Start-Up Delivers Open Source Offerings to Build User Base

The new wiki start-up founded by former Microsoft employees, MindTouch, has just announced two new open source offerings to help bolster their user base. MindTouch Dream, a development framework and Deki, a wiki-based document sharing program that was built using Dream, will both be debuted at this year's OSCON, currently underway. From the article: "Applications written with MindTouch Dream can be done in PHP or .Net languages such as C# or Visual Basic. Programs can run on Microsoft Windows machines or Novell's Mono software for running .Net applications on Linux or Unix."

Comments

Actual links?

[Anonymous Coward]

In the summary, can we please have the actual links to the projects?

http://opengarden.org/
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki

MindTouch Dream?

[blantonl]

The article really doesn't do a great job of articulating what the Mindtouch Dream framework actually is.

FTA:
Applications written with MindTouch Dream can be done in PHP or .Net languages such as C# or Visual Basic. Programs can run on Microsoft Windows machines or Novell's Mono software for running .Net applications on Linux or Unix.

I'm having a hard time understanding what MindTouch Dream actually provides. Is it a development environment framework? A IDE? It isn't clear to me how an application written in "MindTouch Dream" can also be PHP -or- .NET -or- C#.

Deki on the otherhand is clear to me, it is a port of MediaWiki http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki with extensions and provisions for managing Microsoft documents, AJAX support, and exposure as a Web service (REST based).

All in all, I'm a little confused as to the exact value this release brings, other than some better support for M$ based content environments.

Re:MindTouch Dream?

[Cederic]

I got the impression from the article that their current wiki offering is a Wikimedia mod, but that Deki is a new bespoke development based around their Dream development environment.

Which would make Deki something new and possibly different and definitely of interest.

Re:MindTouch Dream?

[gregmac]

I'm having a hard time understanding what MindTouch Dream actually provides. Is it a development environment framework? A IDE? It isn't clear to me how an application written in "MindTouch Dream" can also be PHP -or- .NET -or- C#.

I think they're taking a page from the marketing book for .NET. It took me a couple years to figure out what .NET actually is/does (hint: it's a marketing term for a whole bunch of unrelated or at best loosely-related products and marketing campaigns -- What exactly does the .NET framework have to do with MSN..?).

Re:MindTouch Dream?

[Angst Badger]

All in all, I'm a little confused as to the exact value this release brings, other than some better support for M$ based content environments.

It is indeed vague, and since their site is thoroughly slashdotted right now, it will remain so if and until I remember to check it out later.

Support for MS document formats is, however, a pretty big deal. If I had a dollar for every time an OSS solution was rejected in my workplace because it didn't support MS docs, I'd have enough money to buy a legitimate copy of Windows XP. Some people regard playing nice with MS software to be some kind of impurity or treason, but as a practical matter, it provides for easy inroads to business environments.

Re:MindTouch Dream?

[killjoe]

Plone supports them. You can add doc files to plone and it can extract all the data, catalog it, index it, and make it searchable. If you choose a open, non-proprietary format like ODF it can even show it to you as HTML.

I guess I am one of those people who don't see the point of building a wiki that consists of uploading DOC files. It defeats the purpose of a wiki in the first place. At that point it's a CMS and virtually every CMS will let you upload documents of any type.

Re:MindTouch Dream?

[Locutus]

well, when I heard from a consultant that he knows of a few businesses who are using wiki's for software configuration management, I knew that the Windows software development market was still pretty screwed up. When I asked why they wouldn't use CVS or Subversion at the very least, he said that they are using a wiki because that is what they know....

So don't be surprised to find many a Windows shop using wiki's just for uploading MS-DOC files or other silly things.

LoB

Re:MindTouch Dream?

[Zontar The Mindless]

It took me a couple years to figure out what .NET actually is/does (hint: it's a marketing term for a whole bunch of unrelated or at best loosely-related products and marketing campaigns...)

So it's like "Web 2.0", then? Thanks!

Oh Noes!

[Cap'nPedro]

I think I hear the sound of a chair hitting a wall!

Now I understand

[stocke2]

on their site they say the love open source and use mono,debian,apache,etc...
now I understand why they don't work at MS anymore
they got canned

More MS innovation eh?

[RomulusNR]

"Start-Up Delivers Open Source Offerings to Build User Base"

Yeah. Quick, think of ten other software houses that this could have ever been said about.

They ALMOST Get It

[TheDarkSavant]

They seem so proud of themselves for being open source. Come to find out, their product only exists so users of MS Office can share their documents. Anyone else see the irony in that?

Re:They ALMOST Get It

[badboy_tw2002]

Are you saying engineers from Microsoft are so tainted with evil they've never heard of OSS or Linux and can't grasp the same concepts your average non-Evil Inside (TM) Linux geek can?

Or are you trying to imply that there's no need for users of MS documents to share their documents?

Or perhaps that because they're interfacing with a proprietary format they might as well give up all hope of being Open Source? That the two can't live together?

Formula for success, 100% guarantee

[Iloinen Lohikrme]

1. Make a product
2. Open source it and hype it to death in Slashdot
3. ?
4. Profit


Actually if you are clever, you can skip the part one, and just hype it to death and move to profit, also known as IPO.

Why didn't I invent this idea? ...well I guess I just have to buy their shares when they go to IPO.

GPL Interpretation

[zzzmarcus]

I think it's worth noting for anyone considering hosting a version of DekiWiki that MindTouch/OpenGarden interprets the GPL to mean that any USER of the software should have access to the full source including any modifications you've made (a la Affero GPL).

worst headline and summary EVAR

[ChrisCampbell47]

And the number of comments shows it. 30 comments after 6 hours on the main page? That must be a new low. Sorry ScuttleMonkey, but hang your head in shame.

Re:A shame about the plagiarism

[AaronRoe]

Thank you so much for pointing this out! MindTouch contracted U4EA Design (www.u4eadesign.com) to create the design for OpenGarden.org. Initially it was our opinion they did a pretty decent job. However, as we neared the end of the project our opinion changed because we felt they lacked a level of organization and professionalism that we would ordinarily expect from our contractors. Now, thanks to the person who posted this comment, we've discovered that they've likely infringed upon DropSend's copyrighted material. We're all stunned. All I can say is: we're very sorry. We had absolutely no idea. As soon as this was pointed out to us we immediately removed the images. I'm also authoring a letter of apology to DropSend. I encourage you all to send emails to U4EA Design and let them know what you think about this. Personally, I find it appalling and, of course, it makes me wonder if there are other parts of the site that are not their original work.

Thanks for pointing this out guys.

~ AaronF