Dynamic Content Management - Essay Example

Objectives This literature review provides a broad overview of the technology known as web CMS. It seeks to define the importance of the role of theend-user in the development of web CMS. It looks at both Commercial off the Shelf software, as well as Open Source Software1. It touches briefly on the advantages/ disadvantages of using an Open Source Software solution in this context. Definition The basic operation of a Web content management system was set out clearly in the 1990s by the then MIT (now Harvard) database expert Philip Greenspun (2003). CMS is defined as those: “principles and practices around developing, managing, maintaining, and deploying (web) content in an organization” (Nakano, 2002) CMS concerns itself with the organizational tasks, goals and roles which lead to high quality content and accurate, attractive, useful websites which are easy to use. The average organisations Web site or intranet has anywhere between one thousand and one million pieces of content. By the time the organisation has reached this size, it has a substantial Web content management challenge. What is a Web Content Management System? From Cascading Style Sheets through XML, has now evolved into the web CMS environment, where USD6.4 billions is expected to be spent by 2007 according to IDC. In a Web Content Management system the design and presentation of content on a Web page is separated from the content creation process. This is because Web pages and links can be dynamically generated from information held in a database. TerminalFour’s Site Manager is an example of a commercial off the shelf product which has found favour with commercial, public and academic sectors. For example, Queen’s University describes Site Manager as follows: “The University Content Management System (CMS) is powered by TerminalFour SiteManager. The CMS allows users to easily develop and maintain their websites in a consistent way and inline with University guidelines. It takes advantage of templates, styles, workflow and automatic formatting and allows content to be reused throughout a website while only authoring once” By making use of XML (extensible Mark up Language), a CMS can also allow content that is stored in the database to be repurposed for different devices such as mobile phones, handheld computers, kiosks and Web TV as well as PCs. Web CMSs come in many shapes. They range from the very expensive (over $300,000 for enterprise–wide systems like Vignette or Interwoven and $43,000 per server processor for Microsoft’s CMS) to almost free (nothing for Zope): Separating Content and Presentation With a CMS, Web developers can concentrate on the site structure, navigation, look-and-feel without having to worry about creating and maintaining content. Content is created by content writers. Content is added to the repository database and the content writer will add metadata tags to the data for reusability. This enables content that needs updating to be searched for easily when it becomes out of date and needs to be amended. A CMS can therefore allow people without technical Web authoring skills to easily update and maintain a Web site. Workflow and Quality Control Web CMS helps manage workflow and maintain quality control by allowing an overall administrator of the system to set roles and permissions for authors, editors and publishers. In the diagram above several authors may be able to upload new material to the web CMS at any time. The editor can be alerted when new content is added to the system. The new material can then be reviewed, approved, and finally published to the Web site by an authorized person at the click of a button. Evaluating a Web CMS The organization should start with a clear list of requirements. This will assist in determining which features are important for that specific organization. As standard one would expect to find: Industry standard Web page templates to ensure maximum compatibility across different browsers and platforms Customizable security and access rights for users Compatibility with legacy systems Ability to record information about the metadata Record locking Ability to add, remove and archive content Link management Tools to allow the CMS administrators to create online surveys and polls and to easily collect, store and publish the results Ability to run on existing equipment However, depending on the projected size of the implementation, these requirements may be too simplistic. In a small scale survey of Commercial Off the Shelf providers focused on the retail market Forrestor Research Inc (2005) evaluated 9 web commercial CMS (EMC/documentum, FatWire, Interwoven, Microsoft, Percussion, RedDot, Stellent, Tridion, and Vignette) using the following criteria: Evaluation Criteria Current Offering Content repository services How extensive are the product’s core content repository services? Content management administration How extensive are the product’s content administration features? Publishing configuration and administration How extensive are the product’s publishing administration features? Multisite management and delivery How extensive are the product’s site definition and administration capabilities for supporting multiple channels and personalization? Content management application How extensive is the product’s ability to facilitate the contribution, management, and production of content? How strong is support for catalog and campaign management? Architecture How well does the product fit in IT environments? Strategy Product strategy What is the vendor’s technology and differentiation strategy for the Web content management solution? Go-to-market strategy What is the vendor’s strategy for distributing its product? How focused is it on the retail industry? Whole solution strategy What is the vendor’s strategy for customers in wide-ranging markets? Cost What is the expected cost of the WCM solution? Market Presence Company financials Is the company financially strong? Customer base How is the vendor’s focus and opportunity reflected in its customer base? Geographic presence Does the company have offices abroad to support international operations? The market leaders were FatWire Software Content Server 6.0, Interwoven TeamSite 6.5 and LiveSite 2.0 and Tridion Content Manager R5. Interestingly, despite its dominance in the operating system and business application fields, the Microsoft product was especially criticized: “[This] solution lacks many capabilities found in other WCM solutions, including comprehensive workflow, automated metadata extraction, content auditing, workflow reporting, and heterogeneous environment support. Microsoft is taking a platform approach to address the retail industry, pushing the .NET framework as the foundation for multichannel, customercentric environments as well as touting its experience with consumer-facing products. To meet retail requirements, Microsoft CMS relies heavily on integration with its Commerce Server product.”2 Options for a Web CMS DIY Pros – meets business needs Cons – requires technical skills inhouse Developer Pros – expertise and support Cons – developer could go bust or stop working with that product Commercial Off the Shelf Pros – tried, tested and supported Cons – locked in, licensing fees Key Issues With Web CMS What commentators are finding is that organisations are simply not identifying their specific requirements, determining their goals, ensuring that a business case is in place, involving all the potential stakeholders when drawing up requirements and ensuring that the potential content writers are part of the early adopters’ team. This has 2 knock-on effects: external suppliers only have a very woolly idea of what the organisation actually requires and employees resist the changes to their working practices. Joyce (2003) refers to an often quoted piece of research undertaken by Jupiter Research analyst Matthew Berk: "Today, more than 60 percent of companies that have deployed Web content management solutions still find themselves manually updating their sites. Overcomplicated, end-to-end packages can as much as quintuple site operational costs over human labor alternatives. Unfortunately, the breadth of many vendors all too-inclusive silver-bullet solution vision has left these companies struggling with platform lock-in, overengineered site infrastructures, exorbitant technical maintenance costs, and per-business-user costs averaging as much as $25,000 per year." To summarise the problems: Overspending on the platform Under use of the tools Using manual processes to update content Hence the key added-value components of Web CMS -- developing work flow, separating content and presentation to facilitate reuse of content – are being undermined. This indicates that there is a massive training need out there as to precisely what web CMS are designed to do, and how to leverage the technology to inform and add value to the business. Selecting open source software These problems are not peculiar to Commercial off the shelf solutions. However, when we compare Commercial off the Shelf products to Open Source Software solutions there are additional problems to be overcome: Lineweaver (2003) identified the following lessons learned from one open source software deployment: It is possible to gain more capabilities using open source software than using commercial off the shelf software Open source software is less vulnerable to security threats and virus infections Open source software and their upgrades are free in comparison with commercial off the shelf software, this results in considerable cost savings The learning curve involved in migrating from commercial off the shelf software to open source software offers a road block for wide open source software deployment Wheeler (2005) identifies the 14 attributes that affect the selection of open source software: (i) functionality, (ii) cost, (iii) market share, (iv) support, (v) maintenance, (vi) reliability, (vii) performance, (viii) scalability, (ix) usability, (x) security, (xi) flexibility, (xii) customizability, (xiii) interoperability, and (xiv) and legal and license issues. Another advantage of Open Source solutions is that there will generally be a community of users developing and improving the product and willing to share their knowledge for free. However this is also a drawback. As Vaughn-Nichols (2005) points out in a recent article: “The problem, as Byrne described it, is "What appears to have happened is that development resources have become dissipated among so many different initiatives that seemingly none of them is achieving critical velocity."” Users are the key to compliance in using Web CMS Although much time is spent on the technology, at the business end of Web CMS is a user. If we look at where this person turns up we see how important it is that they are included from the very beginning: User Role Task Authoring creating the content Metadata tagging describing it Editing changing and updating it Collaboration letting several people edit it together Workflow letting the right people do the right things to it Security stopping the wrong people from manipulating it Versioning keeping track of how it has changed Scheduling deciding when to display it Templating displaying it in the right standard format Syndication allowing it to be displayed by others Personalization allowing it be displayed differently to different visitors Veen (2004) makes the following points: All publications require editorial expertise. Publishing is a skill set that is integral to producing a quality site. To succeed, one must separate content and process. Put at least one editor in charge. Nothing should go online without that person’s approval. Again, the emphasis is on the human beings who are using the software to agreed organisation standards. Conclusion Much of the literature in this area is product centric produced by zealous marketing departments. It is extremely difficult to find objective qualitative and quantitative data which are not part of industry-led white papers. Governments and academic institutions are the next most prolific authors on this topic. Again, they are more concerned with proving their business case or with the merits of a particular product. Whilst one cannot definitively say that any specific product is the market leader it is possible to categorise CMS solutions by sector3:  Content Management System – automation of internet/intranet solutions.  Transactional content management system (T-CMS) – automation of e-commerce solutions  Integrated content management system (I-CMS) – document management  Publications management system (P-CMS) – automation of publications (manuals, books, help, guidelines, references) content life cycle.  Learning management system (L-CMS) – automation of learning content life cycle.  Enterprise CMSs – vary in functionality and cover web based technologies as well as client/server and host based solutions.  Digital Institutional Repositories – automation of intellectual artifacts produced by institutions of higher learning There is considerable scope therefore for a paper on qualitative and quantitative research into web CMS, in particular comparing total cost of ownership and comparing and contrasting greenfield implementations versus migration case studies. This Open Source CMS evaluation was undertaken in 2002 by the Australia Telescope National Facility http://www.atnf.csiro.au/computing/web/ Last visited: 16 November 2005. For an alternative comparison tool see http://www.cmsmatrix.org/. Name Tech Platforms Features Comments eZ publish http://developer.ez.no/ article/static/7/ PHP, MySQL, Apache Linux, UNIX, Win32 Advertising with statistics, Article publication and management Bug handling and reporting, Calendar, Contact list, To-do module File manager, Moderated forums, Image manager Link manager, News feed importing, Poll module for creating user polls, Session module for keeping track of users and their preferences Statistics module for information about page views and visitors Shopping cart and wishlist , User management Designed for online shops. Appears limited in ability to import content from other software. phpWebSite http://phpwebsite.appstate.edu/ PHP UNIX, Linux Logons, Personalised content, Calendar, News feeds,Themes, Browser based page creation Too small and not flexible enough for our purposes. Slash http://slashcode.com/ Perl, Apache, MySQL Linux Logons, News feeds, Themes A news and messageboard service. Not suitable for the complete ATNF website, but may be a useful tool. Spine http://spine.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/index.pl?page=main Perl, Apache Linux, Unix Access Restriction, Webbased Administration, On-Line Help Styles (Templates), Sitemaps/Navigation bars, Macros Built in search engine, Logging, Articles Sounds useful, but it is still under development and documentation is limited SteelBlue http://www.steelblue.com SQL, HTML Extensions, Apache, Netscape Server, IIS Linux, Unix, Win32 Automatic security, User groups, Automatic restoration of form data. Automatic server and client-side type checking., HTML generation from databases, Bare bones database and web integration. Very little extra functionality. Typo3 http://www.typo3.com/ MySQL, PHP4, ImageMagick, Apache IIS, GD, FreeType Unix, Linux, Win32 Content stored in database, Password protection, SQL searching of databases, Templates, Serving of different content based upon browser type, IP-number or other criteria, Automatic resizing of images. Online content editing, Uploading of files through browser interface Highly developed system with sophisticated web based tools, although no WYSIWYG ability. Probably not flexible enough for our purposes and there are questions over the ability of Typo3 to handle the size of our site. phpCMS http://mcyra.homeip.net/ homepage/phpcms/index PHP4 Linux, Others? Templates, Caching, Statistics, Web based filemanager, Simple content editing through a browser, Searching and indexing This looks like an interesting product, but most of the website is written in German. Midgard http://www.midgard-project.org/ PHP4, MySQL, Apache Linux, Unix Templates, User management, Others The documentation does not clearly explain its capabilities. Appears to be geared towards article and news serving. Velocity http://jakarta.apache.org/velocity/ Java, Apache Linux, Unix, Others? Templates Sophisticated Java template server. Possibly too complex for our needs at this stage. Zope http://www.zope.org Python, Perl, Apache Linux, Unix, Win32 User management, Scripting, Dynamic content, Web based administration, Templates and shared elements, Object database Support for other databases, Support for FTP and WebDAV Support for XML, Integrated search engine, Large developer community The most flexible of the CMSs looked at. Implementation time/cost comparison Product/Price Time to implement Highend Interwoven 5 Platform Interwoven Inc. www.interwoven.com $250,000 1–3 months Vignette V6 Content Suite Vignette Corp. www.vignette.com $400,000 4–6 weeks Midrange Microsoft Content Management Server www.microsoft.com $125,000 Documentum 4i ECM Documentum Inc. www.documentum.com $150,000 3 months RedDot Content Management Server RedDot Solutions www.reddotsolutions.com $70,000 2–6 weeks OpenSource Midgard 1.4 The Midgard Community www.midgard-project.org Free 2–8 weeks OpenCMS OpenCms www.opencms.org Free 6–8 weeks Zope Zope Corp. www.zope.org Free 1–3 months HOSTED Bibliography Andersson, E, Greenspun, P and Grumet, A (2003), Software Engineering for Internet Applications. Available at: http://philip.greenspun.com/seia/ Last visited November 16, 2005 Burke, B and Ryan, R, (2005), Worldwide Secure Content Management Forecast Update and Competitive Vendor Shares, 2002-2007, IDC. Available for purchase at: http://www.idc.com/research/simplesearchres.jsp?keyword=&company=Secure+Computing Joyce, Erin, (2003), Content Management Tools Fail. Available at: http://www.atnewyork.com/news/article.php/1690881. Last visited November 16, 2005 Lineweaver, R, (2003), Cost Savings of Open Source Software in the Server Room. Available at: http://staff.harrisonburg.k12.va.us/rlineweaver. Last visited November 16, 2005 Mendelsohn, T, (2005), The Forrester Wave™: Web Content Management For Retail, Q3 2005. PDF available for purchase at www.forrester.com Nakano, R. (2002), Web Content Management: A Collaborative Approach, Boston, Addison-Wesley Queen’s University: http://cmst4.qub.ac.uk/ Last visited 25 November 2005. Vaughan-Nichols, S, (2005), Plenty of Choice in Open-Source CMS. Available at: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1855201,00.asp. Last visited November 16, 2005 Veen, J, (2004), Why Content Management Fails. Available at: http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000315.php Last visited November 16, 2005 Wheeler, D, (2005), How to evaluate open source software/free software (OSS/FS) programs. Available at: http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_eval.html. Last visited November 16, 2005 Read More