Lotus Notes, Workplace said to boost users on the edge

Lotus Notes, Workplace said to boost users on the edge: "Central to Notes at the outset was the concept of a semi-structured data base and an object software metaphor that centered on documents rather than transactions. 'We built these forms-based things,' said Ozzie, 'I don't think we understood deeply the kind of applications people would build.'
'We were shooting from the hip,' Ozzie said of the early years of Notes development. The approach worked well where organization workflow was important, and was not necessarily embraced wholeheartedly by central IT.
'The fundamental belief we had was [in] the people who best know how to adapt software to their needs,' Ozzie said, referring to the business workers 'at the edge of the system.'
In the early days, he said, Notes applications were largely created by 'power users and line-of-business IT.' Notes, of course, later became more and more of an environment for professional developers."