Having designed the HTML, CSS, and FBML Facebook fan/like pages for not only dominoGuru.com, but also the official IBM LotusKnows and IBM Lotus Technical Information and Education team... the news that Facebook is changing their Fan Page layouts just adds yet another item onto my to do list!

The changes, scheduled to go live August 23rd, 2010, are being shown to Page Admins when they browse to their page:

Get Ready for Your Streamlined Page

Starting August 23, we'll be simplifying your Page to make it easier to browse: 1) Boxes are going away, including the Boxes tab; and 2) All custom tabs will be narrowed to 520 pixels. If you have a custom tab, we recommend you visit your tab now for a preview of how your content fits in the new layout -- please make adjustments as needed. The rest of Facebook will see the old tab width until August 23. Read More

The HTML, CSS, and FBML markup that I used -- of course -- relied on the larger screen real-estate, and as far as I can tell the CSS overflow is set to none... which makes the screen appear cut off, and otherwise looking like crap.

Perhaps this is a good thing, as it gives us all an opportunity to revamp the welcome/default landing pages.

I'll be in talks with the IBM page admins of course to see if they have any ideas, but I'll give you guys first crack at it: what would you like to see on the dominoGuru.com, IBM LotusKnows, and IBM Lotus Technical Information and Education team Fan/Like Pages?

Sitting through the blogger IBM debriefing for LotusLive Notes, I couldn't help but listening to the call with my developer ears on.

IBM creating a SaaS messaging solution based on IBM Lotus Notes Domino certainly addresses an SMB market requirements, and the hybrid approach that allows growing organizations to evolve their business based on it's needs.

Need to quickly ramp-up a new Domino server in the cloud that's a part of your existing infrastructure? LotusLive Notes (or LLN) is a great solution, especially for the price.

LotusLive Notes is an offering that's meant to -- from what I gathered -- compliment your existing Lotus Notes Domino solution, or allow a 25+ new Lotus Notes Domino customer to quickly ramp-up a no-fuss Domino solution, and get your teams using the messaging, calendaring, and task management capabilities of the standard Domino mail template.

...but again, I couldn't help but listen with my developer ears, and specifically my platform developer ears.

As a result, there was a big take-away for me...

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When I first released Controller API Utility v1.0 (and lamenting over it's lackluster sales), Nathan shared this small nugget of wisdom:

People don't buy apps to help build apps... they just buy apps.

I took his advice, and my next two apps were more Admin and Developer focused apps.

The other day, when publically mentioning my next $5 app (which will be a mail campaign app based on Zephyr, specifically focused on allowing even an end-user to create on-demand mass mailers), Bruce commented on my Facebook:

I want a $2 app........

This actually got me thinking if we -- the independent software vendor (developers unite!) -- could create a $1.99 product for the IBM Lotus platform.

I thought of a few projects I have in mind that might actually fit the $1.99 pricing model... simple utilities that allowed a developer or admin to quickly perform some currently menial task like getting the Password Recovery key from an ID file without a need for the Lotus Domino Admin client or a NotesItem cleaner that would allow you to apply a ruleset against a selected NotesDocumentCollection and create/update/delete various NotesItems.

I thought of creating Script Libraries and app frameworks for developers to allow them to quickly ramp-up a new project to inject into an existing app for simple extended functionality.

I thought of quite a few things actually, and at this rate, I could keep coding and releasing these low-priced apps well into next year (I'm shooting for one new app per week!)

What about you? Can you think of anything that would fit that $1.99 pricetag (or even the oh-so-pricey $5.00) range? Is there a market for low cost products for this platform? Y'know, something that addresses an individual or small-group business need? Something that helps you get through your day.

I've got my own ideas to go through... but perhaps you should crack open the Designer client and create a few from your own! The more apps, the better for our platform.

The IBM Lotus and WebSphere Portal Business Solutions Catalog allows you to create a category-specific RSS feed for available products and apps, which you can easily add to the Lotus Notes Client sidebar via the RSS Reader Widget.

While this isn't an in-client app store, it certainly helps us move in that direction!

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The latest design and function of this site is - quite frankly - not doing it for me. For those of you who may not know, the current version of this site resulted from a ZOMG I replaced the template with the Lotus Notes Client Journal template and there's no backup?! self-inflicted mess of a situation.

See, I have a vision for dominoGuru.com. That it's purpose would go far beyond that of a simple blog, and become a resource for IBM Lotus product portfolio developers.

Don't worry, I'll still be blogging, and the blog will be a major feature of this site... but I don't want it to be the only feature.

Here are some of the thoughts I have on the redesign...

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