John Galvin of io1 describes the process his company went through in transitioning from their own XML/XSL content management development to Drupal. After looking at Joomla! and other PHP-based CMS solutions, they settled on Drupal in large part because if its strength with handling taxonomies.

If you or your company have been considering implementing a content management system, John's post is worth a quick read.

A few weeks ago I highlighted an article by Acquia's VP of Marketing Jeff Whatcott. In it, Jeff came up with a definition of something he calls "social publishing." He described it as a blend of what we currently expect from a web content management system, aspects of online networking such as blogs, wikis and sites like Facebook and YouTube, plus the ability to create web applications using a common framework.

I liked Jeff's terminology then; I like it even better today. For the purposes of this discussion, I include Joomla, Drupal, Plone and other similar software as content management systems and WordPress, Moveable Type and Blogger and their kin as personal publishing, or blogging, platforms. But as open source developers have extended the capabilities of these packages, they are coming closer to each other's niche markets.

Plenty of bloggers are using CMS software to run their blogs; New Tech Heroes is just one of many sites that are primarily blog-driven using Drupal in that way. With the modules and extensions available for WordPress today, and more expected when version 2.5 is introduced, it's more than just a blog platform now. Is it a CMS yet? Does it matter?

Bryan Ruby examined the "social publishing" terminology on his CMSReport blog last Thursday. Noting that we're now dealing with "something more than a CMS," Bryan writes:

What do you call a Web application capable of publishing and managing not only content, but is an application that also manages wikis, social networking, documents, forums, photos, and blogs? Some people will tell you these diverse features are best described under such terms as social software, Web 2.0, social networking, and Enterprise 2.0. While these terms may help create a lot of buzz, I have some difficulty in using these terms to describe the information system model being used by the applications. If you think the definition of a CMS can be a fuzzy or limiting term, wait until you start using the term "social software" in a business setting. Personally, I don't think my boss is in the mood to deal with such vague terms.

The imprecision of terms does make selling this technology difficult to our employers and clients. Not only is "content management" difficult to define for them, the whole idea that there's any "content" to "manage" is baffling to many decision makers. Don't we just want a web page? Haven't we progressed enough if we get that far? Now we're supposed to be "social," too?

It reminds me of the rise of "desktop publishing" twenty years ago. Large print shops hated the term - and the technology - because it implied anyone could do what they'd been doing with their big Linotype machines and composition tables for years. (The fact that not anyone could actually do good layout work became apparent soon enough. I still see brochures laid out using Microsoft Publisher that feature eight or more fonts.) Yet we needed some term back then to describe what PageMaker could do, and desktop publishing did the trick. Interestingly, you rarely hear the term "desktop publishing" anymore, because now everyone - including the big print shops - does layout work on computers now.

So maybe in the long run it won't matter with social publishing, either. For now, though, it seems like we need to have a term that describes this evolving type of software that's driving how individuals, businesses and organizations are communicating in 2008. "Social publishing" works for me. What do you think?

Matt Asay interviews Acquia's VP of Marketing Jeff Whatcott today on CNET's News Blog. Whatcott talks about Acquia's announcement at Drupalcon in Boston about the company's first product, a commercially-supported release of Drupal 6 called Carbon (similar to the Red Hat distributions of open source Linux), plus how Acquia got started and whether Drupal is a competitor for Microsoft's Sharepoint.

Building an enterprise Drupal, Acquia style

SilverStripe has posted a release candidate for an patch that will fix "several dozen issues," according to the release notice.

Current users of the SilverStripe open source CMS are asked to download and install version 2.2.2rc1 and report any problems during setup, upgrading or operations. Keep in mind that release candidate software is not the final version and may still contain bugs, so caution should be taken before using this version on a live production site.

More information on SilverStripe is available on the project's overview page.

Adobe's development tools for rich Internet applications (RIAs) were officially released today.

AIR allows developers to create RIAs using the tools and languages they already are familiar with, such as HTML, Flash/Flex and JavaScript. These applications run in a browser, so they have the advantages of easy deployment and maintenance (since they're server-based) and accessibility (anywhere there's a browser and an Internet connection). But they also have additional benefits most web-based applications don't have, including the ability to read and write local files and interact with existing desktop applications.

Flex is a framework for developing RIAs. The SDK for Flex is freely downloadable, and Flex is now open source with version 3. Adobe has a commercial product to assist with Flex development called Flex Builder 3 which retails for $249.00 from the Adobe Store. According to Adobe, Flex Builder 3 works with other Adobe Creative Suite applications such as Dreamweaver, Illustrator and Flash to create a comprehensive AIR/Flex development environment.

What do today's developments at Adobe mean for open source CMS developers? With their flexibility and ability to be easily extended with modules and add-ons, open source CMS platforms like Joomla! and Drupal are also CMFs - content management frameworks. The websites we develop using these tools are just one of the many uses of their base functionality. You can create a rich Internet application using these open source CMS platforms. There are many examples of rich, complex, interactive websites created that way, including The Onion (Drupal), National Lampoon (Joomla!), FastCompany.com (Drupal), MTV-Netherlands (Joomla!), and Amnesty International (Drupal).

So where does Flex fit in this picture? Is it another commercial CMF/CMS like Microsoft's SharePoint? Will its open source status make it appealing to those currently doing that type of development with Joomla! or Drupal's tools? Or will we see an integration of Flex into the existing open source CMS platforms. There are groups and individual developers already starting to discuss the possibilities, but I'm curious how you see this developing in the next year. Leave your thoughts in the comments, please.

Part One - Overview and Advantages of Content Management Systems

1. CMS tools put you in charge, not your webmaster. You decide when to create new content or update or delete old information. Your site is current and accurate when you want it to be, not when the IT department gets around to it.
2. CMS tools allow you to create multiple users and permission levels, and then assign the updating of specific sections of the site to those users, who may have more direct knowledge of the subjects being covered.
3. CMS software includes many standard "modules" which automate the handling of common web site functions, including creating and editing content, publishing news feeds via RSS, and handling photographs and video content. Available add-on modules can expand your site in almost any way you can imagine, usually with just an hour or two of work, instead of requiring weeks of custom programming. If you've seen something done on a web site, a module is probably available to make it happen on yours.
4. CMS software generally doesn't require special software or new hardware to work. One of its biggest strengths is how easily it scales; since most CMS tools work in a standard web browser window, any number of users can edit and manage the site without needing dedicated web design software installed on every user's computer.
5. CMS doesn't have to be expensive. In fact, while there are excellent commercial CMS solutions (such as Microsoft's SharePoint and IBM's Websphere), the Open Source community has also developed strong, professional CMS software that costs little or nothing to download and implement. Installing and getting the software running properly, plus creating the templates for your own unique web site is still a necessary cost (unless you're familiar with servers, HTML and web style sheets in CSS), but generally small businesses and organizations can be up and running using CMS for a very managable up front cost. Depending on the complexity of your site, you could save hundreds or even thousands of dollars versus web development costs of just a few years ago, and get a more powerful site for the money.

Part Two - Popular CMS solutions

H.L. Mencken once observed that "The freedom of the press is limited to those who own one." Mencken was one of the sharpest-tongued social critics of the first half of the 20th century. His wry observations of American life and attitudes were required reading for anyone who considered themselves to be sophisticated. In his prime, Mencken had virtually free access to the "presses" owned by others.

It's fascinating to imagine what Mencken would have done with today's powerful self-publishing tools, including the incredible growth of personal blogs. With several free blog tools available today, anyone wanting to get their words published has the ability to do so.

Why do customers care if I'm on the Web?

It's unusual to find a business or organization that doesn't have at least a simple, static web page. With the sophisticated web search engines available today, when your customers and prospects try to find you on the Web, they expect to be successful, and will be disappointed if they can't find you. They may just move on to one of your competitors who is providing the information they're looking for.

Having a well-designed and regularly updated web site provides online visitors with three important benefits:

• A sense that you're "open for business." To many potential customers, no web site, a poorly-designed one or one with outdated information is a red flag. While business owners understand how little time there is to stay on top of their company's web presence, that's not something the prospective buyer is going to care about. All they know is you're not where they want you to be: online and ready for business.
• Useful and accurate information about your business or organization, on demand, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Your web site never closes, never turns off the lights. If a customer needs information at 2:00 a.m., whether they're burning the midnight oil or because they're across the world in another time zone, that information is available when they need it. And when specifications or prices change, they can be updated in real time, so the very next visitor to your site gets the correct information to make their buying decision.
• An ongoing dialogue between you and your customers. Keeping the web site updated dependably encourages visitors to come back again and again to find out what's new with your company or organization.

How do I keep my site useful and up-to-date?

That's where business blogging comes in! Using current blog or content management system (CMS) software, your web site can easily have fresh content added by you or other company employees as frequently as you like. No outside management of the content of your site is needed... if you know how to use a word processor and have access to a web browser and Internet connection, you can update your site from anywhere! And you can include content from other sources to keep your site fresh and keep customers and prospects coming back.

The latest versions of blogging and CMS software are hosted online, so no additional software is needed on your business PCs. You can authorize other employees to write and edit for the site without needing extra copies of programs on each computer. Again, all that's needed is an Internet connection, a web browser, and some basic word processing knowledge.

It sounds powerful. It must be expensive.

Not at all. The innovative technology behind business blogging is available as part of the Open Source software movement. Open Source software is developed and maintained by a worldwide community of programmers for the benefit of users everywhere. Open Source software is as secure, if not more so, than comparable commercial software, mainly due to the ability of the programming community to respond openly and quickly to reported security issues.

Setting up and maintaining the business blogging software and designing a web site to work this way can be accomplished by anyone with a moderate amount of experience with web servers and HTML programming. Working with a professional web design company that specializes in business blogging solutions, however, will ensure that:

• all software is kept up-to-date and fully secure;
• the design is professional and useful and reflects favorably on your company or organization; and
• professional training and support is available to make sure your business blogging experience is positive.

Contact the New Tech Heroes today!

For more information about business blogging or to get a quotation on your company or organization's web project, contact us using our web form or call 810-892-8599.