Microsoft to open-source fans: It's all about the love - by Charles Cooper from CNET News.com - "The advance billing had the audience assuming Daniel was about to enter the lions' den. What they got was more along the lines of Mister Rogers talks tech. Brad Smith, who is Microsoft's top lawyer, went out of his way during an afternoon talk before a gathering of open-source die-hards to portray the software company as ready to turn a page in its relationship with the developer community."

Blasphemy! Google Debuts Video Ads in Search Results - by Adam Ostrow from Mashable - "Since the ads do not appear to be immediately obvious, Google purists might not freak out completely over the inclusion of video ads in search results. However, as I said back in February when I learned of the initiative, it certainly marks a significant shift from Google’s once barebones interface."

Should Open Source Projects Accept VC Backing? - by Michelle Dively from OStatic - "[Benchmark Capital's Rob Bearden] says open source companies should strive to become the 'enterprise standard' in their market space in order to effectively monetize their commodities. He also notes that if companies are willing to embrace the idea of making money off their open source projects, then they might be rewarded with an infusion of venture capital cash."

According to Jeff Potts from ecmarchitect.com, the developers of the Alfresco Community CMS have pledged to allow contributions from other developers starting with their version 3.0. Potts asked a question about the possibility of the code being opened up at the Alfresco Community Conference a few weeks ago.

Jeff's complete post is here.

Alfresco comes in two flavors: the enterprise-level main product and the free Alfresco Community edition. Both are considered open source projects, but contributions from the general development community have been rare in the past. If it happens as suggested, this could create a network of Alfresco developers similar to that of Drupal and Joomla.

The acquisition of open source database software MySQL by Sun was completed today, consummating a whirlwind courtship that started only last November. Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz says on his blog that Sun will immediately begin promoting MySQL to extend its reach and rolling out global enterprise support programs. In short, "we're bringing our largest customers the innovation and performance the world's most important on-line companies [meaning: Google, Yahoo and others, who use MySQL] are already experiencing...."

Schwartz slips into some buzzspeak a bit later, saying that Sun's engineering community, which now includes MySQL, of course, has "begun to engage across a dizzying array of touchpoints." I'm not sure what that means; I confess I'm a little dizzy thinking about it.

His comments about the business model for open source were instructive, however. Noting that many critics of Sun's $1 billion payout to obtain MySQL still consider open source to be something for hobbyists, "[m]ost of the IT world knows quite the opposite." Sun's current approach appears to be speeding adoption of products by removing licensing and pricing barriers, while concentrating on providing support services to add value and generate income. A similar approach is used by businesses that use open source software as a base, adding value through support, training and custom development for clients who have neither the time, training or desire to do so themselves.

While the Sun-MySQL deal has generated many positive comments, there are others who suspect ulterior motives from Sun, worrying that they will lock MySQL away behind a restrictive (and expensive) license, or worse, kill it entirely. Could happen, but Schwartz's actions since becoming CEO have tended toward moving Sun's existing technologies, like Java, to open source, not the other way around. Provided it gets the support Schwartz is promising today in the blush of romance, MySQL looks to be in a good position for the future.

SilverStripe has posted a release candidate for an patch that will fix "several dozen issues," according to the release notice.

Current users of the SilverStripe open source CMS are asked to download and install version 2.2.2rc1 and report any problems during setup, upgrading or operations. Keep in mind that release candidate software is not the final version and may still contain bugs, so caution should be taken before using this version on a live production site.

More information on SilverStripe is available on the project's overview page.

Adobe's development tools for rich Internet applications (RIAs) were officially released today.

AIR allows developers to create RIAs using the tools and languages they already are familiar with, such as HTML, Flash/Flex and JavaScript. These applications run in a browser, so they have the advantages of easy deployment and maintenance (since they're server-based) and accessibility (anywhere there's a browser and an Internet connection). But they also have additional benefits most web-based applications don't have, including the ability to read and write local files and interact with existing desktop applications.

Flex is a framework for developing RIAs. The SDK for Flex is freely downloadable, and Flex is now open source with version 3. Adobe has a commercial product to assist with Flex development called Flex Builder 3 which retails for $249.00 from the Adobe Store. According to Adobe, Flex Builder 3 works with other Adobe Creative Suite applications such as Dreamweaver, Illustrator and Flash to create a comprehensive AIR/Flex development environment.

What do today's developments at Adobe mean for open source CMS developers? With their flexibility and ability to be easily extended with modules and add-ons, open source CMS platforms like Joomla! and Drupal are also CMFs - content management frameworks. The websites we develop using these tools are just one of the many uses of their base functionality. You can create a rich Internet application using these open source CMS platforms. There are many examples of rich, complex, interactive websites created that way, including The Onion (Drupal), National Lampoon (Joomla!), FastCompany.com (Drupal), MTV-Netherlands (Joomla!), and Amnesty International (Drupal).

So where does Flex fit in this picture? Is it another commercial CMF/CMS like Microsoft's SharePoint? Will its open source status make it appealing to those currently doing that type of development with Joomla! or Drupal's tools? Or will we see an integration of Flex into the existing open source CMS platforms. There are groups and individual developers already starting to discuss the possibilities, but I'm curious how you see this developing in the next year. Leave your thoughts in the comments, please.

Microsoft's big announcement today about changes in their business practices to "increase the openness of its products and drive greater interoperability, opportunity and choice" is a very public recognition by the company of the seismic shift in the software industry.

While Microsoft still dominates, with over 91 percent of all PCs running Windows, that market share has been very slowly eroding over the past few years. More of a concern, though, has to be the slow adoption rate of Windows Vista by end users; the newest Microsoft operating system is only being used by twelve percent of PC users a year after its release, while 75 percent of users are still using Windows XP. Obviously, the days of launch parties, buyers camping overnight outside computer stores and, most importantly, big profits from the release of an upgraded OS are ancient history. It's so ten years ago.

Today's announcement by CEO Steve Ballmer and Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie demonstrates Microsoft's need to remain significant in a world where open source software alternatives have gained footholds. Isolation is no longer a viable option; Microsoft had to figure out how to play nice with the little kids before they got big enough to beat them up. And they will continue to grow.

Of course, the press release does acknowledge that Microsoft's hand was forced somewhat by the European Community's Court of First Instance decision in September 2007, requiring the company to improve interoperability of its products. While compliance with the CFI's judgment apparently drove the timing of today's announcement, these were changes Microsoft had to make eventually to keep pace in a changing software development world.

It's the age of the mashup. We've come to expect different software solutions to work together, to have an open API for us to play with. With the details of their "high-volume business products" secreted away behind developer non-disclosure agreements, Microsoft risked being left out of the picture. So now there will be "greater transparency," starting with over thirty thousand pages of documentation being released starting today that were only available to certified developers yesterday.

Microsoft's acknowledgment of the changing reality in its industry is enormous, possibly the biggest single announcement they will make this year (and that includes whatever made Robert Scoble cry last week). While Microsoft had made tentative, and stumbling, efforts to assure the open source community that lawsuits weren't going to come raining down on them in the past, today's announcement has a tone of conciliation and recognition that has been missing. If not exactly a peace agreement, perhaps a level of cordial détente has been reached with today's announcement in Redmond.

Until about a month ago, I considered myself to be fairly up-to-date on what was happening with new technology, open source, social networking, and so on. If there was a buzzword a-buzzin', I thought I knew about it. But after just a few weeks of committing myself to writing this blog on a daily basis, I find there's so many things to be excited about, I'm not sure how to continue. I want to add something of value to the overall discussion about new technology, but I'm going to need to focus New Tech Heroes a bit more to make sure that I'm not just chattering away in a tiny corner of the Internet.

So I need some input from you, my early readers. What are you excited about? What developments are making your life more fun, or your job less stressful and more productive? What kinds of improvements would you ask for if you had the undivided attention of the developer of your favorite online or desktop applicaton?

Or are you fed up with the whole thing? Is new technology actually making your live more difficult, trying to keep up with all the changes?

Consider this an open thread. Let me know what you're thinking in the comments, and I'll reply to them there as well as write some more detailed posts about the more popular topics in the days and weeks to come. Thanks!

2008 - The Year of the Open Source CMS

Awareness of the benefits of using Open Source CMS software is evident by the number of mentions CMS has received in the past year. Here are some recent reviews or commentaries about CMS or individual software solutions:

• Joomla and Drupal were named two of the "Top Web Gadgets of 2007" by Adam Davidson of National Public Radio.
• Joomla developer Barrie North explains why he thinks 2008 will be the "year of the open source CMS."
• Drupal lead developer Dries Buytaert describes the exciting possibilities for his CMS on his blog.
• The New York Times has embraced open source solutions for its website and other content management, as described on its Open blog written by Jacob Harris.
• CNET's Matt Asay reports on a study showing that Open Source software bugs are fixed faster than those in proprietary software.

Other resources

• OpenSourceCMS.com. Try out dozens of different Open Source CMS products at one site.
• Packt Publishing's 2007 CMS Awards
• O'Reilly Open Source Convention - OSCON 2008. To be held in July 2008 in Portland, Oregon.
• List of content management systems. From Wikipedia.
• CMSMatrix. Compare CMS solutions side-by-side.