PHP developers are often confronted with performance, scalability and security. Zend Platform was released in response to developer concerns allowing them to manage high-performance, robust PHP deployments. Zend has spent the intervening time improving the product. At the Zend/PHP Conference & Expo 2005, Zeev Suraski, Zend co-founder and co-architect of PHP, details the latest capabilities of Zend Platform and provides tips on how to best take advantage of the product.

What does it takes for an open source project to thrive? Aaron Farr outlines the most important factors for success while describing how Apache's Incubator program works. Projects need to demonstrate a strong, diverse community of commiters (developers and users who know how to deal with growth, change and conflict) before they become top-level projects. Aaron explains how building a community of people who can communicate successfully is more critical than just good code.

Oracle's business mindset is shifting. The enterprise computing world currently depends on large groups of isolated hardware, which waste valuable resources which could be pooled and shared. Oracle is moving towards allocation of computer resources on demand via grid computing. Ken Jacobs, VP of product strategy, explains how Oracle has begun to implement grid computing and thereby has led open source and PHP into the enterprise.

Linux and open source have a strong momentum and Linux has become the fastest growing operating system for smartphones, and Trolltech's co-founder Eirik Chambe-Eng discusses many of the questions related to this change. Why are more consumer electronics manufacturers adopting Linux? Why does it make sense to run it on your phone? What are the benefits of the open source model, and what are the potential problems or pitfalls of using open source when producing mobile devices?

As a co-founder of Netscape and co-author of Mosaic, Marc Andreessen has a unique view of the development of web programming. In his keynote address, he briefly reviews the history of the computer industry and how programming has moved from being machine dependent and complicated to become a dynamic and easy-to-learn process. In combination with the meteoric drop in hardware and network costs, more powerful applications are becoming much easier to develop through worldwide collaboration.

CalConnect's Dave Thewlis discusses Apple's announcement of its iCal Calendar Server (an open-source implementation of a CalDAV server to be provided with the Leopard release of Mac OS X) and the "free/busy" demo by the Calendaring and Scheduling Consortium, touting interoperability between seven different calendaring systems including proprietary systems such as Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange.

At Microsoft, 'cooperative competition' is a well known strategy for success. As commercial open source continues to drive changes in the software industry, coopetition - between open source and commercial software companies alike - will be a defining factor in determining further business success and meeting customer needs. Jerry Fishenden explores the principles of coopetition in nature, in gaming, and at Microsoft, in order to make the case for a new software business strategy.

In his keynote address at the 2005 Zend/PHP Conference, Jon Bork relates what have been driving forces for innovation in manufacturing over the past 200 years, and draws parallels to how the same may apply to open source. Bork discusses Intel's view of the open source movement, as a valuable aspect of the computing industry. By working with and fostering innovation within the open source community, Intel sees tremendous opportunity for the future.

In the green pastures of technology trends, Damian Conway leaves no sacred cow un-tipped. This entertaining keynote address, from the 2005 O'Reilly European Open Source Convention, pokes fun at many hot topics for software developers including: software patents, open source, mash ups, online communities, rapid application development, operating system zealotry, and even Joss Whedon's movies and TV shows.

Next generation web applications will be built by business owners, managers, and users who do not consider themselves to be software developers. IBM's Rod Smith explains how technically savvy users can "scratch their own itch," using technologies, such as PHP and wikis, to develop their own business applications.