Plone Foundation Releases Plone 2.1

Plone 2.1 is ready! After 3500 check-ins to their repository and a changelog that counts 2200 lines, Plone is re-defining itself and the content management landscape yet again by including innovative features like LiveSearch and Smart Folders.

The fastest growing open source content management system releases new version.

        Plone provides a highly scalable, extensible and stable application that uses open standards throughout. It runs on all major operating systems including Linux, Microsoft Windows, Sun Solaris, FreeBSD and Apple Mac OS X. Plone is available in more than 50 languages and is used by JETRO, Vera Wang, Mark of the Unicorn, Rice U. Connexions, the National Cancer Institute, BMC Software, the Burning Man Project, and numerous other commercial and non-profit entities. eWeek.com recognized Plone 2.0 as one of the Top 10 enterprise applications of 2004: "...the free, open-source Plone has taken what was already probably the best option in Web publishing portals and made it the clear leader in this field."

    "Plone is growing and growing up", says Dr. Geoff Davis, Secretary of the Plone Foundation. “In this version, we're delivering a product that offers innovative features for searching and organizing content, while delivering notably improved performance.

    Recent notable deployments include Oxfam America, the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, Motorola, the Brazilian Parliament, the National Cancer Institute, eBay and Wolfords. Peter White of Surrey NHS Health Informatics Service said, "Our choice wasn't only based on cost. From a rigorous analysis of seven major systems, we found that the Plone system came out on top in terms of performance and features".

    Years of testing have shown Plone's interface to be both flexible and intuitive. Notable features include time-based content deployment and role-based authoring & publishing. Plone 2.1’s new set of features provide users with tools to greatly enhance their productivity while maintaining an optimal user experience. In addition, the new version gives content managers and end users sophisticated, yet simple, ways to more effectively search and organize their content. “LiveSearch” provides an instant preview of search results as the user types, while “Smart Folders” allow content managers to arrange content according to usage. Plone 2.1 continues to build on a proven legacy of an easy-to-use interface with rich out-of-the-box functionality.

    Available add-on products allow for simple Windows desktop integration, seamless handling of multilingual content, rapid deployment into existing IT infrastructure, and a host of other features ranging from blogs to enterprise authentication. A large, and ever growing, number of entities offer Plone products, training, support, hosting, and consulting services. These entities provide a level of security and professionalism that allow Plone to fit the needs of organizations of all sizes and types. Part of a vibrant community, users and developers participate conferences, symposiums, and coding sprints in locations such as Vienna, New Orleans, Silicon Valley, Paris and Amsterdam.

Download and learn more about Plone at http://plone.org/.

ifPeople Supports and Deploys Plone

ifPeople will continue to support Plone 2.0, which it currently runs, develops and deploys for several clients. ifPeople will begin to adopt Plone 2.1 for appropriate projects while still supporting the earlier version and helping those clients who wish to upgrade to migrate to the new version. ifPeople also provides hosting and support for Plone and Zope, as well as custom software development with many technologies.

ifPeople is also active in the Plone Open Source/Free Software community and is actively engaged in marketing Plone. Christopher Johnson led marketing workshops in New Orleans at the North American Regional Symposium 2005. His Plone Marketing presentatin is available online.

----------------------------------
Plone is a registered trademark of the Plone Foundation in the US and other countries.

All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners.