We’ve been hard at work with Crafter Studio, an extension to our open source Crafter rivet framework, that offers a complete authoring and publishing environment for managing various types of Web and enterprise content.

Today marks the release of Crafter Studio 1.7.0, which contains a number of updates, including an Alfresco upgrade for 3.4.5E support, Preview Tools enhancements, along with a number of bug fixes.

To learn more about this release of Crafter Studio, visit our wiki at http://wiki.rivetlogic.com/display/Crafter/CStudio+1.7.0.

The Nielsen Norman Group recently published a report on intranet portal usability based on 67 real case studies from enterprises worldwide. In contrast to other reports that typically offer vendor solutions, this report is seen from the user experience perspective, providing insight on what portals mean to users and how to deliver a portal solution that organizations need.

Jakob Nielsen touches on some important points from the report in his column. The overall trend for enterprise portals seems to focus on ways of making the existing features more robust and better managed as portals have become more widely accepted. The early definitions of portals being gateway access points have evolved; today’s portals can be thought of as a dashboard integrating all enterprise information and applications that employees need to do their jobs through a unified interface.

Interestingly, but maybe not too surprising, the biggest finding is that portals aren’t adding mobile features at the expected rate, at least not when compared to consumer apps. Most of the companies studied saw true mobile portals as being at least a few years out. Research has found that good mobile usability requires a separate design with a reduced feature set for mobile use cases, focusing on time- and location-dependent tasks, so it’s not enough that an existing portal is made accessible through phones since the UI is optimized for desktop use.

Since this report focuses on the user experience, it comes as no surprise that personalization is a critical component of a well-designed portal. The ability to integrate information from multiple sources can have its own disadvantages as the information can be overwhelming for the users, especially when it’s irrelevant. The more the portal serves up to the users, the stronger the need to curate what each person sees. Allowing users to customize what they see through individual user profiles provides an effective way display content relevant to each user.

Portals have long been known for its social features, but now they have also evolved into collaboration platforms. While most companies didn’t see a sharp distinction between the two, an easier way to distinguish the two is informal vs. formal collaboration, where formal content is officially managed and informal content is left to emerge on its own. This contributes to the issue of governance, which many organizations already struggle with. While governance may be a greater issue for larger enterprises, a key lesson learned is that organizations should plan the governance structure before starting a portal project. While there is no general governance solution that fits all organizations, they can look at governance solutions that have worked for others and adapt them to their own specific corporate culture and circumstances.

So while the portal industry has matured over the years, the focus now shifts to the user experience to create a solution that can be easily adopted and optimized. The full report can be found here, http://www.nngroup.com/reports/intranet/portals.

On a similar note, in one of our own recent webcasts (and at the Liferay East Coast Symposium back in May), we spoke on the topic of building and deploying a global intranet with Liferay, which touched on some of the same challenges that enterprises face when starting this type of initiative - personalization, governance, employee search. Our presentation is available for download here, http://www.slideshare.net/rivetlogic/building-and-deploying-a-global-intranet-with-liferay-8459841, and the webcast is accessible on our website, http://rivetlogic.com/resources/webcasts.

We have officially moved and settled in to our new headquarter offices! The new offices are still located in Reston, VA, in fact right across the street from our old office, but has a much larger space to accommodate our growing organization. In addition to housing our growing team of software developers in the Mid-Atlantic region, the expanded space will also allow us to host larger training courses, seminars, and related open source community-related events.

Our new headquarters address is:

11410 Issac Newton Square North
Suite 2010
Reston, VA 20190

Every year, KMWorld comes out with its “Top 100 Companies That Matter in Knowledge Management” list, and for the third consecutive year, Rivet Logic has earned a spot on this prestigious list.

“As is the case with each of the companies, inclusion is based on the breath and impact of their innovations and on the value they provide to the entire constituency chain. Any list such as this is a work in progress, and so it is with this one. We’re always on the lookout for groundbreaking new solutions or elegant modifications to existing ones.”

The knowledge management industry is constantly evolving and we are honored to be recognized again for our innovative solutions that help drive successful open source adoption. Other companies on this list include Alfresco and Lucid Imagination, among others.

The complete list is available here.

The HTML5 standard brings endless possibilities to the future of Web applications. By enabling desktop-like features, the Web can finally achieve a new level of rich user experiences. SproutCore is an open-source HTML5 application framework for building responsive, desktop-caliber apps in any modern Web browser without plugins.

What’s the motivation behind the SproutCore project? This new digital age goes beyond PCs and into mobile devices, iPads, and tablet computers. So what’s the best way to make data commonly accessible from these devices? By developing Web applications that can be accessed from anywhere, on any device. This is where SproutCore comes in, to enable development of rich cloud applications with dynamic UIs.

In fact, Apple’s MobileMe, amongst other apps, are currently using the SproutCore framework. Charles Jolley, creator of SproutCore, helped lead that effort at Apple before leaving last year to start his own company. His new startup, Strobe Inc., will focus on “helping companies bring great native-style app experiences to mobile device,” with the center of the company being SproutCore.

What does this new company mean for SproutCore? In Charles’ own words:

“First, SproutCore is now and will always be totally free and open source. I think this business of charging for a commercial license is not an effective way to grow a project. Sure you make a little cash, but at what expense to the community? My goal is to make SproutCore and all of the developer tools that surround it totally free to everyone. All I ask is that you participate in the community somehow to make things a little better for those who come after you.

Second, now that I am no longer held back by big-company legal restrictions, I am going to be much more involved with the platform.

My goal is that by the end of the year, any average developer can pick up SproutCore, build, and deploy a basic app without feeling lost. This is open source and I can’t usually guarantee timelines but at least now we can do what we need to make it happen.

Finally, I started working in SproutCore almost 5 years ago because I believe the future of software development lies in native-style apps in the web browser. It is the platform of the future and when that shift change happens, I want to be there with the technology. Now, I believe that time is almost finally upon us.”

For a sneak peek of what might be in store for the future of Web apps, take a look at the NPR demo built with SproutCore Touch, the first edition of SproutCore that includes complete touch support for touch events and hardware acceleration on the iPad and iPhone. But the beauty of it lies in that apps built with SproutCore Touch can run on both touch devices and desktop computers.

Currently, Strobe Inc. is focused on the digital publishing vertical, however, the possibilities are endless.

HTML5 has been generating a lot of hype lately. So what is all this hype about, and how is HTML5 different from HTML4? HTML5 introduces new elements but also drops some deprecated elements from HTML 4.01. Having been in development for the past few years, HTML5 is the cornerstone of the W3C’s open Web platform - a framework designed to support innovation and foster the full potential the Web has to offer.

HTML4, the last major iteration of the language, has been around for over a decade, and we can all agree that the Web has undergone tremendous changes during that time. What was originally used mostly for displaying static information, the Web has evolved into a dynamic environment where users are constantly exchanging information, communicating and collaborating in real-time. When multimedia was introduced to the Web, plugins had to be created to ensure proper functionality. HTML4 became a patchwork of augmentations to accommodate features of the modern Web. With the advent of social media, video chat and other interactive systems, the average daily Web usage continues to increase as more people are using the Web as a means to communicate with each other. Creating engaging, rich user experiences have become more important than ever before.

Enter HTML5. HTML5 introduces a number of new features that reflect typical usage on the modern Web. Notable features include:

• Multimedia - tags that allow multimedia to be directly embedded without any plugins
• Offline & storage - ability to store offline data for Web apps
• Semantics - a richer set of tags, along with RDFa, microdata, and microformats
• Device access - geolocation API allows Web apps to present rich, device-aware features and experiences
• 3D, graphics & effects - natively rendered visuals in the browser
• Interactivity - drag & drop and other desktop-like features

Does this mean HTML5 will kill Flash, Silverlight and the like? Probably not. But it will definitely play a helping hand when it comes to developing Web apps when mobile compatibility is a concern, now that certain plugins that aren’t supported by many smart phones are no longer needed.

In many ways, HTML5 marks the future of the internet. How will this impact content management? In this digital age, time is of the essence. Consumers want access to fresh, updated content when they need it, where they want it, whether it’s at home through a desktop or on-the-go through a mobile device. Multi-channel publishing is quickly becoming an important part of an organization’s content management objectives. HTML5 facilitates this by making it easier to display Web content in various formats. While HTML5 won’t fully mature for quiet some time, it’s exciting to see what it brings to the table and the potential to influence the future of the internet.

Earlier this year, Lucid Imagination announced the official release of LucidWorks Enterprise at the 2010 Lucene Revolution. Now users can try it out for themselves firsthand through a free download.

LucidWorks Enterprise (LWE) is the new search solution development platform built transparently on Solr/Lucene by the experts at Lucid Imagination. It includes a full and openly accessible current version of Apache Solr, but the beauty is that you don’t have to be a Solr expert to use it. After downloading the software, users can start developing better Solr-based search applications more quickly and easily through LWE’s integrated search features.

LucidWorks Enterprise is built on top of Solr with an Admin UI and a REST API to streamline search application development, plus the new Click Scoring Relevancy Framework, Alerts, smart default, built-in data/document acquisition, multiple collections, document and role-level security, and more. And, with full transparent access to Solr designed in, you get faceted navigation, auto-suggest, spell-check, SolrCloud, and one of Solr’s latest innovations: field collapsing. In fact, Lucid Imagination has put nearly 90 different open source tools and modules (such as Aperture, Zookeeper, and Tika) into the product, all integrated and tested to work together within the LucidWorks Enterprise platform.

LucidWorks Enterprise is now available free for download, development and evaluation. For organizations that are interested in service and support, a variety of support subscriptions are also available.

So download today, and see for yourself why Solr/Lucene is the leading open source search technology!

This has been quite an exciting and busy year for Rivet Logic, between our open source contributions (i.e. Crafter Studio), the opening of our West Coast operations, and participation in numerous industry events. As we enter into Q4, things aren’t slowing down as we have a few more exciting events coming up.

Lucene Revolution - October 7-8 - Boston
Lucid Imagination presents Lucene Revolution 2010, the first conference dedicated to open source search in North America. Rivet Logic will participate as both sponsor and presenter at the upcoming conference. On October 7 at 10:30 am, featured speaker Michiel Verkaik, Rivet Logic Senior Engineer, will present “Integrating Solr with Alfresco WCM for Faceted Search and Navigation of Next-Generation Websites.” Michiel will discuss the technical approach Rivet Logic uses for cost-effective Solr/Alfresco integration, content publishing with complete editorial control, real-time Solr indexing, and dynamic generation of website visitor experiences.

For more information and to register, click here.

Alfresco Lunch & Learn - Boston, MA - October 13 - 11:30am - 1:30pm
As the Web Content Management (WCM) market continues to move and build momentum, the experts at Alfresco Software continue to hone in on and develop their world-class WCM portfolio to meet the demands and critical needs of companies worldwide.

Join Rivet Logic and Alfresco for a free Lunch and Learn event to get an early glimpse of what enhancements and features Alfresco has added to its WCM and Document Management solutions to make creating and managing your valuable website easier than ever.

For more information and to register, click here.

KMWorld Roundtable Webinar: Why Content Matters - How to Search, Find and Prosper From Your Information - October 26 - 2pm ET / 11am PT
Join Rivet Logic and a panel of experts for an information-rich webinar to discuss how business value can be derived from well-managed and easily accessible information.

Rivet Logic, along with other leading thinkers in enterprise search will join KMWorld to discuss relevant topics including:

• Where enterprise content management (ECM) and search intersect, and how they compliment each other
• The criteria for selecting an overall search platform that can be tailored to your specific departmental needs
• The role that open source search software can play in your efforts to control costs and improve information access
• Real world use cases

For more information and to register, click here.

Alfresco Developer Conference - November 3-4 - New York City
The first-ever Alfresco Developer Conference on November 3-4 in New York will give both new and seasoned Alfresco users an opportunity to sharpen their skills via deep-dive sessions on CMIS, WCM, content services, and best practices for ECM application development. Rivet Logic will be presenting on the topics of Crafter Studio and Alfresco/Solr integration. Participants can also learn about Activiti, the open source project that implements the new BPMN 2.0 standard.

For more information and to register, click here.

Liferay’s annual West Coast Symposium is being held next week on September 8-9, 2010. One of the anticipated events is the debut of Liferay Portal 6EE, which will be broadcasted live for those who can’t attend the conference.

As part of the Liferay 6 launch activities, Liferay will also showcase a new feature in Liferay 6 each day starting on 8/31. Liferay is also hosting a series of worldwide roadshows with their partners to further drive product awareness.

Rivet Logic will be participating as a sponsor at the West Coast Symposium and hosting the Reston, VA roadshow at our facilities on September 24th.

We hope to see you at one of the events!

The 2010 Bossies (Best of Open Source Software) awards were announced last week, and among the winners is the open source search technology Apache Solr. This prestigious award recognizes the best open source software for businesses every year, identifying the “most promising and cost-effective products available to IT organizations”. Being recognized alongside other highly-acclaimed products like Alfresco, Drupal and WordPress only signifies Solr’s maturity as an enterprise-class platform.

As the amount of digital content continues to increase during the daily operations of an organization, it becomes evermore important to implement an effective enterprise search tool to sort through and find relevant content. Over the past few years, Apache Lucene and Solr has taken the enterprise search industry by storm as it continues to gain visibility for its highly-scalable and robust search platform. It’s now being downloaded thousands of times per day, with over 4,000 enterprise customers, which include AT&T, Macy’s, and Verizon.

“With its recognition as the best of open source for 2010, it’s no surprise to us that Solr has emerged as a disruptive catalyst to mission-critical data-driven applications across the marketplace,” said Eric Gries, CEO of Lucid Imagination. “The community’s virtuous cycle of adoption and innovation deserves tremendous credit for this achievement, and so we offer our congratulations for this well-deserved recognition. Thousands of companies are gaining competitive advantage from the use of this innovative software, and this award further confirms that diverse and widespread adoption of Solr open source enterprise search is well established.”

As a Lucid Imagination partner and a long time integrator of Lucene and Solr search technologies, Rivet Logic is excited for the Solr community for this accomplishment.