I have just come across a post an ZDNet about how advertising can affect open source. It claims that open source can be in danger if closed source comapnies start campaigns against them. It also raises the question how will open source projects defend themselves in the media.

But it does not say anything about open source projects that are backed by companies (such as Sense/Net). Companies like Sun or IBM, who spent millions on open source will not use their left hand to hit the right hand. They will defend open source as a movement, because for them it is an important marketing strategy.

So, I don't think ads are great danger to open source. Open source has long been useing social media anyway, and that is very strong. Do you beleive a Microsoft or IBM ad, or do you believe the insights of trustworthy blogers or experts in a forum? At first you see an ad, and than you check it in the social media, right? At least that is what I do.

And open source has another advantages, such as commitment of fans, and the source being open in itself. If companies start flaming the FOSS movement, open source enthusiasts will be even more enthusiastic.

We are a small business, and still we compete Microsoft and other big businesses. Most people think it is impossible, but as you can see from our references, large enterprises trust smaller It companies. Naturally, we won't kill Microsoft or sweep down IBM from the marketplace. This is not even our goal. The market is big, but open source will want to take its share in the future as well.

I have just come across a blog post about Alfresco on CMS Watch. In his post Alan Pelz-Sharpe writes that Alfresco is more developer friendly, especially when you want to push SharePoint beyond its limits. I agree that it is easy to push MOSS to its limits, and also agree that there are certain hardships you have to face when you develop with MOSS. But I still can not see how a JAVA based product could be a real alternative. More...

I was quite busy recently, no time for blogging. The reason is that we were working on the acquisition of a competing company. IVY Ltd is a development firm with 12 people and 3 products, one of which is a .Net based EPS/ECMS. Sense/Net acquired 100% of IVY and it will be merged into Sense/Net, we are already in the same office, just started our first project together.

With the acquisition of IVY, the new 12 members of our staff bring new competencies into our portfolio, such as LAMP (linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), Silverlight and SOA. Zentai Péter Áron "Zpace", the former CEO of IVY became our new CTO. He has also joined the TNG team as chief architect. 

The previous post in the Devblog about queries is his. Péter is a fan of the latest, cutting edge technologies, such as Linq, Silverlight and SOA in general. The coolest features of IVY's products will be built into Sense/Net Portal Engine, so the development will be accelerated a little bit. 

Our first TNG customer has agreed to disclosing their identity. We have started a Sense/Net Portal Engine TNG based real-life portal project for the second biggest telco in Hungary, Invitel.

If you check out www.invitel.hu today (see date of post), you will see that it is running on the current version of Sense/Net Portal Engine. I have to admit, that taking part in such a project with a still beta product is a brave move from Invitel. I personally respect companies that make such decisions and support companies like Sense/Net and open source projects like TNG.

Completing the project will affect the beta test phase, as we have a deadline. We postpone the public beta testing until the new Invitel portal is up and running. The good news is that by the time beta testing starts, TNG will be stable enough for running a serious corporate portal.

Invitel also allowed us to publish some screenshots later.

We ask for your patience and please keep registering for the beta or subscribe to this RSS feed.

We have uploaded an introduction from the TNG team. We also added photos, we hope you like them.

I made some updates on the portal. I also checked out the Beta Signup and about 30 people already registered. It came to me as no surprise, that most of the registered users check "I am looking for a SharePoint alternative" on the form. ;-) I can not wait until these people download the code and give us feedback. I can not tell how excited am I about the project.

Next week you can expect more and more content, so stay tuned. We have made pictures of the TNG Team so we will post them as well. No star trek suits, I promise.

I also set up a WishList page, where you can post your problems with existing software, or pop your ideas that you wish TNG included. Please do not hesitate, go and submit whatever bugs you in the Portal or (E)CMS world. We are happy to read your most crazy ideas.