Introduction
A little bit of product goes a long way!
Details
Many institutions are intimidated by Open Source software, and don't want to hack in their own features. This makes sense, as the more you alter the code base, the harder it is to keep up with new versions. With gadgets, this problem goes away, but keep in mind that gadgets are limited in how integrated they will be with an implementing container. This is by design, and something it is good to get comfortable with.
The simplest extensions can sometimes reap the greatest rewards. Our WebLinks gadget allows users to add hyperlinks to web pages. Think about that, the ability to add hyperlinks to web pages. That functionality is older than the web itself, but .NET strips out this ability in the Narrative (for understandable reasons) so we created a gadget to add it back in, and our faculty LOVE it. We can now have Profiles link to departmental web sites (and we prepopulated data as much as possible) and this make Profiles less threatening to the many pre-existing UCSF web sites that profile faculty information. And the gadget itself is a small amount of code. This was such a simple thing to build, but great bang for the buck.
The same for the Mentor gadget. Very straightforward, but meets a need for a targeted population, and makes them very happy. With gadgets, you don't need a killer app. You are better off building a bunch of small apps to meet a bunch of small needs. The collection of not killer apps can become the killer library of apps because you can eventually build something for everyone. Help us make this come true.