Background

We love Open Source. The incredible power and speed of crowdsourced software development have an impact on each contributing individual. We have something in common: Each open source content management system (OS-CSS) is eager to to enhance its capabilities, to expand its community and to increase the number of implementations. Some people think we are competitors. This might be true if you look at it that way.

But the real competition are the marketing and sales forces of proprietary software. They may promise you the moon, and when it comes to security and performance topics, it is hard to proof them wrong. Open Source software, in contrary, can only promise the truth. (For to prove them wrong, you have all information at hand.) Thus, honesty and self-criticism are major features of each open source community. Sounds very likeable, doesn't it?

There are uncounted initiatives to enthuse people for one or another of the participating CMS. Most of them focussing on the playgrounds where they already have reputation. But when it comes to "going where the decision-makers are", volunteers and sponsors have to spend a lot of time and money into projects like trade fair presentations. Furthermore, decision-makers never had a chance to really compare the pros and cons of their favored candidates. If they were lucky, they found one or two of their options at one event. This lead to "choosing the best of the rest". If the chosen system in fact was not really suitable for the given use case, it was a risk for the reputation of that CMS.

We wanted to change that. We know that any OS-CSS "on the market" has its specific benefits and disadvantages for certain use cases. It might be the perfect choice for a governmental platform but a disaster for a business showcase. Giving the audience a chance for a perfect choice means to gather the relevant CMS and have them presented in one place. This is how CMS Garden evolved.

The name

Open source is like a garden. The individuals are unconventional and often colorful, yes even "green-minded". They respect each other, allow for the development of individual projects. Depending on their growth capabilities, some plants may dominate others. But as long as a plant has a certain strength in itself, there's always a corner where it will flourish and seed. "CMS Garden" is perfectly suitable for this project. Maybe not a French Renaissance Garden, but definitely a Community Garden.

The objectives

Now, what do they want? Does the world really need yet another open source project?

Our main objectives are:

• show capabilities of open source CMS
• present respectable alternatives to closed-source software
• support decision-makers
• learn from each other

Decide for yourself, if these are relevant tasks that should be taken care of. We are positive.