Alfresco WCM (Web Content Management) has traditionally focused on the core “management” aspects of web content.  This focus has facilitated the open source development of world-class WCM management capabilities. The versioning, workflow, preview and deployment capabilities offered by Alfresco WCM are found nowhere else in the open source space. Similar features found in the proprietary space cost an order of magnitude more than the Enterprise licensing (for services and support) offered by Alfresco.

Today, choice of delivery platform is left completely open the consumer.  The Alfresco WCM platform makes very few assumptions about the type of website is being managed. It possible to manage static sites, .Net sites, PHP based sites, Java based sites, Ruby sites and so on.  While this choice is important, many customers would like a complete solution provided by a single vendor that covers both management and delivery of web content.  Furthermore, because today the product is management focused it can be difficult for customers in the evaluation phase to quickly download and identify the true value inside WCM without a lot of upfront work.

Many websites today require dynamic and personalized components.  The more dynamic the site is, the more complex the solution tends to be.  Typically costs and the required technical skills needed to maintain the site track closely with the level of complexity. Businesses today continue to look for easy to deploy, simple to maintain WCM solutions that minimize the technical skills needed to produce and manage sites. Large, full-time development staffing is expensive, difficult to hire for, and hard to maintain.  The more work that exists which requires a strong development skill set, the less users are enabled to care for their own needs and the greater the constraint on throughput and agility. Simplicity and agility are key success factors on the Internet today.

Alfresco, having established a strong foundation in core web content management capabilities has now begun to focus efforts on making it very easy to construct and deliver sophisticated, web 2.0 dynamic websites.  Alfresco hopes its new platform named Surf will enable knowledge workers to manage enterprise class, dynamic websites with little or no deep technical skills required.

What is Surf?  Surf is an application framework for developing and delivering dynamic websites. Surf leverages existing Alfresco technologies including Alfresco templating and Webscripts.

Surf has been designed from the ground up to leverage web-enabled tooling that exposes powerful capability such as inline editing, drag-and-drop positioning of content, point-and-click template selection and so forth.  These tools make it possible for users with very limited technical training to manage significantly sophisticated dynamic websites.

Under the hood is a powerful engine for aggregation of content and application behavior.  The Surf architecture shows a deep appreciation for the Web 2.0 inspired architecture and web application mash-ups.   It’s important to point out that while tools exist to reduce the need for technical skills, the platform does not eliminate or discourage access to its internals for those who need it.

Surf and the tools designed to help manage Surf based websites represent an exciting and powerful next generation WCM platform that covers both core management aspects and delivery capabilities.   Alfresco continues to bring enterprise class features to the open source ecosystem, improving on battle tested concepts with groundbreaking innovation, modern technologies and leading development approaches.

When people think about social networking, websites like Facebook and MySpace immediately pops to mind. It’s a way for Gen Y’ers to connect with each other for pure entertainment purposes, right? Or is it?

With Web 2.0 already a staple in the consumer web world, Enterprise 2.0 is quickly gaining momentum within businesses and enterprises. Social networking is going beyond teens connecting in cyberspace. It’s about enabling businesses to collaborate and work together as a community, both internally amongst employees and externally with customers and partners. Instant messaging, wikis and blogs are being used as tools to encourage communication, knowledge sharing and collaboration.

Facebook is venturing into enterprise applications with the help of Ringside Networks, an application server company, which offers an open source “social application server”. “Ringside Social Application Server is the first open-source platform that enables Web site owners to build and deploy social applications that operate with existing Web site content and business applications while seamlessly integrating with social networks such as Facebook.”

“It has a range of cool features like the ability to gather ‘social intelligence’. In other words, the Ringside platform allows business owners to gain insight into the social graph of users, relationships, groups, interactions, and sharing that is occurring on their Web site. Suddenly, socializing becomes smart business.”

In fact, investors see so much potential in the future of social networking that a couple of Facebook investors, Accel Capital and The Founders Fund, created the Facebook Fund for start-ups, which “offers grants to new ventures that specifically develop applications using the Facebook Platform.”

How’s that for enterprise social networking??

With the baby boomers fast approaching retirement, the workforce is making room for a new slue of younger Gen Y employees. What affect will this have on the technologies enterprises currently employ? Along with the influx of a younger generation of workers, will come an increase in the adoption of new technologies. This younger generation of workers grew up using computers and the internet, with “blogs”, “social networking”, and “instant messaging” a part of their daily vocabulary. Gen Y comprises the bright minds of tomorrow. They’re not going to want to work in an environment where the technologies are behind. They’re going to expect the tools at their companies to mirror what they use in their personal lives. Gen Y is going to change the Web in more ways than one.  It would in a sense almost force enterprises to come up to speed with Enterprise 2.0 technologies to recruit and retain the best of this generation.

Out with the old, and in with the new!