Jeff Cram tells us all to stop letting people use your CMS. To quote: I can’t tell you how many times we’ve seen organizations buy a CMS, take their same content structure, and simply distribute authoring ownership to every far flung corner of the organization. And let’s not entirely blame ...
Blog category: Content management
February 11, 2010 by James Robertson
It is document management from here on in…
Alan Pelz-Sharpe writes about CMS Watch's shift from "ECM" to "document management". To quote: ECM is an aspirational term for many, one that suggests a single layer/platform/system/methodology that will address your enterprise content needs no matter how complex, diverse, or voluminous. Some major vendors promote this approach, and buyers for ...
Tags: document management, ecm
February 10, 2010 by James Robertson
Our department is different!
Jeff Cram and Jeni Cram write about the challenges of rolling out an enterprise CMS. To quote: “Our department is different!” This is a common and legitimate response from groups used to managing their own websites. They argue that their needs are so specific there is little chance a common ...
Tags: content management systems, governance, Intranets, websites
February 4, 2010 by James Robertson
The myth of the occasional CMS user
Seth Gottlieb challenges the idea of the occasional CMS user when rolling out a new solution. To quote: Often, one of the big justifications for a CMS is removing the webmaster bottleneck and delegating content entry to the people who have the information. The implicit assumption is that everyone wants ...
Tags: authoring, content management systems, editing, governance, usability
December 23, 2009 by James Robertson
Are content managers ready for personalization?
Seth Gottleib asks: are content managers ready for personalization? To quote: It is easy to get excited by this functionality. But then you think of the difficulty your average organization has with even the basic aspects of content production and you wonder if they ready for these tools. How can ...
December 11, 2009 by James Robertson
Are big CMS vendors hungry enough?
I'm working with a state government agency to help them select a CMS at the moment. The product is for their intranet, as part of a wholesale site redevelopment (much needed!). They have an incumbent provider of enterprise solutions, one of the large vendors, who they'd like to evaluate alongside other ...
November 30, 2009 by James Robertson
When it is not all about the CMS software
Seth Gottlieb writes about choosing a good CMS partner, not just the right product. To quote: In one case there was a comprehensive site redesign that included digital strategy, re-branding, and information re-architecture as well as implementing new functionality. In another case, the client was shifting to an outsourced model ...
November 24, 2009 by James Robertson
The value of drop-in labs
Jeni Cram has written on the the value of drop-in labs when launching a new CMS. To quote: Drop-in labs are a great way to make the rollout process smoother. A drop-in lab is simply a set time where you invite users to a working session with staff on hand ...
November 18, 2009 by James Robertson
Integrating CMS with recordkeeping?
I provided a CMS short-list to a client today, just one of a number of CMS selection projects that we currently have underway. What made this different, however, was the requirement for integration between the CMS and TRIM, their records management system (RMS/EDRMS). Their needs were fairly straightforward: Take documents stored in ...
Tags: content management systems, integration, recordkeeping, records management
November 18, 2009 by James Robertson
Do you really need in-context content editing?
Apoorv Durga asks: do you really need in-context content editing? To quote: Many Web CMS products tout "in-context," wiki-like content editing as an important feature or enhancement. In-context means letting contributors create or edit content from within the context of the site, without actually having to retrieve a content item ...
October 7, 2009 by James Robertson
JSR cheat sheet for content technologists
Adriaan Bloem has posted a handy summary of JSR standards for content management. To quote: If you're following the content management space closely, but aren't a Java wizard, the JSR (Java Specification Request) numbers can become a bit of a puzzle. I've recently had several conversations that went something like this. ...
September 1, 2009 by James Robertson
Back-end designs and the CMS cycle of disillusionment
Adriaan Bloem has written a post on the problems with back-end CMS interfaces. To quote: Over the years, I've seen a large number of web site functional designs, technical designs, requirements, wireframes and mock-ups. But usually, the one thing missing from the planning of a WCM-driven web site is what's ...
August 27, 2009 by James Robertson
Coupled vs decoupled CMS
Andrew Webb writes about coupled vs decoupled CMS. To quote: The technical infrastructure underpinning web sites has also evolved significantly since WCM was born. We have moved far from the early days of HTML pages and CGI scripts that add dynamic content often from a single database to platforms ...
August 26, 2009 by James Robertson
Sanity check: the final short-list of CMS products should be similar
There are literally hundreds of content management systems in the marketplace. The goal of any selection process is to progressively cut these down until only one remains: the chosen solution. Regardless of which type of evaluation process is being followed, there is a final short-list of typically three vendors. These vendors ...
August 26, 2009 by James Robertson
Insist on a good CMS demo in 60 minutes
Janus Boye makes some excellent recommendations on getting a good CMS demo in 60 minutes. To quote: It is not unusual for vendors to ask for several hours to do a product demonstration and then only reluctantly show the product towards the very end of the sales meeting. Even when ...
August 25, 2009 by James Robertson
Factors impacting content migration
Apoorv has written an article outlining factors that impact content migration. To quote: Whether one is implementing a new system or moving from one system to another, content migration is always an important aspect. Each situation is unique and so each migration scenario will have its own roadmap. However, ...
Tags: content migration
August 20, 2009 by James Robertson
CMS selection: reveal budget in the RFP?
Peter Sejersen asks the question: should we reveal the budget in a CMS tender? To quote: Vendors love when budgets are included in the RFP. This enables them to fit their proposal around the budget, naturally ensuring they spend every penny of it. As a customer you have to be ...
Tags: content management systems, evaluation, selection, tender
August 18, 2009 by James Robertson
Three types of web content management projects
The CMS Myth writes about three types of web content management projects. To quote: We’ve identified three primary types of web content management projects. Consider this a starting point to determine how to right size the approach to a CMS project. Each type requires different staffing, planning, timelines and roll ...
August 3, 2009 by James Robertson
Why IT should not run a CMS selection project
Dorthe Raakjær Jespersen has written a post on why IT should not run a CMS selection project. To quote: This discussion often comes up during CMS selection projects, sometimes even after the process is well underway. The consequence is a delayed project, with much time wasted on meetings and emails ...
July 29, 2009 by James Robertson
The boondoggle that is software maintenance fees
Tony Byrne writes about software maintenance fees for CMS and other similar solutions. To quote: Our research reports also instruct technology buyers how to negotiate down annual maintenance rates. In the field, we sometimes receive slack-jawed responses from both the customer ("you mean we can do that?") and the vendor ...
July 27, 2009 by James Robertson
The CMS decorator pattern
Seth Gottlieb has posted a blog entry on republishing data via a CMS. To quote: A common pattern when you want to present highly structured, relational data on a website alongside managed content is to manage those data outside the CMS and then use the CMS to organize and augment ...
July 24, 2009 by James Robertson
Our government and council work
Step Two Designs has been in business since 1996, we've generated a substantial client list over that time. We are proud of the work we have done, and have shared much of the insights we have learnt via our many articles, reports and workshops. Our client list page has, however, become ...
July 20, 2009 by James Robertson
Large web site migration checklist
David Hobbs has written a post on content migration for large websites. To quote: How do you even get started in your planning for a large Web Site migration? Of course, you want to have strong Web Strategy, Web Governance, and Web Team in place. Probably another useful step ...
July 20, 2009 by James Robertson
Testable stories
Janus Boye has written a post on testable stories (what we call scenarios), and how these can be used during CMS selection. To quote: Testable stories is something we at J. Boye have developed and refined together with several community of practice members and consulting customers since early 2008 whenever ...
Tags: content management systems, evaluation, scenarios, selection
July 6, 2009 by James Robertson
Is there a best CMS tool for your industry?
Tony Byrne debunks the myth of industry-specific CMS solutions. To quote: For web content management I don't believe your industry matters very much. If it did, there would not be 30+ individual Web CMS vendors and open source projects with installations in the U.S. federal government space, and nearly that ...
June 30, 2009 by James Robertson
What intranet content should be in PDF format?
The typical corporate intranet will consist of a mix of HTML-based web pages and a variety of PDF-based content available for download. PDFs can be derived from word processing documents, a document management system and/or similar software. It's not uncommon for an intranet to house thousands of PDFs alongside its ...
June 30, 2009 by James Robertson
Who is choosing the new CMS?
Having been involved in many content management system (CMS) selection projects, we've seen a number of common causes of delays arise. Of these, the biggest stumbling block is a lack of structure around the selection project: who is doing what, when will it happen, and how are decisions going to be ...
Tags: content management systems, evaluation, governance, selection
June 12, 2009 by James Robertson
Online CMS demos: do they work?
Part of my job is to keep up with the the web content management systems in the market: new ones that arrive in Australia and the constant upgrades of existing products. Normally I get vendors to drop by to give a face-to-face demo, allowing me to ask a whole pile ...
Tags: content management systems, demos, evaluation, scenarios
April 28, 2009 by James Robertson
CMIS gets new momentum, thanks to Chemistry
Kas Thomas has written a post on the Chemistry project to implement CMIS (the CMS interoperability standard). To quote: There's been an interesting development with regard to Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS, the new, yet-to-be-ratified content API being considered by OASIS). The Apache Foundation, it turns out, has begun incubating ...
April 16, 2009 by James Robertson
Toward content quality
Colleen Jones has written an article on content quality, providing a simple but effective checklist. To quote: How do we know whether content is any good? This simple question does not have a simple answer. Yet, I think having a good answer would help us show our employers and clients ...
Tags: content
April 15, 2009 by James Robertson
Beyond web-centricity in content management
Gadgetopia has written a post about separating presentation from content, using announcements on an intranet as an example. To quote: Consider an intranet. A company decides it needs a centralized “announcements” system — a communication vehicle to get information to various people in the company. So, they grab some Web content ...
Tags: Content management, content management systems, Intranets
April 1, 2009 by James Robertson
CMS selection – death to the features matrix
Seth Gottlieb has written an article arguing against feature matrix in CMS selection. To quote: Nothing looks more convincing than a score where one option has more points than another. But, users don’t necessarily want to use a system just because it has the highest cumulative, weighted score. They want ...
March 27, 2009 by James Robertson
It’s time for seat-based software licensing to end
Kas Thomas writes that it's time for seat-based software licensing to end. To quote: Given the situation we're in, now might be as good a time as any for potential buyers of software systems -- and licensees whose contract renewals are coming up -- to declare war on per-seat pricing.
Tags: licensing
March 18, 2009 by James Robertson
Everyone still wants a CMS
Even in these tough financial times, many organisations are looking to implement or replace their web content management systems (CMS). This is not surprising: these projects have often been in the pipeline for years, driven by a need to streamline publishing, or to eliminate the pain of legacy tools. Even with ...
March 16, 2009 by James Robertson
Christening your ECM project
Alan Pelz-Sharpe writes about naming your ECM project. To quote: It has always surprised me how many firms name their internal ECM applications and systems after the product that it runs on. For example, I have come across many organizations over the years that tell me things like-
Tags: ecm
March 5, 2009 by James Robertson
A reality checklist for vendors
Kas Thomas has written a post arguing for a reality checklist for CMS vendors. To quote: The two worlds are diverging rapidly. Traditional enterprise software development (the kind associated with "programming in the large") tends to be slow, costly, inflexible. Solution sales, marketing, and support tend to be correspondingly process-heavy ...
March 2, 2009 by James Robertson
Software vendors need to understand how the web really works
Kas Thomas argues that software vendors need to understand how the web really works. To quote: It's amazing to me that so many of the vendors we cover at CMS Watch (even some that claim to have deep expertise in marketing and social-web sorts of things) still haven't figured out ...
March 2, 2009 by James Robertson
Picking the right supplier in a recession
Alan Pelz-Sharpe writes about picking the right supplier in a recession. To quote: "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" -- so the saying goes. And in tough times there is without a shadow of a doubt, a tendency for procurement and IT buyers in general to lean heavily toward ...
February 27, 2009 by James Robertson
Professional services: do you know what you are really buying?
The CMS Myth asks about professional services: do you know what you are really buying? To quote: Professional services are the other half of any CMS implementation, but could the services company you selected pass the same scrutiny your CMS endured during its selection process? From some of the ...
February 13, 2009 by James Robertson
Three steps to a successful web content management (CMS) implementation
Raymond Schauer provides three steps for successful CMS implementation. To quote: More often than not, it comes down to process. How was the CMS implemented? How was it introduced to your users? How was their feedback received and incorporated into subsequent updates? Contrary to popular belief, a website with a CMS ...
February 12, 2009 by James Robertson
17 usability tips to make your CMS rock
Patrick Kennedy has posted a superb article containing 17 usability tips to make your CMS rock. To quote: More than likely your content management system (CMS) will have many usability problems if you just use it “out of the box”. Having been involved in a number of projects tasked with ...
February 11, 2009 by James Robertson
Custom code, CMS and portals
In the early days, intranets and websites consisted of pages and pages of static content. Originally published by hand, many of these sites migrated to a content management system (CMS) in due course. Over time, more sites started to include a range of rich interactive functionality. This included publishing content from ...
February 3, 2009 by James Robertson
Content migration: making it successful
Kassia Krozser has written about practical approaches to content migration. To quote: I’d like to talk for a moment about what I call the Content Migration Fantasy. In this fantasy, an experienced team lead by a tough-yet-wise project manager ports legacy content to a new system. This being a fantasy, ...
Tags: content migration
January 29, 2009 by James Robertson
Robertson’s rule of CMS usage
We're just wrapping up a review of the content management system within an Australian government agency. Their story is typical: Lifecycle of a CMS Some years back, a CMS was purchased to manage the websites and intranet of this agency. This was a powerful and complex product, produced by a small vendor. ...
January 28, 2009 by James Robertson
What’s happening with mid-market CMS vendors in 2009?
The CMS Myth writes about the mid-market CMS vendors in 2009. To quote: 2009 in particular looks to be an interesting year for the mid-market CMS market. While we don't claim to have a crystal ball (and certainly aren't calling out specific vendors), we are observing some macro trends that may ...
January 23, 2009 by James Robertson
The five stages of CMS grief
The CMS Myth writes about the five stages of CMS grief. To quote: While a unified CMS strategy can be smart for the organization, it takes control away from independent web authors, changing web publishing life as they know it forever. Dealing with the loss of total web authoring control and ...
January 16, 2009 by James Robertson
Green IT versus blue sky
Kas Thomas has written an article on the challenges in centralising content management to save the environment. To quote: More and more these days, content lives at the edges of the network, on laptops and desktop machines and collaboration servers (and in SQL Server instances that support a group's SharePoint ...
January 15, 2009 by James Robertson
What should you look for in your CMS license contract?
Janus Boye provides practical advice on what to look for in CMS license contracts. To quote: Don’t accept the standard payment terms. Usually software vendors like to get their money up-front, but you can typically negotiate much better terms, e.g. a very small up-front payment, and then the rest when ...
January 14, 2009 by James Robertson
Cancel your CMS maintenance contracts
Janus Boye controversially suggests that you cancel your CMS maintenance contracts. To quote: Here’s a tip that can save you some money in 2009: Cancel your maintenance and support (M&S) contracts with your CMS and enterprise portal vendors.
January 6, 2009 by James Robertson
Don’t expect CMS consolidation in 2009
Janus Boye argues that CMS consolidation won't happen in 2009. To quote: I don’t have enough insights into the North American web content management (WCM) marketplace to comment on local marketplace dynamics “over there”, but for the European marketplace, I don’t expect any significant consolidation among CMS vendors and CMS ...
January 5, 2009 by James Robertson
Who loves the incumbent vendor?
Alan Pelz-Sharpe has written about the pros and cons of incumbent CMS vendors during a selection process. To quote: On the one hand, being the incumbent, Vendor X is at a real advantage to supply this new technology over anyone else. They have an existing relationship with the IT group, ...
December 18, 2008 by James Robertson
Two types of CMS users
Content management systems are frequently rolled out widely across whole organisations, following a 'decentralised authoring' model. As discussed in the earlier article The importance of CMS usability, a new CMS product will only be a success if staff make use of it. For this to happen, authors must be able ...
December 4, 2008 by James Robertson
Should you throw out the CMS or just the implementation?
The CMS Myth asks: should you throw out the CMS or just the implementation? To quote: Most organizations we talk to are often looking at their second or third CMS implementation, so by no means are they strangers to the promise of web content management. But almost half the ...
December 3, 2008 by James Robertson
Building a CMS from scratch is so 1990s
Paul Chin argues against writing your own CMS. To quote: I was recently asked something that I myself have been wondering for a while: Does anyone still build intranet-based content management systems (CMS) from scratch? And more importantly, is there any real advantage in doing so?
December 2, 2008 by James Robertson
Do automated review dates work?
Keeping content up to date is hard. Whether on a website or intranet, organisations constantly battle with outdated or incorrect information. One of the primary goals of a content management system (CMS) project is therefore to improve the quality of content on the site (or sites). One of the key mechanisms ...
November 25, 2008 by James Robertson
Practical ways to assess CMS usability
The usability of a content management system is paramount. If authors and site owners can't work out how to use the CMS, you've got nothing. The CMS can have all the functionality in the world, but usability trumps it all. I've written about this before, outlining 11 usability principles for ...
November 24, 2008 by James Robertson
Web content migration: disastrous strategy
Gerry McGovern writes about the problems with content migration. To quote: How is Joe going to solve this problem? Here is the traditional web management solution. Joe decides he needs a new jug. Joe gets a team together to decide what sort of jug is needed. They specify a really ...
Tags: content migration
November 21, 2008 by James Robertson
Accessibility is getting better in CMS products
I've been facilitating CMS vendor demos for most of this week, as part of the final stages of a University CMS selection project. One of the things that has changed in the products is their support for accessibility, generally for the better. The good news There have been some encouraging improvements: Some now ...
November 20, 2008 by James Robertson
Leading CMS requirements
Seth Gottlieb has written a piece on writing good CMS requirements. To quote: Generic requirements gathering processes are self absorbed. They are optimized to comprehensively find business requirements, not understand them within the context of business goals. And the more the requirements are abstracted from the goal of managing content, ...
November 19, 2008 by James Robertson
PDF manuals: the wrong paradigm for an online experience
Mike Hughes writes about the problems with PDF manuals. To quote: Let me describe a familiar user assistance experience. A user installs a new application, and when the user wants Help, the application directs her to the user documentation on a Web site or CD-ROM. What the user finds there ...
Tags: documentation, pdf
November 14, 2008 by James Robertson
De-hyping CMIS
Barb Mosher provides an overview of Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS), the latest standard for content management interoperability. To quote: The Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) spec was created by a group of ECM vendors — specifically, Microsoft, IBM, EMC, Oracle, Alfresco and Open Text. The purpose of the specification ...
Tags: cmis, content management systems
November 7, 2008 by James Robertson
Gottllieb’s 2nd Law of CMS implementation
Seth Gottlieb has published his 2nd law, which states: Novelty + Urgency = Chaos. In the context of CMS implementation: Here is how it usually plays out in the world of web content management. A company buys a new CMS and intends to migrate 50-100 sites onto the new platform. ...
November 6, 2008 by James Robertson
Online education courses from CMS Watch
CMS Watch are some of the wisest folks in the enterprise content management market. Their pragmatic and fearless reviews are built on an encyclopedic knowledge of products and vendors, and they've also learnt a lot about what works (and what doesn't). That makes their recently-launched online education courses of ...
Tags: content management systems, courses, enterprise content management, training
November 5, 2008 by James Robertson
Podcast: out of the box content management
On Monday I was interviewed by Phil Dobbie of BTalk Australia. The podcast on out of the box content management has now been published. To quote: (15min 54) There are a huge amount of content management systems (CMS) available, from free open source platforms through to advanced commercial solutions. That ...
Tags: content management systems, linkedin, podcast, selection
October 22, 2008 by James Robertson
What makes a Wiki?
Gadgetopia has written a post asking: what makes a wiki? To quote: Way back in the day, when wikis were new and I was messing around with early versions of Twiki (we had to GlueWordsTogether to make links…), wikis had some prety clear differentiators. I agree that the lines between wikis ...
Tags: Collaboration, wikis
September 29, 2008 by James Robertson
What intranet CMS’s can learn from wikis
The "Wiki Way" is getting some traction at the moment, and it's often positioned as the replacement for "old fashioned" methods of publishing. In particular, wiki advocates target the limitations and failures of web content management systems, the tools most often used to publish and manage corporate intranets. Now, wikis are ...
Tags: cms, Enterprise 2.0, Intranets, versioning, wikis, workflow
September 5, 2008 by James Robertson
Blogs no longer equal conversations?
Alex Manchester has questioned what blogs mean, in the context of today's usage. To quote: For me these days a blog is little more than a sophisticated, easy-to-use website platform. A place where an individual or a department/function can have their own site quickly and easily. Simplistic that may be, ...
Tags: blogs
August 27, 2008 by James Robertson
Does your company have a component content management problem?
Ann Rockley has published a small quiz to identify whether you need a component content management solution. To quote: You may sense that you need Component Content Management, but how can you be sure? Using the checklist below, click each box that represents a symptom your enterprise presently experiences. We'll ...
Tags: component content management, Content management, reuse
August 27, 2008 by James Robertson
Planning & coordinating content migrations
Maish Nichani has outlined a methodology for content migration. To quote: You’ve spent months researching and redesigning your intranet or website. The wireframes and the sitemaps have done their job in communicating the benefits of the new design to the stakeholders and you’ve got good feedback from the users. The ...
Tags: Content management, content migration, Intranets, websites
August 20, 2008 by James Robertson
CMS or ECM – what is the difference?
Jed Cawthorn talks about the difference between CMS and ECM. To quote: The whole world often seems full of unfathomable jargon, and no one tops the information technology industry for its love of the Three Letter Acronym (TLA). Two TLA’s that cause much confusion in our industry are CMS and ...
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August 19, 2008 by James Robertson
How we work (3): selecting a CMS
This is part 3 in our series of posts that outlines how we work with clients. There are a very large number of content management systems (CMS) in the marketplace, 140+ in Australia alone. These vary hugely in price, design and capabilities, and we've often said that CMS products are only ...
August 11, 2008 by James Robertson
A good CMS salesperson will…
The CMS Myth has written about the attributes and behaviours of a good CMS salesperson. To quote: Being a CMS vendor salesperson can be a tough gig. Content management extends far beyond just selling software (or a hosted service) and the sales process can become long and complex. ...
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August 8, 2008 by James Robertson
Does size matter with CMS vendors?
The CMS Myth asks the question: does size matter with CMS vendors? To quote: With all the factors to consider when selecting a CMS, how much should the size of the CMS vendor matter? If you are considering open source options, does it matter how large a community supports ...
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August 7, 2008 by James Robertson
5 differences between Wikipedia & enterprise wikis
Stewart Mader has written an article on the differences between Wikipedia & enterprise wikis. To quote: Enterprise wikis and Internet wikis (of which Wikipedia and Wikitravel are examples) provide the same basic function - the ability to edit content in a web browser - but they differ in several significant ...
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August 6, 2008 by James Robertson
Low value content is destroying your website
Gerry McGovern has written that low value content is destroying your website. To quote: The study also found that the ratio of content/data being accessed in the system versus new content/data being published was about 2-1. In previous studies this ratio was 4-1 or higher. This means that the rate ...
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August 5, 2008 by James Robertson
Content migrations: options, strategies and faux pas
My latest article, titled Content migration: options and strategies generated a healthy amount of discussion (and debate) on various mailing lists and on the blogosphere. Barb Mosher has posted a wrapup of some of the discussions, pointing to some of the useful posts. To quote: After reading James’ piece, Adriaan ...
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August 4, 2008 by James Robertson
The Content Building Blocks of Web Content Management
The CMS Myth has written about the building blocks of web content management. To quote: Planning a content management driven website requires a rigorous look at the underlying content. Proper planning in the early phases of the project can ensure a content architecture that is flexible and scales with your ...
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July 30, 2008 by James Robertson
Drawing the lines – effectively structuring government online teams
Craig Thomler has written about structuring online teams in government. To quote: Some organisations make different business teams responsible for different products, services or brands - which lends itself to each team having responsibility for the website and online campaigns related to the products it manages. In these cases there ...
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July 22, 2008 by James Robertson
Content migration: options and strategies
There is a lot of work involved in redeveloping and relaunching an intranet or website. The project management challenges start early, and it is easy to overlook the time (and effort) needed to migrate the content from the old to the new site. Yet, for its lack of visibility, content migration ...
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July 1, 2008 by James Robertson
JSR 286: The last portlet standard?
Janus Boye has written about the release of JSR 286, the latest portlet standard. To quote: Standards generally go missing in this marketplace, but judging from the very limited attention this new version of the portlet spec has received, it makes me wonder whether the marketplace has already left the ...
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June 30, 2008 by James Robertson
Make government data freely available
Craig Thomler has written an article on making government data freely available. To quote: Rather than struggling, as it currently does, to design [web ]sites that meet each end-user need, we argue that the executive branch should focus on creating a simple, reliable and publicly accessible infrastructure that exposes the ...
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June 26, 2008 by James Robertson
Universal Edit Button
Michael Angeles has written about the interesting idea of creating an Universal Edit Button. To quote: There is a group of people getting around the idea of having a Universal Edit Button in browser bars to indicate when a page is editable. The green pencil icon is similar to the ...
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June 3, 2008 by James Robertson
Mac OS X support in CMS products: ouch!
For the last few days I've been sitting in on CMS vendor demonstrations, as part of helping a client select a CMS. One of the key selection requirements in this case was support for Mac OS X (Tiger or later). This wasn't a casual requirement, as the whole organisation runs on ...
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May 27, 2008 by James Robertson
Shifting from content management to content delivery
The CMS Myth has written about moving from content management to content delivery. To quote: As vendors look to differentiate and provide more value, they are scurrying to deliver more ‘out of the box’ tools to deliver content and better overall user experiences. It’s important for the savvy web professional ...
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May 23, 2008 by James Robertson
The Australian CMS marketplace [+ audio]
| View We do a lot of work helping organisations select a suitable content management system (CMS), ...
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May 23, 2008 by James Robertson
Content is not data
Seth Gottlieb argues that content is not data, and that "unstructured data" is not a very helpful term. To quote: Content has context. In addition to who wrote the content, where it appears also matters. We care greatly how content is classified and organized because we want to make it ...
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May 16, 2008 by James Robertson
How to improve intranet content? (a mindmap)
There are many ways of improving the quality and value of intranet content. To progress discussions on this topic, we've produced a mindmap that brings together almost a hundred ideas. Download the PDF ...
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May 15, 2008 by James Robertson
Enhancing dashboard value and user experience
Joe Lamantia has published the fifth article in his series on dashboards and portals. To quote: Portals gather and present content from a wide variety of sources, making the assembled items and streams more valuable for users by reducing the costs of content discovery and acquisition. By placing diverse content ...
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May 12, 2008 by James Robertson
Don’t try to boil the content ocean
The phrase 'trying to boil the ocean' refers to tasks that are clearly and heroically impossible. This is exactly what most teams take on when they try to get every intranet page up to the same high standard. In the earlier article titled Intranet authoring: a hobby?, the role of ...
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May 7, 2008 by James Robertson
Wikis in the Enterprise
Wikis are spreading like wildfire within organisations, driven by their quick setup and comparatively easy use. As yet, however, little has been written on how to make wikis work well. That is why the new report from J. Boye, titled Wiki in the Enterprise is so valuable. Many have written ...
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April 25, 2008 by James Robertson
More reasons that a content management company will go out of business
George Dearing has listed more reasons that a CMS vendor will go out of business. To quote: The next five reasons on my list come from an ECM executive who asked to remain anonymous because he said it would be too obvious which company he's talking about, and he's already ...
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April 21, 2008 by James Robertson
Benefits of plain english URLs
Gadgetopia has written about the benefits of plain english URLs in a CMS. To quote: The plain-english URLs are more memorable to the customer, and they impart some meaning. When picking URLs, we envison someone at the client’s firm reading the URL to someone over the phone. How easy is ...
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April 14, 2008 by James Robertson
Top 5 reasons a content management company will go out of business
George Dearing has written a list of 5 reasons a CMS vendor will go bust. To quote: Several months ago a content management vendor told me that the oncoming recession was causing it problems with revenue generation. I said perhaps, but it's also possible its problems were related to the ...
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April 10, 2008 by James Robertson
Menuing in content management: implicit vs. explicit
Gadgetopia has written an article on implicit vs explicit menuing, when using a CMS. To quote: Navigation is often a pain when it comes to content management. Now, don’t confuse “navigation” with information architecture — that grand plan of what goes where in relation to what. By “navigation,” I mean “menuing.” ...
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April 8, 2008 by James Robertson
In-context vs back-end authoring
Most modern content management systems provide two different ways of editing site content: in-context editing and back-end editing. While in-context editing is often seen as 'sexier', each method has its strengths and weaknesses. This briefing will explore these two editing options, providing advice on when to use them in practice. In-context editing In-context ...
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April 8, 2008 by James Robertson
Clean up your LDAP or Active Directory
A lot of intranet and portal projects aim to deliver functionality related to personalisation or customisation. This may involve tailoring information based on staff role, delivering news relevant for specific offices, or limiting access to information based on seniority. Any of these capabilities requires the system to know who staff are, the ...
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April 3, 2008 by James Robertson
A case for Movable Type as your Intranet
Gadgetopia have written an article on using Movable Type as your intranet. To quote: Here’s a fact: intranets don’t have to be crazy-complicated. Intranets are fundamentally about sharing simple information, which is not as hard as some people make it out to be. As simple as this is, most organizations ...
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April 2, 2008 by James Robertson
Think like a user
Ann Rockley has written an article on thinking like a user when designing documentation. To quote: When assembling a document (or creating the required information the first time), it’s important to ask not ‘what do I need to see here?’, but ‘what does the user need to see here?’. The ...
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March 31, 2008 by James Robertson
Composite pages and embeddable content
Gadgetopia have posted an article on composite pages and embeddable content. To quote: A composite page is a single page, made out of pieces. Your users can add a “Page” to the system, then add “Sections” to the page. They can pick from different types of sections, like “text with ...
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