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Community Server 2007 Released!

Today we’re proud to announce the immediate availability of Community Server 2007 – the best version of Community Server yet!

There are a number of new improvements, but by far the largest is the new theme system “Chameleon”. Chameleon allows people to change the look-and-feel of Community Server without requiring a degree in Computer Science! There are simple to use what-you-see-is-what-you-get tools to assist you in changing colors, graphics, fonts, and more. Also sharing themes has never been easier – Community Server uses a single-file for exporting or importing all of its theme settings, which means you can quickly share your themes with your friends.

Below is a sample screen shot of customizing a Community Server blog theme:

How do I get Community Server? 

You can download Community Server, including the free Express Edition, from

http://get.communityserver.org

Where do I ask questions or read documentation?

For questions, please visit http://communityserver.org/forums for documentation or FAQs please be sure and visit http://docs.communityserver.org (our new Wiki and Knowledge Base are now available). Note, we’re still in the process of importing content from our previous documentation system so a few things aren’t working quite right yet in the Wiki.

Need to talk to someone? No Problem!

Yes — you can speak with a real person (amazing we know). Please contact us at http://communityserver.org/contact or call us at +1 972 407 0688. Please start with the contact form as we are SLAMMED right now (a good thing!).

Do you run a .NET community, user group, or other web property that supports .NET?

Excellent! We provide free commercial grade licenses for any people that run web properties that further .NET — please drop us a line in a couple of weeks and we'll hook you up with a license.

We really hope you enjoy Community Server 2007 as much as we enjoyed building it! We've got some really exciting annoucements to make in the next couple of months so stay tuned to www.communityserver.org.

P.S., if you have any feedback or ideas you want to share or want to tell us how much you love (or hate) Community Server — I’d love to hear from you. We want Community Server to be the very best it can be! My email address is: rhoward@telligent.com

P.S.S., we're hiring for both our Community Server product team and our .NET services team! We prefer people in the Dallas / Ft. Worth Metroplex but we are also willing to work with talented individuals regardless of their location (U.S. residents only please).  See our job listings. We are also still looking for 3-5 interns interested in working at Telligent this summer.

BlackBerry just keeps getting better

It's been about 2 years since I bought a new BlackBerry back then it still wasn't all it needed to be as a phone so I had a BlackBerry and a Motorola RAZR.

Lately I had been eyeing all the new Windows Mobile devices, such as the BlackJack and the Q (supposed BlackBerry killers). Honestly, I was never really that impressed. My 2 year old BlackBerry always did what I needed it to do – great at email and great battery life. It was terrible as a phone, but I was ok with that.

About a month ago Jason forwarded me a post about the new BlackBerry 8800. Monday I bought it and ditched my RAZR and old BlackBerry.

I'll sum up my thoughts in a single word: wow.

Here's the run down and my evaluation:

  • Look-and-feel/dimensions (10) – Size-wize it's hair longer than my 60GB video iPod and about the same depth. I can't help but compare it to the iPod as it looks very similar (black, glassy, silver sides). It's much smaller than my previous BlackBerry and laid side-by-side to my old RAZR is exactly the same depth! From a design point of view this really looks like something made by Apple.
  • Email (9) – Email works the same and it took me about 10 minutes to get it connected to our hosted BlackBerry Enterprise Server. I actually had emails coming in before my old phone number transfered over! I'm a little disappointed that the email functionality hadn't evolved some more, but it still works very well.
  • Phone (8) – A very loud speakerphone, great volume in normal mode (I actually turned it down to talk), simple integration with my Bluetooth headset all were welcome surprises. Probably the best surprise was the new voice dialing feature — no programming you just say, "Call [name]". Dialing by hand is still a bit tricky because the numbers are on the keyboard but otherwise I would have given the phone a 9.
  • Trackball (10) – BlackBerry was one of the first to have the thumbwheel and now that everyone has it they've replaced it! The new trackball is just awesome and overcomes a lot of the shortcomings of the thumbwheel, e.g. side scrolling.
  • Laptop Tethering (?) – I got the laptop tethering setup and it showed a 115k+ connection, but I was at work and didn't really test it. I'll be traveling next week so I'll give it a go then.
  • Keyboard (8) – The keyboard is much narrower on the 8800 than on my previous BlackBerry. Typing is still easy, but the other larger keyboard felt more natural/comfortable.
  • Battery Life (9) – I've charged it 2 times in the past 5 days; the first time for about 3 hours and the second time for about 30 minutes. Overall the battery life seems to be excellent as ever (my RAZR was TERRIBLE on battery life).

Other fun stuff the built-in GPS/Nav system is really cool; Google map support is also really nice. The new games (Sudoku and Texas Hold 'em) are really good. I also found a free application called Newsclip that allows you to bring in content via RSS.

Overall I'm really impressed and would highly recommend the 8800 for anyone looking for their next mobile device. It's darn near perfect in my opinion. The only negative (so far not a problem) was that I had to switch from t-mobile to Cingular. Cingular so far seems to be good, but I really did like t-mobile.

Wrox Community Server Book

I just got my copies of the new Professional Community Server book from Wrox!

This is the second book on Community Server and this book's authors include  Wyatt Preul, José Lema, Jim Martin (from the Telligent team) and Keyvan Nayyeri (a Community Server MVP). 

This book is geared towards the developer and covers topics such as themes, APIs, reports, modifying source code, modules, and much more! Definitely on the recommended reading list if you work with Community Server!

There are several more books planned that will hopefully be started in the next several months. Nevertheless, it's definitely very exciting to see this book come out on a product we've worked so hard on.

P.S., Community Server 2007 will be available on April 15th 2007.

Community Server 2007 Beta 2, Now Available!

Today we're excited to announced that Community Server 2007, Beta 2 is now available!

We've managed to fix quite a few bugs and tweaked some features (thanks for all the great feedback!!!) between Beta 1 and Beta 2.

Some of the specific new items in this Beta 2:

  • We've made a complete overhaul to the profile page
  • Fixed some issues with moderation status emails
  • Implemented some SEO best practices for the forums (consistent URLs)

If you have quesitons about Community Server please be sure and check out our Community Server Wiki (work in progress).

We look forward to your feedback!

P.S., we are still on schedule to release the official version of Community Server 2007 on April 16th

Community Server Beta 1, Now Available!

We're thrilled to announce the immediate availability of Community Server 2007 Beta 1.

There are a number of improvements and performance enhancements as well as a complete overhaul of the themes system. While all of the new dynamic theme tools are not yet complete there are a few blog themes that now have dynamic settings (paperclip, kid congo, riviera, and vanilla) and you can also see some of the new dynamic site level themes.

Additional features enabled in this Beta 1 include:

  • Improved file management support for blogs 
  • Anoymous subscriptions for blogs
  • Feedburner support for RSS feeds
  • Shared membership store for building linked communities

Probably one of my favorite features with the new themes is the ability to easily export and import as a single file (images and all).

The next beta will include more tools for managing the new dynamic UI — I think we'll blow you away when you see the tools we've made in Beta 1 — as well as HTML email templates, deep integration with hosted blog and forum services for mail integration, addition blog themes, as well as new tools for more easily managing configuration. Plus a few extras!

One note, there is a message that you will see in the Control Panel that says "This Beta version of Community Server 2007 Expires May 15th 2007". We do not recommend running this beta in production.

Those silly Java developers

I was driving home from an ice hockey game tonight (which we lost) and reading my BlackBerry while driving (which I did get in a wreck from doing a couple of year ago) and had an email notification for a new comment posted on an old blog entry.
Below is the comment:
By leading MS developers to use stored procs, you are leading them to Java, where the standard practice is not to use stored procedures, which is much easier. Of course you could lie to yourself and think that Java apps don't scale or don't perform, but even if that's true, it does not seem to have impact in Java adoption.
If you can't guess which discussion it's the oldy, but goody:
The comment, "..leading them to Java…", is just dumb. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a big fan of stored procedures and also apprecitate the value of dynamic SQL. But all of that is besides the point!
My "bloggable" radar went off when I read, "…lie to yourself and think that Java apps don't scale or don't perform…"
Seriously? Who cares!
First of all, I think we're a long ways past the software mattering about application scalability or performance. Today you have to purposly try to screw-up an ASP.NET application to have it not perform. In fact, I would go so far as to say the same thing is probably true of Java (which I don't know a thing about). In both cases I think the only cause of poor application performance is the person writing the software making bad decisions.
Secondly, why does it matter? I used to be the same way, i.e. "I'm writing this application to scale!". Again, wasted effort. There is a great Agile Software adage: Don't create solutions to problems you think you'll have. In other words, instead of worrying about scale and performance worry about getting the application done and in the hands of customers. Scalability and performance issues are guaranteed to never be a problem if your software isn't being used.
Ok, back to catching up on the best show on t.v.: Heros.

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Jobster runs out of ideas… so now they are free

Oh you couldn’t miss it. The news is everywhere: Jobster decided to make all job listings free. All the Web 2.0 cool people have just about wet themselves in excitement. “Brilliant!”, “Stroke of Genius!” – ok so I made those quotes up, but that is the feeling I get reading the coverage.

Please. This is just stupid. Let’s break this down…

  • TechCrunch says “…goal is to do what PlentyOfFish is doing to Match.com”. PlentyOfFish brings in $10,000/day which is an awesome accomplishment (no doubt and I don’t discredit them at all). Ok, rah-rah. Now let’s do the math: $10,000/day averages out to about $300,000/mo or $3.6mm/year. That’s a ton of money (more oohs and aahs from the crowd). But for a business claiming to compete with Match.com it’s a pittance. I don’t want to detract from what Markus has done, but my question would be how do you scale this business? More eyeballs and ad-clicks? PlentyOfFish is a successful anomaly not a successful long-term business model.
  • Now Jobster – keep in mind they just laid off a bunch of people – with $50mm in the bank (at least at one point) has the brilliant idea to offer jobs for free. Sorry, but this is a cop-out. They blew through a ton of cash and can’t figure out how to build a business. So instead they just give it away for free. I think the Jobster.com investors said, “We’re screwed on this deal – let’s figure out how we can acquire the maximum number of jobs and resumes so we can sell this dog.” Sorry, Free Product + VC = lots of money for the VC when they sell it off 

  • Google Ads is not the only way to make money – I’m down with Seth. I love Seth. Love his books love his ideas. Yes, Google nailed permission based marketing. But that doesn’t mean it works everywhere. As an employer I don’t want to wade through all of the crap that monster.com lets in (we stopped using them because of the high junk levels). So how in the world is Jobster somehow going to do this better by being free? The answer is they aren’t! The only thing they will beat Monster.com at is collecting more crap and making you wade through it (more eyeballs and ad-clicks). If I was the CEO of Monster.com I’d be thrilled with this news.

  • Why is free always equated with good? This always puzzles me. As a business owner I talk with customers almost every day. One of the frequent questions I get asked before someone buys our software is “what if you go out of business?” Customers don’t want you to go out of business. They give you money to ensure that you stay in business and continue to deliver the value that you are providing them. Businesses burn money – cash is the fuel that allows a business to execute (payroll, leases, insurance, infrastructure, the list goes on). Google works as a free service to consumers because I can use it every day and they monetize those page views by showing me ads that businesses have paid for. So yes “free” does work in some cases. But if it worked everywhere why are people able to bottle and sell water when water is virtually free? Because in most cases free water tastes awful and isn’t as pure as bottled water. In other words, people pay money to get a better and/or higher quality service or product.

You want to impress me? Build something that is sustainable, do something different than everyone else, offer something that adds value, compel me to want to use your services not because they are free but because it helps make something better/easier/simpler. In return I’ll spend money with you.

I can’t help but feel that we’re on the edge of another bubble burst. Venture capital in web applications is expected to reach $1bb this year; it hasn’t been that high since 2001. Business models and venture investments are starting to get silly again about how they spend money. I think in either late 2007 or early 2008 we’re going to have a shake-out for the same reason Web 1.0 failed: because so-called business people stopped focusing on building and growing businesses and instead focused on making VCs happy.

Side note, I’ve got a dog in this hunt with JobBurner.com. We’re not going to be free. In fact we’re going to (gasp!) charge employers $200+ for a 30-day listing (sustainable) for personality based job matching (different). We are going to make sure our quality is excellent (compelling) and that we don’t make you wade through crap (value). Oh and we’ll also have Google ads because we don’t have $50mm in the bank (although I’ll admit it, we are talking to VCs).

So, if you like your water free, take a visit to the Mississippi River (#1 polluted water way in the U.S.) and post your jobs on Jobster.com. Otherwise stop by JobBurner.com, we’re not free, but you won’t get sick from using us.

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JobBurner.com launches

I mentioned this last week and now it's official: JobBurner.com is live!

In last week's post I didn't really say anything about how we're different. As was mentioned in one comment there are actually a lot of "job boards" on the market already. But, if you read my post carefully I mentioned something very important: "…in partnership with Shane Henderson, who previously worked at Match.com the premier match making site for singles." Below are some more details on how JobBurner.com works:

  1. We are applying a patent pending personality algorithm for matching job seekers and employers as well as interactive social networking features. We're collecting data for our personality matching tools now and will enable this functionality March 1st.
  2. We're partnering with some large, well known sites to launch our affiliate network. We're also going to be really simple for individuals and bloggers to use on their site(s) too. More details to come.
  3. We're also thrilled to announce that Gretchen Ledgard and Zoë Goldring, both managing partners of JobSyntax, Inc., have joined JobBurner.com in the roles of VP of Product Marketing and Business Advisor respectively.

Listings on JobBurner.com are going to be 100% free until February 28th. Starting March 1, job listings will be $200 per posting.

If you are interested in joining our affiliate network, just drop me a line at rhoward@jobburner.com.

Community Server 2007 cont’d

A couple people asked about how portable or easy it will be to move themes from development to production in Community Server 2007. We’re doing a lot of work to ensure that they are as portable as possible for both scenarios (developer and designer). When using our WYSIWYG tools we’re supporting an XML format for exporting and importing theme settings, including files.

 

While it’s by no means complete below are some screen shots:

 

Import / Export options
These options are present both at the site and blog level.

 

Theme Import/Export file
We’re not publishing the file format externally yet because we’re not done. We won’t consider this format ‘locked’ until CS 2007 ships.

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