Just came across the the State of Web Development 2006 jointly compiled by Sitepoint and Ektron – it makes interesting reading. Some of the views expressed therein about the future of the web indeed makes interesting reading. The importance of the web is given – its truly becoming a reflection of, and enhancement to, our world. It connects us, binds us, enables us and empowers us. One viewpoint that comes therein is the idea of pervasive web with total immersion. Mobiles, PDA’s, laptops, PCs, TVs – so many different ways exist to access the Web and more are added every day. As we move forward, Integration of Internet technologies into everyday life that does not involve a desktop or even a mobile/cell/PDA are all real possibilities.
More importantly the report talks about survey results taken from polling 5000 developers and internet professionals and report increasing adoption of open source CMS. Of equal note is the expectation that collaborative technologies are expected to play moving forward. Ajax is being looked at for engagements by almost half of the developers, with blogs (38%), podcasts (25%), wikis (20%), syndication (36%), and other features increasingly planned to be integrated into websites.
Some may interpret this as a proof of increasing adoption of open source in the applications space. While open source dominance in the infrastructure arena is given, I do not see any great wave in open source adoption, though the technology in the web content management space is closer to open source infrastructure technology and hence there may be some marginal impact there – more so with small business/academic institutions looking at it. I would have attached more importance to a report based on a survey administered to CIO’s. I also see that some SaaS based solutions may make some inroads in this space. As I see it large enterprises, are currently suffering owing to doing a less than good job of providing a useful and usable Web experience to their customers and are on a race to make the web deliver for them better. From a technology vendor perspective, the growth in the market suggest that the replacement market for WCM will heat up as enterprises look for innovation . Many large vendors may be looking at acquiring specialized vendors operating in the WCM space. My suggestion to customers, is to look at ECM as more of a strategy & not as a technology.
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