I have been working with DNN since it was IBuySpy days and remember buying my first module to assist with the accessing of orders for a client when I created this little shopping portal - all because the client told me they wanted to manage the administration area themselves.  A natural progression to DotNetNuke was an easy choice.

When you talk about Business Standards, I look at DNN as being another tool to work with, but of course, an important one, in providing solutions for clients. I wrote a blog on my site recently  - You can read it HERE - (i've been so busy and not able to share as much information with the dnn community lately and I miss it) but I did cover some areas - Just because it's free, doesn't mean it's cheap.. or vice verca.

The issue we have and I am not sure that commercial applications have the same problems is that it is free, and that the perception of free, often means it isn't good, becuase we all know the saying - You get nothing for nothing.  DotNetNuke is exactly the same - what you invest in, whether you are selling this product, using it for your own purposes, or developing a solution, is time.. your time, time to learn how it works, what the limitations are, how it compares to other products, researching how to make something on a Non DNN site actually work in a DNN site... just to name a few.

For me I see very distinct markets - all my work is referral.  The only time I will start advertising again is to promote my subscriber site where I, along with other developers, have joined forces to bring together a few structure and uniform places to learn specific things about DNN to help newcomers overcome the hurdles we've had to jump to learn DNN.

While the learning curve for DNN, these days, I believe is much steeper than before (in spite of the books, in spite of the forums) it's the amount of scope DNN offers every individual that comes to this site, which helps fuel it's popularity.

The very unique aspect of being open source, leads to nervousness from many people making business decisions wondering about the cost of nothing.. What is the support, what happens 3 years down the track?  But what I'm seeing from developer's perspective is they take a specific build, and use that for a solution and it has a lifecycle with that client/project and any good developer wouldn't knowingly release a build that has flaws in it, and a good developer would more than likely pick these things up in the process and find solutions to most or decide if it was mission critical and make decisions based around that.

I've stuck through DNN, through the good times and bad times. It's hurt me financially at times, and put pressure on me to turn out jobs, which I simply wouldn't do, when the builds weren't there - because I'm not a developer, I wear the builds as they come out.. my clients have suffered too at times, due to projects running over time because there were issues withreleases or modules.  But I've never ever had a single complaint once the sites are running where the client didn't think it was worth it.  When you are in the midst of headache, challenges and troubles (which if it's taken 3 months to get something right -it hurts - I hear you, believe you and sympathise with you) there is nothing more satisfying than hearing from your happy clients. 

I am working with more and more people who are moving from cold fusion, php, joomla, xoops, drupal - and other cms products I've never heard of, some written by companies and then sold as boxed solutions.  And I ask them why are they moving.. and the common response has been - I took one look at it and thought it's fantastic, polished product, better than what I remember a few years ago.

Between my sites, I have around 60,000 users now - and the companies that are signing up for free skins - most likely the IT department, are big companies, I can assure you of that.. and it simply amazes me about the diversity of these companies from all around the world, who are trying DNN.

Will DNN have problems in the future - OF COURSE - it's like any software application - there will be good builds and bad builds, BUT, the quality of the builds is much better than ever, DNN has the support of what is possibly the largest software company in the world - by support I mean - they are acknowledging the value of what has been written and so I'm seeing Microsoft based companies incorporating DNN in their product and service range.

With the amount of talented developers I'm seeing here, the ideas that are coming out, the fact that Shaun Walker can be a Keynote speaker about DotNetNuke at an event like this - http://www.tulsatechfest.com/  is a testament to how far it has come.

I can only give you my perspective, based on a decision I made on Valentines day - 2004 - when skinning became a reality - I told my husband - I think this is it.. I think this is what I want to do in my career and DNN has rewarded me over and over again in ways that are important to me as a person, not just on the monetary side of things but the friendships around the world simply amazes me. 

I feel 100% confident in saying to anyone that DNN has started a technological revolution in creating a level playing ground for those who want an online presence.  I think it has shifted the thinking of big companies in how they develop applications and it has a strong future. 

But at the end of the day - nothing is free - you pay with money or time..

Nina Meiers