The open source community is currently driving in the passing lane on the Autobahn, but the popular open source content management system Typo3 has slowed down. The recent major release, version 4, dates back to April 2006, the Danish project founder Kasper Skårhøj has virtually left the project and the most recent news on typo3.com dates back to October 2008. What’s going on?
It might simply be a sign of adolescence that Typo3 is as slow moving as Microsoft in the Web CMS space. Still, compared to other open source projects, e.g Drupal or Umbraco, the rate of innovation at Typo3 is far from impressive. Version 5, the next major release, has been under development for several years. Initially, the plans were to boldly drop backwards-compatibility, but since then the plans have been changed. In October 2008 a so-called Berlin Manifesto was released, which clarified the future of v4 and v5. In the Manifesto, the Typo3 Core Team promised a few things, most notably:
- Version 4 development will continue after the the release of version 5
- Migration of content from version 4 to version 5 will be easily possible
- Version 5 will introduce many new concepts and ideas.
While version 5 has been in the works, Kasper Skårhøj, the original initiator of Typo3 back in 1997, has slowly been transitioning out of the project. Kasper was at cmf2005 when the Typo3 Association was still newly founded, but since then the Danish “King of Typo3″ has abdicated. Typo3 has been most successful in Germany and today the version 5 development team is exclusively German. If the community is indeed sustainable, Kasper’s departure should be healthy news, but in comparison, both Plone and Umbraco still benefit from very active founders.
As I recently wrote in the obituary for HyperContent, a dying open source CMS, it is never good for a community when nothing happens. While typo3.com shows little news, you can find more announcements on the developer pages on typo3.org and you’ll find even more activity if you follow the Typo3 mailing lists. If you speak German, the German mailing list has more activity than the English mailing list, but interestingly, CMS Watch recently highlighted Typo3 as a part of a third wave of European Web CMS vendors hitting North America.
In our community of practice, Typo3 has a reputation for being a good solution for small to midscale websites. Usually cheap to implement, although there are a few missing or broken features, e.g search, which will either require an extension or a third-party module. Typo3 does not get high marks for usability, but it is stable and it works. Just like a solid German car.
What’s your take on the future of Typo3?
Volker June 9th, 2009 10:01
Well – I do not fully understand the link between usability and “like a solid German car” – do German cars have bad usability?! But what happens then to the usability of Russian cars when Opel will save their day? – Ok, that is another story…
With your Typo3 thoughts I generally agree.
But what you missed in your article is the fact, that there are a lot of web agencies and many consultants who offer typo3 support (at least in Austria and Germany). If I enter “Typo3 Wien” in Google, I get 194.000 results and a lot of adwords – most entries from consultants offering Typo3 know how. If I do the same thing with other vendors – even open source vendors – I get less results.
This is a main competitive advantage of Typo3 even if they currently lack in showing product improvements.
Paul June 9th, 2009 10:01
The extension repository which I see as the real power of Typo3 seems as active as ever. Yesterday, for example, 9 new or updated extensions were uploaed, which is pretty much the average for most days. Also, if you subscribe to Kasper’s Podcast you can get a real feel that the community is active and dynamic with Developer Days, Typo3 Conferences, the TypoTycoon partner project to name but a few.
Dmitry Dulepov June 9th, 2009 10:01
I will not post here because I replied to this article in the TYPO3 mailing list. Basically all the facts in this article are incorrect (check, for example, latest news at http://news.typo3.org/)
Zach Davis June 9th, 2009 10:01
Not to mention the fact that FLOW Alpha 1 was released a few days ago, TYPO3 had it’s first North American conference a few months ago in Dallas, and the fact that each of the major 4.x releases has contained quite a bit of new functionality – it’s hardly fair to classify them as minor releases.
-ZD
Virgil Huston June 9th, 2009 10:01
While I will respond in much more detail on the TYPO3-English list discussion that you started when you posted the link to this blog article, I will say for your reader’s sakes that you get almost everything wrong. A few minor details are correct, but one if the positive things about the long term future growth and viability of any open source project is when the original developer (Kasper) can step away and things continue on as if he never left (and he is still very involved, but in a different way). I have no idea where you got some of your information, but you need to look a lot deeper to find the truth.
I also plan to blog about that CMSWatch press release about third wave. They got that completely wrong for both TYPO3 and Drupal. You can not trust CMSWatch for objective reporting about free open source projects, in my opinion, and they do solutions like TYPO3 a great disservice as they are regarded as an authority source.
Cheers,
Virgil
Gregory June 9th, 2009 10:01
I agree with Paul and think it was a smart move to not boldly drop backwards-compatibility. The extension repository may be to large and active to make a rapid transition to 5.0 and ignoring backwards-compatibility most likely would have put a lot of stress on extension developers and their existing clients. The slow and steady development approach TYPO3 core developers are taking in backporting features from FLOW3 into the current 4.x version gives some of us more time to adjust and adapt.
Johan Berkman June 9th, 2009 10:01
Well, if you want to make a comparison…
With the recent developments in the American car industry a solid German car with nice Danish industrial design isn’t so bad at all and profitable at the same time.
I would prefer a more recent picture as it would make a better comparison with TYPO3 as a very modern, high end and enterprise level content management system.
At TYPOTYCOON we have a very vivid partner network with partners worldwide, working on the largest possible websites.
Johan Berkman
http://www.typotycoon.com
Infield June 9th, 2009 10:01
I think it testimony to the health of TYPO3 that you managed to piss off so many people so quickly with this poorly researched post.
Troels Kjær Rasmussen June 9th, 2009 10:01
I think your conclusions visualize what has always been one of the biggest issues of the TYPO3 community.
The projects level of marketing and communicationefforts have always had a low priority compared to related projects like the ones menitioned. Attempts have been made, particularly by the leaders of the project, but it has often ended up in a diversity of channels, which quickly dry up.
However I think that the level of commercial efforts based on the consolidated platform(v4) is as big as ever. Drupal and others mentioned are still thriving from and drawing a lot of the type of attention TYPO3 got back in the earlier days when it was community-driven. Being a “feature complete” system, the activity around v4 four is far more commercially focused than communitydriven at this point and, as others stated, focused on applcationdevelopment based on V4.
The communitydriven focus on the other hand is naturally switching to efforts on the v5 generation. Unlike systems like Drupal, Joomla and Umbracco (a needless comparisson BTW, this system hardly qualifies amongst the others) the TYPO3 community, most likely due to the longterm experiences both commercially and as a community with TYPO3, have realized that the future requires CMS´s build on far stronger frameworks, designpatterns a.s.o in order to accomodate the future needs for rich webplatforms.
My guess is that within a few years an orbituary for CMS systems as webplatforms (Drupal, Joomla a.s.o) is more suitable, whilst webplatforms/frameworks like TYPO3 v5 (FLOW3), CakePHP, Symphony a.s.o who in their nature, architecture and design are ready to accomodate complex needs of the future will prevail.
The king is dead…hail the new king!
Best regards!
Kian Gould June 9th, 2009 10:01
Just my 5 Cents:
There is currently a new TYPO3.org relaunch in the makings. The old site has not been updated, because everyone in the community has been so busy doing other things. The project is still one of the most active OS communities in the world and in central Europe TYPO3 has no close to no competition in the OS sector.
Timothy Brennan, Jr. June 10th, 2009 10:01
As a non-technical and a non-programmer, I have tried to be very careful in my assessment of TYPO3. I tested it, and worked on and off with it for many years. I find it amusing how you have brought up these ideas, but that is also a good thing as it has brought out replies that help nontechies like me to get deeper into the subject.
). BTW, I am not German.
One of the attractions for me is the very fact that Germans are the main developers. Even here in Brazil Germans are known for their high standards and incontestible quality. Just that fact right there attracted me to TYPO3 (nothing against other nationalities
TYPO3’s core developers are mostly european which to me, twice American (US and Brazil) promises a lot for the future.
Last but not least is that although it may not appear to fit the bill for some market concepts (again I am a layman) the whole concept of keeping the TYPO3 ready for the future would require much more time, effort, and planning on the core team’s part than most other quick and dirty projects would. I also see that TYPO3 attracts large businesses and some very serious enterprises. Gigantic corporations work on a very different vision than a regular end-user or small company would. For some users a simple Joomla instalation would work, but TYPO3 has been developed for some VERY different ideas than most CMSs out there are. I see in TYPO3 a very strong an long-lasting future and that is why I have taken a recent stand to use it as my CMS.
I think all of the other comments may help in assessing the situation a little better. Watch the podcasts, there are currently 125 of them.
The very first one gives a good overview of how TYPO3 evolved over the years. It is the spirito of community, friendship and fellowship that is the main structure of TYPO3.
See you around cyberspace,
Tim
Hans Olthoff June 10th, 2009 10:01
In general TYPO3 is one of the top level cms, but however we can improve on marketing and fundraising. If I compare it to the networking market a few years ago Novell had a market penetration around 70% and then Microsoft came along with the Windows server, while Novell still being the better product. The rest is history.
An answer to that is the partner network of TYPOTYCOON where we join forces and work together on marketing, fundraising and share knowledge.
Hans Olthoff
Janus Boye June 10th, 2009 10:01
Thank you very much for the many comments and constructive feedback.
Here’s what I’ve learned so far:
* A relaunch of typo3.org is on its way
* General consensus is that the Typo3 Association has not been very good at marketing
* Typo3 has been improved since the release of version 4
* If you write something that might be interpreted as criticism of Typo3, be prepared for a few personal attacks in your inbox
* If you spell Typo3 like I do and not in all caps, you’ll make some more people unhappy
I’m not going to advice the Typo3 community what to do, but wish everybody good luck with their projects!
Jan Kaya-Mortensen (CEO) June 10th, 2009 10:01
First of all – Thank you Janus for the Blogg – nice to have some debate!
TYPO3 needs Marketing – clearly Janus Boyes Blogg reveals this soft spot!
This Blog and the responses make no doubt – TYPO3 needs to communicate.
TYPO3 is filled with life – we know that – but they don’t know that.
That is a problem – we need to solve it – Marketing is one solution.
TYPO3 has uniqueness and FORM:
Flexibility
Primary Focus is on the engine, extension building and so forth, thus providing a top-flexible Enterprise CMS that ensures the demands of today and the future.
Remember TYPO3 is customized to customer’s needs – not the other way.
Opportunity
The world has opened their eyes, creating a Global environment of possibilities. Technical inputs and implementations will increase, and along with this agencies, in turn providing more suppliers, security and flexibility for the customer.
Reliability
Inspiring people to share has provided a Community with more than 20.000 registered developers who with their heart and soul provide contributions. http://typo3.dk/index.php?id=9
This impressive and growing list of developers combined with the TYPO3.ORG structure grants a high reliability for maintenance and innovation regardless of the version.
Maturity
Lessons have been learned since the release in 1998, and this knowledge is passed on to secure a strong future foundation.
We have proven survival of the fittest and the development of version 5 provides even more proof of a Community filled with energy and knowledge to stay alive.
Imagine what the future looks like when you combine the High Class German structural craftsmanship with the Creativity and mindset of other cultures.
Kasper Skårhøj started it all and his technical vision and firm belief in People reaching out for each-other and sharing has proven correct.
Kaspers visionary abilities are once again correct – the wisdom has been passed on to the next generation – it is time to let go and observe.
Jasper June 11th, 2009 10:01
Recent research made clear that TYPO3 is most feared Open Source CMS bij competitors in the Netherlands. So we’re on the right track. Better more time in development, then in marketing. Let the agencies (like us) do the marketing….
Ciao,
Jasper
http://www.redkiwi.nl
Michael Cannon June 15th, 2009 10:01
I’ve been involved quite a bit with TYPO3 since May 2003 and still firmly believe TYPO3 is the strongest open source PHP web content management system there is.
It’s very true that while active, get into your face direct marketing of TYPO3 doesn’t happen much, there is fund raising going on now to hire a full-time marketer or firm to implement a marketing plan written by the top guy in open source marketing.
To truly see the pulse of TYPO3 of which there’s easily a 100 tweets and several blogs written a day, visit support.typo3.org.
Francisco Cifuentes June 17th, 2009 10:01
I think that this post has been created only for argue, and is a view point very away of the reality.
M Dillenbeck August 3rd, 2009 10:01
As a person looking into TYPO3 with little knowledge about it, the post and responses hold two disappointments:
1) That those who responded to the post’s inaccuracies sent the details to the mailing list – something I am not a current subscriber to. I have no way to verify that the original post is erroneous because you deem it better to keep your comments in “private”.
2) That the author’s response made no mention of detailed inaccuracies but to personal attacks via email.
Who am I to believe? Did the replies help me make any conclusions about TYPO3? No. Either the responders are trying to deceive me and there is no further details to offer because there are no additional inaccuracies, or the original author is trying to deceive me by not mentioning inaccuracies and correcting them.
Overall, disappointing. I can only say there is a lot a buzz about Joomla and Drupal, but the TYPO3 info seems more phantasmal to find on the internet (beyond TYPO3’s web site/mailing lists). However, I will keep searching for current information rather than outdated information from 2006 from 3rd parties…
» Aarhus University selects Typo3 - J. Boye » Blog October 9th, 2009 10:01
[...] previously compared Typo3 to a solid German car, which resulted in many constructive comments; partly because it publicly asked about the future of [...]