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SoftLayer Gets Listed as Niche Player by Gartner

Chelsi Nakano — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:01:45 -0500

SoftLayer Technologies (news, site), provider of on-demand virtual data center services, has scored again. Earlier this year the company announced their partner status in the Microsoft Hosting BizSpark program in addition to the release of a cloud package for the enterprise. This month they were recognized by the Gartner Magic Quadrant, which listed them as a “Niche Player” for Web Hosting and Cloud Infrastructure Services (On-Demand).

Each company in the Magic Quadrant was reportedly evaluated on its completeness of vision and ability to execute within: self-managed hosting, mainstream-managed hosting, highly complex managed hosting, global solutions portfolio, and enterprise applications hosting.

CloudLayer, SoftLayer’s set of cloud services and, in this case, recognition winner, includes a Content Delivery Network (CDN), Storage and Computing. All of these are available as standalone services or fully integrated with all other SoftLayer offerings.

“In my opinion, being evaluated in this report is proof that our unique approach is redefining hosting,” said Lance Crosby, CEO of SoftLayer. “Of course, our greatest pride and core goal is to provide solutions and scalability that make an impact on our customers’ business. But to me, being in the Magic Quadrant shows that we’re making a difference throughout the industry.”

Working Smarter - 4 Potential Ways to Avoid E-mail Chaos

David Roe — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:00:11 -0500

Why is it that the fraught subject of e-mail management gets so much coverage? There are probably dozens of reasons anyone can think of, but at the core of all of them is the often weary acceptance that we just can’t live without it.

Love it or hate it, we are going to have to learn not just to live with, but also to manage our e-mail more effectively.

It was probably with this in mind that HyperOffice, a provider of SaaS solutions for online collaboration, issued its recent white paper with possible solutions to managing the e-mail overload.

Edit OWL 2.0 Ontologies With New Protege 4.0

Dee-Ann LeBlanc — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:20:45 -0500

If you regularly run into words like "ontology" and acronyms like OWL, then you’ll be pleased to hear that Protege 4.0 (news, site) has been released.

Those who aren’t deeply involved in the semantic web may not quite run to learn more, but semantic web technologies are coming faster than you think. It’s a good idea to pay at least some attention.

Digitalus CMS Cuts Down Confusion, Risk in Templating

Irina Guseva — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:30:18 -0500

For boutique content management vendors like Digitalus CMS (news, site), flexibility comes comparatively easily. There are no multiple corporate hoops to jump though, and development cycles seem to be moving a bit faster (which can also turn into a double-edged sword).

Not long ago, we looked (in detail and with a fair portion of constructive criticism) at Digitalus 1.5. The vendor informs us that they’ve heard us and made templating changes in the newest version of the product — Digitalus CMS 1.8.

It seems the chances of breaking the entire front end are now minimized.

Update: CMS Interoperability Project (CMIS) Making Solid Progress

Barb Mosher — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:25:00 -0500

With a public review of the Content Management Interoperability Specification (CMIS) (news, site) expected to be announced sometime soon, it’s definitely time to check in and see what the various player have been up to.

Reminder: CMIS is an OASIS specification. It may well end up as a standard (and we hope that this happens), but it’s not there yet. Here’s where things stand today.

CSS3 and Multi-Column Layouts Are Coming

Marisa Peacock — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:00:16 -0500

The last time we covered the W3C’s efforts to address CSS 3 it was in relation to typography and web fonts. Now, the same Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of CSS3 module: Multi-column layout.

XTM Suite V4.0 Boosts Automated Translations

Geoff Spick — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:40:40 -0500

Translation is big business in the world of the global Web. XML-INTL (site) is a U.K. company specializing in making it happen for corporates wanting to get their voice across in any tongue.

Book: eDiscovery Plain and Simple

Marisa Peacock — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:00:04 -0500

A new book by Allison L. Brecher and Shawnna Childress called eDiscovery Plain and Simple explores eDiscovery in a way that makes it, well, um, plain and simple.

Tackling the nuts and bolts of eDiscovery, from defining technology and legal issues to explaining how information is stored, accessed and shared, readers will gain a better understanding of the topic that many of us spend a great deal talking about.

Meet Yahoo! Search Pad, Your New Note Taker

Chelsi Nakano — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:43:41 -0500

Tired of using archaic Notepad? Google Squared too complicated or time consuming? Try Yahoo! Search Pad.

Yahoo! (news, site) released their new tool to the public earlier this week. A search and note taking mashup designed to follow your train of thought, Search Pad is like your own personal, mind-reading assistant.

Vjoon Unveils SaaS Option of its Web Publishing Solution

Geoff Spick — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:00:20 -0500

Vjoon (news, site) is a German company offering a "for-rent" web publishing solution for those in the media.

Oracle Unveils WebCenter Suite, a Social Computing Business Solution

Chelsi Nakano — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:00:26 -0500

Along with the recent launch of Oracle(R) Fusion Middleware 11g from Oracle (news, site) came a little something extra for business users and IT.

Oracle WebCenter Suite 11g is described by the company as a modern enterprise portal platform, and aims to bring together people in organizations with the business processes and information they require.

The Social Media Minute (8-July-2009)

Jason Harris — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:00:16 -0500

Social media moves so fast, it’s hard to keep up. Here are the week’s top stories in scan-friendly format:

Facebook Demographic Is Aging
Workers Warming Up To Social Networking
Technorati Launches Twittorati
Trying to Stay Relevant? Be Ubiquitous

How to KISS When Your Web Copy Isn�t Short and Simple

Rick Sloboda — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:45:51 -0500

Most of us are aware of the golden rule for plain writing on the Web: Keep It Short and Simple (KISS).

But there’s no getting around it—at some point you are likely to have a long piece of complex material that you have to put up on your website.

It might be a ‘terms and conditions’ page for a contractual agreement. A set of instructions for a new product. A detailed explanation of a business policy. Whatever it is, you want your customers to read it because it will improve your business.

You can’t force them to read it, but you can encourage them to read it. You can make it inviting. Enticing. Kissable. Here’s how.

Squiz Picks Up Enterprise Search Provider Funnelback

Barb Mosher — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:45:00 -0500

How many times have you been on a website and wanted to find something, only to find that it didn’t have a search box, or worse yet, that its search was crap. Probably more than you’d like to admit.

Well Squiz (news, site) doesn’t want those websites to be any of theirs. And they’ve made an acquisition that will go a long way towards supporting search on websites that use their MySource Matrix web content management system.

Latest Eclipse Release Makes Open Source CMS Life Easier

Dee-Ann LeBlanc — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:00:33 -0500

For many open source CMS developers — be they PHP or Java coders — the recent release of Eclipse Galileo (news, site) is good news. The Galileo version of the popular open source IDE offers an improved user experience and promises to lead to more efficient code and more modern code. Can you afford to stay away?

Understanding SharePoint: It's the Ecosystem, Dummy

Barb Mosher — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:35:00 -0500

There are few organizations that haven’t considered — and implemented — SharePoint (news, site) in some manner. But as much as it has been implemented, it’s still a confusing and often frustrating platform to work with.

Delivering just the kind of help these confused folk need, CMS Watch offers their latest research on SharePoint. The SharePoint Report 2009 helps organizations better understand where and how this platform might best fit in their organization. Here’s what you can expect.

Content Circles: Collaborate Server-Free, for Free

Chelsi Nakano — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:41:04 -0500

Back when we first started talking about Content Circles (news, site), the collaborative content management tool that operates without a server, we thought it was a pretty big deal that the solution was offered for less than US$ 100 annually. Imagine our surprise when news broke earlier this week that the Personal Use license is now completely free.

This new wallet-friendly option comes after a handful of announcements about the company’s efforts to branch out. Sri Chilukuri, Content Circles CEO, explains: "In the first half of 2009, the company was focused on adding support for Enterprise Content Management Systems such as Microsoft SharePoint, Xerox DocuShare and Alfresco Enterprise. Now that we have succeeded in this endeavor, we are ready to expand beyond the enterprise."

It’s always kind of awesome when expanding beyond the enterprise translates to free stuff, don’t you think? Chilukuri added, "Offering a free Personal Use License to Content Circles will give our prospects and customers a chance to experience the power of the solution and get a deeper understanding of the potential business, not-for-profit and education solutions that can add value to all sizes and structures of organizations."

Once the solution is downloaded and installed, the user can create a collaborative Circle, invite as many members as he or she likes, and add 100 files of up to 25MB each to that Circle. All of that lovely information can then be shared between Circle members no matter their time zone, and regardless of whether or not they have an Internet connection. Interested? Sign up for and install the personal license here.

Open Text Continues Quilting Exercise With Latest Web CMS Release

Irina Guseva — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:40:03 -0500

The Open Text Web Solutions group, formerly known as RedDot Web Content Management (WCM), has just put out a new and significant release of their mid-range Web CMS product. Yes, Vignette (when the acquisition is finalized) will take place alongside Web Solutions version 10 in this WCM quilt.

This update brings improvements to the technology stack, more Enterprise CMS and SAP integration patchwork and an updated user interface. But OTEX (news, site) didn’t stop there. Let’s see what else they’ve done.

No Leader in Customer Communications Management Software

Barb Mosher — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:00:00 -0500

A positive customer experience is necessary for any organization. A key part of the customer experience is related to customer communications and how those communications are performed, in many cases as some sort of document output.

There are vendors out there that provide solutions to support the market for document output for customer communications management (DOCCM) and Forrester did an evaluation of 11 of those vendors to help you better understand their strengths and weaknesses. The report is called The Forrester Wave™: Document Output For Customer Communications Management, Q2 2009 and here’s a look at what they found.

Women in eDiscovery

Marisa Peacock — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:30:10 -0500

Women in eDiscovery is a nifty non-profit that brings together women in technology and law and offers them opportunities for leadership, education, and networking. Since 2007, with more than 25 chapters worldwide, they have organized conferences, training seminars and the means for women everywhere to come together around significant technology issues facing the legal industry.

eDiscovery has been among such issues gaining widespread attention and support. On Wednesday, July 15, from 2PM - 4PM, the Seattle chapter of Women in eDiscovery presents an event dedicated to eDiscovery. Open to all legal professionals, registrants will hear from top electronic discovery experts:

Former United States Magistrate Judge Ronald J. Hedges;
Jason R. Baron, Director of Litigation for the National Archives and Records Administration;
Rosemary Lumpkins, Senior Attorney with the Microsoft Corporation;
Debra Bernard, Partner and ESS Practice Group Chair of Perkins Coie LLP; and
Shawnna Childress, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Women in eDiscovery and author of the book eDiscovery Plain & Simple.

If you’re in the area, it’s definitely worth checking out, since eDiscovery will be explored and discussed from different angles and perspectives. To learn more browse our events page or visit www.womeninediscovery.com.

For Google Apps, The Perpetual Beta is Over

Barb Mosher — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:14:00 -0500

Most of were beginning to believe that Google applications were to be tagged as "beta" forever. Today, Google (news, site) has surprised us by taking the Beta tag off of Google Apps, because they say it reached their "high bar for taking products out of beta". Not quite sure what that high bar is, but there are probably a few enterprises out there glad to see the beta tag gone.

Google Apps has worn the beta tag for the two years it has been in existence, Gmail for five years. But, as Google says, what they consider a beta application doesn’t really fit the traditional idea that most of us understand a beta application to be.

To most, beta means it’s not ready for production level consumption. This has not been the case for Google Apps. That has been proven with the ever increasing number of enterprises who have adopted either Gmail or Google Apps, or both, as their productivity tools of choice. And from the beginning Google has also provided 24/7 support and offered service level agreements for Google Apps.

What’s in a name. A Google Beta by any other name, will work the same. So says Google. The beta tag may be gone from Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk — enterprise and consumer — but that’s not going to stop Google from enhancing and improving these tools.

They just seem to have made a few nervous enterprises happier. After all, it must be kind of scary to convince management to invest in a production level solution that has "Beta" in its name.

eTouch Offers SamePage Wiki on MySMBStore.com

Barb Mosher — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:46:00 -0500

When your solution is up against a number of others in the market, you need to find ways to promote your offering where your market will look. eTouch (news, site) did that earlier this year for their SamePage enterprise wiki.

In April, eTouch announced that customers could pick up SamePage from the Salesforce.com AppExchange. Pricing starts at US$ 100 per month for up to 20 users, US$ 200 for 21 to 50 users and US$ 400 for up to 100 users. And of course, there’s that 30-day trial offer you find it hard to refuse.

Today, eTouch announces a new location to pick up the SamePage enterprise wiki: MySMBStore.com. MySMBStore.com is owned by Renovatix Solutions. It offers a number of enterprise level SaaS solutions at the same price or, in some cases less, than buying from the vendor directly. Buying from MySMBStore.com also gives you a single point of support and integrated billing for all applications you purchase there.

Pricing for SamePage at MySMBStore.com starts at US$ 100 per month for up to 20 users. Head over and read the reviews or write one yourself.

Industry Event Planner (07-Jul-2009)

Chelsi Nakano — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:13:01 -0500

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.

July Events

July 7-8 (Edmonton): Google Analytics Seminars for Success

Google Analytics Seminars for Success are officially endorsed by Google, ensuring you get the most out of this powerful business tool. Learn how to optimize online marketing, improve website performance and increase conversions.

July 8 (London): SEO Best Practices and the Percussion CM System

A free user group open to all, hosted by Percussion Partner Unified Solutions.

July 13 (Denver): Joomla Beginner Training

Learn all about Joomla 1.5 and begin managing your website like a pro. You’ll learn how to build a Joomla website, from content organization, optimization, working with extensions and basic web marketing.

July 16 (Sunnyvale): Maximize Productivity for Translation Requirements in the Software Industry

Attendees to the presentation will gain insights on ways to maximize their linguistic assets and increase knowledge worker productivity in developing multilingual documents and Websites.

July 16 (Online) Extending Game Design to Business Applications

Businesses embracing the game experience will position themselves at the leading edge of interactive convergence. This webinar will provide an overview of game interaction spaces, look at game design applied in real-world contexts, and survey useful interaction patterns found in games.

July 20-22 (Seattle): Web Design World

The design conference for the here and now. These days, everyone’s having to do more with less. We get that. That’s why Web Design World Seattle is all about teaching you what you need today.

July 27-August 1 (Sydney): Usability Week

Usability Week 2009 takes you beyond the typical conference experience, offering a three-day usability camp, a three-day intensive session on interaction design, and several specialized, day-long tutorials on core usability topics.

July 27 (Pheonix): Joomla Beginner Training

August Events

August 11-14 (San Jose): Search Engine Strategies

Each year, marketers, corporate decision makers, webmasters and search engine marketers (SEMs), including pay per click (PPC) advertisers and search engine optimization (SEO) professionals gather here to attend SES San Jose. Approximately 6,000 search and digital enthusiasts are expected in 2009. Your customers, colleagues and competition will be in attendance — will you?

August 12-13 (San Francisco): Open Source World

LinuxWorld Conference & Expo® is expanding to become OpenSource World™ and is co-locating with Next Generation Data Center™ and CloudWorld™ to offer an end-to-end view of enterprise technology within the data center.

August 12-13 (San Francisco): Cloud World

CloudWorld will bring together the users of Web-centric software, infrastructure and services designed to drive acceptance and deployment of cloud computing in the data center.

August 17 (Reno): Joomla Beginner Training

August 24 (New Orleans): Joomla Beginner Training

September Events

September 1 (Paris): DrupalCon

Building on the success of previous DrupalCons we have included all the core features you’d expect, high quality sessions and keynotes from Drupal leaders. Plus, for the first time, we are introducing a Business day and a Drupal Job fair to further increase your networking opportunies.

September 10-11 (Switzerland): Magnolia CMS Conference

This technical conference brings together Magnolia users, developers and administrators in one place. Through expert instruction, hands-on tutorials and case studies, attendees will gain the knowledge they need to rapidly build simple open source content management solutions with Magnolia CMS

September 15-16 (Toronto): IDEA Conference

IDEA2009 brings together the world’s foremost thinkers and practitioners: sharing the big ideas that inspire, along with practical solutions for the ways people’s lives and systems are converging to affect society.

September 28-29 (Atlanta): Hannon Hill Cascade Server User Conference

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

September 30 - October 1 (Washington, DC): Rethinking Corporate Communications

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

Want your event in this list? Submit it here.

CMS Made Simple Goes Through a Major Rework in 1.6

Irina Guseva — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:10:42 -0500

Only one week behind schedule, but with a slew of changes, CMS Made Simple v1.6 has recently seen the light of day.

One of the open source, PHP-based content management systems out there, CMS Made Simple (news, site) introduced new permissions in this release. In addition to that, there are new themes, templates and modules. Not to mention a gazillion of bug fixes.

Let’s just say it doesn’t look like it’s going to be an easy upgrade, but it may very well be worth the effort.

SharePoint Forum Focuses On Governance and Implementation Issues

David Roe — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:47:00 -0500

Here’s something new that is likely to be of interest to a lot of companies struggling with their SharePoint implementations — a collaborative environment focusing on a collaborative environment.

A joint effort by Corridor Consulting, a Boston-based consulting firm focusing on enterprise content management initiatives, and Chicago-based Doculabs, a technology strategy consulting firm, SharePoint Governance.org, provides a ‘safe’ place to discuss and maybe solve all your SharePoint woes.