The Great Open Source Web CMS Debate: News from the Latest Squiz Seminar

If you’ve been following us on Twitter, you can’t have failed to notice all the chatter that’s been going on around the subject of Open Source vs proprietary CMS software (aka the #CMSDebate these past few weeks - maybe you even came to our recent ‘Future of Web Content Management’ seminar at the Australian Embassy...

The premise for the event was to have our speakers and our audience address and debate some of the key issues that are driving the development of the Web Content Management market, and to look at the pros and cons of Open Source CMS platforms.

The event went swimmingly, not least thanks to our excellent panel of speakers - including Gartner, EConsultancy and the World Health Organization  (who gave a stunning case study on their work with our Open Source CMS, MySource Matrix), and the barrage of provocative questions from the audience - the majority of which were submitted via Twitter before and during the debate.  

Excitingly, some major news broke on the day; our acquisition of enterprise search company, Funnelback. You can check the press release here.  We see enterprise search as being an essential cornerstone in the delivery of future Web CMS solutions and Funnelback is the perfect complement to MySource Matrix.

The Future of Open Source Web Content Management via Twitter

It was fascinating to hear such a wide range of opinions on the subject, and exciting to see the debate taking off beyond the four walls of the Embassy and into the Twittersphere...

For example, here’s a snapshot of the key issues that our audience wanted to address:

If you haven’t already chipped into the #CMSDebate, let us know what you think via the comment box below or @SquizUK using the #CMSDebate hashtag. And if you were there on the day and want to leave some feedback, we’d love to hear from you.

If you didn’t manage to get along, fear not, because our roving reporter was on call, getting the access-all-areas lowdown from the speakers and delegates in between sessions...

The Future of Open Source Web Content Management Seminar Videos…

Here’s the story from the Squiz side of the fence:

...And here’s what the delegates had to say about the day:

More Future of Open Source Web Content Management Seminar Videos…

And if you’re still hungry for some #CMSDebate action, check out the speakers’ presentations:

Watch this space for more #CMSDebate goodies coming soon on the Squiz blog - including on-the-day interviews with David Hawking, Chief Scientist at Funnelback, and David Barrett from the World Health Organisation.

In the meantime, a big thanks to everyone who helped make our Future of Web Content Management event a day to remember. Stay tuned for details of future Squiz Open Source CMS events to be announced in the near future - the real debate has only just begun!

Author: Stephen Morgan
Published: 16 Jul 2009 5:54pm