thoughts on open-source for i-together

A couple of thoughts on using open-source as a model for the i-together software platform:

1) a shared-source model where only the core code is open-source could divide up between server and client side quite nicely, so that the CMS/SocialNetworkMS/search "engine" is open-source but the innovative UI belongs to i-together, which could then potentially license bespoke versions. Given that we may end up using the proprietary Flash to make the UI (but could as readily construct the back-end with open-source as proprietary tools), that could make sense in terms of the technologies, too. Remember also that organisations could implement their own, perhaps html-based UI if they wished.

2) we may well be able to adapt components from open-source CMSs like Zope and Drupal to our own uses, saving massive amounts of time and effort (although whether or not this is viable, given that these systems drive html-based interfaces and we will need to serve up XML for our Rich Internet Application UI, is beyond my expertise).