• Revitalizing the Canadian government’s online presence

  Many government branches rely on proprietary software to power their websites and digital services. Using licensed technology can leave users locked in to costly and outdated platforms that are not easily updated, says Chris Smith, the CEO of Ottawa digital agency OPIN Software.

  Several government organizations have teamed up with OPIN over the past year to make the switch to Drupal, providing a more streamlined and functional experience for Canadians and giving government IT managers more flexibility.

• Open Source Technology Could Be a Boon to Farmers

  Chang, who started farming eight years ago and works full-time in information technology off-farm, searched for a different solution for his 14-acre organic vegetable and cut flower farm in northeastern Connecticut, finding software aimed at CSAs, which he doesn’t run, or marketing and sales, which he didn’t need. Then he discovered farmOS, a free, open source record-keeping software built on the web platform Drupal.

• Open source technology could be a boon to farmers

  Robert Chang’s fellow small-scale farmers turn to each other when they need low-cost tech to stay organized as they plant dozens of varieties of vegetables each season and seek to consistently fill their community-supported agriculture (CSA) boxes each week.

  [...]

  In the case of farmOS, on the other hand, Chang says, “Nobody is mining it or monetizing it in any way. It’s yours. You can export it in whatever way you want.” And it is infinitely customizable, if you’re tech savvy. “Since it’s open source, you can change the code, if you want to do your own customizations.”

In many ways, open source has won. Most people know that open source provides better quality software, at a lower cost, without vendor lock-in. But despite open source being widely adopted and more than 30 years old, scaling and sustaining open source projects remain challenging.

Not a week goes by that I don’t get asked a question about open source sustainability. How do you get others to contribute? How do you get funding for open source work? But also, how do you protect against others monetizing your open source work without contributing back? And what do you think of MongoDB, Cockroach Labs, or Elastic changing their license away from open source?

This article (in five parts) talks about how we can make it easier to scale and sustain open source projects, open source companies, and open source ecosystems.

• Acquia Acquired for $1B, WordPress 5.3 on the Horizon, More Open Source News

  Acquia has announced an agreement to receive a majority investment from Vista Equity Partners, which essentially translates into the investment company purchasing Acquia for a colossal $1 billion. The investment will enable the open-source digital experience company to continue growing its presence in the digital experience platform space. “Vista shares our belief that the DXP market is ripe for disruption and we are excited to partner with them to accelerate our plans,” said Michael Sullivan, Acquia CEO.

  Acquia’s press release noted that Acquia will “continue to operate independently”.

  This announcement came shortly after being named to the 2019 Forbes Cloud 100 for the fourth consecutive year and acquiring the first enterprise-grade, low-code Drupal website builder.

• Daily Buzz: Drupal's Big Buyout

• WordCamp Philly returns this weekend in all its open-source, community-powered glory

  In an age where the internet’s attention is hyper focused on the most recent tweet, only to be distracted the next minute, WordPress’ decade-long staying power can be attributed to its diverse and dedicated open-source community.

  WordPress values and strives to grow its community, and one of the ways it does that is through WordCamps. Philadelphia is home to one of the oldest WordCamps in the United States, and the annual daylong event is returning this weekend, Oct. 5 and 6, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

• People of WordPress: Alice Orru

  Alice Orru was born in Sardinia, an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. As a child, she dreamt of becoming a flight attendant, traveling the world, and speaking many foreign languages.

  Unable to meet the height requirements of her chosen profession, Orru ended up choosing a different path in life, following the Italian mantra: “You have to study something that will guarantee a stable and secure job for life.”

  The unemployment rate in Sardinia is very high, a challenge shared throughout the surrounding islands. In addition to that, Alice wasn’t that keen on having the same job all her life, as her parents had.

  When Orru was 22 she moved to Siena, Tuscany, to finish her studies. That is when she created her first personal blog. The website was built on an Italian platform named Tiscali, which she later migrated to WordPress.com.

  After 2 years in Tuscany Orru moved to Strasbourg, France. She studied French and worked several jobs while living there. Her first serious job was in Milan – working 40 hours/week in the marketing department of a large, international company. She found herself surrounded by ambitious colleagues and a boss who constantly requested extra —unpaid— working hours per day.

• Digital experience firm Acquia sees India as a global delivery centre

  Acquia, a US-based open source digital experience company, has announced the opening of an office in Pune, expanding its presence in the Asia-Pacific region. Taking this next step in its global growth strategy, Acquia looks to bolster its partner network and expand its global customer footprint.

• EPAM Named An Acquia Global Select Partner, Joining Elite Group Of Partners

  EPAM Systems, Inc. (EPAM), a leading global provider of digital platform engineering and software development services, today announced that it has achieved Global Select status in Acquia's Partner Program. Acquia, an open source digital experience company, provides software and services built around Drupal. As one of only a few elite Global Select partners, EPAM leverages its Acquia and Drupal expertise to help its clients design, build and deliver engaging and intelligent customer experiences.

• The Top 13 Free and Open Source Content Management Platforms

  This is the most complete and up-to-date directory of free and open source content management platforms available on the web.

• 4 great Java-based CMS options

  OpenCms has been around since 1999, and it's been an open source Java CMS platform since 2001. Not only is it one of the oldest Java-based CMS platforms, it's one of the oldest CMS tools, predating the popular PHP-based WordPress, which debuted in 2003.

  From a developer's perspective, OpenCms is simple to set up and maintain. It runs as a Java servlet, which makes installation easy. It works with most major databases; whether you prefer MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, MariaDB or another popular database, you can likely run OpenCms without much hassle.

  OpenCms probably won't win awards as the most elegant or attractive Java-based CMS. The interface was overhauled in 2019, but OpenCms doesn't exactly feel modern. It works, but it's a little clunky.

  However, OpenCms does enjoy the distinction as a truly cost-free open source Java CMS. There is no freemium pricing model for the product, and there are no licensing fees.