Social Media

Elgg 1.7.2 has been released

Elgg 1.7.2 was released this week and it is primarily a bugfix release. I usually don't post stories about web application releases that add no new features but felt inclined to do so this morning. Elgg is one of those social media applications that I've always wanted to use for a project but never got around to using. If I can't find the right project to need Elgg then at least I can talk about it and keep it in my thoughts.

Some of the more significant bug fixes in this release include:

2010 Enterprise Trends in Content Management

What are the enterprise trends in content management? This past month, I've given a lot of thought on the evolution of content management and social media in large organizations. Perhaps the amount of time I've recently spent on the plane traveling both coasts of the United States gave me too much reflecting time on this subject. Most of us understand the impact Enterprise 2.0 has had on enterprise content management, yet I feel like we're missing pieces to the puzzle. Luckily, there are a lot of smart people out there giving us clues to what the current enterprise trends are with content management.

Elgg 1.7 Released

Elgg 1.7 was released this week. Elgg is an open source social platform and is made for individuals, groups and institutions to create their own fully-featured social environment. This new version of Elgg introduces some new features but much of the development time was spent improving the core API to make Elgg a stable platform for future development.

Some of the significant changes in Elgg 1.7 include:

Movable Type 5 features social publishing

Six Apart announced the release of Movable Type 5 this week. Traditionally a blogging application, Movable Type 5 brings new features into the Web application that evolves it into a more rounded social publishing system. This release includes two versions:

  • Movable Type 5.01 - commercial license
  • Movable Type Open Source 5.01 - open source license

Movable Type 5 Logo The goal of Movable Type 5 is to give businesses, organizations and individuals a single, unified software package with integrated website and blog capabilities.  It's been enhanced for the easy creation, administration and management of websites and blogs - all from a single user dashboard.

Here are some of the new and improved features in MT5:

  • A new user dashboard for both the website and blogs. This makes it easy for authors, editors, designers and other publishers to easily navigate between the two.
  • A new theme mechanism that makes it easy to apply a new theme across a website and blogs with a single click that proliferates changes throughout the published site.
  • Enhanced content management features that include revision history and new custom fields. There are five new object types for custom fields: website, blog, comment, template and asset.

Ektron Version 8 Released

Earlier this week, Ektron Inc. announced the release of Ektron CMS400.NET version 8.0. Version 8.0 builds on Ektron’s social software and enterprise Web content management to allow for the creation of sites that today’s web users expect. Version 8.0 includes the new eMarketing Suite, complete with the analytics, multivariate testing, drag and drop page assembly, ecommerce and enhanced site management tools that marketing teams can use to drive measurable business results.

Survey says content is still king

As most site owners do, I rely on content to sell my site on the Internet. I fully recognize the emerging trends of social or community sites such as FaceBook and Twitter attracting large audiences on the Internet. While I have been dabbling with how I can benefit by merging content and social media into a website, CMS Report remains mainly as a content site. If suddenly people lost interest in using the Internet to retrieve content then sites like mine would no longer have a reason to exist.

Quoting IT: Addison Berry

There are some people blessed with the rare skill of saying something of value under 140 characters or less. One of those people is Addison Berry. Addi is an active contributor to the Drupal open source project, Lullabot team member, and former civil servant . Two tweets from Twitter by Addison Berry that made me smile when I first read them can be found below.

"I find the kinder and gentler I am to myself, the kinder and gentler I am to others."

The failure of Technology Break 2009

Last month I began my annual break from technology. Using previous technology breaks as my guide, I had expected to spend a lot less time at the computer and cell phone. My plan was simple, straight forward, and summarized in a simple slogan, Blog Less, Relax more. A month later, I write this blog post with the realization that my Technology Break of 2009 was a complete utter failure.

Social Publishing with BuddyPress Video

During the past year, I've posted various articles on social publishing systems. Open source content management systems such as Drupal, Movable Type, and WordPress have done a lot in the past year to better incorporate social media features into their web applications. I think the topic of social publishing will continue to be an interesting topic as the CMS continues to evolve in order to stay current with the current social tech trends.

The following is a WordPress.TV video of Andy Peatling, Automattic, talking about the WordPress social networking system BuddyPress at WordCamp Montreal. In the video Peatling gives practical advice for people considering WordPress/BuddyPress as a platform.