CMS tabs dump

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There are few professional things that keep me awake at night, but CMS are a big insomnia trigger and it happens that I'll soon get into yet another CMS implementation project.

Incidentally, I came across several interesting articles and posts about this subject. Here they are, tabs dump style:

  • Content management: web publishing needs real discipline -- "Too many organizations take an unprofessional approach to the content they publish on the Web. Many web managers still seem to believe that if they get the technology right the publishing will look after itself. Quality publishing requires skill and discipline. Unfortunately, discipline is something many web teams are lacking." Well, sometimes the lack of discipline lies not with the web team but with the content managers!
  • Content Management - A Process, Not a Technology -- "I feel like, most of the time, when the goals for a site are laid out the first thing on the docket it the design and look and feel. This has been going on for years and it seems like after all we’ve learned about the Web and how people use it we should know by now that without content there is no point to having a Web site."
  • Enterprise Content Management is a Process, Not A Technology -- "CMS vendors have spent years trying to convince customers that content management is a technology, and with the right solution, the problems go away. But in talking to people at organizations big and small, we hear again and again that CMS projects fail." Ah, content management, ce douloureux problème !
  • Why Content Management Fails -- "So many of the companies I’ve spoken to lately have complained about the content on their Web sites. They say it’s woefully out of date, growing out of control, and generally a complete mess. Almost unanimously, these companies have chosen to solve the problem by handing it to their IT departments." I guess I'm lucky I've managed to keep IT out of my arena for the past 6 years.
  • People critical for managing content -- "Jeff Veen has captured a painful bit of experience that too many enthusiastic managers, captivated by technology, often fail to see: 'Turns out, after all the budget and time we spent, we really didn't need a content management system at all. We just needed some editors.'"
  • Managing the Complexity of Content Management -- "Content management systems suck. Or so you would think from the strife heard from analysts and practitioners alike. And yet, many websites regularly publish vast amounts of information with superior control and ease compared to manually editing pages. So where’s the disconnect between what’s possible and the too-often failure of CMS?"

Oh, and although I know this won't please some zealots, Java is another thing that keeps me awake at night, so there is little chance I'm going to do the CMS + Java nightmarish combination again... [P.S.: yes Java sucks, I found an independent scientific study that proves it ;-)]