RE: Content Management system recommendations

I have written two myself, and used one custom written one (cost
$130,000!!!) and evaluated a package one ($500,000!!!!!!!), and seen one
great one that's open source for ColdFusion.

Truth is, you get what you pay for.  Get a 'free' anything and there is =
a
strong likelihood you'll use up a lot of your budget in development.  =
Not an
absolute truth, but often the case.  Or if not in development, then in
training or problem solving later.  That's the main problem with package =
CMS
systems.  Get a ready-made off-the shelf one, and there is a possibility
you'll spend a lot of time trying for force the organisation's practices
into shape to meet the requirements of the CMS.   That was one of the =
big
problems at my main client, an online publishing company.  Buying a =
package
CMS meant they were always fighting with their editorial policy and how =
to
fit it into the built-in rules of the CMS. (for example, they required
certain types of story to be approved by legal first, but the CMS didn't
have a way to require it, so stories would go onto the site and into the
public without having lawyers check them out.)

So you have to get your requirements very well defined.  Do that stage =
well,
and you'll likely as not get a great cms for your organisation.  The =
ideal
CMS has all the functionality you need, and no extra frills that are =
going
to get in the way.   Think about what you are going to want the writers =
of
content to do.  And what processes you really want their material to =
have.
Can they just write it and it goes into the site straight away?  In that
case, make sure you have levels of authority that let that happen.  In =
the
case of my client again, their cms had absolute requirement that all =
stories
had to have editorial approval.   That proved to be a problem because =
even
the online editor and CEO of the organisation had to log out,  log in as
contributors or journalists, write their pieces, then log out again, log =
in
as themselves, and approve their own stories.=20

On the other hand, you probably don't want a junior person, working on
tidying up grammar or punctuation able to put stuff on the web that =
isn't
approved, since when it goes on the organisation's site, it becomes the
official word of the organisation, approved or not.

Also do you want people working on the live site or a staging version =
that
is transferred to the live site after approval?  What if someone puts
something dumb into the content on the live site?  Or is that being =
overly
paranoid?

How much restriction on what people can put in their pages do you want?
Want them restricted to text only?   Text and uploading images?  Do they
know how to prepare images? Do you want them able to put html in their =
text?


All these kinds of issues should be resolved before you go shopping for =
a
CMS, free or otherwise.   You get an open source CMS that misses your
requirements in any significant way it'll cost you many times more than =
if
you had paid for a custom written one.

Please please please ... DON'T let the features of any CMS tell you how =
you
should run your site.   That's the WRONG way to acquire any software.  =
Start
with your requirements then look for the software that most closely =
matches
that wish list.  If you think I'm getting too carried away, just ask =
anyone
who bought the wrong accounting package for their business, or ask a
warehouse manager what he thinks of the inventory system they have.=20



Cheers,
Michael Kear
Windsor, NSW, Australia
AFP Webworks.




-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org [mailto:owner-hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org] =
On
Behalf Of jgold
Sent: Saturday, 6 September 2003 1:10 AM
To: hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org
Subject: Content Management system recommendations

The time has come to build a web site incorporating a content management =

system for my client.

I'm looking for something simple, cheap, server based and preferably =
open=20
source.=20

It needs to allow the client to add/edit/delete news items, post photos, =

maybe update a calendar (although I could do this through a separate=20
calendar program)

I'm leaning toward PHP and MYSQL because they seem to be popular.=20

I've looked at Phpnuke and Postnuke, but them seem awfully complicated=20
for what I want.

I have set up sites using Coranto for simple news pages, but it seems =
too=20
limited for what I want to do here.

Any suggestions? Is anyone out there using anything they love?

Thanks,

John


Custom Communications
Web site design
145 Newbury St., 3rd Floor
Portland, ME 04101
(207) 771-5510
www.desktoppub.com

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