... did I tell you that I have an iPhone now? An iPhone 4, actually. And prior to that, I was testing an iPad. This on the heels of purchasing two iPod Touch devices for my children (oldest girl and boy birthdays are only a few calendar weeks apart).

And I can say that I'm becoming more and more of a fan of iOS. In fact, I'm currently downloading 4.1 while I write this post. My poor Zune 30 is sitting here on my desk, it's last charge well-past spent, and I'm almost completely used to the clunkiness of iTunes.

Why the sudden jump? Well, I have customers that wanted the iPhone... after a C-level employee was given an iPad as a gift.

Funny how that works, huh?

... the problem that this particular customer ran into was that they were unable to upgrade their Domino infrastructure. They are currently mid-upgrade of their environment, and for some reason are upgrading the Lotus Notes Clients before they upgrade their Domino environment. Cart before the horse, I know... but it's the reality that they're steadily working through.

So, how do you implement IBM Lotus Traveler 8.5.2 in a Domino environment that you can't upgrade?! Simple really... but let's first look at a standard Traveler implementation...

(Click thru for more...)

If you talk to anyone that works with me... you'll quickly learn that I'm not motivated by money. I don't often invoice until near-demanded by the customer. You can imagine how this infuriates my wife (sorry, Shirl!)... but that's me.

I am motivated by problems... or more specifically, the call to arms for a solution to a problem.

So what does this have to do with me selling you a $5 IBM Lotus Notes Domino platform app?

I'll explain...

I wanted my upcoming XPage Maps proof of concept (IBM Lotus Notes Domino XPages + Personal Address Book + Google Maps Mashup) to be a little more user friendly than I had originally intended. See, my original goal was to simply query address data from the Lotus Notes Client Personal Address Book and use that address data for runtime queries to Latitude and Longitude info... and then show those as locations on the map via pin overlays.

A decent demo, but it really doesn't do much in the way of using the data.

So I thought that I would not only generate the balloon/popup overlays triggered via an onclick on the given pin, but also use -- if available -- the ContactPhoto for the individual pin overlay.

Now, for those of you not familiar with the concepts I'm using here -- which rely as much on traditional IBM Lotus Notes Domino Web Application Development as much as XPages and SSJS -- here is the short, short version of the principles used here.

OpenNTF.org is not only an amazing resource for consumers (IT Professionals) of IBM Lotus platform (Domino, Sametime, Connections, et al) looking for open source solutions to their business needs... it can also server as a muse for those same IT Professionals to create their own solutions!

Consider -- if you will -- the Testimonial notification I received for Abbr:

Abbr - Testimonial: so simple... but great idea

This give me the idea of customizing this application so that all my intranet users could create and share their tiny urls as favorites. Thanks !

The simple truth is this: while a given OpenNTF.org project may not address your specific business need, it may give you inspiration (or at the very least give you a template design to mine) for providing your own solutions.

I was asked recently by a developer who was looking for a way to make a name for themselves in the global developer community how they could do just that. While this developer was not an IBM Lotus platform developer, my advice was similar, and something that was echo'ed on a recent episode of Boagworld.

The advice, simply put, is to give it away and build a portfolio.

When this developer asked me how they could establish themselves, my initial response was to ask them if they knew of any non-profit or volunteer organizations in the area. If they were able to find a local organization where they could donate their services.

Giving away your services doesn't exactly establish you as a subject matter expert, but it gives you exposure.

Exposure of your solutions to people -- especially in the volunteer organizations -- who most likely work for larger for-profit organizations.

Exposure of your solutions to customers, as there is no better confirmation of your reported skills then being able to witness them in a production environment.

And -- most importantly -- your own personal exposure to the solution delivery process.

Sure, you might be able to sling code... but until you can work the entire process (from requirements gathering thru development and to delivery), then it's all just theory.

... so what does this have to do with IBM Lotus Notes Domino application development?!

(Click thru for more...)