Gadgetopia

Spectrasource: Macromedia has put Spectra into open-source. What is Spectra?

“Spectra is an application framework that helps organizations build and manage large-scale content management and e-commerce solutions that deliver rich, personalized customer and visitor experiences. It incorporates features such as content management, workflow and process automation, roles-based security, personalization, and business intelligence. Spectra is a Macromedia ColdFusion application and must be installed on a ColdFusion server.”

It never quite took off (Macromedia ditched it post-merger), but in late 1999, at the peak of the bubble, Allaire was trying to sell it for for $117,000 a copy. I remember getting marketing emails from them. You’d read down the price list: $300, $400, $500, $117,000…

I remember thinking, “What kind of software costs $117,000?” Later, I would be introduced to Oracle.