“Re: Ugly Secrets of Content Management Systems”

"... the point of the article was probably in the last paragraph, where he said that everybody should be using JSP to build their CMS's, as JSP is already open-source. My point is actually the opposite: I don't think most companies want to build their own, but rather that they have a right to expect their vendors (Macrobyte) to work like crazy to provide them with exactly what they need. That's the benefit of our plugin architecture... we can add customer - specific features very quickly."

The importance of this point should not be underestimated. I've been on board with Conversant since the very beginning. While I was impressed with the features and ease of use of Conversant (whether you needed it as a CMS OR as a Groupware App.) I've been much *more* impressed by the speed and ease with which new features (requested or internally devised) have been added to the product. I have closely observed how wellthe team that produces Conversant listens to its customers as well as to each other.

But getting back to the more substance of Seth's comment, he's correct to credit Conversant's plugin architecture as the 'killer app' of the Conversant product.

It's almost as if, in the world of CMS's, Conversant's motto is: "If you can dream it, you can do it".. (after we write this little plug-in in record time...)

J.