BT is going to distribute and support both SugarCRM, the commercial open source CRM people, and its rival NetSuite, Larry Ellison's other company. Both companies are competing against salesforce.com, the brainchild of former Ellison lieutenant Marc Benioff, with on-demand CRM applications. No terms were disclosed. BT is supposed to go chase SMBs and divisions of large companies, targeting its roughly1.6 million business customers in the UK and EMEA with NetSuite's stuff.

Told ya Adobe was gonna reorganize and put its mobile/devices operation in with its platform operation in the name of moving to a single technology platform and runtime for PCs, handsets and consumer devices. Adobe's new CTO Kevin Lynch, the creator of AIR, is basically in charge of the whole magilla now. Gary Kovacs, VP of product management and marketing for the mobile and devices business, will be general manager of the unit, reporting to Lynch, replacing Al Ramadan, who is leaving.

Here is a question that I have been pondering on and off for quite a while: Why do 'cool kids' choose Ruby or PHP to build websites instead of Java? I have to admit that I do not have an answer. Why do I even care? Because I am a Java developer. Like many Java developers, I get along with Java well. Not only the language itself, but the development environments (Eclipse for example), step-by-step debugging helper, wide availability of libraries and code snippets, and the readily accessible information on almost any technical question I may have on Java via Google. Last but not least, I go to JavaOne and see 10,000 people that talk and walk just like me.

I want to thank everyone who showed up to share my enthusiasm for the iPhone as it is, what I believe, the mobile development platform to target. I also want to thank those people who tolerated my evasiveness and lack of detail during the SDK session. As I've said before, just because everybody else on the internet has no problem violating NDAs, when I click 'Agree', I know what I am agreeing to and I intend to stick to that agreement.

Acquia has yet to price its maintenance and support subscriptions - there should be a variety of SLAs - but they're supposed to include an electronic update notification system code named Spokes for updates that have been reviewed for security and compatibility and are supported by Acquia. Acquia is currently at 12 people, expecting to be 25 by the end of the year. Its Series A money comes from Northbridge Venture Partners, Sigma Partners and O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. According to Dries' blog, Drupal 7 should offer the ability to create, share and mashup managed content, letting Drupal be a data repository accessed by tools and web sites across the network.

Adobe earned $222.2 million, or 38 cents a share, up 21%, on record fourth-quarter revenues of $911.2 million, up 34% year-over-year, exceeding the company's revenue target of $860 million-$890 million. It attributed the results to Acrobat, its Creative Suite 3 products and momentum in its enterprise business. Creative Suite 3, which started coming out in April, includes upgrades to Photoshop, Illustrator and software acquired with Macromedia like Flash, Dreamweaver and Fireworks. On a non-GAAP basis Adobe earned 49 cents in Q4, a penny more than Wall Street expected.

In keeping with the longstanding SYS-CON tradition of being at the very forefront of software development with all its online and offline resources, SYS-CON Media & Events jointly today announced a double whammy, launching both 'Open Web Developer's Journal' (htt p://openweb.sys-con.com) and 'Open Web Developer Summit' (http://openweb.s ys-con.com) - to be held for the first time in New York City April 21-22, 2008.

Now that broadband is available to more than 100 million households worldwide, every corporate web site must provide video content on the Internet to remain competitive, as well as live and interactive video webinars and on-demand webcasts. Internet video has shifted programming into the hands of Web users instead of television viewers. Internet Video / Internet TV - or iTV for short - is wide open, it is global, and in true 'Web 2.0' spirit it is a direct-to-consumer opportunity. It is creating new business models, leveling the playing field for companies of all sizes, and developing a new, 21st-century video culture online.

thePlatform is an application service provider that offers Web-based media management and publishing tools that enable media and content providers to translate a single stream of content into different formats that can be delivered through different channels. It also performs digital rights management. By using thePlatform, media companies can easily create their own video sites as well as syndicate video to leading broadband and mobile destinations such as AOL, Apple iTunes Podcaster, AT&T, MSN, Sprint TV, Verizon Wireless, Yahoo, YouTube, and many others. While thePlatform leverages content delivery networks such as VitalStream or Akamai to actually stream the video content, it is a vital component of the solution that media companies deliver to their own customers. As such, its Web-based services must furnish a high level of performance.

WhiteBlox's Make Your Audio Visual platform allows radio stations to broadcast audio and video of live and on-demand programming over the Internet. When paired with Abacast's hybrid Peer-to-Peer video streaming technology, which provides a superior quality picture for a reduced price, stations now have a powerful new cost-effective way to reach audiences.

The Internet has made it increasingly easy for consumers to access content they want: a newly released movie, a sporting event taking place half-way around the world, or a YouTube video. Previously only available through TiVo and Slingbox consumers with Internet access now have on-demand access to any content on the Internet. While content is now easy to access it's not easy to transpose onto everyone's favorite display platform the big screen HD TV. During this session, we will discuss platform-agnostic solutions available today, and the simplicity of bringing Internet content to the masses.

TV producers, cable companies, consumer electronics companies and content providers need to understand that TV will never be the same. Giants will crumble and start ups will rise in this new TV 3.1 economy. This session will explain what the future of TV will look like and how content providers, content aggregators and consumer electronics companies must respond to remain.

As a pioneer in video search technology, blinkx has built a reputation as the most intuitive way to search new forms of online content such as video. With more than 200 partners and fourteen million hours of indexed video and audio content, including favorite TV moments, news clips, short documentaries, music videos, video blogs and more, blinkx uses advanced speech recognition technology to deliver results that are more accurate and reliable than standard metadata-based keyword searches. Chandratillake, founder of blinkx, is a technology innovator with over seven years of frontline experience. He has worked as a software developer for Morgan Stanley, netdecisions, and a start-up called anondesign, where he held numerous roles. After three successful years as the US CTO for Cambridge-based technology firm, Autonomy, Suranga founded blinkx.

Many new models of web broadcasting/programming as well as Internet TV companies by the dozens are cropping up all promising to be the next YouTube phenomenon. Ted Briscoe, CEO, Vibe Solutions Group (creator of Pyro.TV), will discuss the unique online video ecosystem that exists today and how publishers (TV, cable and niche Internet video) will benefit from online video syndicators and video aggregators. He will also discuss what sponsorship and advertising models will work. Briscoe is the former president and COO of AskJeeves.

Important items to consider when choosing video applications for your web site are quality and download speed. In order to meet viewer expectations for video set by HDTV, content providers must re-evaluate the way video is delivered. This session will discuss the next phase in the Internet video evolution: perfecting video quality and enabling long-form content. By offering long-form, HD-quality video, content providers can capitalize on the online video opportunity and increase customer satisfaction. Enhancing video quality is made simple with a new generation of backend technologies that are easy to deploy and use.

The movement towards Web TV programming gives content owners, organizations and marketers a whole new set of tools to explore interactive ways of engaging their audience. However, it also creates two core challenges: viewers are free to watch any program, any time; and these viewers have a low tolerance for traditional, scheduled commercial breaks. Companies now need to devise unobtrusive, highly targeted methods to monetize their audiences, creating mutually beneficial relationships between the consumer and the advertiser.

New models for successfully packaging and delivering video and Internet TV content packaged to today's busy consumer. What are the different business models and advertising strategies that will work, and why? In association, this session will offer an explanation of the convergence of mobile entertainment on the four screens ­ PC, TV, mobile phone and PMP; how to engage the consumer with TV and video content and keep them coming back for more when it's convenient for them (where and when they want it). The session will then round back to how everyone can win: content providers, advertisers, and ultimately, the consumer.

From traditional media embracing social media in a new digital world, to how independent filmmakers and artists can take advantage of a safe environment (all of VMIX's content is screened by human screeners for copyright infringement violations) to build a network and a brand online, VMIX can look at the broad range of film, music, and digital media backgrounds needed to make this social media happen.

'We wanted to reward people for the role they played in sharing and promoting video legally on the Web. blinkx's new AdHoc widget enables Internet users to monetize the video they choose to embed on their webpages and blogs quickly and easily,' said Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO of blinkx and a speaker at SYS-CON Events' upcoming iTVCon - Internet TV Conference & Expo 2007, as he today announced unique technology to remunerate consumers who have embedded video clips into their blogs or webpages.

'The industry is ready for the next major leap in the evolution of internet TV,' said Jeremy Allaire, Chairman and CEO of Brightcove, 'and that is seamlessly extending from short video clips on sites into full-length programs and movies delivered via the internet to PCs.' Allaire was speaking as Brightcove announced that it is teaming up with BitTorrent to distribute full-screen video using the latest version of Adobe Flash.