On Wednesday January 16th Sun Microsystems announced that it had agreed to acquire the extremely popular open-source database developer (and the “M” in LAMP) MySQL AB. The $1 Billion deal consists of $800 Million in cash and $200 Million in options.

With this acquisition, along with the open releases of Solaris and Java, it seems as if Sun is ramping up their open-source strategy.

But despite reassurances from all sides that this will not affect the set of languages/platforms or the ideals of MySQL, the reaction to this news has been mixed. While many people are excited about the possibilities, others are worried about LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Perl/Python) becoming SAMP (with “S” standing for Solaris). Only time will tell.

This news comes almost 2 years after Oracle tried - and failed - to acquire MySQL in 2006. (In related news Oracle has recently acquired BEA Systems).

Jonathan Schwartz, CEO and President of Sun, answers more questions here.

Kaj Arno, MySQL VP of Community Relations, explains what this means for MySQL.

Bio: Les graduated from Rollins college with a degree in Economics. He was one of the founding members of WAVE in 1987. Since then he has been an integral part of the WAVE sales team.

Favorite Hobbies: Motorcycle Racing, Golf, Softball, and Snow Skiing.

Favorite Food: Barbeque and Beer

Random Fact: I have known Craig aka TBone (one of WAVE’s software developers) since he was in diapers.

Happy New Years to everyone. I know posting has been slow lately, but now that the holidays are over, things should be getting back up to speed.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

B.media version 5.5 was released the night of Friday December 7th. This is the latest major release of the revolutionary enterprise content management solution.

Along with support for Quark 7 and InDesign CS3, B.media 5.5 also include many new robust features.

From the in Official B.media Press Release:

TableBuilder ‐ The concept of table building functionality has existed for quite some time, but the execution of the features has been lackluster. The new B.media TableBuilder offers users a powerful tool to establish table templates that will automatically create product tables according to the individual SKUs within the product offer. These format neutral tables can easily be used in the desired output channels, such as web and print. The content within these tables is dynamic, as is all B.media content, so that changes to the tables or products within them are automatically reflected in the output channel’s publication(s).

SynchroBlock ‐ A collection of new B.media features that puts another new and innovative twist on an established concept. B.media users now have the ability to automatically apply formal layout to individual offers and an entire publication at the click of a button. Unlike most implementations of a batch page creator, B.media places all of the desired offers on a digital whiteboard rather than a final live page or hi‐res document. This allows product managers, merchandisers, and creative staff to preview and modify the pages of a publication within an intuitive interface before final layout. These digital whiteboards are used to automatically generate pages which contain active B.media links so they can be automatically updated as changes occur.

Go to the WAVE Corporation press page or contact sales for more info about B.media 5.5

We all know there are many Content and Asset Management systems out there, and many times they have similar features. But how do you decide who is the best for your company? The answer is to use a scenario based approach. Knowing what you want and need out of a solution will help immensely.

Over at IntelligentEnterprise, Tony Byrne has written an article detailing this scenario based approach:

The lines between all content technology families are notoriously blurry. This is especially true of portals, Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems and Web Content Management (WCM) system, where there’s lots of overlap in vendors, product functionality, and marketing messages. For example, if you’re looking to implement Intranet-based document management, you could conceivably use any of these three types of products. Yet some consultancies will try to sell you all three types of solutions, with an obligatory (and expensive) integration project.

Take a scenario-based approach that solves your most pressing needs first. ECM, WCM and portals fill fairly specific roles and tend to address different problems. By understanding what you’re trying to accomplish, you can better identify the technologies you do and don’t need

……And what exactly, you might ask, is the difference among “Global Intranet” (WCM), “Enterprise Intranet” (Portal) or “Enterprise Web Publishing” (ECM)? Quite possibly very little. On the other hand, you should know that the tools approach the problem in different ways. The WCM solution will likely emphasize semi-structured content and documents with employee-friendly editorial interfaces. The intranet portal will bring a functional focus to interactive applications (such as a people-finder portlet). The ECM product will likely provide native hooks from the intranet into its own document and records management repositories. Ironically, CMS Watch research suggests that “enterprise-tier” vendors do a comparatively poor job at the kind of multi-Web-site management scenarios you see in large enterprises.

To all those celebrating the Festival of Lights, Happy Hanukkah!

2007 has been the year of social networks. Everybody and their mother has an account at Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn, or one of the bazillion other social networks.

But maybe you are still doubting the power of social networks, maybe you think everybody is exagerating.

Well I am here to give you some cold hard proof of the breadth of social networks.

Ask.com just released a report of the top 10 most popular search terms of 2007. They call it the ‘Real Deal’ list (clever title huh?). Guess what the #1 term was… MySpace. And over at Google, both MySpace and Facebook ranked in the top 10.

So stop doubting and hop on the band wagon. The worst that can happen is someone doesn’t accept your friend request.

Employee Name: Mauro Baquero

Bio: Mauro Baquero is a graduate of The University of Central Florida (U.C.F.) in sunny Orlando, Florida. with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering. Unlike many individuals, his university experience began the same summer he graduated from high school. He was accepted into a special program named S.P.A.C.E that allowed for a chosen few high school graduates to begin their engineering program early. During that summer, he was introduced to many different aspects of engineering and was able to visit different sites specializing in engineering such as Westinghouse and N.A.S.A. It served as major reassurance to him that he was on the right track. Four years later, he graduated with only one summer break since he arrived at U.C.F.

Hobbies: Sports Photography, Street Riding (Motorcycles)

Favorite TV Shows: Motorcycle Racing, Las Vegas, Heroes, The Office

Random Fact: Shoe size is 10.5 or 11, depending on the shoe

As requested, here is the PowerPoint outline from our channel meeting in Amsterdam.

You can download the ZIP file by clicking here.