We're thrilled to announce the immediate availability of Community Server 2007 Beta 1.

• Community Server 2007, Demo.exe (NEW) - Just double-click to run! It does require SQL Express (see readme notes).
• Community Server 2007, Windows Installer - Windows Install Wizard.
• Community Server 2007, Web Installer - FTP to your server and run the Web Installer.

There are a number of improvements and performance enhancements as well as a complete overhaul of the themes system. While all of the new dynamic theme tools are not yet complete there are a few blog themes that now have dynamic settings (paperclip, kid congo, riviera, and vanilla) and you can also see some of the new dynamic site level themes.

Additional features enabled in this Beta 1 include:

• Improved file management support for blogs 
• Anoymous subscriptions for blogs
• Feedburner support for RSS feeds
• Shared membership store for building linked communities

Probably one of my favorite features with the new themes is the ability to easily export and import as a single file (images and all).

The next beta will include more tools for managing the new dynamic UI -- I think we'll blow you away when you see the tools we've made in Beta 1 -- as well as HTML email templates, deep integration with hosted blog and forum services for mail integration, addition blog themes, as well as new tools for more easily managing configuration. Plus a few extras!

One note, there is a message that you will see in the Control Panel that says "This Beta version of Community Server 2007 Expires May 15th 2007". We do not recommend running this beta in production.