There is a content management system written in Java. It, at one time, was used to manage the websites of a huge newspaper chain. It is open source. It is free to use and deploy. It’s time tested. It performs. It’s users were happy, contented, and wanted more.

The newspapers migrated to a new version of the software, leaving this version as is. It has no dedicated staff, except for one who has a mandate to work on the project in his spare time.

That project is Cofax, and I am the one with the mandate. I need help.

I believe the project is worth maintaining and growing. Even with features a year old it is still competitive. But I need some help.

First – if fellow Java weblogers can download the software (CVS version please) and run it thru it’s paces and give me feedback – that would be an awesome start.

In particular – authors of weblogging tools – Cofax has the capacity to do weblogging but does not have a toolset per-se. It can do it – and was used for managing a very popular weblog before migration to the new platform. But I don’t want to see new weblogging tools built into it. I’d rather see Cofax interoperate with a pre-existing system. That way – we help each other out in the ecosystem.

Things that I know must happen for the project to do better: