Content Management Systems: some thoughts about the industry
Disclaimer: the views on this post are mine and mine alone, so should not to be taken as representing the views of the company I work for.
With the dizzying array of content management systems out on the market, it is getting harder and harder for consumers to decide on one that will fit their needs. Although there are a lot of great products out there, the choice is still quite hard, once you start down one road you can end up being locked in.
Through the creation and development of an in house CMS for the web marketing agency I work for I have come to believe that they should hold the following key ideas:
1. Abstract code from content
2. Handle media
3. Be simple to use
4. Closely match logical structure of the content displayed on the site.
5. Does not lock down a user to one specific content management system.
The reason for these are quite apparent but surprisingly a lot of CMS systems get this wrong, why is this? I think this is because the key idea of making a generic content management system for all to use is not possible, or quite simply hasn’t been invented just yet.
I think there needs to be a lot more discussion between the CMS vendors, especially towards the 5th point. We need to share common vocabulary so that we can better understand ways to solve the same problem.
- Is it possible to get an architecture right that is simple but also allows for handling the complexities of a big site?
- Can portability between one content management system to another be achieved, if so how do you see that working?
- Should we be developing custom CMS’s or rely on the generic ones on the market?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.