MOSS alternatives

Well this is kind of interesting. Do you have SharePoint Services (WSS) up and running, but would really like to have some web publishing capabilities on top of it. Unfortunately you don't have the money to invest in full blown MOSS just to get web content management. CompleteSharePoint.NET offers you a solution — a Web content management system built on top of WSS.We were interested in understanding a bit more about this new Web CMS, so we asked Tommy Segoro — its creator — a few questions. CompleteSharePoint.NET was built by Tommy Segoro, a Practice Lead working at L7 Solutions in Perth, Western Australia. It is currently a beta solution. Released on CodePlex in October of last year, CS.NET has been downloaded over 519 time to date.

KnowNow: Enterprise 2.0 solutions     KnowNow, a leading provider of Enterprise 2.0 solutions, allows users to specify the information they want delivered, when and where they want it, as it is published. KnowNow offers three unique solutions to help connect people with critical information: Corporate Communications, Market Intelligence, and Alternative Marketing Channel.      Virtually any type of content can be delivered to the desktop, mobile phone, RSS reader, or PDA. With KnowNow, people have an "always-on" connection to the information that is critical, and the ability to receive that information moments after it has been published, providing them a better way to manage their business.KnowNow, Inc. 997 E. Arques Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94085

You could be excused for thinking that packet sniffing-based data collection for Web Analytics was long gone. Packet sniffing -- or network-based data collection -- was the basis of web analytics pioneer Accrue Software's technology in the mid '90s, but like log file analysis, it fell out of favor at least in the US market with the advent of page tag-based data collection. Proponents argue that packet sniffing is superior because data collection becomes "hands off" once the collection appliance is installed between the router and network switch. There are no tags to maintain, nor log files to administer. On the other hand, if a data collector fails, you have not data.So, what if you want to consider using a packet sniffing solution? You won't find this data collection method available from major North American vendors anymore, but there are potential alternatives.

In delivery of video to the desktop, the challenge has been finding an innovative alternative to bandwidth-hungry files clogging the local area network. Such a solution, announced last spring, is about to enter the marketplace. Objective Communications (Chantilly, VA) has developed a system that uses existing telephone lines within the enterprise to deliver video without interfering with phone calls or other uses of the telephone lines such as data transmission. The development process took several years, but the product is now poised to change the balance of power in video delivery and perhaps other desktop applications as well. The system, referred to as the Enterprise Video System (EVS), has three primary desktop video applications: * two-way video conferencing,

Documents — whether paper or digital — constitute the fastest growing component of most organizations' information assets. U.S. businesses create more new electronic content each year than all the materials currently contained in the Library of Congress. If you realize the importance of managing those assets better, on-demand may be a more effective and lower cost alternative to installed software. But is it right for you? Submitted by SpringCM

Tri-XML is a good regional conference that gets better every year. ("Tri" stands for Research Triangle area, NC USA.) This conference may be of particular interest to CMS specialists, inasmuch as it has more of a publishing focus than other XML conferences. For those who can't make one of the mainstream XML conferences in the Autumn (USA), or Spring (Europe) or find them prohibitively expensive, this is a nice, low-cost alternative, smack in the middle of Summer (though it is hot in Carolina in July)...Visit the Tri-XML Website

Longtime search vendor Thunderstone innovated the search appliance approach. But pity the vendor that has to stand up to Google. Today, Thunderstone announced an alternative to Google Mini. Same price, same doc limit, more features, and arguably stronger technology with a deeper history. It is a sad fact of the software business, though, that better technology doesn't always win. Still, we think Thunderstone will stick around...

Open source software is big news right now. We've heard from big-name corporations who support it (like Novell, and IBM) and oppose it (like Microsoft). A number of high-profile intellectual property battles concern it. You probably know an open source zealot who's spent some time extolling its virtues.According to the Wikipedia, "The debate over open source vs. closed source (alternatively called proprietary development) is very much a religious war." So it's not surprising that there's a lot of misinformation floating around about open source, clouding the issues. This article seeks to set aside the religious arguments and dispel some of the misconceptions by explaining what open source is and exploring its advantages and disadvantages.Open source software is a good thing, and has an important place in the tech sector. Closed source software also has its place, and the industry will benefit most from cooperation between the two.

You've probably heard of "agile programming," the faster and usually more effective alternative to "waterfall" software development. Mark Baker of Analecta Communications has put together a nice presentation on "agile content development," where he argues that increasingly heavy demands placed on regular content creators calls for leaner, more brutally practical, and, well, more agile editorial processes. Mark is not making a case for re-engineering your contributors (see also his articles here and here arguing for authors' interests in structured publishing environments), though new processes mean new ways of thinking about content as it relates to your business.

For most form processing professionals, data entry/data repair activities represent a significant time and cost drain on the business. Seasonal spikes in activity drive the need for additional short-term manpower, high turnover among keying staff create training and management issues, and the overhead required to employ and equip an extended workforce can all hurt your business. That's why outsourcing is such a compelling alternative. Submitted by Orbograph