The product took three years to complete with Lotus acquiring the rights to Notes in 1987. The head of Price Waterhouse viewed a pre-release demo of Lotus Notes and was so impressed he bought 10,000 copies before its release. learn. do. dream. www.redpilldevelopment.com
- 4. Release 1.0 December 7 1989 Groupware is born Should we build applications in the product or should we allow it to be flexible and let users do it because we don't know what they will want? Tim Halverson 35,000 copies sold Application workspace On-line Help Replication Dial-up functionality learn. do. dream. Email system Access Control Lists Non-SQL database Encryption & signing www.redpilldevelopment.com Forms/Views Macros (Formula language) Keywords (checkbox radio etc.) Doclinks
- 5. Release 2.0 1991 Scaled to support 10,000 users 200-license minimum $62,000 12 Developers Rich Text Column Totals Tables Paragraph Styles learn. do. dream. Return receipt for mail Forwarding documents Address lookup Multiple NABs www.redpilldevelopment.com C API Additional @functions Larger databases ODBC
- 6. Release 3.0 May 1993 A new UI and cross platform support 25 Developers May 1994: Lotus acquires Iris Associates July 1995: IBM acquires Lotus 2,000 companies - 500,000 users Mac client Threading Document Hierarchy Windows Server learn. do. dream. Hierarchical names Full-text search www.redpilldevelopment.com Notes VIP adds LotusScript NIF subsystem developed Nifty Fifty Notes F/X OLE support
- 7. Release 4.0 January 1996 Redesigned UI and enhanced programmability Price of Notes drops from $270 to $70 per user 8,000 companies – 2.2 million users 3-Pane UI Locations Stacked icons Web browser access learn. do. dream. Pass-thru servers Admin client SOCKS HTTP & RPC proxy www.redpilldevelopment.com LotusScript Action bars Navigators InterNotes Web Publisher
- 8. Release 4.5 December 1996 The Internet Server renamed from Notes to Domino October 1997 Ray Ozzie departs 12,000 companies – 20 million users Web access Internet server Server clustering Multi-database searching learn. do. dream. Notes calendaring/scheduling Cc:Mail integration Directory assistance Single Sign-on www.redpilldevelopment.com LotusScript libraries Java Hide design for Notes/web clients
- 9. Release 5.0 March 1999 Extended programmability 29,000 companies – 56 million users Browser-like interface Toolbar Customizable welcome page iNotes Web access learn. do. dream. Internet messaging/directories Native SMTP/MIME LDAP Transaction logging www.redpilldevelopment.com Java Javascript CORBA Pages, Outlines
- 10. Release 6.0 October 2002 Reduced total cost of ownership Jan 2003 IBM announces Workplace 40,000 companies – 89 million users Redesigned welcome page iNotes Web access learn. do. dream. Improved calendar/scheduling Policies Network compression Domino Server Monitor www.redpilldevelopment.com Shared actions Agent enhancements Stylesheets Java Servlets
- 11. Release 6.5 September 2003 Sametime integration 59,000 companies – 114 million users Lotus Sametime Integration Mozilla browser support learn. do. dream. Drag/drop support for calendar Email flags Mail Rules DAMO www.redpilldevelopment.com Sametime awareness
- 12. Release 7.0 August 2005 The DB2 distraction Dec 2006 IBM discontinues IBM Workplace Messaging 61,000 companies – 118 million users DB2 Integration Domino Web Access Notes on USB stick learn. do. dream. Domino Domain Monitor Activity Trends www.redpilldevelopment.com Web Service Provider Shared columns
- 13. Release 8.0 August 2007 Eclipse 73,000 companies – 140 million users Eclipse Clients Open button Context sensitive toolbars Sidebar learn. do. dream. Threaded email Lotus Productivity Tools Activities www.redpilldevelopment.com Composite Applications Web Services Consumer
- 14. Release 8.5 January 2009 XPages November 2012 IBM announce plans to drop Lotus branding 84,000 companies – 145 million users Right click context menus Livetext Auto-compressed images learn. do. dream. DAOS Calendar federation ID Vault www.redpilldevelopment.com Domino Designer Eclipse XPages New LotusScript Editor Mobile Controls
- 15. Release 9.0 March 2013 Pivot to social Jan 2014 IBM Announces IBM Mail Next 90,000 companies – 160 million users Embedded experience Social business card Notes browser plugin Connections Integration learn. do. dream. Categorized inbox www.redpilldevelopment.com Social business toolkit Java design element REST API SSJS debugger
- 16. Acknowledgements Good coders copy, great coders steal This presentation has drawn from a lot of information previously published in the public domain. The following are some of the resources used:The History of Notes and Domino – developerWorks IBM Notes – wikipedia Lotus Software – wikipedia Lotus Museum An Oral History of IBM Lotus Notes – Ed Brill, 2010 When Plato Left The Cave – Ulrich Krause, 2011 History of Lotus Notes Through 2002, YouTube Note: Sales numbers are based on public statements made. In some cases numbers have been extrapolated. Numbers quoted are cumulative total sales and do not represent current active users of Notes at any time. learn. do. dream. www.redpilldevelopment.com