When Open Source?
A couple of weeks ago, I presented in a session called Open Source vs. Hosted CMS Strategies at the Gilbane Conference on Content Management Technologies. Jim Howard from CrownPeak, and Gregor Rothfuss from Apache Lenya also presented. Lynda Moulton moderated. My presentation, "When Open source," is posted on the Optaros website
I like the concept of the session: alternatives to the traditional software licensing model. I think that the market has moved beyond the over-simplistic "build vs. buy." The primary point in my talk was that the three acquisition models have different strengths and complement each other. Open Source CMS presents the greatest opportunity for small to medium sized, occasionally updated, websites and as frameworks for building unique, high end content based applications (see slide 4 in my presentation).
Jim and Gregor both agreed with my model so those hoping for a debate may have been disappointed. Instead, we all talked about encroaching on the domain of the commercially licensed software market. I guess if we were joined by someone from a traditional CMS vendor, there may have been some sparks. Maybe next year.