Last year saw the likes of Drupal, WordPress, Plone and ImpressCMS in the winner’s circle and this year promises to be even better. New categories and new names are sure to impress surprise and hopefully delight.

Nominations begin today, August 9, 2010 for the Open Source Awards.

Some New, Some Old Open Source Categories

• Open Source CMS
• Hall of Fame CMS
• Most Promising Open Source Project
• Open Source E-Commerce Applications
• Open Source JavaScript Libraries
• Open Source Graphics Software

Look for big things from the “Most Promising Open Source Project,” this could spell future trends in the industry. Don’t overlook the other new categories such as Open Source E-Commerce Applications and Graphics Software, though, which simply add to an already prestigious award.

Predictions

Look for Drupal, Joomla and WordPress to dominate much of the Open Source CMS portion of the awards, but others such as ImpressCMS, Plone, and possibly even Magnolia may show their worth as well (much the same as last year).

Magento and ZenCart are likely to be mentioned at least in the E-Commerce category, while Gimp is sure to show up in the Graphics Software category.

Whether any of these predictions are correct will have to wait to be seen. One thing is for certain though, this year promises to be the biggest and hopefully the best Open Source Awards from PacktPublishing to date. Stay tuned to see if predictions are accurate and if your favorite Open Source project makes the list.

Timeline of the Awards

• August 9 | Nominations Open
• September 17 | Nominations Close
• September 27 | Voting Begins
• November 5 | Voting Ends
• November 15 | Winners Announced

Check out PacktPub for more information on rules and prizes.

Drupal once again tops the Best Open Source PHP CMS category which they won in 2008 as well.  Filling in the other top two spots for Best Open Source PHP were new comer to the list WordPress which started as a blogging platform but has come full circle as a wonderful PHP-based CMS and Joomla who is no stranger to the list.  Drupal walks away with $2000 and the other two will receive $500 each.

In the Most Promising Open Source CMS we have ImpressCMS toping the list, which beats their tie with MiaCMS for the final spot on the list last year.  Pixie takes the runner-up spot as a “small, simple” CMS and Pligg brings up the rear.  Pligg and Pixie are making the list for the first time this year.  ImpressCMS will receive $2000 and the other two will receive $1000 each to aid their efforts.

Two more categories remain for this year’s Open Source CMS Awards from PacktPub.com.  They are Best Overall Open Source CMS and the Hall of Fame award.  Will Drupal again take the coveted Best Overall spot or will a new comer unseat them and force them to retire in the Hall of Fame?  We’ll see Friday.

Plone once again has taken the first place prize as PacktPub’s 2009 Best Other Open Source CMS. The Plone has been around for about 8 years now and for two years running has won first place in the Open Source CMS Awards. Python + Zope system allows non-developers the ease of maintaining and administrating a website and talks to nearly any database. The first place spot carries a $2000 prize with it as well.

Other winners in the Best Other Open Source CMS category are dotCMS in the first runner up place with a prize of $500 and MojoPortal in second place with a $500 prize. Congratulations to this year’s winners in the Best Other Open Source CMS. Other category winners to be announced this week as well so check back for daily announcements through the week.

According to Geoff Spick at CMSWire.com, CushyCMS has added multilanguage support, XML editing features, a new WYSIWYG and more.  But are the changes enough to keep Cushy ahead of others like Surreal or Clover?

Read more Cushy news here…