35 people attended the Content Management Systems session which was led by Paul Browning, Information Strategy Coordinator, University of Bristol and Mike Lowndes, Web Manager, Natural History Museum.
The aims of the workshop were to:
Paul opened the Workshop by posing the question “is there anything wrong with the ‘orthodox’ Web?” He provided illustrations of:
Delegates were also given a list of over 80 products claiming to be CMS and a summary of 41 features taken from a range of proprietary CMS packages. Delegates were asked to prioritise the features they considered essential components. An attempt had been made to group the features under categories such as ‘content integration and versioning’, ‘workflow’, ‘data repository’, ‘user management’, ‘user interface’, ‘applications’ and ‘deployment’. The features were not necessarily mutually exclusive and semantics subject to debate.
Paul reflected that features taken from proprietary packages may not be those required for the HE/FE sector. He concluded that we are confronted with a confusing vocabulary that made choice extremely difficult. He posed questions about whether a CMS was different from a Virtual Learning Environment or Document Management System and suggested that even Front Page and Dreamweaver could lay claim to containing some elements of CMS. Paul also queried whether CMS was a useful/appropriate label.
Despite being perplexed by the interpretation and range of features, delegates hastily drew up a list of what they considered crucial components, including:
Mike Lowndes then gave a further expose of why we need CMS highlighting new challenges facing Web Managers; the need to separate content from style, to deliver dynamic data generated on the fly at the time of deployment; content repurposing; branding control and multiple-authorship. He put forward the view that there was still a role for ‘flat static Web pages’ and pointed out that some CMS force a database-only approach with consequent limitations. He referred to products which were database focussed – ASP, Cold Fusion, Zope etc, and also off the shelf packages such as Vignette, Spectra, PHP and Teamsite, aimed at large scale and e-commerce websites.
He informed delegates of a CMS report on the Microsoft Website.
Mike then provided a case-study of NHM’s experience in implementing Interwoven’s Teamsite with few resources and no programmers! Teamsite is a large scale CMS and Mike felt he could justify the £45k cost. NHM was the first museum site to go live in 1994 and are now moving towards XML-XSL asset management. Limited resources meant Mike didn’t have time to re-engineer the whole site. He said that he found the product easy to use and implementation time took three days. He acknowledged that it would need a UNIX expert to take advantage of the whole package. He highlighted some of Teamsite’s particularly good features:
Mike described Teamsite as ‘content agnostic’ in that it doesn’t care what format the data is in.
In response to queries about a potential consortial deal, Nigel Lodge from CHEST gave an impromptu presentation. Nigel explaind that CHEST, a charity devoted to FE/HE had considerable experience of negotiating on behalf of consortia as well as for individual institutions where large sums of money are involved. CHEST could also negotiate support-only contracts. He suggested that delegates approach the UCISA Software group to clarify HE/FE needs and come up with a list of 3-4 potential suppliers. He emphasised the importance to consider platform issues, licences and software redundancy.
Dave Cartwright, Chief Technical Officer from cube8.com plc, an internet incubation/investment company, advocated it was better to build your own in-house CMS. He stated that 95% functionality of commercial CMS would not be used and that self-build CMS systems could be developed as the site grows. Commercial packages are unlikely to meet needs of a complex site and would have to be customised. It is almost as quick to do it yourself as to customise. Dave said “if you have a ‘noddy’ site you don’t need a CMS”.
During discussion, Mike Lowndes expressed support for the ‘buy and build’ model but said it was essential to identify whether a bought package was flexible enough for customisation and growth.
Joe Nicholls, Cardiff, felt that it was not possible to combine the integration of Teaching and Learning effectively yet in a CMS and recommended that this must evolve as a long-term objective.
Chris Withers of New Information Paradigms (NIP) a software development organisation founded by ex-Hewlett Packard employees, gave a brief demonstration of Zope/Swishdot. Zope is an open source application which was described in one article as ‘The Swiss Army Knife for the Web’. Zope focusses on content management, portal provision and personalisation services. The product is open source and is therefore free, although users have to pay for technical support. The learning curve is initially difficult but, once familiar, users can develop applications very quickly.
Zope features publication in a controlled environment before live publishing; version control; auditing capabilities; tracking document changes; and undo. Templating is expected soon as well as the potential to programme it in PERL.
Chris strongly advocated the use of free open source software, which has the benefit of worldwide voluntary input to growth and development. Chris’s recommended reading for those interested in open source is ‘The cathedral and the bizarre’ By Eric Redmond.
“XML Rules OK” said Joe Nichols of Cardiff. He shared the view that whilst most users are familiar with word-processing and Web browsers, they have no time to learn how to create Web pages. Joe and colleague Phil Harris set up Project ASPIRE to respond to this common problem. APIRE enables data created in MS Word to be dynamically output in a variety of formats. Their programme converts basic Word documents to Rich Text Format then into XML which is extremely versatile. Content can then be output into a range of templates, can be separated into chunks and re-assembled as appropriate and the look and feel changed instantly. ASPIRE has potential to output to Webpage, VRML, WAP, Web TV, ebook, MS Word, Flash, etc and is thus a very powerful tool.
Paul Browning and Mike Lowndes gave an excellent expose of elements that might be found in a content Management System, illustrating 41 features and 80 products. There appeared to be a confusion between the distinctions of Virtual Learning Environments, Document Management Systems, Database systems, Front Page and Dreamweaver which lay claim to elements of CMS.
Because CMS features are driven primary by commercial requirements it was queried whether features appropriate to HE/FE are missing.
On a quick straw poll, participants nominated the following three aspects as being vital to a CMS:
Thanks to presentations from Dave Cartwright and Chris Withers, there was healthy dissention as to whether to use a proprietary pack or whether to build your own CMS. Some felt strongly that buying and customising was the best approach and it was therefore essential that the CMS be flexible to future development.
Joe Nicholls and Phil Harris also demonstrated an exciting repurposing tool in Project ASPIRE and Paul Browning left us with the simple thought that a CMS should make life easier for the Web Manager.
Mike Lowndes’ comment that CMS is a ‘concept’ and not a product, was the key message to take forward the issues raised by the Workshop.
THE HE/FE sector should specify its needs/expectations of a CMS system and focus on the most appropriate products/solutions. A consortial deal should be considered in association with CHEST. How best to support the needs of those who want to build their own, or buy and build, should also be addressed.
It was proposed that these issues should be the subject of a working party, possibly a UCISA SG evaluation project. The Workshop welcomed Brian Kelly’s support in helping take this forward.
Thanks to all who participated in the Workshop.