Q: What changes in focus have you observed in the CMS sector? How is open source development equipped to meet new demands?

Everitt: I've helped sell large open source content management projects for several years now. The thing that continues to amaze me--companies spend millions of dollars and get something that leaves them pissed off. Open source just needs to get on the RFP lists put out by companies and tap into this discontent. Just like it isn't cool to have 10 Ferraris in the parking lot anymore, it isn't cool to say, "We wasted $1.2 million on a CMS that only three employees use." (Note: This was an actual statement made to me from a person in a telecom company.)

From the software side, I think the biggest change happening is the convergence of many sectors. People want a blend of content management, document management, knowledge management, etc. On the individual side, they see the sheer power of blogging and P2P, and wonder how to tap into it. On the macro side, the semantic Web touts global content management. What does it all mean? I think the time is ripe for some real innovation and fun in what is now known as content management. Somebody's going to make a lot of money. Hopefully it's the people giving away everything for free!

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Rothfuss: Many corporations have been burned by CMS rollouts. Often, quality content has been very hard to entice, clever approval processes and other CMS functionality notwithstanding. This realization led to renewed focus on the individuals that produce content for a CMS. Open-source CMS (projects) have traditionally been more oriented towards getting the content out rather than putting many roadblocks into a user's way. The recent emergence of weblogs is such a fresh start. Publishing for individuals replaces bland corporatese, and open-source CMSs are there to help this trend.

Q: How will open source change the face of CMS in the future?

Everitt: Open source is far more Darwinistic when it comes to innovation. I think open source is a unique way for wildly different ideas to emerge and prove their utility. I think the same applies for business models. I've always said the first wave of open source business models were transient. I'm more curious about what's next, particularly in content management. Customers will wake up one day and realize they're on the wrong end of the stick when it comes to who is controlling whom.

Business school teaches software executives that the road to billions is paved by locking in your customers and creating a proprietary advantage in the market. The fundamental role for customers in this view is to prop up the vendor's stock price. I view open source as a new business relationship between the server and the served.

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