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CMS Watch has created this handy Subway map to help you navigate the content technologies vendor landscape. To be sure, not all vendor stations are listed, but this should give you a sense for the major players.

Believe it or not Edit-X does not fit into this subway map. That is because they classify by products single category and can only relate to additional categories.

The Edit-X Framework encompasses Ecommerce, Social Networking and Content Management on top of a scalable development platform. None of the products listed can say that. I guess we would be on multiple stops through this underground tunnel system. It is still a cool way to look at related technologies.



Many different tools -- and scores of vendors -- fall under the rubric of "content technologies." Can they be organized on a single page? CMS Watch asks. I already proved not.

Well they tried, using the good old "subway map" motif year after year. I hope you find it useful explaining to your colleagues what different vendors can -- and can't -- do.

Posted by R. Stacy Cook at 05:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On 30 January 2008, the Content Management Professionals Election Oversight Committee announced that Joerg Dennis Krueger, Tony Pietrocola, Paul Trotter and Andrew Wilcox were elected to the 2008-2009 CM Pros Board of Directors. The new directors were nominated and elected by members in an open process. The four new Directors replace two outgoing board members, Mary Laplante and Emma Hamer, whose terms expire this month. Directors Linda Burman and Travis Wissnik remain on the Board until January 2009. Barry Schaeffer joined the board in late 2007, filling the remainder of resigning Director Joan Lasselle's term.

About Our New Directors

• Joerg Dennis Krueger, Managing Director and vendor-independent consultant and analyst with Cara Europe Ltd in Germany, is committed to expanding the CM Pros community in Europe.
• Tony Pietrocola, President and Co-founder of Tenth Floor Interactive has more than 10 years in the content management industry and will work to market and expand the recognition of CM Pros.
• Paul Trotter, Founder and CEO, Author-it, New Zealand has worked with content management for the past 12 years and plans to use his practical "make it work" experience to champion CM Pros member benefits.
• Andrew Wilcox, president and founder of Everage Consulting, Canada, has served as Technology Manager for CM Pros and plans to follow through with the technology initiative currently in process.
• Barry Schaeffer, president of X.Systems.Inc, focuses on handling the organizational impacts of information technology changes and is dedicated to developing a body of CM Pros knowledge.

Elections Committee member and former CM Pros President Erik Hartman comments, "In an election process that brought to CM Pros ten highly- credentialed content management professionals, we are delighted that these four individuals will help shape the organization's future. We extend our appreciation to the six other nominees, each of whom would have made invaluable contributions to the organization, for having been part of this exciting process."

Posted by R. Stacy Cook at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you are thinking about creating a new blog and are not sure where to start, or have already been blogging for for some time and are thinking of trying something new consider these ten things when selecting new blog software for your new blog.

1. Quick and Simple Installation

2. Spam Control, Comment Workflow and Filtering

3. Ease in Publishing Blog Entries

4. Ease in Uploading Images

5. Ease in Placing Images in Blog Entries

6. Ease in Locating and Editing/Formatting Blog Entries

7. RSS Syndication Options

8. Search Friendly and Optimization Controls

9. Templating System or Ease in Customization

10. Community and Support

Edit-X has just released the Edit-X Blogger software for Free. Download it for yourself here...

http://www.free-blog-software.com

Posted by R. Stacy Cook at 04:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Web Content Management - CM Pros Fall 2007 Summit
November 26, 2007 Boston, MA
http://www.cmprosevents.org

Who Attends?

The Content Management Professionals (CM Pros) Fall 2007 Summit takes place on November 26, 2007 in Boston, preceding the Gilbane Conference on Content Technologies. The Summit explores web content management technologies and their impact on the way we work. The event's multiple sessions will focus on the importance of web content management and the technologies that are turning the web into a platform for developing business solutions and information services.

Summits attract a global audience of content professionals, including consultants, analysts, strategists and vendors. Writers, editors, and translators also attend in significant numbers. Attendees are looking for help solving difficult challenges, discovering best practices, and developing new skills they can take back to the office. Newcomers to content management will find a supportive and welcoming community. Workshops and roundtable discussions address the needs of specialists and non-specialists alike.

"The value of the CM Pros Summit far exceeded the nominal fee charged for attendance. The quality of the speakers was excellent. It was also good to see some good old fashion debate as well, and to encourage varying perspectives." said one past attendee?

Salim Ismail, the conference's keynote, is a successful angel investor and entrepreneur. He currently leads the Brickhouse at Yahoo!, a newly launched program for rapid product development. He also co-founded?Confabb.com, an event portal, advises many startups on technology ventures. Salim's address, Internet 3.0: The Web as a Content Management System, demystifies the next phase of the internet and explores how Content Management will play a key role as a platform for information and service delivery.

About CM Pros

Founded in 2004, CM Pros provides information, expertise, and support to content management professionals and the organizations they serve. Through peer-to-peer interchange, the collaborative development of best practices, a series of educational events, and definitive knowledge resources, CM Pros fosters a better public understanding of this critically important discipline. Find out more at http://www.cmpros.org.

Register today: http://www.cmpros.org

Before September 30: Members $295, Non-members $395 (New members receive a free first-year CM Pros membership) After September 30: Members $395, Non-members $495 Paid registrants receive a $200 discount off the cost of registration at the 4th Annual Gilbane Conference, Boston, MA, November 27-29, 2007 (http://www.gilbaneboston.com).

Posted by R. Stacy Cook at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I find myself writing a lot these days and it isn’t anything I ever thought I would be good at or anything I ever wanted to do. I always thought of myself as creative but in a graphical way never with words. It seems that more and more I am using Microsoft Word over Adobe Photoshop to communicate my visions and thoughts.

I build multiple web sites per week, some times I start from scratch, other times I have an existing site with few to many hundred pages. Most of the time I ask the customer what are the plans for the content. “Can we copy it from another web site and modify it with some of our information? or just copy what we have and we will update it.”

Content is the single most important part of your web site. It is what separates you from your competitor. Copying content from your competitor does not make you stand out. It blends your web site in with the rest. Flashy graphics will only do so much and they don’t entice a user to give you their information.

Updating your old content is fine as long as you really update it and then optimize it. Revising a few words and adding a couple paragraphs won’t cut it. You need to think about how your organization has changed, what is new, what separates you from the competition, and then optimize that content for the search engines. Starting from scratch also has its advantages.

Unless you have a large marketing budget, television commercials, radio spots, news paper and magazines advertising your company’s web site and products, the only way users will find you, other than by word of mouth, is the net. Where does every one start? A search engine. Google.

When you are writing content for your web site you should always consider who that content is targeted to and what keywords will they use to find your page of content. Those keywords or groups of words, keyword phrases, must be embedded within the paragraphs of the targeted page. The number of times those keywords appear is referred to as keyword density.

Keyword density is related to a pages ranking within the search engine and can be combined with formatting techniques to increase ranking even further, bolding, italics, headline, linking, bulleted lists and underline can all be used to emphasize your keywords.

Does any of this make sense? Sounds more scientific than creative and it is. I would have to say at least it makes more sense thinking of the page as a mathematical equation but to a point. This content must be legible to a person yet optimized for the search engine. This is where the art comes back in and the use of a trained professional, or copy writer can really make a difference.

Writing content for your web site is no joke. It can be extremely complicated to make yourself visible and it can be even harder to have a ranked page which will convert a user. Don’t overlook the content or the need for a copy writer when revamping your web site. Consider the targeted keywords and each pages keyword density. Consider also the time it takes to prepare the content properly and do you have that time. Once you realize content is King you will start finding higher rankings for your pages, increased traffic and more conversions.

Posted by R. Stacy Cook at 03:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

By now, just about every company who needs a CMS must have one already, right? Well, you’d think so. The CMS industry as we know it has been around for more than ten years, so it’s safe to say that every enterprise-sized organization has purchased licenses for a CMS product (or, more accurately, multiple CMS products). But what about all the mid-size and smaller businesses?

What’s happening in the CMS market is overall very positive. There continues to be strong competition among CMS vendors. And, while there are a handful of obvious leaders in the enterprise market (names like Interwoven, Stellent, Documentum, and Vignette), the field of players for the mid-size and small business markets is still wide open.

This competitive environment is good news for businesses considering a CMS. Why?

• Costs are coming down—especially when you consider hosted CMS products, also known as Application Service Provider (ASP) or software-as-a-service (SaaS).
• Quality is going up—in terms of range of features, ease of implementation, and usability.
• Trial is easier—with more and more CMS vendors providing downloadable trial versions or providing try-before-you-buy software and services.

As you can see in this chart by Forrester Research, the CMS market doesn’t seem to have stagnated at all. In fact, the rate of growth has increased over the past 4 years. Analysts do note, however, that the enterprise market has flattened, indicating that much of today’s growth is coming from the small- and mid-size business segments.

Since 2000, mid-size companies have been adopting a lot of the same types of software applications as the mega-size companies, including ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), SCM (Supply Chain Management), and CRM (Customer Relationship Management). These systems are now recognized as essential IT infrastructure for companies who want to grow and be competitive.

Content management systems have not quite reached the status of essential infrastructure (although, arguably, they should). But, after getting their other IT ducks in a row, mid-size and even some small businesses, are seeing a CMS as the next logical step. And, they’re adding a CMS for the same reasons they implemented the systems mentioned above—growing their business and staying competitive.

As recognized by the big players, those that deliver the right content, in the right format, to the right customers, at the right time do gain a competitive edge.

Posted by R. Stacy Cook at 02:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

“When I grow up, I want to be an information architect.” Bet you wouldn’t have heard a kid say that 15 or even 10 years ago.

I remember the first time I heard the term. Actually, I think my boss at the time (now a well known content management guru) made it up. When describing my role on multimedia projects, he said, it’s kind of like being an architect, but not for buildings, for information. “Ah,” I said, “an information architect.” That’s what I want to be.

This was back in about 1995. Little did I know that the term was already spreading as fast as the Internet, and the field of information architecture was born.

A recent discussion on among CM Professionals brought up an interesting question—namely, what is the relationship between information architecture (IA) and content management? And, beyond that, what about the emerging discipline known as user experience (UX)?

• User Experience (previously known as User Interface Design) is the creation of the architecture and interaction models which impact a user's perception of a digital device or system. In content management, you want to keep the desired user experience strongly in mind when designing both your authoring interfaces and your end publications (Web sites or other types.) So, UX plays a very important role in content management.
• Information Architecture is the practice of expressing an information model, or concept for information. In content management, the task of analyzing the content, breaking it down into the appropriate chunks, defining of structure for how it will be stored, accessed, and presented is all information architecture. Again, IA is a critical aspect of content management.

I’m a big advocate of user-centered design, so, for me, the user experience helps shape many aspects of a content management solution, ranging from which system to choose (one that’s intuitive for authors, developers, and end customers), to the information architecture (how your audiences want consume your information...in small chunks, as full documents that they can print, as videos?)

One thing to remember, though: While UX and IA are important aspects of content management, there’s a lot more to it. Content management has equal parts of process and structure. UX and IA focus more about how to structure content, which is good. Add a few doses of workflow planning, like roles, tasks, and permissions, plus business rules to the mix and you have a decent recipe for content management.

Rita Warren of ZiaContent, Inc. is a veteran of the software and digital media industries with more than 10 years experience helping companies deliver content in compelling and sensible ways. Well known in her field, Rita served as technical editor of the first edition of Bob Boiko's acclaimed book, the Content Management Bible. She is a frequent speaker at national conferences and contributor to content management industry publications.

Posted by Rita Warren at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The term “Web 2.0” annoys me. And I’m not the only one who feels that way. Nonetheless, having a term to describe the fact that the Web is evolving is a useful. I’m getting used to it, and it’s definitely influencing my thinking about content management.

So, here’s why Web 2.0 bugs me. It implies that there was some defining moment that marked the shift from the original Web to the next Web. It did help to read the O’Reilly article that explains What Is Web 2.0? (Tim O’Reilly originally coined the term.) In this article, he cites the dot-com crash as that defining moment. Everything before the bubble burst was 1.0, everything after is 2.0. Ok. I’ll can sort of buy into that.

Realistically, though, the shift in the Web was not a point in time. It was a blur—as is every natural evolution.

In my opinion, Web 2.0 is an evolution of:

• Information conceived as pages – to – Information as components to mix and match
• The Web being shaped by large organizations – to – The Web being shaped by its users
• Relying on structure to find content to – to – The content being inherently findable
• Customers at the mercy of vendors – to – Vendors having to listen to customers
• A one-way conversation – to – a two- or three, or four-way conversation

Overall, this evolution is very positive. It empowers us as users, it increases knowledge sharing, and it’s scary, too. Too much central control can be bad. Not enough control can also be bad. It’s known as chaos. I predict that this Web 2.0 evolution will follow what I call the “Big Bang Theory of Business”—which is another topic that I’ll write about in the coming weeks—basically a pattern of expanding and collapsing as a way to find the optimal state of being.

In the meantime, even if you also think Web 2.0 is an unfortunate name, I encourage you to take the time to read more about it from O’Reilly and elsewhere. If nothing else, it’ll upgrade the way your think about the Web.

Here are just a few resources and other (similar) opinions on the subject:
- http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html"

- http://www.paulgraham.com/web20.html

- http://www.andybudd.com/dcontruct05/

- http://blog.del.icio.us/blog/2005/11/there_has_been_.html

Rita Warren of ZiaContent, Inc. is a veteran of the software and digital media industries with more than 10 years experience helping companies deliver content in compelling and sensible ways. Well known in her field, Rita served as technical editor of the first edition of Bob Boiko's acclaimed book, the Content Management Bible. She is a frequent speaker at national conferences and contributor to content management industry publications.

Posted by Rita Warren at 01:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Does the person who has the biggest influence over choosing your CMS know HTML? Has he or she ever written code? Do they know what XML is? If so, then perhaps that person should not be the one taking the lead in making the decision.

Contrary to how most technology decisions are made, when it comes to a CMS, the users of the system ought to have a big say in what tool will work for them. Sure, features for system administrators and developers are important, but, not necessarily more important than usability.

One promise of CMS technology is enabling distributed authoring. In other words, you eliminate the IT bottleneck and let the people responsible for the content directly update and publish it. There’s huge benefit in taking the tech team out of the loop. The pitfall, of course, is partially losing control over what’s on the site to people who may or may not submit “good” content. This is why a CMS with a strong user interface and behind the scenes control is key.

Some thoughts on authoring and editing interfaces:

• So easy a 5th grader can do it? A good system provides an easy-to-use authoring and editing interface for non-technical users. Someone who knows how to do the basics in word processing software should be able to figure out how to edit content in the CMS without a week long training session.
• Is what you see really what you get? WYSIWYG editing is another common feature. In theory, this is the best kind of editing tool because most of us prefer to see what our content changes will do to the page as we make them. But, sometimes these types of editors add extra code to pages that cause errors, making the experience more frustrating than compelling.
• How does Times New Roman 14 pt. in lavender sound? Some CMS editing tools reinforce the rules of good design by using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Others do not. It’s great to let the users get in there and do the work themselves, but sometimes unleashed creativity needs to be tamed.

So, if you’re the one who’s leading the evaluation of a CMS, but you don’t represent the average user, what do you do? Fortunately, there’s a great solution. Many CMS tools provide evaluation versions of their software.

Try before you buy is now a viable option and highly recommended. It may take you a bit of time to set up and configure the trial software, but it gives you an opportunity to have various users take it for a spin while you watch for their reactions. It’s a great way to find out if the tool lives up to its promises…or if using it turns out to be “the pits”!

Posted by R. Stacy Cook at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It’s 10:00am. Does the rest of your organization know what your Web site is doing? We’ve all heard of (and probably work in) the fateful “siloed” organization, where each business group does its own thing. Sometimes there are good reasons for silos. Communicating across groups takes precious time, money, and patience. But, at times, silos can wreak havoc on the customer experience.

Customers are exposed to silos when systems don’t talk to each other real-time, like when inventory data in one place says product is in stock when its really not. But, very often, silos occur with content—in particular, with promotions, campaigns and new product launches. When marketing groups aren’t in lockstep with channels, the customer ends up confused or frustrated because the information they get from one source doesn’t match up with another source.

This week I went to order an item I saw in a catalog. The catalog advertised it as “on sale”, which was the main reason I decided to order. And, I like to order from the Web. It’s usually very simple and fast, plus, I don’t have to wait to talk to anyone, and I won’t get pressured to buy other stuff I don’t need.

When I went to the site, it didn’t show up on the “sale” promo page, nor did the sale price appear when I did find the item online. Darn. Now I have to call to place my order, otherwise, I’m afraid I won’t get the lower price.

This is an example of three “customer touchpoints”: Print Catalog, Web, Call Center. In theory, I could place an order in three different ways: mail or fax, click my mouse, or pick up the phone. It’s nice to have those choices. In fact, it’s great. But, when the content on one of those touchpoints is inconsistent with the others, it causes me distress and affects my perception of the company.

Now, I don’t know why the “on sale” info wasn’t on the Web. Maybe it was on purpose. Maybe internal communications were out of synch. But it does underscore the importance of having the same content available to all channels at the same time.

When working on getting your content under control, it’s helpful to think not in terms of just the Web, or just the marketing brochure, but all the places where customers interact with you:

Key Customer Touchpoints:

• Print – brochures, catalogs, point of sale materials, signage, advertising
• Electronic– Web site, e-mail messages, ads
• Personal – store employees, call centers, field sales reps, service reps

The more you can work to create and publish consistent content across all the touchpoints, the better. Your customers will thank you for it.

Rita Warren of ZiaContent, Inc. is a veteran of the software and digital media industries with more than 10 years experience helping companies deliver content in compelling and sensible ways. Well known in her field, Rita served as technical editor of the first edition of Bob Boiko's acclaimed book, the Content Management Bible. She is a frequent speaker at national conferences and contributor to content management industry publications.

Posted by Rita Warren at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Take content management systems on the one hand, and e-commerce platforms on the other hand. Therein lies a big question: Does the left hand know what the right hand is doing?

When the Web was full of “brochure-ware”, e-commerce functionality was only critical for dedicated online retailers. As business owners and marketers recognized new ways to monetize their Web investment, more and more companies have added e-commerce to their sites. Now even companies that don’t sell physical goods are making profits selling memberships or content. It’s a rare Web site that will never require an e-commerce component.

Ironic, then, when a business buys a content management platform, then decides they need e-commerce, they end up having to buy a separate e-commerce platform and integrate the two. Or, the opposite happens. They start with an e-commerce package with very limited content handling, only to find later that they need CMS features. The result? A messy process of integrating their e-commerce system with a CMS, often with dubious results.

While there are dozens more considerations involved in evaluating platforms, here are just a few things to look for when considering a complete solution to manage your Web site:

• If you’re looking primarily for a CMS, does it have an e-commerce component? Was the e-commerce part built by the same developers, or built separately and cobbled together? Does the system handle memberships and sale of intangible goods? How do you integrate your existing data, like your master product and inventory data?
• If you’re looking primarily for e-Commerce, what CMS functions does it provide? Is there a user-friendly authoring environment? How about workflow and version control? What types of content can you manage within the system? (Just a product catalog descriptions, or other types of content, like articles and documents?) How about managing images and media? How easily can you update the product catalog with new content? Is it a multi-step publishing process?
• If the solution doesn’t have both CMS and e-commerce functionality, then with which other systems have customers successfully integrated? Can you get reference sites and contacts?
• If you planning to expand your horizons (and, who isn’t?), are the CMS and e-commerce solutions built on the same technology platform (e.g., Microsoft .net, Java)? Are they built on open or proprietary standards? What features are planned in the next year or two? Does the vendor have other customers whose businesses are similar to your own and who will need similar enhancements in the future?

Bottom line (and isn’t that what it’s all about?): Beware of CMS and e-commerce integrations. They’re often trickier than you think. Without due diligence up front, you may end up with your hands tied when it comes to getting the system to do what you really need it to do.

Posted by R. Stacy Cook at 09:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)