Kentico CMS 4.0 Marries Social Networking and Content Management

Kentico Software, a Czech Web CMS vendor, released a new version of Kentico CMS for ASP.NET. The 4.0 version, out of beta announced in December of last year, brings to the table Web content management packaged with social networking.
 
The majority of new Kentico CMS 4.0 features are revolving around the oh-so-popular social networking, online communities and Web 2.0 technologies.

Known for its Web 2.0 features in version 3.0, the new version of Kentico CMS targets companies that want to leverage Web 2.0 technologies and engage their customers by using blogs, forums, polls, wikis and focus groups.

This sounds like a neat idea — especially, given the recent research on how corporate blogs rule social media options employed by organizations. Unless, of course, you think Web 2.0 is "so 2000." We'll talk about that in a bit as well.

What’s New in Kentico CMS

The latest release of Kentico CMS provides a set of features for modern organizations looking to build Web sites using content management, e-commerce and social networking.

The new Kentico CMS Social Networking Edition supports blogs, forums, polls, user-contributed content in the form of wiki, groups, friends, message boards, media libraries, content rating and improved membership management.

In Kentico CMS 4.0 users will also find a ready-to-use Community Starter Site that can be customized and speed up web site development in a cost-efficient fashion.

As with many self-respectful Web content management systems, Kentico users can also take advantage of the content taxonomy feature that is based on tags and categories.

If you feel like exploring Kentico CMS 4.0, visit the Web site, or check them out at the AIIM Conference in Philadelphia on March 30 - April 2, 2009, and at Internet World London at the end of April 2009, where the system will be showcased.

What’s Next for Kentico CMS?

Looks like things are moving along pretty swiftly in the world of Kentico. The provider says it is constantly enhancing and improving Kentico CMS for ASP.NET and aims to release a new version every three to four months.

Version 4.1 is now in the plans and should be available during February 2009 (Moving too fast, no?). You can even suggest a new feature on their Web site.

Is Web 2.0 and Social Networking Still Relevant?

With Kentico CMS 4.0 so determinedly focused on Web 2.0 and social networking, is this a good development? We’ve seen many vendors in the Web content management space completely avoiding anything that has to do with Web 2.0 technologies. At the same time, quite a considerable amount of them embraced Web 2.0 in the Web CMS’s.
 
Recent Forrester research shows that enterprise spending on web 2.0 technologies is expected to grow strongly over the next five years with better enterprise adoption of social networking, mashups and RSS. The market for enterprise web 2.0 tools will be defined by commoditization and eroding prices.

Others say that Web 2.0 implosion is imminent and blogs and wikis are among the first to suffer. But social networking seems to continue to evolve and grow from 8% percent in 2005 to 35% in 2009, according to the latest Pew research.

Web 2.0 tools can be fragile and vulnerable. But as with any technology, it is essential to evaluate all the pros and cons and make decisions based on your organizational goals and not on fashion trends of “orange is the new black”.

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