Content Management Systems

Content Management Systems

by Sean Grant

www.slingshot.co.za | +27 35 772 4555 | +27 82 5777 340 | sean@slingshot.co.za

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"A content management system (CMS) is a collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment." - Wikipedia, accessed on 19 Nov 2009 at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management_system

The first web CMS that I encountered, SiteBuildIT, turned out to be a pyramid marketing scheme, encouraging customers to re-sell it's "newest" features, enlisting their own customers to maximise profits. Fortunately, I continued to search for my dream solution - a web CMS that would speed up the production of websites, and enable a number of interactive features that clients were asking for, such as a restricted area for private documents, or a Guest Book feature where visitors could share their opinion.

Soon I found what I was looking for, and it was called Mambo. It had just been release by a team of 'coders' (web programmers) and it was FREE and you could CHANGE the code to suit your purposes! This is a now a common phenomenon, and is referred to as Free, Libre & Open Source Software (FLOSS) and you have probably used one of the many web applications to emerge from this hot spot for technology innovation, such as Mozilla Firefox, Open Office or one of the social networking sites that harness the power of the similar technologies, such asFaceBook, YouTube, or Twitter.

When it comes to website publishing, the industry has really evolved quickly and dramatically over the last five years of which I have been actively consuming and producing websites built on a growing number of web CMS applications - WordPress, Joomla!, Drupal, Plone, Yola and many others.

The basic premise of a web content management system is that users can register an account and add, edit & publish content (images, text, videos, files etc) in a controlled, safe manner. This type of web publishing was previously only possible after learning some complex programming languages, however it is now simple enough to register a new account on a website built using a CMS, and copy and paste your text from a text editor like MS Word and click the Send or Save botton, and your thoughts can be shared with the world wide web.

CMS's can cater for simple brochure ware sites like www.hilltonmanor.co.za, an SMME website that handles online event registration like www.vastratech.com, a large municipality with all of it's information demands like www.johburg.gov.za or an international travel site with online reservation and payment facilities like www.proteahotels.com.

Fortunately the setup cost for such a CMS ranging from R5,000 to R500,000 so that most businesses, organisations or individuals can find a budget to ensure that they get online quickly and effectively. If you do not have a budget, get started with Google's Blogger

Here is a comment from one such client, who is listed on on of our Joomla! CMS driven travel sites, www.sodwana-accommodation.co.za;

"Thanks for putting our info on the web - since day one we had regular response and on a daily basis there are enquiries for accomodation. We also appreciate your immediate assistance when we make changes. Suggestions that you have made when we asked for your help, seem to work very well! Thanks again!" Sarel Marais

This info can be put onto a website the same day that it is received from a client, because there is a content management in place, that allows for a rapid response time.

New Year ... new Blog ... new Business mmmmmmmm?

Now that the New Year has kicked in, if you are in business like me, the 5th of the month means that you have 20 days to make the most of your time to get those invoices out before the month end debit orders, mortgage payments etc.

Hang on! Don't tell me I have lost you already... unless you are one of the lesser privileged, pressurised employees who is reading this on 19 Jan 2009 after your month off from The Corporation, in which case there is not much that you can do about the end of the month financials anyway, except work harder, smarter and impress your boss, whose job you secretly are aiming to take over.

We wouldn't be human if we did not at the very least set some goals and those infamously challenging New Year's resolutions, so here goes...

Besides buying mountain bikes for my wife and I, and kitting the family out with helmets and finally getting the last two training wheels off of my youngest son's new birthday bike, I have decided that 2009 will be the year of blogging our web consulting business and non profit organisation into the limelight.

Although I have dabbled in blogging for the last few years, truthfully I have never really given myself to regular online publishing. This does seem rather amiss, considering that my trusty Google Mail Contacts "suggested" 2628 contacts who should be in My Address Book (...and who said that artificial intelligence was still way off?).

Not blogging seems even further amiss since our main business these days is Joomla! project management & Joomla! training and supporting ordinary folks in the skill of developing and managing their own website, using the new media that are available, like Joomla! content management systems, or for the less complex website; Google's Blogger, or Moodle learning management systems, for the increasing need for educational content to be available online - lots of online stuff, as you can tell from the previous, less than comprehensive list.

They say that if you aim at nothing you will surely hit it. So, in light of the fact that 2009 is here.. and that we DO want to achieve growth in business, develop new and maintain and enhance our existing customer's service experience by empowering them - by all means - to assist them to make the most of the goodies that we sell to you, a blog presents the ideal, user friendly, neutral, non-threatening medium of communication, that you can read on your own terms, at your convenience, in your office. The same, of course, goes for your customers.

A Blog is a "personal web log" or an informal conversation that you have with others. Rather than a formal website, which is expected to answer the 4WH questions (What? /Where? /When? /Who? /How?) a blog gives one the liberty to shoot the breeze, as you would with your mates in the clubhouse.

A common mistake that we often make is that we write for the web instead of writing for our customer who is really the one whom we need to convince to share their hard won money with us. Try this tactic that I often recommend to our trainees - rather than typing your article, speak it out onto a dicta phone, then type it as you listen to the playback. You may be surprised at the difference!

Now, you may be thinking that you need to be an expert before you can start blogging. NOT true! As the saying goes, there is always someone who knows less than you do, and as far as many are concerned you may just be the "expert" in your local area for your service or product offering.

For example, while I may be able to tell you much about the web, I would gladly take the advice of a handyman, like Alan of ADS Renovations, who was at my place today, to put together a quote for some alteration work that we are planning. Left to me, the alterations would not only be hazardous, messy and unattractive, but in Alan's care we expect that the job will be well done. Now if Alan had to blog about how to contract a reliable handyman, or how to do the alteration, or how to check work done before making final payment, then people like me would be quick to listen.

Or Andries from AT Air, who responded to a call out within one hour on one of the hottest days in Zululand and only charged us R150/hour for the service, and helped us to decide to spend another R600 to move a poorly placed airconditioning unit that has given us problems from day one, due to the wrong placement. Having been in the industry for 30 years, he could tell the other "professionals" in town a few things about airconditions... using a blog of course!

Or how about sports, which I last played in school (that's about 15 years ago, as I matriculated in 1992) - people would much rather hear Willem Swanepoel from Zululand Sports telling them how to choose that next mountain bike, than me who last worked on a decent bike back in the 90's, so I have suggested to Willem that he start a sport advice and commentary blog, which we registered today during a web promotion strategy for his new website by the same name.

You see, we all know something that someone else does not, and we generally like to make decisions based on recommendations, suggestions and confirmations, even if they do not always work out, in general the best advertising is word of mouth, and when that happens online, we begin blogging our way to better business, better opportunities and better bottom lines in business, greater visibility in the community and develop a sense of sincerity and integrity, when what we blog about adds real value to those around us.

For an easy entry into blogging, check out www.blogger.com and within 5 minutes you will be publishing your "expert" advice online. Most blogs allow for comments so be warned that if you publish nonsense, you may have to face the firing line, but if you share meaningful, useful information, be prepared for praise and grateful appreciation from your clients.

Happy New Year and Happy New Blogging!

Dr Joomla!
Making the Most of the Web

~ for more information see www.learnjoomla.co.za ~

The state of Open Source & Joomla! in Southern Africa

Further to my blog post earlier this month about the Open Source in ICT Conference [http://joomlajournal.blogspot.com/2008/05/joomla-day-south-africa-joomla-open.html]...

I have returned from the event, which was professionally organised by Business Zone, with mixed feelings about the state of open source software in the Southern African internet landscape.

The conference was attended by about 45 delegates from a variety of government departments [Defence, Education, Intelligence, Social Development] corporate banking [FNB], internet research specialists [Arthur Goldstuck], web related smme's [Slingshot], corporate consultants [VOX], open source developers [UWC] and NGO's [Joomla! Southern African Portal, FLOSS Portal, NetDay] amongst others. All in all a hetrogenous, almost eclectic mix of clients, service providers, producers and consultants.

Highlights of the event for me were the networking opportunities that happened on the fringes, in the form of business card exchanges, with the possibility of follow on business relationships, collaborative ideas that seemed right to both parties who had not previously heard of one another and exposure to a healthy range of ways that open source software is being used and employed in innovative, traditional and unconventional ways through a number of Case Studies delivered by experts in their respective professions.

Lowlights of the two day affair were the apparent lack of accredited / approved service providers, incidents of poor project management, failed implementations and impersonations by under-qualified and inexperienced consultants, coupled with a general lack of awareness of industry trends and conditions that surfaced during the stimulating and challenging debates and question and answer interactive times following some of the presentations.

The way forward is not necessarily clearer to me, however most of the delegates indicated that they had benefitted from the Open source in ICT conference, and we have undertaken to maintain communication by means of another wonderful tool in the Google Box, which I have setup and cordially invite anyone interested in developing, using, changing, deploying, migrating to or managing open source technologies in their industry / organisation / company / community.

You can find and join the Open Source in ICT user group here: http://groups.google.com/group/open-source-in-ict

Relating this to Joomla! is the next challenge, as the demand for Joomla! powered websites increases at an alarmingly exciting rate, with requests for training and project work coming through my inbox on a daily, sometimes hourly basis, sometimes with the unfortunate reason that the first service provider has under-performed or in some cases simply abandoned the project, leaving clients high and dry with incomplete websites, that should by now be fully functioning content management systems.

This paints an opportunistic picture for those who do deliver on time and over and above expectation (like the Joomla! developers whom we refer our project requests to), however for clients it may mean paying dearly for school fees before they find a development partner whom they can rely on and trust to produce the Joomla! powered goods they are willing to pay for.

I would be interested in comments from clients and developers alike, who may be able to shed more light on this rapidly expanding industry of website content management, not only using Joomla! but also Plone, Drupal, Mambo, Zope and a whole directory of smaller, less well known open source systems.

That's all folks.

Sean

All 4 Joomla!
& Joomla! 4 all