Comments on: Learning about Content Management http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/01/23/learning-about-content-management/ Adaptive Path Blog Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:31:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: uxdesign.com http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/01/23/learning-about-content-management/#comment-122672 uxdesign.com Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:28:26 +0000 http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/01/23/learning-about-content-management/#comment-122672 Also check out http://cmsreport.com (Drupal powered). Also check out http://cmsreport.com (Drupal powered).

]]> By: uxdesign.com http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/01/23/learning-about-content-management/#comment-122669 uxdesign.com Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:26:42 +0000 http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/01/23/learning-about-content-management/#comment-122669 Also see OpenConcept's CMS evaluation for The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE): http://openconcept.ca/blog/eche/content_management_system_cms_report_on_alternatives_to_back_end (link to PDF report below article). WordPress, Joomla and Drupal compared for CUPE requirements match. "6. Conclusion In deciding upon a particular CMS for CUPE, there are a few key elements worth thinking about. First, because CUPE National hosts several subsites for Locals, the multisite component is an important aspect of any choice. Currently Joomla (with its commercial addon) and Drupal (with its built-in functionality) are the only options available from the opensource community. Drupal is the ideal choice here." Also see OpenConcept’s CMS evaluation for The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE):
http://openconcept.ca/blog/eche/content_management_system_cms_report_on_alternatives_to_back_end (link to PDF report below article).

WordPress, Joomla and Drupal compared for CUPE requirements match.

“6. Conclusion
In deciding upon a particular CMS for CUPE, there are a few key elements worth thinking about. First, because CUPE National hosts several subsites for Locals, the multisite component is an important aspect of any choice. Currently Joomla (with its commercial addon) and Drupal (with its built-in functionality) are the only options available from the opensource community. Drupal is the ideal choice here.”

]]> By: uxdesign.com http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/01/23/learning-about-content-management/#comment-122323 uxdesign.com Fri, 07 Sep 2007 02:40:25 +0000 http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/01/23/learning-about-content-management/#comment-122323 Another vote for cmsmatrix.org, which by the way was built with WebGUI, whose developers created cmsmatrix.org. As with cars, there is a CMS out there to suit more or less every need (usually less). People argue "less filling," "tastes great" about the CMSs in their own camp, but the real difference is in your own needs as a user, or group. Anyone landing on this in search of CMS evaluation info should really list their own particular CMS needs, first and foremost, as a simple "top 10" list. I have a good deal of direct experience with a range of CMSs, from implementation to regular use. And if it helps, you may consider these factors in selecting one to suit you, as in my experience they highlight some of the greater differences between the best of open source, like drupal, and proprietary, like StoryServer: 1. Budget (cost) 2. Workflow complexity (who can edit what, when, approvals, scheduling, etc. etc.) 3. Scalability (data/structures) 4. Feature Customization 5. SEO 7. Admin UI Usability 8. Templating (visual design customization) 9. Technical Support 10. Training Alter the order of these to personal taste (no counter posts necessary). Basically, you get more of all of the items in my list with a proprietary CMS. The smallest differences are are in feature customization and usability, as some proprietary CMSs can be very complex, and as such, can require a lot of costly programming to modify. Proprietary vendors do not often implement major UI overhauls, due to cost. On this point open source fares better, because of lighter coding effort and cost/overhead is less important to a "community" of developers (ref. digital socialism). If you're a business manager and your budget is under $50k/year, I'd recommend open source. I'm endeavoring to sell a large corporation's multi-site marketing department on WordPress (multisite install), as they do not need complex workflows, do not publish many document types, they wasted their CMS budget ($100k on Zope), and have competent technical resources for customization. :) http://uxdesign.com Another vote for cmsmatrix.org, which by the way was built with WebGUI, whose developers created cmsmatrix.org.

As with cars, there is a CMS out there to suit more or less every need (usually less). People argue “less filling,” “tastes great” about the CMSs in their own camp, but the real difference is in your own needs as a user, or group.

Anyone landing on this in search of CMS evaluation info should really list their own particular CMS needs, first and foremost, as a simple “top 10″ list.

I have a good deal of direct experience with a range of CMSs, from implementation to regular use. And if it helps, you may consider these factors in selecting one to suit you, as in my experience they highlight some of the greater differences between the best of open source, like drupal, and proprietary, like StoryServer:
1. Budget (cost)
2. Workflow complexity (who can edit what, when, approvals, scheduling, etc. etc.)
3. Scalability (data/structures)
4. Feature Customization
5. SEO
7. Admin UI Usability
8. Templating (visual design customization)
9. Technical Support
10. Training

Alter the order of these to personal taste (no counter posts necessary).

Basically, you get more of all of the items in my list with a proprietary CMS.

The smallest differences are are in feature customization and usability, as some proprietary CMSs can be very complex, and as such, can require a lot of costly programming to modify. Proprietary vendors do not often implement major UI overhauls, due to cost. On this point open source fares better, because of lighter coding effort and cost/overhead is less important to a “community” of developers (ref. digital socialism).

If you’re a business manager and your budget is under $50k/year, I’d recommend open source.

I’m endeavoring to sell a large corporation’s multi-site marketing department on WordPress (multisite install), as they do not need complex workflows, do not publish many document types, they wasted their CMS budget ($100k on Zope), and have competent technical resources for customization.

:)
http://uxdesign.com

]]> By: Kerry McNally http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/01/23/learning-about-content-management/#comment-93242 Kerry McNally Thu, 21 Jun 2007 01:04:14 +0000 http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/01/23/learning-about-content-management/#comment-93242 We decided to go Open Source using the Wordpress blog platform. With over 100 fully developed plug-ins available (mostly free) we were up and running quickly and at little cost. Just one of the free plun-ins allows our site to be automatically updated every six hours without any human intervention. We decided to go Open Source using the Wordpress blog platform. With over 100 fully developed plug-ins available (mostly free) we were up and running quickly and at little cost. Just one of the free plun-ins allows our site to be automatically updated every six hours without any human intervention.

]]> By: Jan Greis http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/01/23/learning-about-content-management/#comment-50033 Jan Greis Sun, 25 Feb 2007 12:36:07 +0000 http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/01/23/learning-about-content-management/#comment-50033 There is a way though, how you can cut out on evaluating different vendors in the first place ;-) If we look objectively, for most companies probably the only real reason to use proprietary systems, is that if something goes wrong, they can sue someone for it. That might be a good reason, but there is a lot of reasons, not to use proprietary systems in the first place. The first is of course the price, the only thing you pay for with an Open Source CMS is the setup, which often cuts down your cost to a tiny fraction. Some people might argue, that proprietary systems are better in quality, but seeing how many people change for example from reddot to TYPO3 convinces me otherwise. Concerning the demos, many TYPO3 service providers offer what is called a "Playground", a website set up in a way, that anyone can make changes, which are reversed after a certain period of time. Furthermore, with Open Source CMSs, you are not dependent on a company which might go bankrupt. Also, extending the system is not a problem, as for most purposes, you already have free extensions available, and if you need something very specific, it is not expensive to ask your service provider to write a new extension for you. There is a way though, how you can cut out on evaluating different vendors in the first place ;-)
If we look objectively, for most companies probably the only real reason to use proprietary systems, is that if something goes wrong, they can sue someone for it. That might be a good reason, but there is a lot of reasons, not to use proprietary systems in the first place.
The first is of course the price, the only thing you pay for with an Open Source CMS is the setup, which often cuts down your cost to a tiny fraction. Some people might argue, that proprietary systems are better in quality, but seeing how many people change for example from reddot to TYPO3 convinces me otherwise. Concerning the demos, many TYPO3 service providers offer what is called a “Playground”, a website set up in a way, that anyone can make changes, which are reversed after a certain period of time. Furthermore, with Open Source CMSs, you are not dependent on a company which might go bankrupt.
Also, extending the system is not a problem, as for most purposes, you already have free extensions available, and if you need something very specific, it is not expensive to ask your service provider to write a new extension for you.

]]> By: Business Marketing 2 » Late breaking news http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/01/23/learning-about-content-management/#comment-48769 Business Marketing 2 » Late breaking news Wed, 21 Feb 2007 14:21:56 +0000 http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/01/23/learning-about-content-management/#comment-48769 [...] adaptive path blog blog archive Learning about Content Management [...] [...] adaptive path blog blog archive Learning about Content Management [...]

]]> By: Chiara Fox http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/01/23/learning-about-content-management/#comment-39082 Chiara Fox Wed, 24 Jan 2007 18:11:44 +0000 http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/01/23/learning-about-content-management/#comment-39082 Ian - You make a good point. Evaluating specific vendors is a different process (and requires different tools and approaches) than when you are just learning about CMS in general. Ian -

You make a good point. Evaluating specific vendors is a different process (and requires different tools and approaches) than when you are just learning about CMS in general.

]]> By: ArtLung Blog » Daily Links http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/01/23/learning-about-content-management/#comment-38954 ArtLung Blog » Daily Links Wed, 24 Jan 2007 07:24:11 +0000 http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/01/23/learning-about-content-management/#comment-38954 [...] adaptive path » blog » blog archive » Learning about Content Management (tags: cms programming webdev) [...] [...] adaptive path » blog » blog archive » Learning about Content Management (tags: cms programming webdev) [...]

]]> By: Ian Muir http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/01/23/learning-about-content-management/#comment-38903 Ian Muir Wed, 24 Jan 2007 03:00:24 +0000 http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/01/23/learning-about-content-management/#comment-38903 I work for a CMS vendor and I would be wary of some of those sources. CMS Watch seems to be very subjective in my experience, some of the others are a bit better. I would reccomend figuring out what features you need and then use a tool like http://www.cmsmatrix.org/ to decide which systems to demo. If they don't have a free demo, don't waste your time. Most of the vendors that don't offer demos require that you spend large amounts of money on implementation. I work for a CMS vendor and I would be wary of some of those sources. CMS Watch seems to be very subjective in my experience, some of the others are a bit better.

I would reccomend figuring out what features you need and then use a tool like http://www.cmsmatrix.org/ to decide which systems to demo. If they don’t have a free demo, don’t waste your time. Most of the vendors that don’t offer demos require that you spend large amounts of money on implementation.

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