A reader of CMS Report asked me to give the latest version of Foswiki some love and attention to this open source "enterprise wiki" with an article. Not a problem as this is why I'm here!

Eight months in the making, Foswiki 1.1.4 comes with some new features and more than 160 crunched bugs relative to the previous release. Here are some highlights of new features and enhancements included in this package:

• Significant enhancements were made to the Foswiki email implementation. These changes increase compatibility with email services like Google’s gmail, adding support for SMTP over SSL as well as S/MIME signed mai
• Preference variables can take parameters now. This allows to build very powerful macro shortcuts to ease the life of your content editors.
• JQueryPlugin had a major release in its own allowing new possibilities for smart user interaction for the application developer. 
• There’s a new custom-made jQuery-ui theme providing a decent look and feel for enterprise use.
• SpreadSheetPlugin has been enhanced with new functions.

Foswiki 1.1.4 is available from the download page at Foswiki.org. While you're there don't hesitate to take a look at the release notes for further details on the new features and bug fixes contained in this version of Foswiki.

[Source: Foswiki blog]

I received an email from someone that wanted me to talk about TYPO3 Version 4.5 LTS. The suffix “LTS” stands for “Long Term Support”. For the first time a TYPO3 version will be maintained by the TYPO3 Core Team significantly longer than the usual release cycle would suggest. In 2010 TYPO3 has switched to a fixed 6-month release cycle which means up to now support for a version was only provided for 18 months (only three of the latest three versions actively maintained). The LTS versions will be supported for at least 3 years thus offering a good option for users that don’t need or don’t want to update every 6 months.

TYPO3 is used for a great variety of websites ranging from the smallest private homepage up to large multi-server, multi-language enterprise portals. Upgrading for everyone is reported to be easy, since the development team focused on maximum backwards compatibility with older releases. This provides a very easy and stable migration path to TYPO3 Version 4.5 LTS.

Older features are still supported and the use of deprecated features can be easily tracked in a log file. If you're still stuck in the dark ages of the browser war, you'll also want to note that TYPO3 Version 4.5 LTS is the last release to support Internet Explorer 6 for the Backend.

New features and improvements found in TYPO3 Version 4.5 include:

• A fast and flexible pagetree based on, configurable Backend layout and rearranged editing forms for pages and content elements.
• The new LiveSearch box providing instant auto-completion. A similar technology empowers input fields to find connected records in a snap.
• The whole Backend gets an optical facelift. Icons, colors and the general arrangement of elements were streamlined. Many details were fixed to provide a more consistent appearance and workflow.
  

What are the enterprise trends in content management? This past month, I've given a lot of thought on the evolution of content management and social media in large organizations. Perhaps the amount of time I've recently spent on the plane traveling both coasts of the United States gave me too much reflecting time on this subject. Most of us have understand the impact Enterprise 2.0 has had on enterprise content management, yet I feel like we're missing pieces to the puzzle. Luckily, there are a lot of smart people out there giving us clues to what the current enterprise trends are with content management.

I had the privilege to sit on a panel of CMS experts at this year's DrupalCon conference in San Fancisco. The topic was focused on enterprise trends in both content management as well as social media. Besides myself the panel included Bryan House, Acquia, Joe Bachana, DPCI,  and moderator Jacob Morgan, Chess Media Group.  The session was part of the business track of the Drupal conference and I was quite pleased a large number of people in the audience were looking fot not just Drupal solutions but any business solutions they could take back to their company.

Perhaps Mozilla is finally seeing the light. There is a story circulating around that Mozilla will be providing better tools to deploy and manage Firefox within the enterprise. According to a PC World article that sources Mike Beltzner, director of Firefox at Mozilla Corp:

Through the program, which will start sometime soon after Firefox 3.5 is released at the end of June, companies can use a Web application provided by Mozilla to specify certain customizations for the browser -- such as bookmarks to certain sites or corporate intranets or portals, he said.

Companies also can brand the browser through technology called Personas that allows them to code a skin across the top of the browser with a company's logo on it, Beltzner said.

Once the custom browser is developed, the application then will send it to the company and give it an installation program that makes it possible to install the browser across all desktops in the company, Beltzner added.

As one who has deployed Firefox and Thunderbird in an enterprise environment, one of my biggest criticisms with Mozilla has been that Firefox and Thunderbird is not enterprise-ready software. It's not that there hasn't been a push by some in the Mozilla community to provide enterprises with the tools they need to deploy Firefox and Thunderbird. It's just without official backing by Mozilla Corp, those tools never really seem to fully materialize in a way that is needed in large organizations. Hopefully, this time will be different.

Story found via Matt Assay.