Notes Templates
Steve Castledine 1 August 2006 16:00:00
I've been a bit quiet of late, mostly because i have had my head down working and also filling up on information (working out acronyms!).I go through these phases of soaking up as much info as possible on different technologies and techniques, let it settle in and then the ideas come flooding. I've got some thoughts on a few "personal" projects I might start but i'm weighing up the technologies, the future etc before I embark.
Anyway, I have been reading the comments on both Ed's and John's sites regarding showcase notes templates etc.
Theres a few points I would like to make that would be way too big to post as a comment.
Firstly "Blue Rinse". I guess this is a bit of a made up word and I used it because someone else used it and it seemed to fit the description. The actual process involved in "Blue Rinse" is not actually a documented one as its something that IBM Lotus has probably never had to consider before as templates are generally created internally.
In actual fact the look and feel of my template (dominoblog) is way down the list in terms of priority as the ability to legalise, support, translate, document, use etc are far more important. In fact with the look and feel, I decided to take it from existing notes templates to give it a slightly uniform look (I don't do UI design with great ability). I have to hope I took the right decision. If people decide to base other templates on this design and it sucks etc - then someone within IBM will shoot me!
From going through this process (still am), I really cannot highlight enough the amount of resource, thought and risk involved (both by IBM and myself personally/career) in bringing dominoblog from a 3 year, hobby developed "UK English" template into a deliverable. The effort is huge, a lot of people involved and a lot of head scratching by me, knowing the design, making sure the end result is as professional as possible (I worry about stuff like that). Come September and customers say what a load of cr*p - well as sole developer heres one my teflon shirt will not be able to dodge!
Anyway the template showcase discussion. Well experience has taught me that these things start with a lot of gusto and enthusiasm but its not long before you lose most of the people to "other commitments" and things get slower and slower. I don't think anyone could estimate the amount of effort people like Bruce, Anil and Vince have put in to keep openntf focussed and moving forward so my bet would be if people wanted to do this then pin it onto an already recognised site to take full advantage of the work already done there.
I do feel though that a notes template showcase is a bit going backwards (theres other thoughts on what this solves, what part of the market will it affect etc). I don't mean this to sound negative because there are a lot of benefits and positives from suggestions people have over this idea.
I feel instead we should look forwards and towards the competition (namely Sharepoint with regards to Templates). The forwards aspect is "good" (ie not just a notes application that just relies on the Domino http task to render for you) web based templates that actually do go head to head with Sharepoint and solutions based around the Eclipse based notes client (ok this is a future thing).
The big players at the minute are thriving and raising interest on useful, easy to use, simple but nice looking web applications. Its not like Notes and Domino is incapable of this its just not enough people are doing it. These are the solutions to impress new and existing customers alike.
I might tinker a bit myself on this, this site needs more technical content than my current waffle.
Feel free to shoot me down, or even agree! As usual these opinions are my own only - my employer and colleagues are usually wiser than I.
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