DotNetNuke, an open source web content management system built on Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) .NET platform, announced the purchase last week of social collaboration solution Active Modules (which had been built specifically to work in DotNetNuke).

It's somewhat unusual for an open source vendor to make a purchase in this fashion, although DNN has done so in the past. It was particularly telling that DNN chose a social component to invest in. Shaun Walker, CTO and founder at DotNetNuke said there are three major trends having an impact on content management today: Mobile, cloud and social. This purchase takes care of the social component.

"We believe in the future an organization's primary website will be the hub of its online presence. This central online hub will include both tight integration with the social web as well as onsite communities. This hub will be increasingly browsed using mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet computers and will increasingly leverage cloud computing in its various forms," Walker said.

He adds, "Our acquisition of Active Modules will significantly enhance the social collaboration features available in the DotNetNuke platform which will enable building onsite communities. The Active Modules technology also provides a foundation upon which we will build the next generation of solutions for organizations that wish to tightly integrate with the social web including sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn."

As the social web grows, having built-in social integration tools becomes increasingly important and that's why this deal makes a lot of sense for DotNetNuke, even if purchasing another company may seem counter-intuitive to the open source way of doing business.

For more information:
- see the DotNetNuke press release
- see Shaun Walker's blog post

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