Josette Rigsbe wrote an article on CMSWire asking the question "Is JCR Dead?". I wanted to quickly respond with my answer, which in itself is a question: "so, what if it is?"
JCR is an engineering standard that's been around for a number of years. It's low-level. It's used by developers to build complex applications, usually on top of a content repository. Content management applications - like Hippo CMS - have been using JCR for years.
And, that's the point. JCR is a standard for developers. It's not a standard that will help you reach out to your audience. It's not a publishing standard in a format such that your visitors can consume it on their laptops, mobile phones or whatever device they want to use. It's not a standard that's going to help your Web content be "context-aware".
This is what REST API's and other Web standards are for. Our view at Hippo is that we do JCR for CMS Developers, and Web and REST for your audience.
There is no "Holy Grail" of standards, or one standard to "rule them all". It's clear to us that the evolving world of standards moves continuously and we believe that a WCMS needs to be flexible and open enough to move along side them. And, because standards evolve, they have a life of their own. They come to life, evolve and eventually they die. It's a very healthy process. So, yes, JCR evolves and will one day die. Just like CMIS will evolve - and one day die.
But the death of a standard doesn't matter to our customers. Our customers want interoperability. Our customers want our systems to be able to communicate with each other and to be able to export content out of a CMS whenever they want to replace it with another system. Standards are good. They give you that interoperability. But open standards are like languages. It really doesn't matter that they evolve. All that matters is that we can communicate.
If you're deciding on a content management system, you shouldn't need to worry about the life and death of standards. What matters most is that you want a CMS that serves your audience. For that you need to look further than just whether any vendor slaps the JCR or CMIS sticker on their repository. Look for a CMS that has openness built into its DNA. A CMS should breathe open standards. Look for a CMS that thinks in terms of your audience and how to deliver content in the way they want to consume it - not how the developer decided it should be consumed. At the end of the day, an effective CMS not only stores content in a way that empowers the business to manage it; it delivers the content in a way that empowers the person at the very end of a CMS - the audience - to consume it.