DotNetNuke Business Model and Product Roadmap (Part 2 of 2)

Blog, DotNetNuke 3 Responses »
Apr 202009

In my last post – DotNetNuke Business Model and Product Roadmap (Part 1 of 2) – I provided some insights into the DotNetNuke Corp. business model, specifically as it pertains to the similarities and differences between DotNetNuke Community and Professional Editions.

In this post I provide some background and insights into how we develop the DotNetNuke product roadmap and also share the roadmap for DotNetNuke 5.1 Community and Professional Editions.

There is no shortage of features that existing DotNetNuke users would like to see added to the product. No matter what feature we add, there will be some users who question the addition of that feature over another that may have more importance to them. The best thing we can do is to gather input from as many constituencies as possible, and then prioritize based on strategic objectives and time/resource constraints.

In order to determine the roadmap for DotNetNuke, we use the following sources:

  • Site forums
     
  • Site roadmap
     
  • Enhancement requests logged in Gemini
     
  • Feedback from site forms and surveys
     
  • Feedback from DotNetNuke team volunteers
     
  • Feedback from customers (of both editions)
     
  • Feedback from customer prospects
     
  • Feedback from ISV’s, consultants and designers in our ecosystem
     
  • Feedback from ISV’s and consultants not in our ecosystem
     
  • Feedback from conference and user group attendees
     
  • Analysis of competitive landscape
     
  • Industry, market and technology trends
     
  • Feedback from experts in Open Source, WCM and enterprise software
     
  • Feedback from investors
     
  • Experience and intuition

After aggregating the resulting feature requests, we divide them into Community and Professional features.

Community features are those that broad segments of DotNetNuke users would find beneficial and would use on a regular basis. We review how the feature will impact the product’s usability, accessibility, security, performance, scalability, etc. We also evaluate the time and cost of implementing the feature and its strategic importance. All these factors determine if the feature is added to the product roadmap for the Community Edition.

Professional features are those that advanced business users of DotNetNuke would find beneficial and would be willing to pay for. These features are often easy to spot as their use is typically associated with the existence of advanced infrastructure, large site membership, high-traffic or mission critical applications, advanced security requirements or complex business processes. Also, features that would result in significant time savings and improved productivity when managing large sites are candidates. We evaluate the time, cost and return on investment of implementing the feature and its strategic and competitive importance before adding it to the product roadmap for Professional Edition.

Since Professional Edition was first announced, we have often heard comments or concerns about neglecting or withholding features from Community Edition to “force people to buy Professional Edition.” Let me share some insights to help mitigate these concerns:

  • Continued growth in the adoption of Community Edition is essential to the survival of DotNetNuke Corp. Open Source companies cease to exist if they don’t have a thriving community. Communities don’t thrive around products that are stagnant and not evolving or innovating. We want DotNetNuke Corp. to be successful, and therefore, ensuring the continued success of Community Edition is a strategic imperative for us.
     
  • We can’t put every feature with value only into Community Edition, nor can we put every feature with value only into Professional Edition. There is a middle ground and finding it is not an exact science. We have to balance our desire to have Community Edition adoption grow, with our need to build a sustainable, profitable business so we can pay our bills and continue to fund the project. The feature selection process outlined above, while subjective, is rational and driven by our prior experience nurturing the growth of this ecosystem.
     
  • If you happen to be one of those people with the concerns outlined above, do consider the roadmap for DotNetNuke 5.1 Community and Professional Edition below objectively. I trust that after reviewing the roadmap you will not be as concerned.

DotNetNuke 5.1 Roadmap

Now that you have some background and perspective, let’s review the roadmap for DotNetNuke 5.1.

Starting with 5.1 we are embarking on a multi-release, phased improvement of the DotNetNuke User Experience from the ground-up. Our vision is to implement a high degree of consistency, usability and fluidity to the DotNetNuke user experience by employing a pattern-based UI approach. We have created mock-ups of many such patterns, and as you can imagine, the task of implementing them is large with significant enhancements to the Core Framework Libraries and Core Extensions.

Given the nature of user interfaces, they have high complexity or interdependency and therefore are at a high risk of taking longer than planned. (In the roadmap grid below, some UX features have a gray background to indicate their risk of being excluded from the release or adversely impacting the release schedule.)

Another feature we will deliver in 5.1 is the often-requested Content Approval feature. We view this feature as separate and different from Workflow, which may involve complex business rules and processes. Since most “content” in DotNetNuke is managed using the Text/HTML module, we will implement the approval features in this module. Professional Edition users who have more involved Content Approval requirements can continue to use the Text/HTML module or derive additional benefit from the HTML Pro module, a more advanced version of the Text/HTML module that will be included in the Professional Edition package.

Here’s the roadmap feature grid for DotNetNuke 5.1:

Feature

Comment

Community

Professional

Content Management

Content Approval

- Single-stage content approval

- Select content approver roles at the site level

- Text/HTML module enhancement to support Content Approval

•

•

 

Content Approval and Versioning

- Multi-stage content approval

- Define stages and select content approver roles at the site level

- HTML Pro module to support multi-stage Content Approval

 

 

•

User Experience

Control Panel

Improvements in usability and appearance through tabbed, ribbon user interface

 

•

•

 

Advanced Control Panel

Add a page or edit common page settings directly from the Control Panel

 

 

•

 

Skin Objects

Skin objects code will be XHTML compliant

 

•

•

 

Action Panel Skin Object

An Action Panel Skin Object to provide a consistent way for exposing available actions to users

 

•

•

 

Management Console

Improve access and discoverability of administrative features by aggregating features into a Windows-style control panel

 

•

•

Analytics & SEO

Google Analytics Support

Support for injection of analytics tracking code on every page

 

•

•

 

Google Analytics for Marketing Support

Support for advanced Google Analytics segmentation based on role membership

 

 

•

 

Per-page Custom Sitemap Rank

Define the rank for each page for use in the Sitemap published to search engines.

 

•

•

Security

Change Audit

Last modified and full history audit trails

 

•

•

 

Extended Edit Permissions

Page, module and folder level permissions that extend existing Edit permissions

 

 

•

Scalability

Distributed Caching Provider

More efficient resource usage in large web farms

 

 

•

Stability

Application Integrity Checking

Checks files in the installation and reports any inconsistencies which may impact website reliability

 

 

•

Network Services

Health Monitoring

Pings the website periodically to identify failures and will notify the site owner. Also ensures the site stays in web server memory for faster user accessibility

 

 

•

 

Vulnerability Database (Basic)

Maintains a vulnerability database with basic information for each product version to easily identify potential issues

 

•

•

 

Vulnerability Database (Detailed)

Maintains a vulnerability database with detailed information for each product version to easily identify potential issues

 

 

•

Hopefully the information in this two-post series was helpful to you and answered more questions than it raised.

Posted by nik at 10:30 pm

DotNetNuke Business Model and Product Roadmap (Part 1 of 2)

Blog, DotNetNuke No Responses »
Apr 202009

Development of DotNetNuke 5.1 Community and Professional Editions is progressing at full speed. It took us quite a bit of time to analyze dependencies, evaluate resource availability, determine viability and clearly define scope. As a result, until now, we did not publish a roadmap for DNN 5.1. The lack of published and authoritative roadmap details and a general misunderstanding about our business model has caused some confusion in the community.

In this, the first of a two-part series, I will make an attempt to clear this confusion and bring clarity on two topics:

1) Our business model: I’ll explain our business model and how it underscores our commitment to Community Edition and the overall DotNetNuke ecosystem. This is the subject of my first post.

2) Product roadmap: I’ll review the research, planning and decision-making process on how the roadmap for both Community and Professional Editions is determined. Then I’ll outline the release 5.1 roadmap for both Community and Professional Editions. This is the subject of my second post.

Our business model

DotNetNuke Corp. has an “Open Core” business model. In plain English this means that our free, community product and our paid, commercial product have a common, free, Open Source Core. This begs the question, what exactly is the DotNetNuke Core?

The DotNetNuke Core refers to the base combination of DotNetNuke framework libraries and extensions required to have an operational DotNetNuke website. Any additional extensions included in the distribution, even if they are not enabled by default, are also considered Core extensions.

The Core thus consists of the DotNetNuke framework libraries; all providers; all administrative modules; all control panels; the Text/HTML module; the default skin/containers; all skin objects; and all widgets included in the DotNetNuke distribution.

Both Community and Professional Editions share this identical DotNetNuke Core, which is why our business model is called “Open Core.” Given this context, it is worth emphasizing the implications of this business model:

  • The Core is and will remain free and Open Source. This is essential for the continued success of DotNetNuke.
  • Any enhancements made to the Core framework libraries are ALWAYS available to both Community and Professional Editions.
  • Any enhancements made to any Core extensions are ALWAYS available to both Community and Professional Editions

On the topic of Core enhancements, there have been some questions about whether any will be made in the future. The answer is an emphatic “Yes!” This is clearly evident by reviewing the DNN 5.1 roadmap. Also consider that since 2006, over 95% of the Core development has been done by employees or consultants paid for by DotNetNuke Corp. Given the investment we have already made and the fact that the Core forms the foundation for both our products, continuing to invest in improving and enhancing it is the best decision for the company and the community.

Now, let’s examine each of the editions to understand how they are similar and different purely from a software standpoint.

The DotNetNuke Community Edition package includes the DotNetNuke Core and DotNetNuke Community Extensions developed and maintained by one of the many volunteer-based DotNetNuke Project teams. The result is a complete solution that is suitable for many different scenarios.

The DotNetNuke Professional Edition package includes the DotNetNuke Core, DotNetNuke Community Extensions and DotNetNuke Professional Extensions. The result is a complete solution that is suitable for mission-critical business scenarios where the desired level of performance or functionality is not achievable using only the Core or Community Extensions. In such situations, the user can purchase the desired extensions from a third-party, develop them in-house or opt for the convenience of getting a single package – DotNetNuke Professional Edition.

Let’s address the questions this raises:

Q: Why is it necessary for DotNetNuke Corp. to bundle its extensions into a separate package instead of making them available separately for purchase like other extensions made by third-party vendors?

A: Our target customer is a business that is looking for a fully-integrated, supported solution and not a build-your-own package. By offering a packaged solution, we address this need. A good analogy is the automotive industry. Consumers do not have the time, skills or resources to assemble a safe and reliable car even though parts are available. They prefer to buy a fully assembled, tested vehicle that has a warranty and which they can start driving immediately.

Q: Does this mean that DotNetNuke Corp. will no longer enhance any of the Core Extensions?

A: That is certainly not the case. Since we have an Open Core business model, we absolutely must continue to enhance the Core Extensions as they are vital to the continued success of both DotNetNuke Community Edition and DotNetNuke Professional Edition. For example, our roadmap for this year includes significant enhancements to the user experience of Core Extensions the scope of which is greater than any prior effort to improve DotNetNuke’s usability.

Q: What types of extensions will DotNetNuke Corp. include with Professional Edition?

A: In general, we will include extensions that are clearly of interest to larger, more mission-critical business. The feature areas will include advanced security, performance, commerce and scalability.

Q: Can third-parties build extensions for Community Edition that provide similar functionality to DotNetNuke Professional Extensions?

A: Of course. Since the DotNetNuke Professional Extensions leverage the extensibility built-into the DotNetNuke Core that is common to both editions, third-parties have an equal opportunity to build similar (or better) extensions. This is no different than what many third-parties are doing today given the vast number of extensions — free and commercial — already available to DNN users.

Q: Will source code for DotNetNuke Professional Extensions be included with Professional Edition?

A: No. Source code will not be distributed; however, it will be held in escrow for Professional Edition customers.

Q: Will DotNetNuke Professional Extensions ever be available in Community Edition?

A: Yes. In some cases we may choose to migrate specific extensions from Professional Edition to
Community Edition.

Q: Will third parties be able to build functionality on top of DotNetNuke Professional Extensions?

A: Yes. However, at this time there is no extensibility provided in DotNetNuke Professional Extensions. This does not stop ISVs from building product versions which are targeted at Professional Edition customers.

To summarize:

  • DotNetNuke Corp. has an Open Core business model
  • The DotNetNuke Core will continue to be enhanced, benefitting both Community Edition and Professional Edition users
  • DotNetNuke Community Edition is applicable to most usage scenarios
  • DotNetNuke Professional Edition is applicable to larger, more mission critical business environments

Hopefully this post answered many of the community’s questions about the DotNetNuke Corp. business model, specifically as it pertains to the similarities and differences between DotNetNuke Community and Professional Editions.

In my next post – DotNetNuke Business Model and Product Roadmap (Part 2 of 2) – I will provide some background and insights into how we develop the DotNetNuke product roadmap and also share the roadmap for DotNetNuke 5.1 Community and Professional Editions.

Posted by nik at 10:28 pm
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