Open source DM
It really wasn't that long ago when open source solutions were considered merely a "movement," but now these software products, in which the source code is available, are a permanent part of the landscape in nearly every IT sector.
KMWorld readers are likely most familiar with open source Web content management (WCM) solutions--literally hundreds of projects have been developed or are underway in the past seven or eight years. However, though the need for solid document management (DM) is greater now than ever before, open source DM products haven't received nearly so much attention. And, the acknowledged benefits of an open source solution--namely low cost, high scalability, a collaborative development environment, flexibility and transparency--are every bit as valuable in DM projects as they are in content management solutions.
So, it was especially refreshing for me to discover the new white paper written by Seth Gottlieb and Sebastian Wohlrapp with Optaros, a systems integrator and consultancy that specializes in open source implementations. "Unleashing the Power of Open Source in Document Management," which is available for download at http://www.optaros.com/publications_wpapers.shtml, is, truly, an invaluable resource and essential reading for any type of organization that might be considering or implementing a document management system, but it is also well-suited to any company that is rethinking its enterprise content management approach, because documents--in all their different formats--are at the very core of that strategy.
Gottlieb and Wohlrapp have done an extraordinary job of describing the world of open source document management. You can easily see that when you download the PDF, but I should emphasize what I think is the most compelling component of their work: detailed analysis of the following seven commercially available open source DM solutions: