I REALLY like what Curt Hibbs is focusing upon. I'm also aware of the approach of Jeffrey Veen with CMS (Jeffrey's personal site is here) and the folks at Adaptive Path. And, if you are developing this PLEASE SEND me an e-mail to discuss how much I will pay you... ;-)

I've been earnestly seeking to develop a deep understanding of the next generation of interactive development in order to launch a new online business. One where I'm able to play a part in an ever evolving site design way beyond Dreamweaver's approach, even reaching into the future past the capabilities of currently available Open Source Content Management Systems.

What I'm beginning to realize is that my need for this interactive development process doesn't exist the way I see the future unfolding. What's freaky, is that what I need should be completely common to nearly everyone like me who is way techno savvy, but not a coder. You see, I'd like to build an online community with an open source type product where information is easily published by the group and moderated by admin status. This is the idea with most CMS (Content Management Systems), with unique and customizable themes/skins, one factor that is stopping everything is the easily integrated e-commerce package... (that and the fact that most CMSs simply look like hell, are not easily reskinned and are a bear to work with or make changes if you don't code, and are NOT intuitive, simple or designed with HCI GUI understanding.

I get WEB2.0, or the semantic web, or communities of practice, or social networking, or whatever you want to call what everyone else soon will figure out is the future of interactivity. The problem is after nearly 4-years of working with this stuff extensively, I have yet to FIND the correct one stop shop (consultants) and open source solution. I think www.Bryght.com and CivicSpaceLabs.org with www.Drupal.org are on the right track. But without ecommerce support there is a huge disconnect.

After a good deal of reading, I'm just about convinced that this solution smells like AJAX, with hints of RUBY ON RAILS, a pinch of Drupal & Gallery, with some serious pluggable e-commerce thrown in as the glue to make some coinage. Quite frankly I feel that blogging is about to take on an entirely new realization, much faster than it initially took off, and that is a good blog is a TON of work, with little to no reward (at least in my personal experience), and unless someone comes along and designs a product to HELP bloggers make money (selling whatever tangable or intangable) they quickly loose their luster.

I really really like what Jason C. and Rafat Ali have done with their business models. Yet, I'm sure most bloggers are like me and have not received any job offers, or have paid advertisers on board allowing a full time comitment to this blog effort. In addition, my blog has not really introduced me to others to bring about an increase in partnership or revenue. Bottom line, it's VERY difficult to make any money blogging, and most people don't really reach outside their own circle of influence. Getting money from blogging would ultimately create a huge form of incentive for blogging to reach the next level (which I would love to do). Hence, my need for an integrated open source package with an e-commerce module allowing me to work some sort of product into my online community... Does any of this make sense to anyone else?

To conclude: I want to be able to build then customize (on a whim) my own online community, where members can publish their thoughts and add to WIKIs and upload tons of digital photos, audio, videos, podcasts, etc.; where I can easily upload product photos/descriptions to sell to the membership, but also to non-members. Good design revolves around community, commerce, and content...yes, but who has designed this open source product? Am I just dreaming of the future? Anyone?

If you have any thoughts on my QUEST for the ultimate Ruby - AJAX, social software, open source, ecommerce package along with the consulting/design/development agency that knows it all inside out while providing amazing not of this world support and service through an 800 number 24x7 support hotline, please let me know!... Or, can you point me in the right direction? Interesting article listed below.
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Ajax on Rails
by Curt Hibbs
06/09/2005

In a few short months, Ajax has moved from an obscure and rarely used technology to the hottest thing since sliced bread. This article introduces the incredibly easy-to-use Ajax support that is part of the Ruby on Rails web application framework. This is not a step-by-step tutorial, and I assume that you know a little bit about how to organize and construct a Rails web application. If you need a quick refresher, check out Rolling with Ruby on Rails, Part 1 and Part 2.

Just in case you've been stranded on a faraway island for most of the year, here's the history of Ajax in 60 seconds or less.

In the beginning, there was the World Wide Web. Compared with desktop applications, web applications were slow and clunky. People liked web applications anyway because they were conveniently available from anywhere, on any computer that had a browser. Then Microsoft created XMLHttpRequest in Internet Explorer 5, which let browser-side JavaScript communicate with the web server in the background without requiring the browser to display a new web page. That made it possible to develop more fluid and responsive web applications. Mozilla soon implemented XMLHttpRequest in its browsers, as did Apple (in the Safari browser) and Opera.