OSCOM conference planning announced

POZNAN, ESPOO, Jan 31st 2003

The Open Source Content Management (OSCOM) organization has announced plans for an international conference bringing together developers and users of Open Source CMS projects, including Aegir CMS.

About OSCOM

OSCOM is an international organization dedicated to promoting and supporting Open Source Content Management Systems. The organization facilitates collaboration between different CMS projects, shares best practices, and helps advance the state of content management technology.

OSCOM members include developers and users of numerous Open Source CMS projects:

  • Midgard (including Aegir CMS)
  • Zope and CMF
  • OpenCMS
  • Typo3
  • PHP-Nuke and related systems
  • Various wiki systems
  • And many more

The Conference

The OSCOM conference will provide opportunities for:

Technical Exchange

  • Project presentations — Learn about different CMS approaches and architectures
  • Technical workshops — Hands-on sessions on specific topics
  • Developer meetings — Face-to-face collaboration on shared challenges
  • Code sprints — Collaborative development sessions

Community Building

  • Meet fellow developers — Connect with people working on similar challenges
  • Share experiences — Learn from others' successes and challenges
  • Find collaborators — Identify opportunities for cooperation between projects
  • Build relationships — Strengthen the Open Source CMS community

Strategic Discussions

  • Standards development — Work on interoperability and common formats
  • Best practices — Identify and share effective approaches
  • Future directions — Discuss where CMS technology is heading
  • Community organization — How to better support Open Source CMS projects

Aegir CMS Participation

The Aegir CMS project plans to participate actively in the conference:

Planned Contributions

  • Project presentation — Showcase Aegir CMS features and architecture
  • Midgard session — Present the Midgard framework that powers Aegir
  • Multi-company hosting — Share our approach to hosting multiple organizations
  • Workflow management — Discuss staging/approval processes
  • Internationalization — Share experiences with multilingual interfaces

Learning Opportunities

  • Learn from other CMS projects' approaches
  • Explore potential areas for collaboration
  • Identify features and capabilities we could adopt
  • Understand user needs across different CMS communities

Conference Details

Planning is still underway, but preliminary details include:

  • Location: To be announced (likely in Europe)
  • Timing: Expected Spring/Summer 2003
  • Duration: Likely 2-3 days
  • Format: Mix of presentations, workshops, and informal discussions

More details will be announced as planning progresses. Check the OSCOM website for updates.

Why This Matters

The OSCOM conference is important for several reasons:

For Aegir CMS

  • Raise awareness of the project in the broader CMS community
  • Learn from other projects' experiences and solutions
  • Identify potential collaboration opportunities
  • Get feedback on our approaches and features

For the Community

  • Strengthen the Open Source CMS ecosystem
  • Promote interoperability between systems
  • Advance content management technology
  • Build a stronger collective voice for Open Source CMS

For Users

  • Better tools through shared innovation
  • More choices in CMS solutions
  • Improved interoperability between systems
  • Stronger long-term support and sustainability

How to Participate

If you're interested in attending or participating in the OSCOM conference:

  • Visit the OSCOM website for updates and registration information
  • Join the OSCOM mailing lists to follow planning discussions
  • Contact the Aegir CMS team if you'd like to contribute to our participation
  • Consider presenting your own experiences with Aegir CMS or other systems

Topics of Interest

Some topics likely to be discussed at the conference:

  • Content portability — Moving content between different CMS platforms
  • API standardization — Common interfaces for extensions and modules
  • Workflow patterns — Best practices for content approval processes
  • Search and indexing — Approaches to full-text search
  • Security — Handling authentication, authorization, and common vulnerabilities
  • Performance — Scaling CMS installations for high traffic
  • Mobile access — Adapting CMS interfaces for mobile devices
  • XML and standards — Using XML for content storage and exchange

Building a Stronger Ecosystem

Events like the OSCOM conference help build a stronger Open Source CMS ecosystem. By working together, different projects can:

  • Learn from each other's innovations
  • Avoid duplicating efforts
  • Create better solutions for users
  • Present a unified voice to the broader software community

Stay Informed

We'll provide updates on the OSCOM conference as more details become available. Follow the Aegir CMS news page and mailing lists for announcements.

The collaboration fostered by OSCOM benefits all Open Source CMS projects and their users. We're excited to be part of this community effort!