I attended DNN’s first user conference in November 2011 in sunny Orlando, Florida. For those who aren’t familiar with DNN, it stands for DotNetNuke, which is an open-source content management system built on a .net framework. If you are like a lot of non-technical folks that I talk to on a daily basis you’re scratching your head right now and thinking what the heck does that mean? Let me break it down for you.
.Net is a programming model for building web applications. A content management system is a web application that allows organizations to easily manage all of their website’s content (think video, images, documents, links, brand messaging, etc.). Open source means the platform’s creator, Shaun Walker, released the platform including its source code to the community (community = IT geeks who like to tinker with new technologies in their free time). He did this hoping they would use it and improve upon his foundation which they did. In the fall of 2006 DNN Corporation was established as the steward of the DNN platform by its creator Shaun Walker and 3 others.
I only outline the history of DNN because for this blog post to make sense to those not familiar with DNN I need to go back in time and set the stage before I start my cautionary tale.
So from 2007 – 2011, I have slowly gotten to know the community of DNN users and the DNN Corp team. Since I am in Business Development, I don’t intimately use the platform, but I do encourage people to adopt the platform and have recently begun selling DNN’s Professional & Enterprise Edition (more on this in the next paragraph).
While at DNN World I saw many familiar faces including clients, other DNN partners and the DNN Corp team. It was great to see everyone. The conference kicked-off with Shaun Walker’s keynote. I was very impressed. Shaun was polished, the music was upbeat, the lighting was dramatic and the stage’s backdrop was ideal – clean, crisp and bright. Shaun spoke about the conference’s focus on Cloud, Mobile and Social (CMS – get it?) but he also spoke about DNN’s identity, DNN’s essence. He described it as Yin and Yang; both opposing forces yet both needing one another to be complete. The Yin and the Yang he was referring to are the two sides of DNN, the FREE community edition and the PAID professional edition. The community edition is free and supported by the community. The professional edition is sold as a paid license model. It offers some additional functionality and is supported by DNN Corp but also benefits from the community’s support. Shaun argued that while both are different models and seemingly opposing forces the Yin and the Yang of DNN’s model will, in fact, be the key to its success.
I think this went over well with attendees. For newbies it just made sense but for those old timers who have been around for 3-4 years it was the message they had been hearing from DNN’s founders for many years. Community is important and we will always support the community. This level of community commitment has been demonstrated over the years, as Shaun has rejected ideas that did not maintain the community model.
After the first 4 hours at the conference it occurred to me, DNN is growing up. They were organized, they were polished; the conference ran like a well-oiled machine I felt like a proud parent watching my child enter the business world. The only problem was something didn’t feel right. I couldn’t put my finger on it until I walked into lunch on the last day of the conference with Shaun and a handful of the DNN Corp team. I looked at the group of them and commented that they looked like a bunch of parochial school boys in their conference uniforms of khaki pants and white oxford DNN Corp shirts. And then it struck me, DNN was trying to grow-up too fast and they had lost some of their essence, their identity, their personality.
Shaun Walker has been the face of DNN since the beginning and Shaun is a badass (at least he dresses like one)! For those who have never met Shaun, he spikes his hair, wears a puka shell necklace and his daily uniform consists of a black t-shirt and camouflage shorts.
DNN Corp recognizes Shaun’s appeal and leveraged his look in the limited edition Shaun Walker Bobble Head which was given away to 50 lucky folks at the conference. (Malik Kahn from PointClick even jumped into the pool at night with his clothes on to win a Shaun Walker Bobble Head!) But, I’m worried that the badass Shaun will be reserved for the community, the Yin. From what I saw, the Yang, the enterprise Shaun and the rest of DNN Corp lacked some of that badass flair. Hey, I get it. You’re selling to the big dawgs now. You need to grow-up. But as you start to find your way, remember where you came from. I would argue that even the enterprise could use an injection of badass every now and then. DNN Corp stay true to your roots, DNN was built by a rebel with a cause. He is the face of the platform. Maybe next year at DNNWorld the team can wear khaki pants, white oxford DNN Corp shirts AND a puka shell necklace. Add a little Yin to your Yang – remember what Shaun said, the Yin AND the Yang will be the key to DNN’s success.
To view video, pictures, blogs, tweets, the Shaun Walker Bobble Head and the DNN conference uniform check-out http://www.dnnworld.r2ismash.com/
