07/24/2008

Jaspersoft Corporation announced the open beta of its new JasperForge, a community platform that will support the open source BI community with tools that meet the needs of all community stakeholders – from developers to business users.

ebizQ received the following:

Open source communities are changing and the Forges that support them need to evolve as well. No longer are Forges simply platforms for collaborating on software development. Evolving patterns of open source adoption have brought a new class of users to these platforms, representing diverse needs that reflect their disparate backgrounds.

With millions of downloads, tens of thousands of registered members and hundreds of JasperForge projects, the Jaspersoft open source community is one of the largest in the world and has been on the front lines as requirements have changed. Jaspersoft’s original Forge was announced two years ago this month, over which time its community has grown more than ten-fold.

“It is our top priority to foster collaboration and support the Jaspersoft community – both the software developers and the increasing number of business users looking to share and build projects,” said Brian Gentile, CEO of Jaspersoft. “Our business intelligence focus puts us close to the business users as well as to the developers looking to embed BI into their commercial and IT applications. By working with these constituents, we’re able to build a Forge to support all members of this highly diversified community.”

JasperForge uses EssentiaESP, a breakthrough community engagement platform developed by Essentia. Essentia is a leader in next-generation platforms and services for online communities and commerce and today is announcing details about its offering.

Jaspersoft and Essentia together will present “Delivering a Next-Generation Community Platform” at OSCON on Thursday, July 24 at 2:35 p.m. PT.

“We are very pleased to be partnering with Jaspersoft to define the standard for a new generation of community forges,” said Gopi Ganapathy, president and CEO of Essentia. “Jaspersoft manages one of the largest and most mature open source communities in software today, representing every potential requirement for a Forge.”

The new JasperForge uses a social networking approach to provide an intuitive experience that makes it easier than ever for users to join or start a project, interact with the community around it, and move that project forward. By working with Essentia, Jaspersoft is able to take advantage of distinct collaborative development, communications and social networking tools that enable discussions, tagging, surveys, wikis, news, blogs, mailing lists and more. Advanced banners, e-commerce and dynamic cataloging are also built into the new forge.

Among the most significant new features:

Personalized experience with enhanced MyPages. Wikis, karma points, monitoring, and customizable home pages are just handful of the new features and options from which users can pick and choose to build their own projects.

Ecosystem Enablement. To enhance the network effect of the new Jaspersoft community, including customers and partners, members can use built-in tools and project space, or easily link projects, tools, or artifacts directly from the new JasperForge via an exclusive new Ecosystem Enablement feature. With Ecosystem Enablement, users can loosely couple internal projects with outside partners, the open source community of contributors and reviewers, business partners, and suppliers – all within the same community and ecosystem.

Rich Content Management is now extended to every user, every tool and every page in the new JasperForge. This capability ensures that Jaspersoft delivers a consistent, sophisticated and modern user experience to all community members and visitors.