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Many in the content management industry (and beyond) seem to be slightly obsessed with the buzz that the “cloud” is. The opinions can be quite polar, but for now we’ll concentrate on those embracing virtualization.

In today’s interview, Emmanuel Garcin, VP and GM in North America for open source CMS provider Jahia (news, site), shared his thoughts about cloud trends and told us how Jahia is going about it with the newest release of Jahia Cloud.

Did you ever think Zipcars were a more flexible option than, say, Hertz? Jahia is transferring this principle to web content management (+/- one JVM).

KMWorld (news, site) has dropped its list of Trend Setting companies for 2009 and there are more than a few familar faces making the list.

Adobe (news, site) moves fast. You may recall that the company recently acquired analytics provider Omniture, to the surprise of many a tech nerd.

The coupling of Adobe’s creative brand and analytics—which admittedly seemed odd at first—is already being reflected in its solutions. First off the conveyor belt is the brand new Adobe Flash Platform Services for Distribution. The platform gives Flash app developers more insight into how their apps are being used, and enables advertisers and content publishers alike to promote, measure and monetize their tools across the Web.

To those of you who labeled social media a fad, I offer my most sincere apologies. Now that everyone from grade school kids to grandmothers are posting Tweets and writing on each other’s wall, the next rising wave is commercial entities infiltrating the social media space.

Compliance, compliance, compliance. It’s not that companies don’t want to be compliant. They do. It’s more that there are many things that complicate the process, like vendors with too much access to private information and virtual environments. Two recent surveys highlight these issues.

Ah yes, this is indeed a glorious era for learning and networking. There are conferences and webinars coming out our ears, wifi spots a-plenty, 3G data services galore and if you’re lucky, sponsored drinks at the bar.

So, what say you to some mingling? If you’d like to get out and partake in a solid (or virtual) handshake or two, our weekly events list is designed to help. Every Tuesday we plug as many relevant events as we can find into the big list and publish it, just for you.

Are we missing something? Don’t hesitate to add your event to our events calendar (view all events). And if you’ve got feedback on the coming events — good or bad — do share it in the comments below.

• Oct 15, 2009 – Day Ignite Innovative CMS Summit — Zurich
  
• Oct 29, 2009 – Day Ignite Innovative CMS Summit — Chicago
• Nov 5, 2009 – J. Boye Knowledge Sharing Summit — Aarhus

The Collaborate Conference affords clients, VARs, and Partners an opportunity to explore best practices and see all the newest features and functionality of CNG’s solution first hand.

The New Media Atlanta conference is a high level, business dialog about how social media is changing marketing and messaging – and in fact, changing the nature of all communications. We’ll talk about strategies to leverage its power to build your company, product, brand, service, etc.

WordCamp is a conference that focuses on everything WordPress. WordCamps are informal, community-organized events that are put together by WordPress users like you. Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and get to know each other. WordCamps are open to WordPress.com and WordPress.org users alike.

WordCamp is a conference that focuses on everything WordPress. WordCamps are informal, community-organized events that are put together by WordPress users like you. Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and get to know each other. WordCamps are open to WordPress.com and WordPress.org users alike.

The developers of CMS Made Simple have finalized plans for the yearly developer conference. However, there is one major change… we’re inviting you to join us.

On 26-27 September, CMSMS will host the first public Geek Moot event at The Showroom in Sheffield, UK. There will be plenty of presentations by the devs and others, events, networking and just general geeking out. There are plans for evening events in the works and they will be announced soon.

Last year’s Cascade Server User’s Conference was a huge success, and we’re already working on making this year’s even better. We’ll be offering more user-driven sessions, more hands-on functionality-related demos, more basic-user intro sessions, and more case studies. You’ll have the opportunity to learn more about Cascade, interact directly with the Hannon Hill team, and learn from and share your experiences with other users

In its second year, RETHINKING CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS is an interactive and intimate conference for corporate, government and non-profit communicators. Learn from the most perceptive thought leaders the skills and best practices essential for business success this year.

We have a fantastic line up from some of the industry’s leading professionals. You’ll be hearing from: Mozilla, Twitter, TechCrunch, Facebook, digg, Merb, jQuery, 280North, Virgin and more.

The Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) movement is revolutionizing IT strategies and the software industry.

For those that don’t know, the EE Roadshow is a one day event where some of the best and brightest EE minds meet up, share ideas, and improve each other’s professional lives in a great environment.

MAX 2009 is an extraordinary opportunity to learn new skills, explore emerging technologies, and connect with thousands of other industry leaders, Adobe products users, and Adobe teams.

The HartmanEVENT will teach you everything about strategies, methodologies, techniques and tools to get value from your information. On October 8, meet national and international gurus and peers who will combine theory and best practices in an educating and interactive style.

The AIGA Design Conference is the place to get refreshed and recharged this fall, with inspiring speakers including Peter Arnell, Stefan G. Bucher, David Butler, Carin Goldberg, Nick Law, Marissa Mayer and Stefan Sagmeister.

Oracle OpenWorld 2009 is your opportunity to be a part of the conversation. And this year, based on your feedback, we’re inviting customers, partners, and developers to play an even larger role in the show.

IFRA Expo is the international communication platform for the newspaper industry and its suppliers, covering the entire range of products and services for newspaper magazine production and bringing together the right people in the right atmosphere

This event will evaluate the rapidly changing CDN landscape, and using case studies examine market entry and expansion strategies, and options for technical architecture. The event is designed as a forum for executives in the CDN market, their suppliers and investors to educate their investment decisions.

Join the Conversation on the Future of Content Management. Day brings together its growing customer community in both Chicago and Zurich to share strategies, stories, and successes driving new content management initiatives with CQ5. Network with your peers and engage key members of the Day team to get the most out of CQ5 and add your input to the future of content management.

Hear the challenges our customers faced when supporting their global markets, how they addressed their multilingual content requirements by adopting a Global Information Management strategy, encompassing authoring, content management and translation.

Streaming Media Europe covers the business of online video and the technology of streaming, video on demand, webcasting, IPTV, and mobile.

This is the premier event in the records and information management field, drawing more than 4,000 professionals from around the world.

If you’re an IT Professional, an IT Decision Maker, an Architect or a Developer you will find a deep set of technical content to give you a kick start for SharePoint 2010 and further your skills and knowledge with SharePoint Server 2007.

GOVLINK CONFERENCE 2009 provides networking opportunities between government agencies, prime contractors, and small businesses.

Discover new ways to Capitalize on Your Content at Open Text’s 2009 global conference.

Join the Conversation on the Future of Content Management. Day brings together its growing customer community in both Chicago and Zurich to share strategies, stories, and successes driving new content management initiatives with CQ5. Network with your peers and engage key members of the Day team to get the most out of CQ5 and add your input to the future of content management.

WordCamp is a conference that focuses on everything WordPress. WordCamps are informal, community-organized events that are put together by WordPress users like you. Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and get to know each other. WordCamps are open to WordPress.com and WordPress.org users alike.

Synergy, Ektron’s World-Wide User Conference, is an annual gathering of Ektron experts, partners and user where attendees will learn how to make their Web projects successful.

RE BarCamp is a BarCamp “UnConference” where Real Estate meets Social Media! What does that mean? Well, the event is not structured like a typical planned conference. Every session is not planned out in advance. Nobody is paid to deliver a session. Anybody can deliver a session and attendees are strongly encouraged to participate. It is an amazing time to meet, share, and connect!  

This will be a unique and exciting celebration of 10 years of great coding, the evolution of an amazing community, and a look at the future of Open Source and The Apache Software Foundation. Join us!

Centered on the theme “Shaping Your Enterprise In a Post Crisis World”, the second edition of Saltmarch Media’s annual Business Technology Summit, features a convergence of technologies that are enabling organizations to benefit from the flip side of Moore’s law and do the same for less.

J. Boye Conferences were born out of the desire to let people share and learn in an open environment; stimulating and inspiring events with presentations, demos, intense discussions and ample opportunity to expand your network in a social, informal campus-style atmosphere.

Centered on the theme “Shaping Your Enterprise In a Post Crisis World”, the second edition of Saltmarch Media’s annual Business Technology Summit, features a convergence of technologies that are enabling organizations to benefit from the flip side of Moore’s law and do the same for less.

WordCamp is a conference that focuses on everything WordPress. WordCamps are informal, community-organized events that are put together by WordPress users like you. Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and get to know each other. WordCamps are open to WordPress.com and WordPress.org users alike.

The International PHP Conference is the first global conference to deal with the topic of Dynamic Languages.

Web 2.0 Expo, co-produced by O’Reilly Media and TechWeb, showcases the latest Web 2.0 business models, development paradigms and design strategies for the builders of the next-generation Web.

Interop is the most comprehensive business technology conference and the best place to learn how key technologies work together to cut costs and increase productivity.

WordCamp is a conference that focuses on everything WordPress. WordCamps are informal, community-organized events that are put together by WordPress users like you. Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and get to know each other. WordCamps are open to WordPress.com and WordPress.org users alike.

Through presentations and discussion, the workshop helps you figure out how, where, when, and why to use SharePoint and reviews how well SharePoint “fits” into different types and sizes of enterprises with different business objectives. The workshop offers candid, independent advice for both business and technology leaders.

In this course we will provide a thorough introduction to and grounding in Enterprise Content Management technologies. Explain clearly how they work and why they will become of increasing importance to you and your organization, particularly in this age of financial restrictions. This will be a highly critical and supplier agnostic workshop, championing no particular vendor technology approach, but with critical insight into the strengths and limitations of all the leading systems.

 Want your event in this list? Submit it here.

Personally, I cannot wait for October to arrive. Open Text Content World will be in the lovely Orlando, and we all should expect to be enlightened on OTEX’s product map and strategy for its two web content management arms: Web Solutions (aka RedDot) and the recently acquired Vignette.

Commenting on my previous post on the Open Text WCM saga, Markus Giesen et al. — representatives of an unofficial RedDot blog — raised several worthwhile questions. Not with publicity in mind, but in an effort to get some real, transparent answers I reached out for comments to Open Text. Here’s what we learned.

Just realized you need a website up and running fast? Bridgeline Software (news, site) has the answer for you. They have created a new web content management solution called iAPPS Rapid Site — the ability to get a website, intranet or web application up and running in 5 weeks, in 5 steps.

Interested? Read on.

Former Sun Microsystems (news, site) CEO Scott McNealy is credited for stating: "Privacy is dead - get over it!" And while being reminded that our confidentiality is quickly drowning in the digital age can’t hurt, whether or not we should "get over it"—or better yet, whether or not we even have a choice—is now at the forefront.

For example, analyst Seth Schoen recently published an article in the Electronic Frontier Foundation highlighting research from Carnegie Mellon computer science professor, Latanya Sweeney. Sweeney found that the mere combination of gender, zip code and birthday was unique for 87% of the U.S .population. Meaning? All those "anonymous" surveys we fill out from time aren’t so anonymous after all.

Sometimes a secondary service or subsystem in a content management platform can gum everything up.  This came to mind when a couple of our advisory clients ran into trouble with some non-core -- but important -- services.

In one case a MAM (Marketing Asset Management) project became bogged down in expensive and time consuming technical issues regarding an associated search platform. In the other client's case, they eschewed a thorough, RFP-based selection process in favor of simply buying an additional module from their incumbent Web CMS vendor. This turned into a highly costly and difficult situation.

The common thread: both enterprises wrongly assumed that adding subsidiary functionality to a core system would be easy. In the former situation what was sold as an "out of the box" search connector proved anything but. In the latter, the additional module from an incumbent vendor was in fact something acquired from another vendor 5 years ago -- and a technology that has always refused to play nicely with their core ECM platform.

Unfortunately for these two clients the tail ended up wagging the dog, with all of their efforts  now focused on complex integrations that should on paper have been simple connections.

Suffice it to say that connectors can resemble "treacle soup." As for 'suites', all the major ECM vendors suites were in large part assembled by acquisition, for example Open Text, Autonomy, EMC, IBM have added key components to their "Suite" offerings by acquiring and then integrating outside technologies. Some pieces have integrated easily and successfully others have been more of a challenge. There are examples of Suites that have been built from the ground up - for example Objective and Hyland -- yet even these too have to integrate with heterogeneous computing environments and though homegrown, they have elements that are stronger and weaker than others.  In some cases bringing in best of breed outside technology to replace elements of major Suites makes good sense.

With the value of hindsight the MAM client should have realized sooner rather than later that their digital assets were in a mess, and bolting on a sophisticated search system was not a solution to that situation. Remember, chaos in chaos out. Further, due diligence regarding the search vendor and its "connectors" could have uncovered plenty of warnings.

Likewise the team that avoided the RFP process should also have done their homework better. Short circuiting the selection process will speed your project up in the short term, but experience from the field tells us that it can deliver negative mid and long term consequences - short circuiting the selection process simply short changes you the buyer and user in the long term.

The release of v3.6 of NextDocs (news, site) Regulatory Document Management system continues the company’s move towards establishing itself as the principal provider of document management systems for the Life Sciences.

It comes with pre-configured support and full validation documentation for the DIA Electronic Document Management (EDM) Reference Model.

It’s that time. Time to have a look at the finalists for the Packt Publishing (news, site) 2009 Open Source CMS Awards. Announced in August, the Open Source Awards offers US$ 24,000 in prizes to the best in open source content management solution.

Here’s a look at who made the finalist list and what happens next.

1. Drupal for Newspapers Readers of Drupal for Publishers know that Drupal has been...
2. New Report: Drupal for Publishers Florence, MA (April 21, 2009) — Content Here is pleased...
3. Struggling publishers continuing their investments in digital The venerable PCMag is discontinuing its print edition – the...

James Dimick, a Web developer at WordPress (news, site), says, "When it comes to Search Engine Optimization, there are a slew of options out there. Some good and some not so good."

We’re inclined to agree. Thankfully, Dimick’s got your back. His recent list of what he feels is the cream of the crop when it comes to SEO plugins for WordPress is, as far as we can tell, pretty thorough. Here’s his top 5, which range from full packages to simple solutions:

We’ve been hearing bits and pieces about Crowd Fusion (news, site) for awhile now. But despite the venture funding they have received to date, we haven’t seen something tangible — at least not something we can play with.

But Crowd Fusion has come out of secrecy and revealed its plans to change the world of web publishing forever. The company attended TechCrunch50 and demonstrated their new framework and suite of publishing tools, almost ready for a public beta.

I’m not sure emulating the stock exchange the best idea these days, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s Google.

At the end of last week, Google fearlessly launched what some are calling a "potent weapon" in the battle over display ads.

Doubleclick Advertising Exchange lets websites offer space that ad agencies and online brokers can bid for in an automated auction system. The idea is that advertisers can get a wider choice of ad space and the ability to target ads more precisely to the most likely prospects, while publishers hope to net higher rates.

There may be a lot of buzz about the public preview of the proposed Content Management Interoperability Specification (CMIS), but it hasn’t stopped EntropySoft (news, site), a provider of read/write enterprise content connectors from continuing to enhance and expand its product line.

Today the company offers the latest updates to its thirty some content connectors, including the ability to track changes in the repository.

It’s a common requirement for many organizations — the ability to mask certain data in scanned documents so that it can’t be seen by the wrong the people (or people who just don’t need to see it).

PSIGEN (news, site) has updated its document scanning and capture suite, PSI:Capture, with that ability through the addition of Intelligent redaction.

A new feature in PSI:Capture 3.5.2, the system can be configured to automatically scan for confidential information such as a social security number or a credit card number and redact it (black it out). You can also create template for common documents that will automatically redact certain information.

While automated redaction is the optimal approach, manual redaction is also available.

Intelligent redaction is just the latest enhancement to the PSI:Capture product. Also included is SharePoint WebDav folder monitoring, advanced data extraction and triggered image processing.

As one of a number of document scanning and capture solutions specialized for SharePoint, PSI:Capture has all the features required to keep an organization compliant and their content secure.

IKEA changes its font to Verdana. This is not likely to result in a massive drop in sales.