Same Time For Dummies

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IBM Lotus
Sametime
FOR
DUMmIES
LIMITED EDITION
by Stephen R. Londergan
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IBM Lotus Sametime For Dummies, Limited Edition

Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
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Copyright 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

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Publishers Acknowledgments
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Contents at a Glance
Introduction.......................................................1
Part 1: What Is IBM Lotus Sametime? .................5
Part 2: Instant Messages ..................................15
Part 3: Lotus Sametime Web Conferences ..........31
Part 4: Lotus Sametime Your Way .....................51
Part 5: Ten Lotus Sametime Reminders ..............61
Part 6: Ten Reasons Lotus Sametime Beats
the Competition ...............................................65
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Introduction
elcome to IBM Lotus Sametime your one-stop shop

for revolutionizing every medium of your office communications from changing the way you make a phone call to
helping you save big bucks on business travel. More than just
a buddy list or Web page full of online meetings, Sametime is
really a platform for real-time collaboration. That sounds a
little high fallutin, I suppose, but it means that you can use
Sametime in a lot more ways than are first apparent when you
open the box.
This handy guide is designed to show you how to make the
most of the real-time tools Sametime puts at your fingertips
across everyday applications you use in your workplace.
Why Sametime Will

Change Your Life
IBM Lotus Sametime really will change your life. The way you
work and the very nature of your job is different when you use
Sametime than it is when you dont. One of the most common
comments I hear from Sametime users: I dont know how I
would do my job without it.
Lotus Sametime will have (if it hasnt had already) as momentous an effect on your job and the way your whole company
gets things done as e-mail has had. Just as e-mail eliminated
many a weary trip to the mailroom to pick up memos, so
Sametime has the potential to eliminate many a dreary business trip for the sake of a real-time meeting. And it can speed
all kinds of communications so much more!
Sametimes ultra-efficient integration of presence, Instant
Messages, and Web conferences in your companys existing
infrastructure add up to increased productivity, reduced business cycles, less travel and voice mail, and accelerated decision making.
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As if that werent enough, you can customize the Lotus
Sametime Connect Contact list with your own branding, and
you can add your own applications to the bottom of the
Contact list. You can use Lotus Sametimes toolkits and APIs
(application program interfaces) to inject real-time collaboration into any work task.
So, for example, anytime in any application you see a coworkers name, Sametime can tell you whether that individual
is online and available and help you Instant Message with the
person, right there, right now. (Lotus Notes users are already
used to using Lotus Sametime in their inboxes.)
Foolish Assumptions
This book is for people just getting acquainted with Sametime
or for folks whove become familiar with some of its early features but who are eager to find out what its latest incarnation
can do. Whether youre a manager with a window view or a
cubicle dweller, you can find out all kinds of cool things Lotus
Sametime can do to make your work life easier.
However, I do make the following assumptions about you,
kind reader:
You want to know what, but not necessarily how. I leave
the how up to the computer nerds and concentrate on
whats important to getting you up and running with
Lotus Sametime.
You have access to a Lotus Sametime 7.5 server and have
already installed Lotus Sametime Connect 7.5.
Because its not for retail sale, you probably got this
book as a gift, and dont you owe someone a thank-you
note? As soon as you finish Part 2, you can send your
benefactor an instant message of thanks. See? Sametime
is already changing your life for the better.
About This Book

IBM Lotus Sametime For Dummies is a slim but effective guide,
designed to expedite your understanding of why and how to
use Sametime.
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Introduction
The hardest part about preparing this book was deciding

which of the many benefits and advantages of Sametime to
include. I cant promise that every clever feature that Sametime
offers is described herein, but I did think long and work diligently to make sure that you get to know the best of the best
and the most important of the features.
Although you certainly dont have to read them in order
though that wouldnt be a bad approach the book is divided
into six parts:
Part 1: What Is IBM

Lotus Sametime?
Part 1 explains what Sametime is, what it will do for you, and
some of the big-picture ways that Sametime works. If youve
never yet entered the world of Sametime, I suggest you start
here.
Part 2: Instant Messages

Youll likely use Lotus Sametime to send lots and lots of instant
messages (IM), so Part 2 tells you what you need to be told
in order to make the most of IM. If youve already logged in to
Sametime a time or two, its perfectly safe to start here.
Part 3: Lotus Sametime

Web Conferences
Scheduling a Web conference? Attending one? Need to know
how to share a presentation? Part 3 is all for you.
Part 4: Lotus Sametime Your Way

Lotus Sametime has a heap of ways that you can customize
it to suit your own particular preferences and likings; Part 4
presents the most important of them.
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Part 5: Ten Lotus Sametime

Reminders
This part is a short (and rather pithy) list of the top ten things
that you should remember to get the most out of Lotus
Sametime and avoid any Sametime etiquette gaffes.
Part 6: Ten Reasons Lotus

Sametime Beats the Competition
Sametime is simply the best solution for everything it offers
and has distinct advantages over its competitors. IBM can
probably come up with a million reasons; I came up with ten.
If youre not sure whether you want to take the Sametime
plunge, you can flip here first to convince yourself.
Icons in This Book

Ive scattered icons throughout this book to help you navigate
Sametime better. Heres what each means:
This icon tells you that some little shard of knowledge is
coming your way to make your Sametime life just a bit easier.
Tips are always worth reading.
These little commandments are things that you should never

forget while working with Sametime.
This info you can safely overlook unless the geeky innards of
Sametime fascinate you.
Ignore these cautionary tidbits at your own peril.
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Part 1
What Is IBM Lotus

Sametime?
In This Part
Defining IBM Lotus Sametime
Understanding the Sametime components
Comparing Sametime with the competition
his part introduces you to the exciting new territory of

IBM Lotus Sametime, orienting you to the interface and
explaining how this unique communications platform can
make your work life more efficient and secure.
Just What Is Sametime,

Anyway?
IBM Lotus Sametime is software that helps people communicate and work together in real time, with no waiting.
It enables instant online communication with available coworkers and lets you know whos actually available so you
dont waste time playing phone tag or sending ten e-mails to
set up a conference. And all thats just for starters.
Chatting up success
The most common and practical reason people use Sametime
is for instant messaging, also know as chat. In fact, the
word Sametime itself has almost become a verb as in Ill
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Sametime you during our conference call if I have any questions. Or Sametime me as soon as Bob gets here with the
doughnuts, I want to make sure I get a cruller.
Chat is awesome once you start using it, you cant believe
you ever got along without it. It certainly speeds your job: You
can get answers to your questions, for example, much faster.
E-mail and even voice-mail messages can get lost in the influx
of a persons inbox, but an instant message lets the recipient
know right away that youre looking for a quick response to a
short, simple question. And you get it in writing.
I use Sametime all day long on my job, and Ive even found
that it reduces the number of e-mail messages I get and has
almost completely eliminated voice-mail messages.
Meeting on the Web

The second big thing IBM Lotus Sametime offers is Web conferencing, also known as desktop sharing. The basic premise here
is that you can use a Sametime Web conference to let other
people see whats happening on your computers screen,
even if theyre across the country. Very often, its for a presentation; maybe you want to take a group of customers through
a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, without having to be in
the same room with them.
Sametime Web conferences are also used to work collaboratively (such as a team writing and editing a Microsoft Word document together) and even for tech support (such as enabling
your support technician to take control of your computer to
troubleshoot why you cant print something). Because everyone can see the same information, even though they arent in
the same room (and may not even be in the same city, for that
matter), Sametime Web conferences keep everyone on the
same page, so to speak.
Keeping tabs on availability

The third handy IBM Lotus Sametime feature somewhat
more subtle, but essential to making the other two function
properly is presence. Presence is the idea of knowing, in
advance, whether a person is online and available to respond
to your instant messages.
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Part 1: What Is IBM Lotus Sametime?
This capability is fundamentally different from, say, a phone

call, where you just dial a number and hope the person is
there to answer. With Sametime, you can find out before you
send a message whether your partner is available, so you
dont try to send someone an instant message if he or she
isnt even online. And if you have a question for Bobby, but
hes in a meeting, you know to go instead to his assistant (or
maybe his manager).
Now heres the real surprise: Presence isnt just for your buddy
list. It can work across a range of commonly supported applications. If youre a Lotus Notes user, for example, you can
tell, right in your inbox, whether the person who sent you the
e-mail is online and available. If you use Microsoft Office, you
can see whether the author of a document is available, too.
There are subtleties to presence, and you and your co-workers
can take full advantage of them: You can be Online, but Away,
or perhaps in what Sametime calls Do Not Disturb mode (as
Part 2 discusses in more detail). The point is that youll always
know in advance whether your colleague is available for
communications.
How Sametime Works

IBM Lotus Sametime requires two components to function:
the Sametime server, and software that enables you to access
that server.
The Sametime server

The server is where you log in to establish your own presence
(so that your colleagues know youre online), and the server
also handles all the network-related business of connecting
you with your colleagues, actually getting chat messages from
person to person, scheduling and hosting the Web conferences, and so on.
The good news is that other than knowing the Sametime
servers name, you probably dont have to worry too much
about it your overworked and underpaid IT staff will be a
lot more intimate with the trappings of the Sametime server
than you will ever need to be. The server carries out its duties
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behind the scenes so you get Sametime service in the blink of
an eye and hardly know its there.
Although you dont need to manage your organizations
Sametime server, you will need to know its name. Your IT
department can provide this info after the server is set up.
The software
The other required part is a way you access the Sametime
server. In most cases, you use the Sametime Connect software
to interact with the Sametime server (and, of course, your colleagues.) When you install Sametime Connect, it enables you
to log in to Sametime, see who is online, manage your contact
list, and actually chat with your colleagues. Figure 1-1 shows
the main screen for Sametime Connect.
Figure 1-1: Lotus Sametime Connect is the most common way to interact
with a Sametime server.
But you dont always interact directly with Sametime Connect.

For example, when you attend (or schedule) a Sametime Web
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conference, you do that with your current, familiar Web

browser, as shown in Figure 1-2.
Figure 1-2: Using a Web browser to schedule a Web conference.
Sometimes you interact with the Sametime server in other

ways. For example if you are a Lotus Notes user, you can log
in and chat right in your inbox no Sametime Connect interface required. In fact, this flexibility of how you interact with
IBM Lotus Sametime (and there are even more ways than we
have space to enumerate here) is one of the reasons its so
easy to use.
Why Sametime Is Better

Than the Rest
IBM Lotus Sametime is built for business, and thats why
Sametime beats all the other options for online communications. IBM simply understands business needs better.
This business focus is fundamentally different from that of
some of Sametimes competitors particularly those that are
commonly used from home computers to access the Internet.
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Although its easy (and in many cases, even free) to use public
instant messaging (such as America Onlines AIM network,
Yahoo, and so on), most businesses have concluded that they
need more security than the public chat networks can provide.
For example, my teenage son doesnt have the same security
expectations as a trader on Wall Street, and you certainly
expect your online business transactions to meet rigorous
online security standards.
The bottom line? Businesses use Sametime because they need
the peace of mind that the product offers for security, authentication, corporate compliance, and so on.
Its about security, Silly

When it comes to sensitive business information, including
financial spreadsheets and new product development reports,
security is important. Youre probably already very careful about using your companys e-mail system and other
applications you know how important it is to log on to a
network, use passwords, and so on. Collaborating in real time
is no different; you need to be just as careful, and colleagues
should have the same expectations that shared documents
and other real-time info are all equally secure. Sametimes
plethora of security features (which I discuss in the next section) are among the most important reasons that Sametime is
better than all the competition.
Taking into account authentication

Authentication means you have to log in to use IBM Lotus
Sametime, and (equally as important) your chat partner has
to log in, too. That step gives you both peace of mind because
you know that the people youre chatting with really are who
they say they are.
This identity check is critical for businesses, and something
that the public chat networks arent equipped to handle.
Because anyone can sign up for the free chat networks and
can register with just about any user name (such as Genghis
Kahn), this public cyberspace just isnt a place to conduct
business.
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With Sametime, on the other hand, you can rest assured that
the person youre chatting with (or working with in a Web
conference) has logged in, just like you did.
Considering encryption
Encryption is the process of encoding your communications
so that they cant be intercepted and read by anyone other
than the intended recipient. This is another feature that many
of the public networks cant support because the nature of
the public Internet just doesnt lend itself to this level of security. Encryption requires a secure exchange of certificates to
actually facilitate the encoding and decoding of any kind of
info you send over the Internet (such as chat messages or
even multimedia files).
IBM Lotus Sametime, on the other hand, supports encryption,
which leads to more peace of mind because you know that
your messages and exchanges cant be intercepted. No matter
how unlikely it seems that someone would try to intercept
messages, your company needs to prepare for the possibility.
Because of the rise in hacking risks, many companies have IT
policies in place that specifically dictate that all computerbased communications whether e-mail, instant messages,
or whatever must be encrypted.
Coping with corporate compliance

Many companies are subject to corporate compliance
laws and regulation. For example, in the United States, any
publicly traded company is required to comply with the
Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Part of that regulation says that computer communications such as e-mail messages must be
saved for a period of time, and that such archived communications are subject to audit, among other requirements.
It depends on the business youre in, of course, but if your
organization is subject to such regulation, its a pretty safe bet
that youll need to archive instant messages for the same reasons that you have to archive your e-mail messages. The good
news is that Lotus Sametime has features to support such
chat logs and histories, built right in.
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Avoiding SPIM
Weve all dealt with SPAM, unwanted and unsolicited e-mail.
Not surprisingly, the same dastardly dudes who get their jollies
by filling your inbox with garbage are also turning to instant
messages. Another risk associated with public instant messaging networks is such unwanted instant messages, called SPIM.
Sametime users are far less likely to receive such garbage
instant messages because your organization runs Sametime
on your own, private network. As long as everyone who uses
Sametime at your organization has to log in, you simply dont
get bogus instant messages (from, say, Genghis Khan).
Lowering your costs

Lotus Sametime clearly leads the pack when you consider
costs, and especially when you compare costs of Web conferencing services.
Many of Sametimes competitors in the Web conferencing
arena are hosted services, which means that you pay these
companies on a per-meeting (sometimes even a per-minute
and per-person) basis to host your Web conferences for you.
There are some advantages to this approach, of course the
most obvious being that your organization doesnt have to
purchase, own, and manage the servers and network infrastructure to support these Web conferences. And the best
part of these pay-as-you-go Web conferences is that its so
easy to book and use an online meeting.
On the other hand, the worst part of these pay-as-you-go Web
conferences is that its so easy to book and use an online meeting. When the end of the year rolls around, and your organization adds up all the money that was spent on hosted Web
conferences, it may end up being a lot more than anyone
expected or planned.
Compare that with Sametime, where (usually) the Web conferences are run on your own network and on your own servers.
That still costs money, of course you have to buy the gear,
pay for the software, and pay staff to support them (or train
existing staff) but its usually a much lower figure in terms
of your annual budget and much more controllable.
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Hosted Web conference services are easy to buy, and therein

lies much of their appeal to end users, but they can end up
costing a lot, from a year-end balance sheet point of view.
Some companies take a mix-and-match approach they use
Sametime for their internal, company-confidential Web conferences, and go to a hosted service only when they need
to meet with external parties (like a customer or business
partner). Note that Sametime can also be used to host such
external Web conferences. In fact, this flexibility using all
Sametime, all the time, or running some parts of Sametime
inside your firewall and some part of Sametime outside your
firewall, or using Sametime and a hosted service is another
distinct competitive advantage.
Thinking beyond the Buddy List

When push comes to shove, IBM Lotus Sametime is about
communication, perhaps in ways youve never anticipated.
For example, IBM itself uses Sametime in a big, big way. IBM
employees send almost 4 million instant messages amongst
themselves every day (thereby avoiding a lot of phone tag, no
doubt). Similarly, IBM has calculated that the company saves
over 6 million dollars per month in reduced travel, thanks to
Sametime Web conferences just think of all those airplane
tickets IBM doesnt have to buy.
Your organization may not be as big as IBM, so you may never
send millions of instant message every day, but the potential
for increased efficiencies, reduced business cycles, and secure
communications is still hugely appealing.
But theres more to IBM Lotus Sametime than just chat messages and Web conferences. For example, imagine being able
to use your computer as a phone. Sametime 7.5 includes
built-in Voice over IP (VoIP) capabilities. This means that you
click a colleagues name in your contact list and talk to him or
her all within Sametime, no phone number required. (You
will, of course, need a headset connected to your PC.) Part 3
covers VoIP in more detail.
Sametime also has other audio options: For example, some
organizations connect Sametime to their PBX phone system,
which means you can click a colleagues name and make his
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or her phone ring. It also means (this is my favorite feature of
all) that when you join a Web conference, rather than having
to dial in for the conference call, you can have the conference
call you.
Finally, Sametime is not just another software product or hosting service, its a platform. That means you can build (or buy)
applications that use Sametime to inject real-time collaboration, or extend the buddy list with plugins, and a whole bunch
of previously unimaginable possibilities. For example, you can
match up your Sametime contact list with a mapping Web site,
so that when you click on a persons name, you can see, overlaid on a map, where the person was physically located. If you
work in a cubicle maze, you can appreciate how handy that
could be.
Ultimately, Sametime offers much more than a buddy list for
exchanging chat messages even if that is the reason you
use it most often. Sametime can take you places you cant yet
imagine, and (trust me) Sametime is fundamentally going to
change the way you do business just like e-mail did.
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Part 2
Instant Messages
In This Part
Logging in and establishing your own presence
Using the Sametime Connect Contact list
Instant messaging is that a verb?
Using Announcements
his part discusses how you can use IBM Lotus Sametime
Connect to join the business instant messaging revolution.
I explain such topics as logging in and logging on, the nittygritty details of how you use Sametime Connect to exchange
instant messages, and a couple of tricks you can have up your
sleeve for using Alerts and Broadcasts.
Participating in Sametime
Communities
Community in the Sametime world means a collection of
people with whom you regularly exchange messages and
attend Web conferences typically, the same old colleagues
you work with day in and day out. The Sametime community
you use most often is called the default community.
In the vast majority of cases, the Sametime community you
use will be your entire organization. Its hard to predict,
exactly, what the name of your Sametime community will
be those fun-loving pranksters in your IT department get
to pick the name but its a pretty safe bet that you will
have only one Sametime community in your company or
organization.
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When you log into Sametime, you need to know the name of
your organizations Sametime community; so this is one of
those things where you just have to ask someone. Maybe you
need to call your IT Help desk, or ask that guy two cubes over
what it is.
In a couple of cases, you may have more than one Sametime
community. In these cases, your IT department will let you
know how to go about adding them (but dont worry, itll be
pretty painless).
Logging In with Sametime

Connect
You need to log into a Sametime community, and doing so
makes a couple of things happen:
1. It registers you on the Sametime server, so that you
can send and receive instant messages, voice chats,
Announcements, and so on.
2. It puts your name in lights all across the company. In
other words, anyone in your organization who has
your name in their Contact list will see that you are
online.
In fact, your name may light up in even more ways; for example, if your company uses IBM Lotus QuickPlace, your name
will light up next to any documents you created in QuickPlaces
team spaces. If your company uses Lotus Notes, your name
will twinkle, in every one of your colleagues inboxes, next
to every e-mail message youve sent. If you use IBM WebSphere
Portal, your colleagues will see your name come online in
your portal applications, too.
As I discussed in Part 1, presence is used in more places than
just your buddy list.
Logging in for the first time

When you start Lotus Sametime for the first time ever, youre
asked straight away to supply three key pieces of information:
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Your user name

Your password
The name of your Sametime community
Figure 2-1 shows the Welcome to Sametime dialog box, wherein
you supply these three nuggets of information.
Figure 2-1: Use the Welcome to Sametime dialog box to establish your
user name, password, and Sametime community.
As you can see in the figure, you have a couple of other

interesting and totally optional settings available on the
Welcome to Sametime dialog box. Each of these settings concerns what happens each time you start Sametime:
Remember Password: If you click this check box, you
dont have to manually enter your password each time
you start Sametime. Slightly more convenient, but also
slightly less secure, so proceed with caution.
Automatically Log In: Checking this box saves you the
step of having to click the Log In button every time you
start Sametime.
You can only click this check box if you also click the
Remember password check box.
Log In Status: As the next section explains, every
Sametime user has a status, which indicates whether he
or she is available and amenable to hearing from you.
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Use this drop-down list to select what your status will
be when you log in. (You can always change your status,
later.)
Status Message: Along with your status, a message also
appears when a colleague hovers the mouse over your
name; use this field to enter that text. (You can always
change this later, too.)
After youve entered your user name, password, and community, click the Log In button.
When you log in for the first time, Sametime also asks a
couple of questions about your Location; be on the lookout for
a Sametime alert message that will appear in the lower-right
corner of your screen. Your Location settings are used to tell
your colleagues where you are physically located, what your
phone number is, and so on. Although you can choose to not
share such Location info with chat partners, its usually a
good idea.
Click the Edit Location Profile link at the bottom of the New
Location Detected Alert; when you do, youre presented with
the Location Profile dialog box, which has ten fields:
Profile Name: This is the name by which this Location
will be known, on your system. In other words, if you had
more than one Location profile set up, youd use its name
to recognize and differentiate one from the other.
Share My Location with Other Users: If you uncheck this
box, your colleagues will not see the information you
enter in the following fields.
Personal Location: Whatever you enter in this field will be
displayed when your colleagues hover over your name, at
the top of your Sametime business card, and so on.
Most people have fun with their personal location message; my default message, for example, is Home office in
sunny Braintree MA.
City, State, Postal Code, Country, Time Zone: Fill in
these five fields with the appropriate work location info.
Choose your time zone from the drop-down list.
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Primary Phone Number: Tell your colleagues what your

main business phone number is.
This is my favorite Sametime 7.5 feature because it
answers the most-common instant message: What is
your phone number?
Do Not Show the Alert for Editing Location Profile at
Location Change Again: If you want only one Location
profile, click this check box.
Click the OK button when you are finished setting up your
first location profile.
Logging in all the other times

After youve logged in for the first time, all the subsequent
times become a breeze. Follow these steps to log in with
Sametime Connect:
1. Start Sametime Connect.
2. Choose FileLog in.
3. Choose your status.
How to be in three places

with Sametime
Sametime automatically detects and
matches your Location profile with
your systems network IP address, so
if you work from multiple locations,
youll likely end up with several different Location profiles.
For example, you may have one
Location profile that describes you
when youre working from your home
office, another that describes you
when youre working at the office (and

plugged right in to your companys
network), and yet another that covers
you when youre working from an
Internet hot spot or hotel room.
The cool thing is that once youve set
up a Location profile for a given locale,
Sametime automatically switches to
that Location every time you reconnect there.
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You can configure Sametime Connect to automatically log you
in, every time you start the software. Choose FilePreferences
and click the + sign next to Communities in the Preferences
dialog box. Select the community in question, and then click
the Automatically Log In check box. Click the OK button when
youre finished with the Preferences dialog box.
Using Sametime Connect

Sametime Connect is the software youll use most often to
interact with your colleagues and the Sametime server itself.
Its really easy to use.
Viewing the big picture

Figure 2-2 shows a sample contact list; as you can see from
the figure, Sametime Connect has seven parts:
Menu: Contains the File, Edit, View, Tools, and Help
menus.
Location profile: Use the buttons in the Profile to
manage your own Status and Location.
Action bar: These buttons are the most oft-performed
tasks in Sametime.
Contact search: If and when your contact list gets loaded
with lots and lots of names, use the Contact Search field
to quickly find a particular person.
Contact list: This is where most of the action is in
Sametime Connect. The Contact list shows all of the
people youve added and is the place you go to start a
new chat, look up a partners business card, and so on.
Plugin panels: If your company built or bought Sametime
plugins, youll likely see them listed at the bottom of the
Sametime Connect contact list.
Status bar: Indicates whether or not you are connected
to the Sametime server.
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Menu
Location profile
Action bar
Contact search
Contact list
Status bar
Figure 2-2: Use Sametime Connect to live the Sametime dream.
Managing your own presence

One of the lynchpins of Sametime is its ability to convey a
given persons (yours, or a partners) presence. You can
choose from four statuses:
Available indicates that the individual is ready, willing,
and able to send and receive instant messages, receive
VoIP calls, and so on.
Away means that the person has logged in but stepped
away; if you send him or her a message, be forewarned
that you probably wont get an immediate response.
In a Meeting indicates that the person is in a meeting,
and may even be sharing the contents of their screen
with others.
21
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Think long and hard about whether you want to send a
message to a user who is in a meeting. First, they have
specifically indicated to you that they are occupied with
something important. Second, theres a chance your
recipient will make the contents of your instant message
visible to more people than you meant to see it.
Do Not Disturb lets you know that although the person is
logged in, he or she is so busy doing something that you
cant interrupt with an instant message. Consider sending an e-mail, instead.
Setting your own status

Use these four steps to set your status:
1. Click the Status icon on the Community Settings bar.
2. Choose one the four statuses: I Am Available, I
Am Away, In a Meeting, or Do not Disturb.
3. Enter a status message (which will be displayed to
any and all of your colleagues when they hover over
your name) in the Edit message dialog box.
4. Click the OK button.
When you click the OK button, the icon next to your
name changes, and the Status button in the Community
Settings bar changes too.
Miraculously, your status changes all across your company
every person who has added you to their contact list can
see your new availability, not to mention the fact that your
status automatically and instantly changes in all Lotus Notes
inboxes, portal applications, IBM Lotus QuickPlace, and on
and on.
You can have Sametime automatically change your status to
Away if you havent used your keyboard this is helpful, for
example, if you dash off to lunch. Choose FilePreferences
Auto-Status Changes, and click the From Available to Away
When I Have Not Used the Mouse or Keyboard After the
Following Duration check box. Enter the number of minutes
and click the OK button.
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Managing partners
When push comes to shove, your contact list is about people;
you use it to track, organize, and interact with your colleagues.
You can have as many or as few people in your contact list as
you want. If you have a long-ish contact list with lots of people
in it, you may want to use Sametimes built-in groups to help
organize all those names.
Your contact list is where it all starts when you want to take
full advantage of Sametime efficiencies.
Adding a partner
Use these steps to add a new chat partner to your contact list:
1. Choose FileAddContact.
If the person you want to add to your contact list is a
member of an external community (such as a member
of America Online AIM network), click the User in
External Community checkbox.
2. Type the persons name in the Enter Name field and
press Enter.
Sametime displays a list of people who have names
close to what you entered.
3. Select the name of the person you want from the list.
Optionally, type a nickname for the new contact in the
Nickname field.
4. Type the name of the group to which the new contact will be added in the Add To Group field. (If you
enter the name of a group that doesnt already exist,
you are in effect creating a new group and adding the
new person to it, all in one step.)
5. Click the Add button.
6. Click the Close button when you are finished adding
contacts.
If you are unsure of the spelling of a persons name, click the
Browse for name tab in the Add New Contact dialog box to
choose, rather than type, the persons name.
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Looking at a partner
Every Sametime user has a business card, which tells you the
persons name and Sametime status, displays her Status message, and may also tell you things such as her location, telephone number, and so on. Depending on how Sametime is set
up at your organization, your contacts Sametime business
card may also include her photograph. Figure 2.3 shows an
example business card.
Figure 2-3: When you hover over a persons name in your Contact list,
Sametime Connect shows you the persons business card.
Click and drag a business card onto your desktop to keep it at

hand.
Interacting with people

in your contact list
Your contact list quickly becomes where you go to interact
with the people in your organization. In the old days, of
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course, your default way of interacting with a colleague was

probably a phone call; then e-mail came along, and changed
all that. Youll likely find that Sametime Connect has a similar
effect and becomes as indispensable your first reaction will
very likely become Gee, I should Sametime Sally to ask her
that, as opposed to Gee, I should send Sally an e-mail to ask
her that.
The most common way of interacting with people in Sametime
Connect is to exchange instant messages; you type, they type,
you type, and so on.
But typing can get tiring, and Sametime offers other ways of
interacting with people, too. Assuming your IT department has
set you up to use VoIP, you can place a VoIP call to a contact,
call him on the regular phone, send him an Announcement,
view his business card, or perhaps view the chat history of previous conversations youve had with this person.
An easy way to see what options you have for interacting with
an individual is to right-click the persons name in the Contact
list.
Instant messages
Although you have several ways to get the conversation
rolling with someone in your chat list (assuming, of course,
that your colleague is not in Do Not Disturb status), the easiest is to double-click the persons name in your contact list.
When you do, you see a chat window, wherein you and your
partner have your text-based conversation. Figure 2.4 shows
an example conversation.
Although many of your chats begin by your double-clicking
your contact list, that certainly isnt the only way you can
chat and use the chat window. Sometimes, it may be your
chat partner, instead of you, who initiates the conversation,
of course; other times you may start a chat by double-clicking
a persons name in a portal application, QuickPlace page, or
what have you. The good news is that a rose is a rose is a
rose; it doesnt matter how or where a Sametime conversation
ensues, or who started it the way you exchange instant
messages is always the same.
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Figure 2-4: Using Sametime to exchange instant messages.
The basic operation of the chat window is almost too easy;

you type a message in the chat window, and click the Send
button. When you do, whatever you typed appears on your
partners screen, instantly, whether he or she is on the other
side of the conference table or the other side of the world.
And of course, its reciprocal; your partner does the same
thing, after which the hilarity and conversation ensues.
Sametime tells you when your partner is replying; youll see a
message such as Stephen is typing at the bottom of the
chat window.
As you can see in the figure, Sametime helps keep the conversation timely by time-stamping each message. This is very
useful, especially if you have conversations that span hours.
That might sound odd at first chatting for hours but I do
find that there are certain colleagues (and of course my boss)
with whom I exchange instant messages all day long. So rather
than opening a new chat each and every time, I just leave the
chat dialog box open. In this scenario, those time stamps are
especially helpful.
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You may also notice as you type that Sametime automatically

checks the spelling of your message and underlines any misspelled words in red. Right-click on a misspelled word and use
the spell check dialog box to fix your mistakes before you
send any embarrassing typos.
You can use all the following buttons in the chat window while
exchanging instant messages (many of which are new to
Sametime 7.5):
Add user: Use this button if someone begins a conversation
with you, and you decide that the person belongs in your
contact list. You get to pick the group to which the new
person will be added.
Invite others: Conversations almost always start out with
two people; use this button if you need to get someone else
involved. Note that if the number of people in a chat grows
to more than three or four, maybe for everyones sanity you
need to continue the conversation on a VoIP call or Web conference instead!
Send a screenshot: Sometimes a picture is worth 1,000 instant
messages; click this button, and then click and drag over the
part of your screen that you want to show to your partner.
Press Enter when youre done to send it (just as you would a
text message). Instant messaging is not just for text anymore!
Chat history: Click to see a transcript of previous conversations you have had with the person.
Instant Meeting: Click to convert your instant message conversation into a Web conference.
Voice chat: Sometimes theres no substitute for talking; click
this button to use Sametimes built-in VoIP and actually speak
to and hear your chat partner. Although this option requires
at least computer speakers and a microphone, most computers have them built-in these days. A headset, however, can
keep your conversation from carrying quite so loudly to the
next cubicle.
Send a file: You can use Sametime to send a file (almost like
an e-mail attachment) to your partner. Its just faster and has
fewer steps than using e-mail.
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Text foreground color: This option changes the color of the
words you type and the color of the words your partner sees.
Handy if you have more than two people chatting at once and
you want to differentiate whos saying what at a glance.
Text background color: This option changes the color of
the chat windows background. Handy if you have artistic
sensitivities.
Default font: This resets any color or font changes you have
made (especially if your color scheme is not as pretty as you
thought it would be).
Increase Font Size: Type bigger.
Decrease Font Size: Type smaller.
Bold: Emphasize what youre typing about with the Bold

button.
Italic: Another way to stress a word or phrase is to italicize it.
Underline: Yet another way to stress a word or phrase is to

underline it.
Spell check: If you do not want Sametime to automatically
check your spelling and underline words as you type, click
this button. Otherwise, leave it alone. Gess wat my advise is
to por spellers like me?
Smileys: Choose one of these cute pictures to make sure that
your partner knows that you are kidding or happy or rolling
on the floor laughing. Remember that its hard to convey irony
in the typed word.
You may see more, or fewer, buttons when youre chatting
because your administrator controls what features you can
use. For example, if your organization recently upgraded to
Sametime 7.5 but hasnt yet configured Sametimes new VoIP
features, your administrator may turn off that feature and, in
effect, hide that button. Similarly, if your organization has
deployed any plugins, they may have their own buttons.
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Other ways of interacting

with your colleagues
Chat is certainly the most common way to interact with
your colleagues. But there are others ways to work with
people in Sametime Connect, and two bear special mention
and attention.
Using Sametimes built-in VoIP

One of the exciting new features in Sametime 7.5 is built-in
VoIP communications, which is a way to use your computer,
headset/microphone, and Sametime to talk with people as if
you were on the phone. No telephones, phone numbers, or long
distance charges! The last is one of the primary reasons to make
a VoIP call instead of a regular call. VoIP calls save money.
When you click the Voice Chat button, or right-click a partners name and choose Call, your partner gets an Alert message and hears a sound much like a phone ringing. You click
the Answer button to answer the incoming Voice Chat request.
Make sure that your microphone, headphones, or headset is
plugged in before you call someone (unless youre using a
built-in microphone and speakers).
While youre in a Voice chat, use the audio controls in the
chat session to control the call, raise or lower the volume, and
hang up.
Sametime Voice chat isnt intended to replace that telephone
you have sitting on your desk, but its a great tool for working
with your colleagues.
Announcements
An Announcement is a lot like a chat message, with two notable
differences. Firstly, Announcements usually appear in the
lower-right corner of the screen. Secondly, Announcements
automatically disappear after a few seconds.
As such, Announcements are appropriate for notifying people,
giving them sort of a newsflash, along the lines of The doughnuts have arrived in the conference room, or We need to
reboot our Exchange server again or 401(k) selections are
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due today. Announcements, by their very nature, are usually
not interactive.
To send an announcement, select the people to whom you will
send the announcement by clicking their names (and dont
forget you can use Ctrl+click or Shift+click to select multiple
names), and then click the Announcement button. Figure 2.5
shows the Send Announcement dialog box.
Figure 2-5: Send an Announcement to have your message appear in the

lower-right corner of the screen.
Type the text of the announcement in the Announcement

field, and click the Send button when you are done. If you
want people to be able to reply to your announcement, click
the Allow Recipients to Send Responses check box.
Choose FilePreferencesNotifications to control where and
how incoming Broadcast messages are displayed.
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Part 3
Lotus Sametime Web

Conferences
In This Part
Getting the big picture of Lotus Sametime Web conferencing
Understanding audio options
Booking a Web conference
Joining a Web conference
eb conferences help you share information with other

people, whether they are down the hall or across the
globe. Heres what you need to get rolling, with special focus
on how you schedule a Lotus Sametime Web conference and
the tools you use to share and show.
Appreciating the Advantages

of Web Conferences
Web conferences are one nifty way that you can work across
long distances, visually and in real time, with other people
as if you were all in the same room. Through the wonders of
Lotus Sametime Web conferencing, you can either show other
people what is happening on your computer or see whats
happening on theirs.
You may find Web conferencing handy in any of these likely
scenarios:
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Showing a presentation: By far the most common reason
to use Lotus Sametime Web conferencing is to share
visual information, such as graphs, charts, and so on. For
example, you may have a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation that you need to share with an audience of 2 or 200
people. In the old days, of course, youd have to be in the
same room with your colleagues, partners, or customers,
but Web conferencing means that all (or some) of the
people youre sharing with can be somewhere else.
Working collaboratively: Sometimes you may need to
edit a document or coordinate input on a project with a
smaller group of people. For example, if you need someone to look over your shoulder, virtually, and help you
write a new press release (or spreadsheet or any other
kind of digital document), you can use a Web conference
for that, too. (I explain more about the tools for collaborating in the section Sharing later in this part.)
Easing tech support: Under certain circumstances, you
can let someone else in the Web conference control your
computer. This means the designated person can drive
your system, and actually edit the document, revise the
spreadsheet, or do whatever you enable them to do. This
ability to grant control to other people is especially helpful for tech support; imagine a scenario where you join a
Web conference with someone from your tech support
department so that your support rep can, say, install
your new printer or look at your systems settings to fix
whatever your computers current problem is.
IBM estimates it saves $6 million per month in reduced travel
because of Lotus Sametime Web conferences. And thats just
plane tickets IBM doesnt have to purchase, to say nothing of
the value of the increased productivity that Sametime brings.
Can You Hear Me Now?

If youre worrying whether your typing skills are up to speed
for Web conferencing, relax: Every Web conference has an
audio conference to go with it so attendees can speak to one
another as easily as over a phone conference call. In other
words, Lotus Sametime handles what meeting participants
can see in the Web conference, but you also need to arrange
for what people will hear in the Web conference.
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Part 3: Lotus Sametime Web Conferences
33
In some Web conferences, its appropriate (and certainly

easy) to use Lotus Sametimes built-in VoIP. This assumes, of
course, that everyone who is attending has a microphone,
speakers, and/or a headset connected to their computer.
Lotus Sametimes built-in VoIP is a great way to handle the
audio for a relatively small Web conference.
In practical terms, if your Web conference has, say, five participants or fewer, VoIP is likely your best way to go for audio.
For larger Web conferences, you may want to look elsewhere
for the audio; in other words, set up the audio conference
part of your Lotus Sametime meeting the same way youd set
up any other telephone conference call. Your organization
probably already has a way to set up an unattended telephone
conference call, whereby you can reserve time in the system
(sometimes called the PBX or the bridge). After you schedule
the call, you get a phone number and passcode that you share
with your meetings participants.
Make sure that you always include the audio portion of the
conference call details (the phone number for participants to
dial, the calls passcode, and so on) with the invitation to your
Lotus Sametime Web conference. You can also include the
call-in number in the Description field so that these pertinent
details appear on the Welcome screen of your Web conference.
Connecting your existing phone

system with Lotus Sametime
Lotus Sametime servers can be connected to your telephone
system to ease the setup and running of Web conferences. In
the best of all possible worlds, your company or organization
connects your Lotus Sametime server with its telephony infrastructure so that you can set up a Lotus Sametime Web conference and its associated connected audio/telephone
conference call all at the same time and in the same screen.
In this scenario, you can also use the Lotus Sametime Web
conference to control the audio portions of the call, too. For
example, as Chair, you can mute a participants phone line,
adjust his or her volume or your own, tell who is speaking by
an icon next to the speakers name, and so on.
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Figure 3-1 shows a Lotus Sametime Web conference with such
audio services. Note the meeting roster in the upper left,
which indicates whether participants have dialed in to the
call, and has options for muting their lines, and adjusting their
respective volumes.
Figure 3-1: Connect Lotus Sametime with your companys phone system to
manage both the audio and visual parts of a meeting, all from
the same place.
In practical terms, if you anticipate between 5 and 50 participants, use your companys system or policy for setting up an
unattended telephone conference call, and include the details
about the call in the meetings invitation.
If you are using Lotus Sametime for a much bigger meeting
maybe a training class with several hundred participants or a
stockholders meeting, or the like its usually more practical
to pay a company to facilitate the conference call. Such a
meeting given its size and the fact that it includes external
participants (such as customers) usually warrants the
white glove treatment that these conference call companies
can provide. In other words, an operator typically answers the
phone, helps the person get connected, and so on.
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Calling all attendees the easy way

My favorite feature that comes with
audio integration into your companys
telephony system is that you can have
the Lotus Sametime meeting server
dial out to meeting participants.
For example, imagine its Tuesday
morning and time to attend your
weekly staff Web meeting. You can
simply open the meetings invitation in
your calendar and two things instantly
happen. Firstly, a browser window
opens and connects you to the Lotus
Sametime Web conference, so you
can see whats being presented.
Secondly, with a click of a button, your
phone rings so you can hear whats

being presented. Whats so cool about
this is that you never even have to look
up or learn the call-in number for the
conference call Lotus Sametime
takes care of it all for you.
Lotus Sametime works with the most
popular phone systems, so check the
Sametime Web page for an up-todate list. If you arent sure whether
your Lotus Sametime Web conferencing is hooked up with your telephone
system, a call to your companys Help
desk will get you the answer in no
time.
Starting Up a Lotus
Sametime Meeting
Every Lotus Sametime Web conference starts in one of the following three ways:
Instant meeting: This shortcut is a way to sort of promote
a discussion youve been having in Instant Messaging so
that your chat partner can see something that youve
been IMing about. The basic idea here is that this kind of
Web conference isnt booked ahead of time you need
one right now.
Your corporate calendaring system: When you need to
arrange a Web conference ahead of time, most organizations already use a calendar and scheduling (C&S) system
for booking and tracking meetings, such as Lotus Notes
or Microsoft Outlook. If your IT department has set
this up for you (and if they havent, call them and ask
them why not), you can arrange Lotus Sametime Web
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conferences from the same place or form that you use to
set up the meeting, reserve the conference room, invite
the participants, and so on.
Lotus Sametime Meeting Center: If youre planning a
Web conference and need to invite people outside your
organization (such as a client), you can arrange and
schedule the meeting via Lotus Sametimes built-in
Meeting Center. (You also use the Sametime Meeting
Center in case your IT department hasnt set up Lotus
Sametime to work through your current C&S system.)
Using instant meetings

Use an instant meeting when you are exchanging Instant
Messages with someone, and you think to yourself were just
not getting anywhere, I need to show him (or share with her).
Instant meetings are really timesavers. You could ask your
chat partner to wait a minute while you open a browser
window, enter the Sametime Meeting Centers URL, fill out a
new meeting form, save the form, and then tell your chat partner what the meetings URL is.
But of course youd rather simply click the Instant Meeting
icon so you and your chat partner are immediately dumped
into a Lotus Sametime Web conference, wherein you can share
your screen, use the Whiteboard, and so on.
Instant meetings are like any other type of Web conference;
theyre just much easier to start.
Booking a Lotus Sametime

meeting from your calendar
Being able to schedule a Lotus Sametime Web conference
from Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook, or whatever system
your organization uses requires a little work to connect the
two systems. The good news is that this is a job for your IT
department, not you.
For your part, the exact steps to set up a Lotus Sametime Web
conference vary, of course, based on the C&S system you use.
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For example, you use the following steps to book a Lotus

Sametime Web conference from Lotus Notes:
1. Open your Lotus Notes calendar.
2. Click the Schedule a Meeting button.
3. Fill out the meeting form as you would for any other
meeting.
Enter the meetings subject, desired participants, starts
and end times, and so on.
4. Click the This is an Online Meeting check box.
5. Select Collaboration, Moderated Presentation, or
Broadcast Meeting from in the Type field.
Almost all online meetings are Collaboration meetings.
6. Select the name of the Lotus Sametime server that will
host the meeting in the Place field.
7. Click the Restrict Only to Meeting Invitees check box if
you want Lotus Sametime to prevent anyone who isnt
listed in the invitations Required and cc list from
attending the Web conference.
8. Type the Web conferences password in the Meeting
password field.
All attendees will be required to supply the meeting password in order to attend the Web conference.
9. Click the Attachment button in the Online Meeting
Attachments field if you want to upload materials
(such as a PowerPoint presentation) in advance of the
meeting.
10. Click the Save and Send Invitations button.
Two important things happen: The invitation is dispatched to the people whom youve invited, and your
Web conference is booked on the Lotus Sametime server.
Youre done!
One advantage of using Lotus Notes (or Microsoft Outlook) to
schedule a Lotus Sametime Web conference is that it makes it
a little easier for your invitees because all of the information
they need time and date, Web conference URL, and call-in
details are all in the same place.
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Using the Sametime

Meeting Center
Follow these steps to schedule a Lotus Sametime Web conference with the Sametime Meeting Center:
1. Open your favorite Web browser.
Lotus Sametime Web conferences work with Firefox and
Microsoft Internet Explorer.
2. Enter the URL for your Lotus Sametime server.
The URL for your Lotus Sametime server is probably the
same as what you entered in Lotus Sametime Connect,
but if youre not sure, ask a co-worker or your Help desk.
Depending on how your IT department has set up your
Lotus Sametime server, you may have to log in to use the
Sametime Meeting Center.
3. Click the Schedule a Meeting button.
The New Meeting form appears, as shown in Figure 3-2.
Figure 3-2: Use the Sametime Meeting Centers New Meeting form to book
a Web conference.
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The New Meeting Form has four tabs:

Essentials contains the most important information
about the Web conference, such as its name, start
and end times, and so on.
Required fields on this tab are indicated as such
with a red asterisk.
People enables you to determine who can attend
the Web conference, who is the Web conferences
Chair (thats probably you), and whether everyone
who attends the meeting will be permitted to present (though you can always give or take away
permissions later, too).
Slides enables you to upload a presentation or
other file to share during the Web conference. If you
have the slides ready at the time you are filling out
the New Meeting form (which may not always be
the case), its a good idea to take care of that now. I
explain how to upload tardy slides during the Web
conference in the section Its Show Time! Attending
a Web Conference, later in this part.
Files you upload with the Sides tab will also be available for participants to download, after the meeting
has ended.
Options indicates whether the Web conference will
be recorded and whether it will be listed in the
Meeting Centers roster of Web conferences.
4. Fill out as much as you need to on the form, as
explained in the following sections, and click the Save
button when youre done.
One of the cool features on the Options tab is the Record the
Meeting so that Others Can Replay It Later check box, which
does exactly what it sounds like records and preserves
everything that happens in the Web conference, both for the
sake of posterity and so that anyone who missed the meeting
can watch, after the fact. Recorded meetings are stored right
in the meeting center; click the Record Meetings link in the
sidebar to access them.
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Getting into the nitty-gritty

Essentials tab
The most important fields on the New Meeting form are those
collected so conveniently on the Essentials tab. Make sure
you fill in all the required fields (with the red asterisk).
Every Lotus Sametime Web conference needs a name, which
is the text you enter in the Name field. Because the meetings
name shows up in a roster with other Web conferences in the
Sametime Meeting Center, be as specific as you can. For example, if you are in the Goofy Ideas Department at your company,
Goofy Ideas Department Weekly Status Meeting is preferable
to Weekly Status Meeting, which could result in confused
employees from other departments showing up looking for
their weekly meetings and wondering why you are tossing
around such goofy ideas.
You can also use the Description field to provide other information about the Web conference. For example, enter the
call-in details phone number and passcode if you have
them every time you set up a new Web conference.
The fields in the When section of the Essentials tab tell IBM
Lotus Sametime when the meeting will occur. As you can see
in Figure 3-2, you can click the Start Now check box to have
the Web conference start right away, or (as is more common)
you can select the appropriate times and dates.
Certain parts of the Lotus Sametime server such as the
application-sharing engine become active only when your
Web conference is actually underway. Thats why the New
Meeting form has a Duration field on the Essentials tab to
avoid those bits having to work overtime from someone forgetting to turn them off. When a meeting is underway, you can
always increase its duration if you need more time.
You have three options in the Audio and Video Services section of the form:
None means that the Lotus Sametime server will not be
providing any audio services. This is actually the most
common selection, and the one to pick if you are using
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your companys regular telephone conference system for

providing the meetings audio.
Computer Audio uses Lotus Sametimes built-in VoIP
services. Remember that all the meeting participants
need their own computer microphone, speakers, and/or
headset. This option works best if the Web conference
has no more than about five people.
Computer Audio and Video is your best option if your IT
department has enabled you to share video or if they
have connected your Lotus Sametime server to your
video conferencing system. Ask someone in IT if youre
not sure.
If your Lotus Sametime server has been connected to your
organizations telephone system (as described in the section
Can You Hear Me Now? earlier in this part), your New
Meeting form may have more fields in the Audio Services
section, which are germane to selecting a dial-in number,
passcode, and so on.
Managing Web conference

attendees
Use the fields on the People tab (as shown in Figure 3-3) to
determine who, exactly, gets to attend your Web conference
and what privileges, if any, they have.
The attendees of a Web conference can be divided into two
piles: #1, the Chair, and #2, everyone else. In most cases, if
youre filling out the New Meeting form, youre the Chair, so
its nice that Lotus Sametime automatically plugs your name
into the Chair field. If youre setting up a Lotus Sametime Web
conference on behalf of someone else, type that persons
name in the Chair field.
Be sure that you get the name of the Chair right, because the
Chair runs the Web conference and gets to decide who can
present, change the meetings duration, and so on. In other
words, the Chair essentially becomes the Web meetings
omnipotent dictator, so make sure youre placing all that
power in the correct persons name.
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Figure 3-3: Use People tab to control your Web conferences invitees.
By default, Lotus Sametime Web conferences are open to all

users (well, all users who can access your Sametime server)
another reason that its important to use meeting passwords.
You can further limit a Web conferences attendees by clicking
the Restrict the Meeting to the Following Users radio button
and then using the Add or Remove People button to select
who, exactly, is invited to your little online party.
Keeping Web conferences secure

Because Lotus Sametime Web conferences are (most often)
run on your organizations own network and servers, and
therefore are behind your companys firewall, you can have
considerable peace of mind regarding their security. You can,
however, make meetings more secure a few other ways, such
as the following:
Passwords: As you can see in Figure 3-3, every Lotus
Sametime meeting can and should have a password so
that anyone who tries to join your Web conference is
granted access only if he or she knows it.
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Hide them: Check the Do Not List This Meeting check

box on the Options tab if you want a Web conference to
be hidden and not listed in the Sametime Meeting
Centers list of meetings.
Mums the word: When push comes to shove, a Web
conference is just a URL. So if you share your Web conferences URL only with the short list of people you want to
attend, you can be reasonably certain that no one else
will try to crash your little party.
A Lotus Sametime Web conference includes a roster or list of
the names of the people who have connected and who are in
the Web conference. If you see the name of someone you dont
recognize or of someone you didnt invite appear, politely ask
the meeting participants to pause and stop talking while you
decide what to do about the interloper.
Sharing
The very nature of a Web conference is that something needs
to be shown and shared amongst a group of people, and often
that something is a set of Microsoft PowerPoint slides. But
you can share just about anything on your computer, so this
section explains which Lotus Sametime features are best for
which types of documents or applications youre presenting
or sharing in the Web conference.
To be able to share in a Lotus Sametime Web conference, you
have to (1) be given the right to do so by the meetings Chair,
and (2) click the Click to Present button.
You can share information with your Web conferences attendees three basic ways:
Uploading the file: You can upload a file at the same time
as you schedule a new Web conference, so that your colleagues can see it in the Slides tab of the Web conference.
Use the New Meeting forms Upload button to upload the
file to the meeting center, so that it will be there when
you and your colleagues join the Web conference.
The fastest and most efficient meetings (technically
speaking, anyway) are the ones that use this method to
share files via the Slides tab. You can also upload files
during the meeting.
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Click the Supported File Types link on the Slides tab of
the New Meeting form to see the detailed list of file types
that can be uploaded.
Application sharing: You can start an application or open
a file that you want to share, and the magic of Sametime
enables everyone in the Web conference to see what you
see. When you share a document (such as a spreadsheet)
this way, you can also enable attendees to edit or control
the application.
Using the Whiteboard: This is like a blank canvas where
you and your colleagues can write text, draw pictures,
and so on during the Web conference.
How do you decide which sharing method to use? When youre
concerned about speed, network performance, and screen
refresh issues, upload the file(s) to the Web conference. If
interactivity and immediacy are paramount, choose the application sharing.
One distinct advantage of uploading files is that it is faster
because Lotus Sametime converts the files to a special format
that is very easy and fast to share. This can be a lifesaver if one
of your colleagues is on a slow connection.
Application sharing is a little slower but offers the advantage
of immediacy which is to say people see exactly what youre
sharing, exactly at the same time as you are sharing it, and
interact with it. When you use application sharing, people see
every click, drag, and drop that youre doing on your computer, live, and you as Chair or anyone you grant control to can
make changes on the fly.
Its Show Time! Attending

a Web Conference
You need only one thing to attend a Lotus Sametime Web conference: its URL. Every Lotus Sametime Web conference has a
unique URL, and if you dont have that, you cant come. (Of
course, if the Web conference has a password, you need that,
too. Refer to the previous section for more about passwords
and security.)
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As you can see in Figure 3-4, when you schedule a new Web
conference, Lotus Sametime tells you the URL, which you, as
Chair, need to supply to all invitees.
Figure 3-4: Every Lotus Sametime Web conference has its own unique
URL, which is used by one and all to attend the meeting.
If you use Lotus Notes or Microsoft Outlook to schedule a Web

conference, the meetings URL (and password, if you entered it
on the meeting setup form) is automatically included in the
invitation that the software sends on your behalf.
Usually, attending a Web conference means clicking a URL.
The URL may be in the meeting invitation on your Lotus Notes
or Microsoft Outlook calendar, or it may be in the body of an
e-mail message that was sent to you, or it may even be in the
Instant Message that you just received.
If the Web conferences URL wasnt supplied to you, open the
Sametime Meeting Center with your Web browser, and click
the Attend a Meeting button to see whats happening. If you
still cant find it, IM the person who sent you the meeting
invitation.
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When you attend a Web conference, you see something very
much like Figure 3-5. Of course what you see may be a little
different, depending on how the Web conference was booked,
which options the chair decided to employ, and whether you
yourself are the Chair.
Figure 3-5: Attending a Lotus Sametime Web conference.
Heres a short laundry list of the buttons you may click and
activities you may undertake when youre in a Lotus Sametime
Web conference:
Invite: Click this button if youre the Chair and want to
send an Instant Message to ask someone to come join
your Web conference usually because either hes late
or because you forgot to invite him in the first place.
Web page: The Chair can enter a URL in the New Web
Page field and click the Send button to have that Web
page open up on the screen (in a new browser window)
of each meeting participant.
Polling: Need to take a quick vote or gather opinions
from participants? The Chair can set up poll questions,
track the answers, and share them with the others in the
Web conference.
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Group chat: Everyone in the meeting can use the group

chat box and everyone can see its contents.
Fit to sceen and maximize: Use these buttons to control
how much of your screen is taken up by what your colleague is sharing.
Welcome tab: When an attendee joins the Web conference, this screen displays the title, start time, and
description of the meeting, and remains on everyones
screen until the Chair changes it. This is very useful in
the first few minutes of a Web conference as people dial
in, remind themselves why theyre coming to this meeting, and generally get themselves settled.
Slides tab: Click this tab to see the file or document that
has been uploaded to the Meeting Center (if one has
been uploaded).
Sharing tab: Click this tab and use the Start sharing
dialog box (shown in Figure 3-6) to show people in the
meeting something from your system, whether thats
your desktop, an application, or a frame for showing portions of your screen (see the nearby sidebar Sharing just
enough).
Figure 3-6: Deciding what and how to share in a Web conference.
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Whiteboard tab: Click this tab to use the Web conferences Whiteboard to take notes or brainstorm.
Add slides: Sometimes you dont have all the slides you
need to upload in advance of a Web conference. Use this
tab to upload new slides to the Web conference after the
meeting has begun and is underway.
Roster: A list of the people who are attending the Web
conference.
You can double-click a persons name to open a private
chat window with them. (Sort of like a side conversation
between you and the individual, which only you and he
or she can see.) You can also right-click on his or her
name to send only that person a file.
If your Lotus Sametime server has been connected to
your phone system, you also use the roster to control the
participants phone lines, see who is speaking, and so on.
No matter which method you choose to share on the Sharing
tab, as Chair, you see the Sharing Tools dialog box, which has
buttons to control how you share:
Stop Sharing: People wont be able to see whats on your
screen anymore.
Switch to sharing something else: Stop showing this and
start showing that.
Allow others to control your screen: Puts one of your
colleagues in the drivers seat, so to speak, and lets him
or her take over your computer.
Reclaim control of your screen: Wrests control back so
that no one but you can control your system.
If you use the Whiteboard tab, instead, you get a whole different set of buttons, as you can see in Figure 3-7.
Select Objects: Use the arrow to select an object thats
already on the Whiteboard in order to make some kind of
change to it.
Laser Pointer: A useful little red light that is sure to draw
your audiences attention to wherever you click it.
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Sharing just enough

When you click the Sharing tab
(assuming the chair has given you
permission of course), you have a
couple of decisions to make about
what (and how) you will share from
your screen with the other people in
the Web conference.
As you can see in Figure 3-6, the
Sharing dialog box has three choices:
The entire screen: This means
that everybody in the screen will
be able to see everything that
happens on your computer (until
you stop sharing).
Note: Although this first option is

certainly the most direct way to
share, be careful; Ive been to
more than one Web conference in
which Ive probably seen more
than I should have. If you meant
to show me a PowerPoint presentation but just happen to have
a browser window open that
implies youve spent the last three
hours looking at model trains
on eBay, I (and your boss) might
just be able to figure that out.
Or how about that e-mail I just
noticed in your Inbox, That Steve
Londergan sure is a dope? What
was THAT about?!
A resizable rectangular frame:
This gives you a (resizable) box
that you drag around your screen.

The idea is that your colleagues
can see whats on your screen
if its inside the box and cant
see if it isnt. This option is one
of my favorites because I know
exactly what people can see. It
also helps you keep your audience focused by directing their
attention, and even helps a little
with the meetings performance
because you can control how big
the box is.
A currently running application:
This presents a list of the programs you have open; select the
program you want people to see
(often Microsoft PowerPoint).
Be careful not to let any other program run in front of (or on top of, so
to speak) the one you choose to
share because your colleagues wont
be able to see that other program and
wont be able to see that part of their
screen this other program is covering
up. In other words, if you choose to
share PowerPoint and then suddenly
switch to Microsoft Outlook, everyone in the Web conference will see
a big, gray, empty box if you have
the Microsoft Outlook window running over the Microsoft PowerPoint
window.
49
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Highlighter: Like one of those fat yellow pens, used to
draw a fat line that emphasizes something on the
Whiteboard. Yes, you can pick colors other than yellow.
Draw with freehand pen: Draws squiggly lines, in the
color and thickness of your choosing, on the Whiteboard.
Draw a straight line: Draws perfectly straight lines, in the
color and thickness of your choosing, on the Whiteboard.
Draw a rectangle: You remember what a rectangle is
from geometry class, right?
Draw an Oval: Rounder and softer than rectangles, and
this is the tool to pick when you need to draw one.
Add a stamp: Stamps a little star next to something youd
like to emphasize.
Add text: Puts some words on the Whiteboard with this
tool.
Erase annotations: Gets rid of the item you select on the
Whiteboard.
Erase all annotations on this page: Gets rid of all the
items on the Whiteboard, so you are starting from
scratch, so to speak.
Figure 3-7: Using the Whiteboard.
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Part 4
Lotus Sametime
Your Way
In This Part
Adding Sametime communities
Keeping track with Sametime Chat Histories and transcripts
Achieving Sametime status
Protecting your privacy
his part is all about how you make IBM Lotus Sametime
suit your own particular tastes and preferences.
Building Sametime Communities

A community is a collection of people with whom you regularly work collaboratively, exchange instant messages, and
attend Web conferences. Its not uncommon to use only
one community; your IT department may have configured
Sametime such that everyone in the company is a member
of one, big, happy Sametime community.
Whether you use one Sametime community or several, you can
fine-tune how they work with a couple of neat tricks. Figure 4-1
shows the Sametime Connect preferences dialog box, which
you access by choosing FileManage Communities. Make sure
you click the + sign next to the Communities list to expand the
list and see all of the communities that are configurable. Click
the name of the community in question to configure your settings for it.
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Figure 4-1: Use the Manage Communities dialog box to configure how
Sametime Connect works with Sametime communities.
Some of the Communities settings control how you connect,

so proceed with caution; give a shout to your companys Help
desk if you need guidance.
As you can see in Figure 4-1, the Preferences/Communities
dialog box has four tabs, with a series of fields on each:
Log In: Use the fields on this tab to specify the name and
password you use to log into the community you
selected. If you click the Automatically Check In check
box, you will log into the selected community every time
you start Sametime Connect.
Server: Fill in this field to specify the name of the server
that is used for the community. Youll need to ask someone (probably in IT) for the exact name of the server.
Connection: Although you can change these fields, you
probably shouldnt unless specifically directed to do so
by your IT department or Help desk. Use these fields if
and only if you have special network conditions that
require you to use proxy servers to connect to the community and server in question.
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Icon: If you have a special icon that will be used to represent the Sametime community, use this tab to select it.
Respecting the Sametime

Status Social Contract
Your status is important because its the way your colleagues
know when youre available and amenable to a Sametime conversation, whether thats via instant messages or a VoIP Voice
chat. As a member of a Sametime community, you owe it to
your colleagues to be reasonably diligent about changing your
status. If for example, youre headed to lunch, be considerate
(its just one click) and set your Sametime status to Away. And
then set yourself back to I am Available when you get back.
By that same token, you expect your colleagues and fellow
Sametime users to do the same, so that when Sametime says
that a given person is available, you can be fairly certain that
he or she is.
Figure 4-2 shows using the Status message to let people know
whats what.
Figure 4-2: Make sure you use the Sametime Status menu.
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Changing your status manually

Follow these steps to change your status:
1. Click the Status button on the Toolbar.
2. Select I am Available, I am Away, In a
Meeting, or Do Not Disturb.
3. Type a little hint about yourself in the Edit message
dialog box, as shown in Figure 4-3.
Figure 4-3: Changing your Sametime Status message.
Your Sametime Status message will be displayed to

one and all of your colleagues when they hover over
your name. For example, if you are setting your status
to Away, you might enter something like Ill be back @
2PM in the Status Message dialog box.
4. Click the OK button.
Sametime Connect changes your status, as you can
see in the Toolbar, and equally important, your Status
indicator changes all over your company.
Although you can have Sametime prompt you to change your
Status message every time you adjust your status, you can
create your own default Status messages (Ill be right back
or stepped away to pick up my kids or doughnut break) by
choosing FilePreferences and clicking Status Messages.
You can also change your status by right-clicking on the
system tray icon or from the menu in an active IM session.
Relying on Auto-Status Changes

Setting your status is such an important part of being an
upstanding member of the Sametime community that the software even helps you by automatically changing your status in
a couple of key scenarios.
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Choose FilePreferences and click Auto-Status Changes in the

Preferences dialog box, as shown in Figure 4-4.
Click the check box labeled From Available to Away When I
Have Not Used the Mouse or Keyboard After the Following
Duration, and then enter a number of minutes in the Minutes
field if you want Sametime to monitor your computer and
assume that youre unavailable if youre not using it.
Figure 4-4: Using the Preferences dialog box to tell Sametime when (and
if) it can automatically change your status for you.
This is useful, for example, if you leave your desk in a hurry

for a meeting and dont set your Sametime status manually.
If you do click the first From Available to Away When I . . .
check box, you probably also want to click the From Away to
Available When I Begin to Use My Mouse or Keyboard check
box, so that Sametime Connect can similarly conclude that
you are once more Available upon your return.
Click the From Available to Away When I Lock My Computer
Using the Operating System Lock check box if you want
Sametime Connect to assume that youre away when and if
your screensaver turns itself on.
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One of the clever new options in Lotus Sametime 7.5 is that
the software can automatically change your status to In a
Meeting whenever you join a Web conference. To enable that
feature, click the While Participating in Online Meetings radio
button and then either the Prompt Me Before Changing My
Status radio button or the Automatically Change My Status
radio button. The former radio button will remind you to
change your status to In a Meeting when you join a Web conference; the latter changes your status automatically.
Alternatively, use the Only When Im Sharing My Screen
option if you want the In a Meeting status change to happen
if and only if you are presenting in the Web conference.
In either case, use the Status message fields in the Auto-Status
Changes dialog box to specify what Sametime Connect
will display to your colleagues when you have joined a Web
conference.
Click the OK button when you are finished with the Preferences
dialog box.
Jogging Your Memory

with Chat Histories
Another new feature for Lotus Sametime 7.5 is its integrated
Chat Histories, which are essentially a text-based transcript of
the instant messaging conversations youve had.
Addiction warning: Once you start using Chat Histories, youll
never go back to not logging instant messages.
Chat Histories make it easy and automatic to review a previous discussion, so that if, for example, youve already asked
someone a question (Hey Steve, what is the URL for filing
expense reports?), youll never have to ask again.
Chat Histories are also a great way to keep a record of what
you discussed with a given person in a given situation and
can even be copied/pasted into an e-mail message if you need
to share your conversation with someone else.
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Its considered polite to ask someone for permission before

forwarding their chat to someone else.
Turning on Chat Histories

Because Sametime Connect doesnt automatically save chat
transcripts unless you tell it do so, use these steps to do
exactly that:
1. Choose FilePreferences and click Chat Histories.
2. Click the Automatically Save My Chat Transcripts
check box.
3. (Optional) Choose the path wherein the files will be
stored by using the Browse button.
4. (Optional) Chat transcripts are, by default, stored
forever; if you dont need them around until the day
you die, click the Delete Saved Transcripts After This
Number of Days check box, and enter the appropriate
number in the field.
5. (Optional) Click the Display Saved Transcripts in Chats
from the Following Number of Days field if you want
Sametime Connect to include the last few chats youve
had with a person every time you start a new one.
This feature is a great way to have a little reminder of
what youve been talking about inserted into every IM
conversation you have.
6. Click the OK button when you are finished with the
Preferences dialog box.
You can also click the File Transfer Preferences or Voice Suite
Preferences links to similarly configure where File transfers
and Voice recording are stored.
Using Chat Histories

If you clicked the Display Saved Transcripts in Chats from the
Following Number of Days field in the Preferences dialog box
(as described in the previous section), you can see the transcript of your previous conversation with a person every time
you start a new chat with that person.
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If, on the other hand, you didnt click that check box, or if you
need to examine the transcript of a conversation outside of a
chat, you can access that Chat History a couple of ways.
Firstly, you can use Sametime Connects built-in Chat History
browser; choose FileOpen Chat History to see what youve
been typing and whom youve been typing it to (see Figure 4-5).
Figure 4-5: Using the Chat History Browser to review prior conversations.
As you can see in Figure 4-5, you can select the name of your
colleague on the left side of the screen in order to see the
transcripts of conversations with that person on the right side
of the screen. You can also use the Chat History browsers File
menu to print transcripts, save them to a different location, or
delete a transcript.
Alternatively, you can use your operating system to navigate
to the folder where your transcripts are being saved, normally
someplace along the lines of C:\Documents and Settings\
your name\Sametime Transcripts. You will find, in that folder,
another folder for every person with whom youve exchanged
instant messages. (Youre very popular, by the way.) You can
navigate amongst the folders (theres one for every person) to
find the transcript you need.
Youll also find a .jpg file for every screenshot the person has
ever sent you.
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59
Getting a Little Privacy

You can configure a couple of special Privacy settings in
Sametime Connect; choose FilePreferences and click on
Privacy.
I am always available for . . .

Click the Enable the Following People to See Me as Available
Even When My Status Is Set to Do Not Disturb check box if
there are a few select individuals who will have the special
privilege to interrupt you, even when you have set your status
to Do Not Disturb.
Common sense dictates that this would be a very short list of
people probably your boss, her boss, and the two people
on your team with whom you collaborate all day long. Type
their names and press Enter to add them to this special list.
I am never available for . . .

Click the When I Am Online tab if there are certain people
from whom you need to, well, hide.
When you click the Enable This List to Control Who Can See
You When Youre Online check box, you then tell Sametime
Connect whether you will be available to only the people whose
names you specify, or whether you will be Available to everyone except the names you specify.
The basic idea here is that Sametime lets you hide from certain people. If you want to be available to the majority of the
people in your Sametime community but dont want to interact with a few people, click the Everybody EXCEPT Those on
This List Can See Me Online option.
Youd use this setting if, for example, you just cant get over
how often Jeremy asks you the same, trivial question, and you
really want to duck him altogether. If you add Jeremys name
to this list, hell think you have either left the company or
stopped using Sametime altogether.
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When you inevitably run into Jeremy in the lunch line, youll
have some splaining to do. Foolish questions aside, he isnt
so dull that he wont quickly realize that youve been using
Sametime to ignore him.
Although I understand why Sametime has these privacy settings, Im not a big fan and I personally never use them; they
sort of fly in the face of Sametimes always-on and how-can-Ihelp-you philosophy. And they strike me as being just a little
dishonest; its a bit like screening your phone calls or not
replying to an e-mail message. I understand it on an occasional basis, but it always leaves kind of a bad taste in my
mouth as a policy.
If you want to limit your availability to a small group of people,
click the ONLY Those on This List Can See Me Online button
instead.
I suppose this might be appropriate if, say, you were in an
upper-level management position and it was your personal
preference that you only be available to a select few of your
employees. But that said, I personally know of one large company (with over 300,000 employees) where the CEO uses
Sametime all day long and doesnt block instant messages
from anybody.
Whichever option you choose (if you choose to block your
availability at all), enter the names and then click the OK
button when youre finished with the Preferences dialog box.
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Part 5
Ten Lotus Sametime

Reminders
In This Part
Making the most of meetings
The Sametime Status social contract
Making instant messages conversations as efficient as possible
BM Lotus Sametime helps you work in real time with your

colleagues, customers, and business partners, but you all
need to get comfortable with its conventions, just like listening for the dial tone on your old PBX telephone, to take full
advantage of its versatility. Because its a new platform for
communication, it has its own rules and customs, so take a
moment to burn into memory the following ten things you
shouldnt forget when using Sametime. Here are some dos
and donts of Sametime etiquette:
Dont forget that instant messages are a lot like e-mail:
The immediacy and Ill just double-click and send this
of instant messages can be both a blessing and a curse.
Remember that instant messages live on long past when
you send them. Most people use Sametimes chat histories to preserve their IM conversations, and many companies are also required by law to archive any and all
Sametime chats. Its even becoming common for people
to copy/paste a chat conversation into e-mail and forward it in the body of an e-mail message. So if theres
something you need to say to someone that you wouldnt
want forwarded to your CEO in an e-mail, youd best not
use Sametime. Pick up the phone instead.
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Think twice before IMing someone in a meeting:
Sametime has a Status called In a Meeting, and you
should use it, watch for it, and respect it. When someone
is leading a Web conference, theres a pretty good chance
that hes sharing his screen, too. So sending him an
instant message is, first and foremost, a bad idea because
you are interrupting and distracting your colleague.
Secondly, did you really want everyone to see what you
had to say? When you IM someone who is in a meeting,
he will see your message, but it will not pop up on his
screen the way most IMs do. Instead, he gets notified that
hes received a new instant message. The risk you run is
that your recipient may very well open that IM in front of
everyone.
Dont lose your cool: The immediacy of instant messaging has led, more than once, to someone typing a message that he or she shouldnt have, and the shorthand
and many abbreviations used in instant messages can
compound the problem and lead to unfortunate misunderstandings. If your chat partner says (IMs) something
that seems inflammatory or confrontational, take a
breath before replying. It may very well be that your
colleague didnt mean the message to be as harsh as you
might think; skip a few beats before you reply. Let a level
head prevail.
Dont forget about e-mail and answering the phone:
Instant messages (refer to Part 2) and Web conferences
(refer to Part 3) are indispensable new ways to communicate and work together, but they arent the only way.
Lotus Sametime is intended to supplement, not supplant,
other forms of communications such as e-mail and the
plain old telephone system (which is commonly referred
to as POTS, believe it or not).
Theres nothing worse than getting a three-page missive
in an instant message window; its just as bad as getting a
17-minute voice-mail message. The trick here is to pick
the right tool for the job; some kinds of communications
are appropriate for instant messages, and some arent.
Dont forget to indicate your own status: Your status
whether you are Available, Away, In a Meeting, or in Do
Not Disturb is one of the most important aspects of
Sametime; it lets your colleagues know whether you are
available and able to work together. Dont forget to
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Chapter 5: Ten Lotus Sametime Reminders
63
change your status, as appropriate if youre going to

lunch, for example, change your status to Away so
your colleagues know the scoop (see Part 4). Its polite,
and its just part of the Sametime social contract.
If you havent been getting instant messages for an hour
or so, check your own status. You may be sending the
wrong message that youre unavailable.
Dont forget to set your location: Lotus Sametime 7.5 has
a new feature, as explained in Part 4, wherein it can track
and share your physical location. Dont forget to use
Location profiles so that your colleagues know where
you are. Remember that even Sametime cant use GPS to
track you down, so its location feature is only as helpful
as you are!
Use PowerPoints screenshow feature: When you attend
and present in a Web conference, its a pretty safe bet
that youll be sharing Microsoft PowerPoint slides. Use
the PowerPoint screenshow feature, so that your slides
take up as much of your screen as possible, and so that
your colleagues who are watching you present will be
able to see everything clearly.
Tell attendees the Web conferences password: Make
sure anyone who is invited to your Web conferences
knows, in advance, the Web conferences password by
including it in the meetings invitation. This practice
helps ensure that your meetings start on time. Ive been
to many Web conferences where the first 15 minutes get
wasted while everyone tries to find out what the password is.
Get a headset: One of the coolest new features in Lotus
Sametime 7.5 is its built-in support for VoIP, which lets
you use Sametime to talk to your colleagues. Simply
select a colleague, click the Convert to a Voice Call
icon, and youre in business no telephone, no phone
number, no busy signal. The one thing you may need to
get is a computer headset (with a microphone). Although
many laptops include built-in microphones and speakers
these days, they tend to pick up the tap-tap of typing as
well as your voice. A headset reduces background noise.
Set your status to In a Meeting when leading a Web
conference: Your colleagues are a rather considerate lot,
and not one of them would dream of interrupting you
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when youre in a meeting, much less sending you a message that all your meeting attendees (unintentionally)
can see. If you tell Lotus Sametime to automatically set
your status to In a Meeting every time you join a Web
conference (new in Lotus Sametime 7.5), you have one
less thing to remember. Unless youre diligent about setting the In a Meeting status manually, you run the risk
of being barraged with incoming instant messages
while youre trying to hold court in a Sametime Web
conference.
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Part 6
Ten Reasons Lotus

Sametime Beats
the Competition
In This Part
Enjoying the benefits of a platform designed for business
How Lotus Sametime does more than competitors
Saving more money with Lotus Sametime
BM Lotus Sametime is better than the rest, and this part

enumerates and illustrates the top ten reasons that is
true.
Built for Business

IBM Lotus Sametime is and always was designed for business,
and so it has all the features that businesses need including
encryption, authentication, chat histories, reliability, and so
on. This approach is fundamentally different from that of
Sametimes competitors, many of which began their careers
as consumer-oriented chat services and are now trying to
move in on the enterprise market. You wouldnt trust your
business e-mail communications to a basic online service
provider accessible to the hoi polloi, and you shouldnt do
that for real-time collaboration, either.
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Top-Notch Security
Call it peace of mind. You want to be sure that the tools you
use in your job (such as your e-mail, Web applications, and
instant messages) are secure. You want to be protected from
prying eyes; you want to be sure that when youre communicating with someone, that you really know that the person is
who they say they are. Youve got to know that your confidential business information stays confidential and that youre
not exposing your corporate network and your company to
unreasonable risks.
Fully Integrated with

Your Enterprise
IBM Lotus Sametime is intended to work with other systems;
thats why you can use Sametime inside your e-mail, connect
Sametime to your phone systems PBX, use Sametime inside
Microsoft Office, and so on.
Through integration, IBM Lotus Sametime enables you to to
respond to clients and customers quickly and efficiently with
just the information they need. For example, when you can
send a bid via instant message in minutes instead of hours or
days, you beat the competition every time.
Easy to Use
Most For Dummies books are 400 pages long, yet this slim
tome handily describes IBM Lotus Sametime in a fraction of
that length. Doesnt that prove how easy Sametime is? But
seriously folks, Lotus Sametime is designed to be a tool that
your company can use right out of the box, with little or no
training required. As Thomas Jefferson might have said, We
hold these emoticons to be self-evident . . .
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Part 6: Ten Reasons Lotus Sametime Beats the Competition
67
An Expandable Platform
IBM Lotus Sametime offers more than just a buddy list and
Web conferencing; it is a platform for real-time collaboration.
By using Sametimes toolkits or add-on solutions from thirdparty providers, you can inject real-time collaboration into
any other application, and create mashups that combine the
best of Lotus Sametime with just about any other application
or service.
Complies with Compliance

Issues
Many companies are subject to regulatory compliance (such
as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the United States). IBM Lotus
Sametime includes tools that you can use to make sure your
real-time collaboration tools are compliant. With its chat logging feature, you can be confident that every message that the
Lotus Sametime server handles is logged. Sametime helps
keep you (and your organization) in line with such compliance regulation.
Reduces Travel and Voice Mail

I daresay that every IM conversation you have saves you a
phone call, and likewise every Web conference you attend
saves your company a plane ticket. The cost savings IBM
Lotus Sametime can bring to your organization are easy to
measure in dollars, to say nothing of the productivity gains
Sametime fosters. (How many of those business interactions
wouldnt have happened at all, in the absence of Lotus
Sametime?)
For example, IBM saves over $9 million a year from use of
instant messaging instead of phone calls and $72 million a
year from the use of Web conferencing instead of travel. Your
company can save in direct proportion to how much you take
advantage of IBM Lotus Sametime. Even if you assume each
call costs just a few cents, eliminating four or five calls a day
per employee can really start adding up the savings.
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Cost-Effective
IBM Lotus Sametime is more cost-effective to license, deploy,
and manage. It also presents a more manageable and predictable cost structure, especially when compared with its
expensive pay-as-you-go hosted Web conferencing competitors.
Plays Well with Other

IM Networks
IBM Lotus Sametimes support of standards is embodied in
the Lotus Real-Time Collaboration Gateway, which is the
piece of magic that enables you to exchange instant messages
between Lotus Sametime and AOL, Yahoo, Google, and others.
Many of Sametimes competitors dont offer this kind of reciprocity at all, and those that do often make you pay an extra
licensing fee for the privilege. Sametime includes this functionality, and you dont have to pay extra for it.
The Market Leader

On the eve of its eighth birthday, and with more business
users than any other similar program, Lotus Sametime is at
the front of the pack. No one ever got fired for buying IBM,
as the old saying goes . . .

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01_098864 ffirs.

IBM Lotus Sametime For Dummies, Limited Edition

Copyright 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

elcome to IBM Lotus Sametime your one-stop shop

Why Sametime Will

IBM Lotus Sametime For Dummies, Limited Edition

About This Book

The hardest part about preparing this book was deciding

Part 1: What Is IBM

Part 2: Instant Messages

Part 3: Lotus Sametime

Part 4: Lotus Sametime Your Way

IBM Lotus Sametime For Dummies, Limited Edition

Part 5: Ten Lotus Sametime

Part 6: Ten Reasons Lotus

Icons in This Book

These little commandments are things that you should never

Ignore these cautionary tidbits at your own peril.

What Is IBM Lotus

his part introduces you to the exciting new territory of

Just What Is Sametime,

IBM Lotus Sametime For Dummies, Limited Edition

Meeting on the Web

Keeping tabs on availability

Part 1: What Is IBM Lotus Sametime?

This capability is fundamentally different from, say, a phone

How Sametime Works

The Sametime server

IBM Lotus Sametime For Dummies, Limited Edition

But you dont always interact directly with Sametime Connect.

Part 1: What Is IBM Lotus Sametime?

conference, you do that with your current, familiar Web

Figure 1-2: Using a Web browser to schedule a Web conference.

Sometimes you interact with the Sametime server in other

Why Sametime Is Better

IBM Lotus Sametime For Dummies, Limited Edition

Its about security, Silly

Taking into account authentication

Part 1: What Is IBM Lotus Sametime?

Coping with corporate compliance

IBM Lotus Sametime For Dummies, Limited Edition

Lowering your costs

Part 1: What Is IBM Lotus Sametime?

Hosted Web conference services are easy to buy, and therein

Thinking beyond the Buddy List

IBM Lotus Sametime For Dummies, Limited Edition

IBM Lotus Sametime For Dummies, Limited Edition

Logging In with Sametime

Logging in for the first time

Part 2: Instant Messages

Your user name

As you can see in the figure, you have a couple of other

IBM Lotus Sametime For Dummies, Limited Edition

Part 2: Instant Messages

Primary Phone Number: Tell your colleagues what your

Logging in all the other times

How to be in three places

when youre working at the office (and

IBM Lotus Sametime For Dummies, Limited Edition

Using Sametime Connect

Viewing the big picture

Part 2: Instant Messages