GUILDFORD, UK: Volantis Systems today announced version 5.1 of Volantis Mobility Server (VMS) Community Edition, which brings the power of Web 2.0 to the mobile world through an open source product.

This latest release of VMS Community Edition makes it easier for developers to create “mash-up” mobile applications and also includes optimizations for the Apple iPhone.

Released under the GNU General Public License (GPL), version 3, VMS Community Edition 5.1 is an update to the first open source edition of the product.

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Volantis Mobility Server includes connectors that integrate with a variety of dynamic content sources, including websites, databases, web services, XML documents and now for specific Web 2.0 services. Developers include the connectors in their mobile sites by using simple XML markup tags, reducing the reliance on Java programming, automatically ingesting, transforming, bundling and optimizing content across all mobile devices.

Volantis Mobility Server includes connectors for the following Web 2.0 services:

* Picasa connector: Picasa is a Google application that helps users to find, organize and share photos. Photos are grouped in albums, and tagged for quick retrieval. The Picasa connector allows for the inclusion of photographs in mobile mash-ups. The photographs are automatically optimized by the Volantis Mobility Server mobile devices, through reference to Volantis’ integrated device database.

* Flickr connector: Flickr, owned by Yahoo!, is an image and video community service for users to organize and share photos. The Flickr connector allows for the inclusion of photos in mobile mash-ups. The photographs are automatically optimized by the Volantis Mobility Server mobile devices, through reference to Volantis’ integrated device database.

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* Google Docs connector: Google Docs includes on-line word processor, spreadsheet and presentation applications. The Google Docs connector enables the inclusion of these documents in mash-ups, which are then automatically optimized to be read on mobile devices by the Volantis Mobility Server mobile devices, through reference to Volantis’ integrated device database. The word processor will be the first application supported, with spreadsheet and presentation application to follow later in the year.

Mark Watson, CEO, Volantis, said: “The mobile environment is growing by leaps and bounds and quickly merging with the fixed web. At Volantis we are committed to helping the community take full advantage of this shift as well as build in the strength of that community. We will continue to advance the open source version of the Volantis Mobility Server through the GPL version 3.”

Volantis plans to add further connectors in future releases of Volantis Mobility Server, emphasizing connectivity with other Web 2.0 applications.

VMS is entirely written in Sun’s Java programming language, and requires a servlet container, such as Apache’s open source Tomcat server, for runtime support. VMS includes programmer support for other web application development languages such as PHP and Ruby.