This CMS is still in development but the bleeding edge releases are available for download and testing. The concept of eliminating the “backend” is particularly interesting for users looking for the most immediate and simple content publishing solutions.

The introductory video below covers the main features of Stackbox CMS. It’s worth taking a look.

Stackbox CMS Introduction from Vance Lucas on Vimeo.

Armstrong is freely available to any organization. It is the result of a collaboration between The Texas Tribune and Bay Citizen, and a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The first release is scheduled for June, 2011.

It is built on the Django framework. Its core features will include the following:

- Multimedia-rich editorial workflows
- Membership management
- CRM integration (Sugar and Salesforce)
- Deep SEO and analytics integration
- Media management
- Mobile versions, including iPad, iPhone, Android and Blackberry
- Social media integration for all content
- Engagement tools, such as the daily quiz game, QRANK

Essentially what OpenPublish does is offer a fully configured Drupal distribution geared towards running a new media outlet. OpenPublish harnesses the power of the Drupal CMS core along with key Drupal plugins to deliver an efficient out of the box website solution with an intuitive admin panel.

(Standard OpenPublish theme.)

- Customizable Look and Feel: OpenPublic comes standard with two clean themes that can be switched with a single click and it’s back-end theme editor makes customisation easy.

- Accessibility and 508 Compliance: accessibility is a necessity in public-sector communications and OpenPublic responds with Section 508-compliant designs for both back-end administrators and public users.

- Intuitive Dashboard: administrators experience stress free content management; easy updates on evolving personnel, plans, and processes; and simple publishing of graphics and visuals.

The impetus behind the project is summed up in the site’s introductory section:

“In 2009, the White House chosen Drupal as the open source platform for its web site. If the most powerful voice in our nation chooses to tap into global innovation by using an economical, open source platform called Drupal to manage intensely scrutinized, mission-critical content each day and to effectively encourage feedback from citizens … why wouldn’t you?”

Key features include:

- Tabbed WYSIWYG Editing: intuitive UI so that what you create is what others will see online.

- Support multiple blos: Zoundry Raven makes it easy to write and publish to separate blogs all with one editor.

- Improved Content Management: the indexer allows you to browse all of your previous posts across all of your blogs by tags, links, or images.

- Portable Application: Raven is available to install as a Portable Application on your flash/thumb drive.

Supported blog platforms include:

Blogger, Movable Type & TypePad, Windows Live Spaces, WordPress and more.

LifeType offers support for multiple blogs and multiple users in one installation. Each blog can be run in its own language and can be customized using a template engine. LifeType also features Bayesian spam filtering, media uploads, file handling, a customizable search engine friendly URLs and an administration area.

Key features include:

- Multiple Blogs per installation (suitable for blog hosting)
- Sub-domains
- Multiple users per blog and multiple blogs per user
- Integrated Media Management (podcasting, automatic thumbnail generation, a filebrowser and custom descriptions for each file)
- Extensible plug-in support
- Anti-Spam features (bayesian spam filter, comment moderation, Captcha (including the accessible ReCaptcha), trackback validation)
- Localization
- XML-RPC
- Mobile features (moblogging)

BuddyPress is an open source social networking software package. It is a plugin that can be installed on WordPress to transform it into a social network platform. BuddyPress is designed to allow schools, companies, sports teams or any other niche community to start their own social network or communication tool.

BuddyPress inherits and extends upon the integral functional elements of the WordPress engine including themes, plugins and widgets. As it is built on WordPress it is written using the same primary technologies, PHP and MySQL.

Key Features include:

- Activity Streams
- User Profiles
- Options to add user profile fields and sections
- Avatar uploads
- Group Creation
- Group discussion forums
- Group logo and Wire
- Friend system
- Messaging
- Bespoke themes
- Blogs per user (via the WordPress engine)

Further Reading & Resources

If you’re starting out with BuddyPress and you need a comprehensive beginner’s guide, you might consider Lisa Sabin-Wilson’s Dummie’s Guide to BuddyPress.

Like an application server, WebGUI handles all the mundane tasks such as database connectivity, session
management, and security. Then, WebGUI goes one step further. In WebGUI, custom applications can be built; once
built, those applications can be reused over and over throughout a site.

WebGUI provides power, versatility, and security. Everything in WebGUI is a template; this means everything in
WebGUI can be customized to meet an organization’s specific needs. Navigation menus can be configured and site
styles can be branded to make any site look and feel the way the organization intends. Existing applications can be
modified to perform and look as envisioned. WebGUI is made to perform to your standards. This is why WebGUI is
Web Done Right.

* Simple. Intuitive and user-friendly
* Flexible coding framework (MVC)
* Scalable. From 1 page to a million
* Standards Compliant. Fully XHTML compliant
* Modular. Easy to extend
* Template Freedom. No restrictions on the look and feel of your site
* Open source. It’s free (BSD) and you can contribute to the project.
* Cross platform. (Windows/Linux/Mac) and easy to install (PHP based)
* Supported. Professionally backed by the developers