I was just thinking about the overall architecture for the Golf Web application and whether or not it would be better to try and use existing products instead of trying to roll my own. I could use dasBlog and nGallery like this site does to provide pictures and allow members to update what they are doing.

This is the classic "buy vs build" decision that sometimes gets overlooked in software development. The cost equation is simple: will the purchase cost of the bought component + integration costs be greater or less than the cost of developing said functionality + support costs. Putting numbers in the equation is a little more difficult. Remember the purchase cost may include additional licensing fees. At Exony we have a simple rule for commercial components - if the component can't be redistributed royalty free or under OEM license then we don't use it. Open Source can be useful must don't forget to check the license especially the part about derivative works where the wrong license can commit your entire product to the public domain.

I'm not keen on using the two products mentioned above because they are complete overkill for what I want. There is a third way though, to use parts of the code base. The architecture will be mine but using code from the other two; sort of like a code snippet library. I've checked the licenses and this is allowed as long as I include the original license and copyright notices.

What I couldn't find though was any sort of .NET web contact manager. Does anyone know of one?