Q: Tell me a little bit about yourself and what you're currently working on.
A: I'm a geek -- plain and simple. I've been working in the IT industry since 1998, and specifically with Lotus products since 1999. My employer at the time was purchased by a larger organization that used, and thus expected us to use, Lotus Notes and Domino. So we migrated from Microsoft Exchange 5.5 to Lotus Notes and Domino R5.
My next employer was a professional services and hosting firm that specialized in messaging platforms: specifically IBM Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange, and Sun iPlanet. I joined the team with experience with two of the three platforms. That's around the time I started to bleed yellow: Our Lotus Domino environments just ran, while our Exchange 2000 environments failed, implementation after implementation.
Because I worked on the Lotus Domino environment, I could – and did – call it a day at 4:00 p.m. and head home to my family. Members of the Exchange team slept on fold-out cots at the office.
With the comparative free time, I started to dabble in development. My particular environment was unique: Employees could pick their preferred platform. Microsoft Exchange support staff would use Exchange and Outlook, the Lotus team would, of course, use Lotus Notes and Domino, and the Unix admins who supported the Sun iPlanet environments would use iPlanet, when they weren't sending emails via telnet, that is.
This approach meant that building Lotus Notes clients was out, so I started developing Lotus Domino applications for Web browser clients.
I was hooked. I spent most of my days participating in the notes.net forums and reading up on Web development techniques used in other technologies and by other platforms. I made a significant change in my career: "Admin" work might pay the bills, but I was a developer at heart.
In 2003, I published a small Lotus Notes database to my home Lotus Domino server, which was not a server, but rather the family computer that had a Lotus Domino service running in the background. I used this computer to allow me to remotely access the tips and tricks that I was documenting.
All went according to plan until one day, reading the now (sadly) defunct site, NotesTips.com, I saw my name on screen with a link back to my home Lotus Domino "server."
I can remember feeling gobsmacked, and then calling my wife at home to ask her to start the Lotus Domino services on the home computer.
That day I registered the domain name DominoGuru.com, beefed up the Lotus Notes database that would house the tips and tricks I compiled , and got some decent hosting.
Today, I'm still hooked. I've spent, to date, more than 10 years working with Lotus products, which has allowed me to work with and integrate almost every technology and platform on the market. I've worked for Beacon-winning IBM Business Partners and currently run a small professional services company, Clearframe, LLC, which is an IBM Business Partner.
I try to be as active as possible in a community that's given back so much to me. I'm the Lead Community Advocate for IBM's Lotus Technical Information and Education community, working directly with IBM to foster interaction and generate exchanges of ideas with all members of our community: IBMers, Business Partners, and customers alike.
I'm working on multiple Open Source projects; several of them can be found on OpenNTF.org. I'm a developerWorks author, active contributor to the Lotus product wikis, Lotus Design Partner, would-be podcaster, blogger, and, in some circles, a "Lotus attack kitten" (I honestly prefer the term "Thundercat" though).
When I'm not working on new articles, online demos, open source projects, and video tutorials, attending various community meetings, or sleeping, I'm spending time with my amazingly patient (and just plain amazing) wife and my four individually and collectively awesome children.
Q: What advice would you give to IT students just starting out in the IT industry?
A: Your future employer's employees leave the office, turn on their computers (Macs, PCs, Netbook OSs, among others), and they are presented with rich, attention-keeping, fully interactive solutions. History tells us that consumer technology bleeds into the enterprise!
Consider instant messaging, which historically was frowned upon (if not completely banned) in businesses. Now, look at how it's used in the enterprise today. Look at how social media and social networking have permeated business. Businesses like IBM are not only taking social media and networking to the consumer-focused social networks, but, in the case of IBM, they're building enterprise-level social networking technologies for the workplace.
I would tell any IT student this: Look at your customers -- the internal and external user community of your future employer -- and find out how you can both meet their business needs and address their functional expectations. Pull that off, and you'll be a success!
Q: If you were stuck on a technology deprived island, what single technology could you not live without?
A: That's easy: a smartphone. Mobile salesforces don't want to carry around even the lightest netbook on the market when they can carry a Blackberry or an iPhone. As a developer, more and more of my customers are moving "mobile device support" from the "like to have" to the "must have" column.
I just hope this island gets good coverage.
Q: Besides what you do at work, what other interests or passions keep you going?
A: Sleep and caffeine!
Well, when I'm not spending my free time with my family.
I am a big genre fanboy: sci-fi, horror, and more. I enjoy escapist fiction: unbelievable situations and how everyday people deal with them. I'm becoming a huge fan of "podiobooks" and independent author works. The grass-roots, die-hard communities that surround some of these authors reminds me of a certain online community.
Q: Star Wars or Star Trek?
A: Wait. No BSG (Battlestar Galactica, for the uninitiated) or Firefly?
Both Star Wars and Star Ttrek have their appeal (how's THAT for a non-answer!). Star Trek is a somewhat cold, calculated, hard-science fiction that certainly appeals to my more analytical side, while Star Wars has the warmth, charisma, and whimsey that appeals to my inner child. Although the upcoming Star Wars novel featuring a star destroyer filled with zombie storm troopers might just tip the scales.
Q: Any final comments that help define who you are and what you do?
A: I try to be as active as possible in a community that's given back so much to me. I'm the Lead Community Advocate for IBM's Lotus Technical Information and Education Community, working directly with IBM to foster community interaction and generate exchanges of ideas with all members of our community: IBMers, Business Partners, and customers alike.
I'm working on multiple Open Source projects; several of them can be found on OpenNTF.org. I'm a developerWorks author, active contributor to the Lotus product wikis, Lotus Design Partner, would-be podcaster, blogger, and, in some circles, a "Lotus attack kitten" (I honestly prefer the term "Thundercat," though).
When I'm not working on new articles, online demos, open source projects, and video tutorials, attending various community meetings, or sleeping, I'm spending time with my amazingly patient (and just plain amazing) wife and my four individually and collectively awesome children.
A published developer and Webmaster of DominoGuru.com, a Lotus Notes/Domino-themed "Tips & Tricks" Web site and Weblog, Chris Toohey is the Chief Solutions Architect for Clearframe, and specializes in integrating IBM Lotus Notes/Domino with other enterprise-level solutions. Since entering the IT industry in 1998, Chris's unconventional methodologies, forward thinking, and his ability to uniquely analyze and attack a given problem with award winning solutions has afforded him recognition as an expert in his field, as well as yielding many happy customers.
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