Archive for the ‘Concrete5 decisions’ Category
you talkin about us?
by Franz
looks like some of the emerging c5 community is starting to talk about what we’re doing on their own blogs.. here’s a couple of the posts we’ve found, by all means comment if we missed ya:
http://www.codeblog.ch/2008/07/cms-concrete5/
http://jaipandya.com/2008/07/concrete5-a-nextgen-open-source-cms/
thanks!
nevermind freezing my head, just upload my soul!
by Franz
I’m reading Ray Kurzweil who says the the Singularity is Near. While nay-sayers claim his science is questionable, I say he sounds pretty bright to me. The basic gist is because of exponential growth in technology (ie Moore’s law) we’re on the cusp of revolutionary changes in what it means to be human. We will transcend our bodies through technologies ranging from advanced medical DNA engineering to nano technology and the internet itself. We will become immortal within 20 years. (…says Ray)
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chuga chuga…
by Franz
one week later, we’re ranked 800 out of 179,523 projects on sourceforge, with over 150 downloads. We’ve got handful of people helping in various countries, we’re hard at work on our hosting and marketing materials… Our booth for osCon2008 is purchased, we’re hoping to leave that event with 30 active developers contributing their time… we’ve basically got 6 weeks to get ready… very exciting…
..go team!
by Franz
Just had our 100th download of concrete5 on sourceforge. We’ve been talking to several developers who are helping us further refine the install process. Some guy from Brazil is even pitching in!
open source is neat.
Developers are Human, too
by Andrew Embler
From the beginning, Concrete has been designed as a system that makes the creation of pages easy, with a flexible “block” system available for placing items of content within these pages. As Concrete has matured, new data types have been created for different types of tasks. In Concrete5, for example, we have all sorts of these: single pages, page types, themes, blocks, elements, user attributes, page attributes, email templates, and more.
Pre-pre-pre launch!!
by Franz
Well we still have a long way to go before I’d call it a polished product that didn’t have a lot of lose ends, but the whole thing is stable and the important bits are working well. The UI has also settled down so it really feels like cleanup time to us. We’re launching concrete5.org to try to drum up some help from the open source development community as I type. Sadly there’s nothing for me to do but bug people about getting C’s in the right cases right now, so I’m posting here so my team will stop scowling at me.
concrete5.org is live! yay, tell your developer friends.
sweet ass new logo.
by Franz
Dig the new logo treatment.
first use…
by Franz
So I originally architected Concrete CMS in a nice little bar in SE Portland to deal with an adCouncil gig we had with too many stakeholders and not enough time. That was many years ago, and since the early days my dear friend and comrade Andrew Embler has taken the lose direction outlined in my sketchbook of “blocks and collections” and made it work on fixed budgets for demanding clients. Concrete has had some really compelling concepts since those early days, but like any box of tools you use hard - there’s some idiosyncrasies that drive you up the wall. Being the guy finally responsible for training clients, and getting content into working sites that make sense - I’ve been looking forward to getting my hands on the complete re-haul concrete5 for some time. I’ve peered over shoulders a lot, but today was the first time I got to play with it on a site I need to deal with.
Wait… Free?
by Franz
“Okay so let me get this straight, when we first spoke it was $13k to own it, and now its free? Are you sure about this?” a dear friend and repeat client who runs an agency just asked me.
I get that you want to provide for your family, sooo what are you thinking?
Are we going to offer a “freemeium” model where you get crippleware for free and the useful parts in expensive add-ons?
Nope.
Are we going to have a different license depending who you are?
Nope.
Are we going have a donation button or something?
Yes, but it will point to our favorite charity, which can do more good with the cash than us.
So I give up, why do you think destroying your perfectly viable license revenue is going to provide stability and creative freedom?
concrete5(tm): value the brand.
by Franz
Concrete has been around since 2003, this major version update that has been a year in the works and is major version release 5. While our content management system has always been “open source” to our clients, who paid for it; this is the first fully “free beer” open source release we’ve done. We’re giving away our secret sauce and we’re thinking how to protect the years and millions in development that have gone into it.
We’ve come to recognize it’s the brand. We will trademark our name as Concrete5(tm) - and make money by being the official host, trainer, documenter, and support provider. Conversely we may look at any of those roles and tap a better suited partner as an “Official Concrete5 Solution” in return for some license or revenue model.
The Ruby on Rails guy looks to have similar ideas around his brand and license model, which is also MIT.
Mind numbing discussion on how to skin a page.
by Franz
Templates.
Page Types.
Skins.
Themes.
Models? Patterns? ARRRRG!
In previous versions of Concrete we’ve kept the technical architecture for how pages are presented pretty simple. Every page is a single type. Each type has a PHP file that handles presentation, and a record in the CMS that defines default/shared blocks you want to always show up. When we build sites ourselves, this typically works pretty well for us.
Pricing tiers… omg.
by Franz
As a youth, you tend to think price is in some way related to cost.
It is not.
It’s easy to be taught this in your MBA course, it’s easy to think this is evil from your Marxism course, but I have found it really is the way of things. The answer to “how much is that doggy in the window?” is at best “what’s he worth to ya?” and at worse, “how much you got?” How much time, care and energy went into raising the bitch and birthing the puppy have nothing to do with it. (yes I choose that metaphor to create a credible excuse to curse. son-of-bitch-shit!)
Training getaway.
by Franz
I’ve never been a huge fan of the corporate training week. In my experience going to them as a employee, it’s kinda a paid vacation, yet a boring. It’s great to learn all at once and whatnot, but having someone read a manual to you in front of a computer seems like a horrible way to spend your day when you’re visiting a fun big city.
Revenue and Dim Sum
by Franz
Tasty dim sum today, fresh shrimp - yum.
Figured the revenue model out for Concrete 5 today at lunch. We knew we were gonna give the source away, but hadn’t quite figured out how to offer a hosted one for a price. We wanted to make it easy for tired old developers like me to setup a site quickly, as you would a blog - and take the opportunity to make some money on the hosting side. We also think the elegant ‘demo turns into your install’ approach of so many web2.0 apps is nice.
Cranberries in Oregon…
by Franz
Hello world.
I’ve been making websites since there was a web to make ‘em on.
I’ve run my own show for almost the whole time, with a two year dabble in corporate IT at the height of the bubble.
I’m an entrepreneur who has big ideas, works hard, and wants to provide for his family. My shop wins awards, our clients generally love us, I do everything that a good mid-sized webshop should do, yet I find myself unsatisfied.