Open Source Nuxeo ECM and DM Go OpenSocial-Friendly

Open Source ECM vendor Nuxeo included several new features in the latest release of Nuxeo Document Management. Nuxeo DM 5.3 highlights include support for OpenSocial API, tagging, SharePoint and interoperability with CMIS Server as an add-on component.

On top of that, Nuxeo EP 5.3, the vendor’s enterprise content management system core, reached the RC stage.

Nuxeo DM 5.3

This time around, Nuxeo concentrated on the increasingly popular social applications support and a few other things that many DM users may find helpful and welcome.

Using Nuxeo’s support for OpenSocial — a common API for social apps access across various websites — users can add and/or build social networking gadgets, for example.

Nuxeo DM 5.3 serves as both the publisher of gadgets and the OpenSocial container. Just for comparison, other known OpenSocial containers include MySpace, Ning, LinkedIn, iGoogle and many others.

CrownPeak, a SaaS Web CMS vendor, also did an OpenSocial integration back in early 2008.

Microsoft SharePoint can be accessed from Nuxeo DM 5.3 for basic library services and common file operations. For those die-hard fans of Windows Explorer, there’s a native integration, so they may not even know they’re working with another document management system.

There’s also a Microsoft Office integration that allows opening, saving, editing of files directly to/from Nuxeo DM.

It was about time Nuxeo put more effort into tagging and metadata capabilities of their DM system. The new tagging service is fairly easy to use and allows users to categorize content by applying existing or adding new tags. Tagging can then result in more ways for retrieval and display of content stored in Nuxeo DM.

Tagging recommendations and dynamic tag cloud are also part of the deal.

Nuxeo DM 5.3 Tag Cloud

The vendor also says they improved search and indexing, which should play in nicely into the tagging offering.

Having been longtime fans of CMIS, Nuxeo added interoperability into this release as well with their add-on CMIS Server, which is based on the CMIS draft 0.62. The most current (and the official OASIS Technical Committee) CMIS draft is 0.7.

The idea here is that organizations can use Nuxeo DM, while also being able to search across multiple ECM, ERP, DM and other systems.

Nuxeo EP 5.3

Currently an RC, the new version includes that same WSS (MS SharePoint), tagging and OpenSocial widgets support we’ve seen in DM 5.3. In addition to that, the import/export service was improved and performance is said to be enhanced following some benchmarking efforts.

The Nuxeo EP 5.3 RC also features a CMIS implementation based on Apache Chemistry that we discussed early spring — both with Nuxeo’s Florent Guillaume and Day Software’s David Nuescheler.

It would be unreasonable not to notice the wave of recent activity at this Paris-based open source ECM vendor. With new people on board and an aggressive product roadmap, Nuxeo (if not disrupting) is clearly starting to gain more traction in the global enterprise CMS market.

In the end, when it comes to open source, successes can be measured by the activeness of the community, as well as customer growth — among other metrics. In the U.S., for example, Nuxeo still has quite some space to spread its wings, if the vendor wants to. And we tend to think it will.

Cross-posted on CMSWire.com: Open Source Nuxeo EP and DM 5.3 Support OpenSocial

Vamosa Goes for Extended Records Management, eDiscovery

Not long ago, we discussed Vamosa’s work in the Enterprise Content Governance (ECoG) field and their new Check and Fix tool.

Recently, the vendor extended its Check and Fix functionality to cater more to eDiscovery and web records management scenarios.

Web governance can be tricky, even with a formal approach in place. That’s why we have tools to help us out. Vamosa Check and Fix can be used for multi-domain/multi-author website monitoring and reporting; and fixing issues with compromised standards, that are checked against a set of standard and custom measurement points. They can include HTML standards, compliance, branding and governance.

Vamosa’s Check and Fix is one of the tools on the market that can be used to take a snapshot every time content changes, providing a full audit trail. This version of the tool is sold at an additional license charge based on the volume of content monitored.

More on CMSWire.com

KnowledgeTree Goes to Zend for CMS Performance Zen

Well, if it isn’t open source CMS and PHP companies playing friendly again… Open source, PHP5-fueled Enterprise CMS vendor KnowledgeTree announced its embrace of the PHP-driven Zend Technologies in a partnership that aims to increase speed and performance of KnowledgeTree’s products.

Part of the partnership revolves around the forthcoming version 3.7 of KnowledgeTree’s on-the-premise commercial edition (due in Q4 2009) being deployed on Zend Server.

Looking for instant gratification? According to Philip Arkcoll, product manager at KnowledgeTree, the Zend partnership “represents the coming together of two PHP players whose goal is bringing enterprise-grade PHP products to the marketplace. KnowledgeTree on Zend Server delivers speed, performance, and reliability, particularly in Windows environments.

In fact, early tests show response time improvements of close to 40% when using Zend Server, and that’s with no changes to our application.” No word on how Linux behaves, but the vendor say this OS is supported as well.

More on CMSWire.com

IBM Updates ECM Portfolio, Offers Starter Packs

IBM announced fairly significant updates to its Enterprise Content Management (ECM) product families, including Business Process Management (BPM), eDiscovery and Archiving.

Apparently having heard the market scream for leaner, smarter product options and cost efficiency, the Big Blue has also introduced starter packs — licensing-wise slimmed-down product versions targeted for smaller or departmental deployments — for four of its ECM product lines.

More on CMSWire: IBM Updates ECM Portfolio, Introduces Starter Kits

DMS Vendor KnowledgeTree Joins the CMIS Movement

CMIS, in its current state, seems to be best suited for document management scenarios. Hence, it was only a matter of time before a DMS vendor like KnowledgeTree jumped on the CMIS bandwagon (joining the many Web and Enterprise CMS players) and released its own implementation of the draft Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) specification.

Admittedly, quite a timely move, considering that the latest OASIS CMIS Technical Committee face-to-face meeting took place only two weeks ago, getting CMIS an inch closer to the actual standard level.

In the best spirit of interoperability, the CMIS implementation by open source document management systems (DMS) vendor KnowledgeTree is designed to follow the spec and allow ECM users to access enterprise document repositories that have a CMIS interface. The CMIS implementation for KnowledgeTree Community Edition Snapshot is available for download. The latest code can be found here.

Let’s not forget the recent CMIS Face-to-Face Meeting that took place in Colorado in the first week of August. According to Nuxeo’s Florent Guillaume, “…everybody is pretty happy with the spec as it is, and we’re nearly ready to start the OASIS review process that will first make it go through formal public review, and then open the OASIS vote for CMIS to become a standard.”

Guillaume hopes that CMIS “should be a 1.0 standard by the end of the year.” Read his Day 1 and Day 2 blogged observations.

More on CMSWire: Document Management Vendor KnowledgeTree Embraces CMIS

Nuxeo Takes Document Management to the Cloud

Let’s take another trip to the cloud, shall we? Yes, the adage may be old: to cloud or not to cloud? The open source Enterprise CMS vendor Nuxeo solved this poetic dilemma and took its document management product to the cloud.

Nuxeo DM Cloud Edition, now available as SaaS, promises security and reliability, among other things.

While many organizations still seem to shy away from SaaS for many obvious reasons, Nuxeo is sure that it can address “the needs of organizations that want to benefit from a proven ready-to-go ECM solution without the related IT constraints and costs.”

More on CMSWire: Nuxeo Takes Enterprise Doc Management to the Cloud