Drupal won the 2008 Overall Award for the second time in succession in what was a very close contest with Joomla!. While Joomla was the first runner up, DotNetNuke, a .NET-based open source Content Management System, made its way to the second runner up position in its first year in the final.

The 2009 Award will feature an increased prize fund of $24,000 and a new category designed specifically for previous winners of the Overall Open Source CMS Award. This new Hall of Fame category features CMSes that have won the Overall Award in previous years competing against one another. Alongside this, previous winners will have sub-category awards for their best themes and extensions. “We believe that this will open up the Overall Award to more CMSes and at the same time, recognize the support network behind previous winners of the Award” said Damian Carvill, Packt’s marketing manager.

Packt has opened up nominations for people to submit their favorite Content Management System at www.PacktPub.com/Award. The top five in each category will go through to final, which begins in the third week of September. For more information, please visit Packt’s website www.PacktPub.com/Award.

This is a rating bar script done with PHP and mySQL that allows users to rate things like can be done on Netflix or Amazon, all web 2.0-like with no page refresh. It is a major improvement on the previous version because it is now unobtrusive, meaning that if Javascript is off it will still work (although the page will refresh). You can also set the number of rating units you want to use (i.e. 4 stars, 5 stars, or 10 stars) on a rater to rater basis (see samples below or read the docs). A few other changes were made as well – see the docs for details. Note that this script isn’t tied to any specific system (such as WordPress), so you should be able to adapt it to your situation without too much trouble.

RabidRatings is a simple but eye-caching ratings system which allows users to your website to rate virtually anything.

Installation is easy—simply tell the PHP script how to connect to your database and include the PHP tag where you want to have a ratable item, and everything else is done for you.

Best of all: it’s free. Install it today and make your boss think you’re brilliant.

Starbox allows you to easily create all kinds of rating boxes using just one PNG image. The library is build on top of the Prototype javascript framework. For some extra effects you can add Scriptaculous as well. Check the demos below to see what Starbox is all about and read on for more information on how to customize your own Starboxes.

However, Starbox is not free. A small fee is required for non-commercial use. The script can be used on a Single Domain for €3 and unlimited use for €15. I know it is sad that Starbox is not free, however you can get this amazing script for as low as €3 and trust me its worth every penny.