Yes, I’ve been a bit preoccupied since Labor Day. Here’s what’s up:

For some years, I’ve been favoring the open-source Joomla content management system (and to a lesser extent Drupal) as the framework for everything from simple to sophisticated Web site implementations. I’ve largely favored Joomla because the proliferation of reliable and robust extensions provides a usually instant solution for just about any feature my clients require, and the security is robust.

I’ve been kicking the tires on a recently developed content management system called MODX. As you would expect for a relatively new CMS, there are only a fraction of available add-ons when compared to Joomla, but the system’s security is impressive and it’s far easier to develop, implement, and even modify add-ons. I’ve created only one site for a client using MODX – the learning curve was relatively fast, installation was reasonable easy, and customization was a breeze. Consider MODX a part of my arsenal.

And I’m starting to roll out a major commercial product I developed as a direct result of writing a cataloging program for my own recordings: Musicjoom, a module that extends Joomla’s superb K2 cataloging/community extensions. Musicjoom allows record companies and distributors to deploy a catalog that includes full track information, musical samples, videos, and all sorts of other bells and whistles suited to music consumers and b-to-b users (including virtual communities), with or without a direct e-commerce component. Musicjoom will be rolled out sometime around MIDEM week in early 2012.

Now you know why I’ve been so busy for the last couple months.