Open-Xchange, released a comprehensive feature update for the community edition of Open-Xchange Server -- adding more than 100 improvements in the usability and integration capabilities of the leading open source collaboration software and released the core content under a Creative Commons Deed.

Open-Xchange Server 0.8.2 provides key messaging functions like email, calendaring, contacts and task management -- fully integrated with advanced groupware features such as document sharing, project tracking, user forums, and a knowledge base. Open-Xchange Server 0.8.2 offers major productivity improvements through object “linking’ and ‘permissioning’ and works with all common web browsers.

“Open-Xchange appreciates the help and support of its community and is giving something back," said Dan Kusnetzky, executive vice president Marketing Strategy for Open-Xchange. "The Open-Xchange community edition 0.8.2 is giving community members the enhancements found in Service Pack 1 for the commercial version of Open-Xchange Server.”

The combination of the Free Software Foundation’s GPL and the Creative Commons Organization’s Creative Commons Deed allows Open-Xchange, Inc. to share both the Open-Xchange Server content and the source code with the community. The icons, menus and other copyrighted content that makes up the community edition of Open-Xchange server is now being made available through a Creative Commons Deed.

Upgrades include:

*GUI and usability enhancements for Contacts and Calendar including new Calendar look-and-feel, customizable layout for contact lists *Optimized Outlook Support for public and shared folders, MySQL support
*Enhanced interfaces for both Voice over IP and Text over IP applications including Skype
*Optimized SyncML support allowing any SyncML enabled device or handheld to share information with Open-Xchange
*Extended search capabilities allowing users search across all Open-Xchange modules
*Improved visualization of projects in the project management module — including GANTT chart support
*Distributed Mail Server Support providing higher levels of availability and better performance
*Enhanced directory service integration making it easier for Open-Xchange to take part in established organizational networks
*iCAL improvements allowing calendar synchronization with most iCAL enabled calendar management systems.
*RSS feed support allowing users to gather information from network news sources
*Security Enhancements to protect both the connections between client systems and the Open-Xchange server and the Open-Xchange server and the network