Zope Corp.'s layered strategy of engagement with open source and visible-source communities is a compelling blend of the strengths of free and commercial software development. In two previous columns, Open source citizenship and Giving back to open source, I explored the tendency of enterprises to fork open source projects rather than join them. Pedhazur suggests that a commercial entity supporting both an open source base and a visible-source layered product can reduce the need to fork. By outsourcing code enhancements, the argument goes, an enterprise can enjoy single-throat-to-choke control without seceding from a project's community. It remains to be seen how broadly this model can apply, but in cases where it does, what's not to like? [Full story at InfoWorld.com]

12:24:23 AM    

Ektron joins the forms-as-content race. It was perhaps inevitable that e-forms and content management would begin to converge at some level. For the past couple of years, various CMS vendors -- especially the hosted sol... [CMSWatch Trends and Features]

I'm floored that the ECM vendors haven't filled this gaping hole already. Customers spend hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars on an ECM footprint. Then, when they get it up-and-running, they ask the simple yet inevitable quesiton--How do I put some forms in my portal that can pump the data right into my ECM platform's workflow and repository? The answer has been, "Just whip up a webapp. Here's the API reference." It's a huge step backward. Not to be Old Lotus Notes Guy here, but hello? It should be nearly code-free at this point, particularly as standards like XForms gain momentum.

12:15:37 AM