Flash developers go real-time

Hemlock, a new open source framework for building real-time Web apps in Flash with an XMPP back-end has been released by MintDigital, a development shop with offices in London and New York, reports ReadWriteWeb.

Real-time apps that use efficient methods of communicating information between the browser and the server are all the rage these days and now Flash developers will have an easy way to get in the game.

Hemlock joins services like Notify.me, Urban Airship and others in offering developers a way to get hip to the real-time, just like the big guys at Facebook and Twitter.

According to new data from Forrester Research, businesses in North America and Europe remain broadly worried about the security of open source software, reports InfoWorld.

Some 58% of the large companies surveyed say they have security concerns about open source, while the figure for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are slightly higher, at about two-thirds.

Within those groups, only 9% of enterprises say that they were "very concerned," compared with 45% for the SMEs.

KnowledgeTree, an open source document management system for the enterprise, has a new release featuring some small but significant updates to their software, reports ReadWriteWeb.

In the 3.6.1 version recently released, KnowledgeTree has ramped up their alerts feature with specification by document type, and added configurable electronic signatures, easing the burden of regulatory compliance.

KnowledgeTree has also released the first edition of a Microsoft Office add-in, increasing its ability to compete with Microsoft SharePoint and other open source alternatives.