The conclusion
The CMOS project (Content Management Open Source) concludes after 30 months of industrial research. The consortium formed by Bassilichi S.p.A., the University of Florence and noze delivers the fully Open Source content management platform planned under the MIUR/PIA programme.
The platform
The platform is a modular, scalable, multi-channel and multi-device content management system. The initial prototyping phase is built on the Zope/CMF stack; during the project the architecture is then migrated to Java Enterprise (J2EE), chosen as the definitive stack for its maturity in the enterprise domain, the availability of robust application servers and the wider adoption among the industrial partners. Across both phases, XML/XSLT, LDAP and integration with SQL and object databases remain constant. The independent component architecture allows the assembly of customised solutions from a common core.
noze’s contribution
noze brings the experience gained with InFlow, its own Open Source CMS already in production. InFlow does not flow directly into the project, but the hands-on experience with Zope/CMF orients CMOS’s design choices: from the technology selection (documented in the paper “Why Zope and CMF”) to the modular design of the platform. Expertise in asynchronous workflows, extensible content types and RDF export guides the design of the modules.
Zope, CMF and the Open Source ecosystem
The value noze brings is hands-on experience with Zope + CMF, a technology still little used in Italy at the time but destined to become the Open Source CMS standard for the following decade. It is the base from which, shortly afterwards, Plone would emerge: the Open Source CMS that establishes itself as the reference for public administration and large organisations.
The context
CMOS closes a cycle of technology transfer between universities and companies in the Tuscan context, confirming the validity of the collaborative research model funded by MIUR.