Broadly speaking,
Content Management describes a process that allows people to more easily create and update content, especially on their websites (
Web Content Management).
Enterprise Content Management extends the concept to interactive or transactional content used in a
Web Application, such as eCommerce, and to several related management problems, such as
Document Management,
Records Management, and
Digital Asset Management.
When the
Content (number of pages, images, etc.), and/or the number of Contributors
?, grows large, a
Content Management System (CMS) helps collect and create the content in ways that makes it easy to
Re Use.
A CMS allows a team of contributors to work on the same pages without conflicting -
Check In Check Out and
Work Flow control).
A CMS adds
Meta Data to the content, critical for
Organizing Principles,
Navigation, and
Search Engine.
A CMS can schedule pages to appear and disappear at designated times, and archive the old pages with
versioning and revision control.
Reuse of content means an item can be edited in one place and be published instantly in many places (
Single Source Publishing). But it also means that the different versions of the content can be formatted properly for
Multi Channel delivery, including the web (HTML and PDF), print, wireless handheld devices, and cell phones, as well as versions for different audiences - affinity groups, different languages, etc.
A SmallCMS is for single web authors working one or a few websites.
An EnterpriseCMS may control hundreds of thousands of pages on hundreds of websites with many dozens of contributors.
In between, the TeamCMS is for corporate departments and smaller organizations.
News Portal software (slash-alikes and the *nuke family) are a form of community CMS, as are
weblog tools (usually for PersonalPublishing) and Wikis (usually for teams of collaborating contributors).
Some CMSs edit whole web pages, others edit a
Content Template for a page including more than one
Content Element. Both kinds may have Form Based
? text editing, Source Editing
? of the
Markup Language, or a Wysiwyg Editor
? (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) offering Visual Editing
?.
Smaller CMSs tend to be Page Oriented
? and store HTML (in a database or as files).
Enterprise CMSs use
Content Template and store the
Content Element as an information
chunk in
XML, usually in an RDBMS
? or a Native Xml
? database.
Some systems tag and store the information with RDF -
Resource Description Framework -
Meta Data for the
Semantic Web.
The three classic phases of the
Content Management Life Cycle are:
Content Creation includes
Acquisition of content,
Aggregation of syndicated content, and
Authoring of new content.
Content Management Proper
? includes
Workflow,
Information Design -
IA,
UI,
Ix D,
UX,
Metadata, Approvals
?,
Repository, Transformations
?, Localization
?,
Staging Server, Quality Assurance
?, etc.
Content Delivery includes the Live Server
? (possibly
caching),
Multi Channel Publishing
?, and
Syndication.
Aspects of
Content Management that apply throughout the
Life Cycle include
Access Control,
Business Rules,
Backup,
Analytics and Performance
? Metrics
?
Content managment is getting the right content to the right person at the right time at the right cost.
Gerry McGovernA CMS is...a set of business rules and editorial processes employed by people surrounding web content, designed to align online publishing efforts with organizational objectives.
Tony Byrne, CMS WatchWe don't know of anyone who can be credited with the first use of "content management", but there is little doubt that it was Vignette who was the most responsible for the term becoming widely associated with web content management. This in spite of the fact that there were far more people "managing web content" using Microsoft and Lotus technology at a time when you could still count Vignette's customers on one hand. Content management is still associated with web publishing more than any other application. It is largely because web publishing is so different from other types of publishing that content management has come to encompass such a wide variety of functions.
FrankGilbane, Gilbane ReportReferences:
Choosing a Content Management System
History of Content Management Systems
Books on Content Management