Zakon Group's Web software reaches 1,000 worldwide deployments milestone

Just a few years after its public release and without any marketing other than a Web site, Zakon Group's OpenConf peer-review Web software and service has been deployed more than 1,000 times in more than 75 countries. Zakon Group is now seeking partners or venture capitalists interested in spinning off OpenConf to fully commercialize this market leader.Initially developed to meet the needs of technical and academic conferences by replacing the laborious process of manually handling submissions, peer reviews, and acceptance, OpenConf has since been adopted for other events, such as workshops and symposia, as well as for journals, books, and grants. Robert Zakon, CTO of Zakon Group and OpenConf's lead developer, indicates that the 1,000 mark "was probably reached by the fall of last year as some of the organizations using the free version of the software do not report it." Zakon went on to state that "there have likely been hundreds of thousands of users between those making submissions and reviewing them."With such success through only word of mouth and its Web site, Zakon Group is exploring spinning off OpenConf as a startup to handle the growth expected through commercializing the software. Towards this goal, Zakon Group is seeking partners in business development and startup management, as well as venture capitalists who may be interested in jump starting the commercialization process. Zakon believes a "commercial open source or software as a service (SaaS) model will hold considerable appeal for investors, especially given revenue has already been generated, the infrastructure costs are low, and there is a global market for OpenConf."Additional information on OpenConf is available at www.OpenConf.org.Zakon Group LLC is a technology and management consulting firm offering services and solutions ranging from Web development and hosting to systems integration and rent-a-CTO consulting. Zakon Group brings together the right mix of technology, experience, knowledge, and innovation, in delivering services and solutions that are customer-centric, on time, reliable, creative, and effective to clients of all sizes. For more information about Zakon Group, visit www.ZakonGroup.com.