Online Product Testing Made Easy
By
David Strom
 You
know when you have a good idea and kick yourself because you didn't act
on it? Mine was to put up a Web site that had real live working
versions of software. The software would be available for anyone to
come and try out. Since most software these days has a browser
interface, it would be relatively easy for a user to come and take a
look. All you need is some automation software to clear out the server
periodically (so that a fresh version is presented to the viewing
public) and voila, you have a demo site that can't be beat for
potential customers looking to take software for a test drive.
To show you that I had thought about this concept four years ago, you can read my essay here: http://strom.com/awards/211.html
Of the three vendors who were mentioned in that article, only
one, Runaware.com, is still showing off applications using Citrix' Java
add-on. I guess if this was such a great idea why aren't more people
doing it and why didn't the other folks I mentioned in my article
survive? Well, I don't have an answer but I do have a new take on how
to use your browser to remotely kick those software tires. This new
site is geared towards evaluating open-source content management
software products. Aptly enough, they call their site: http://www.opensourcecms.com/
There are dozens of CMS products for review on the site. The way it
works is they supply you with the administrator's username and password
so you can go in and manage the various systems and see for yourself
what kind of content management product you want to run. And the site
editors have a rather wide definition of what constitutes CMS, by the
way: they also include bloggers, groupware, forums, and other
applications.
Of course, the site has its limitations. The products must all
be fully-functional and not crippled versions, and the site will run
commercial software too if they have a freely available and
fully-featured demo. The products must run a basket of technologies
that they are familiar, including php and MySQL. (That doesn't include
the well-respected Zope product, by the way, which is too bad.) The
products must be easy to install to a default server without the need
for root access or other tools that would present problems for the
average hosted environment.
In addition to trying out the various products, you can also post your own reviews and comments for others to read.
The opensource CMS site is a great idea whose time has finally come.
And I hope that other people pick up the idea and put up new sites on
other products that you can evaluate from within the comfort of your
browser.
Self-Promotions Dep't
It has been a while since I have written for Sam Whitmore's Media
Survey, a great Web resource for tracking the computer trades. Sam and
I go waaaay back to the early days of PC Week in the go-getter 1980s.
Boy does that make me feel old. Anyway, I wrote a semi-tongue-in-cheek
piece for him entitled, "David Strom's Web PR Pop Quiz." If you are a
public relations person, or want to play one on TV, you might want to
try it out and see how you score: http://www.mediasurvey.com
David Strom began writing the Web Informant
series in 1995. This series of almost-weekly essays discusses current
trends, technologies, and events of interest about Internet
applications.
Strom is also online editor for the CMP Electronics Group and a
long-time technology journalist and author of two networking books and
thousands of articles. He was the founding editor-in-chief of Network Computing
magazine and consulted for many hi-tech vendors when he ran his own
business for ten years between a previous tenure and his current role
at CMP Media. He lives in Port Washington, N.Y. and can be reached at dstrom@cmp.com
Entire contents copyright © 2004 by David Strom, Inc
Web Informant is ® registered trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
ISSN #1524-6353 registered with U.S. Library of Congress
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