Re: CMS
The one thing to keep in mind when choosing a CMS (or for that matter whether you actually need one) is whether you want to manage the content for your site or manage the content on your site The difference is subtle but important. The first thing you should decide is whether you even need a CMS. How many pages on your site need changing on a regular basis? If 95% of your pages are static (i.e. never change) then you do not need a CMS to control the content on the site - but you may need one to control the content of your site. A CMS is great when you have a large number of people all contributing to the content of the site, but if everything goes through your web department before it goes live - what are you using a CMS for? If you need to integrate (as you stated in your message) disparate systems and databases - a CMS may not be the best solution. In my opinion any vendor of a CMS that comes in a tells you that their system can solve all your content integration problems - doesn't know your problems. A CMS can be costly and so complicated that no one wants to use it. When it comes down to it, many times hiring someone with knowledge of the web will save you headaches and money. A person who knows how to program and can find their way around web technologies will be able to show you far easier ways to control and integrate content than a prepackaged CMS will ever do for you at this time. Andrew Macdonald New Media Officer / Agent des nouveaux médias Canada Aviation Museum / Musée de l'aviation du Canada Phone / Téléphone : (613) 998-5689 Fax / Télécopie : (613) 990-3655 Website: www.aviation.technomuses.ca Email: amacdon...@technomuses.ca Will Scott william_sc...@fitnyc.edu 05/26/2005 04:50 PM Please respond to mcn-l@mcn.edu To mcn-l@mcn.edu cc Subject CMS Does anyone on the list have expertise in this area of content management systems for the distribution of museum collections information, or has anyone contracted a CMS vendor for major, long-term museum Web- or intranet-access projects? I would be interested to know more about your experiences and about how you are using the CMS, especially for integration of various museum databases. If replying off-line, please send messages to willscottconsult...@yahoo.com. Many thanks in advance, Will Will Scott Museum Database Freelancer Assistant Registrar, The Museum at FIT willscottconsult...@yahoo.com (917)753-1274 --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: amacdon...@technomuses.ca To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-113561...@listserver.americaneagle.com --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rlancefi...@mail.wesleyan.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com
Re: CMS
At 10:24 27/05/05 -0400, Andrew Macdonald wrote: A CMS can be costly and so complicated that no one wants to use it. When it comes down to it, many times hiring someone with knowledge of the web will save you headaches and money. There's a lot of truth in that. A CMS really comes into its own when you want it do more than run one website. The one we used on the TAMH project - managed the website, a local touchscreen application and a CD-ROM for school use. It also output images and generated whatever flavour of XML had to go with them at the time for other projects' use. There are some papers on it at http://www.tamh.org/tamh/papers/index.php (they are rather out of date as we've spent more time in recent years implementing the strategy than talking about it) Would never have occurred to me (having no money) to go out and buy an off-the-shelf solution. Ours was built in-house over time and versions of it work with museum sites and commercial applications such as a holiday booking system and a real estate database where vendors add and edit their own property details. The level of difficulty in implementing something like this depends largely on where you start. It's a lot easier if you begin with an existing database (even one in a horrible proprietary Collections Management System) which you can export elsewhere and re-fit with link tables, SQL and scripting. Everything we have done in this area has been built around LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) which has the great attraction of being free. The Clearances site www.theclearances.org is built on a CMS which manages everything including things like passenger list output in XML and proprietary formats. We have also developed an exhibition tool, a CMS which sits on top of a CMS allowing quick generation of temporary exhibitions combining existing assets with whatever new material curators wish to add. This may never see the light of day as a commercial product but it certainly proves the ease with which different databases and media types can be combined and managed. Douglas The Highland Clearances http://www.theclearances.org --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rlancefi...@mail.wesleyan.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com
Re: CMS
Those considering CMS applications might find the following interesting: Jeffrey Veen, Making A Better CMS, November 15, 2004 http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000365.php and Why Content Management Fails, April 1, 2004 http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000315.php which reminds me of http://OpenSourceCMS.com a cool site where you can try out installations of free and open source CMS software. jt -- __ J. Trantjtr...@archimuse.com Partner Principal Consultant phone: +1 416 691 2516 Archives Museum Informatics fax: +1 416 352 6025 158 Lee Ave, Toronto Ontario M4E 2P3 Canada http://www.archimuse.com __ --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rlancefi...@mail.wesleyan.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com
Re: CMS
Those considering CMS applications might find the following interesting: and might also be interested in http://www.cmsmatrix.org/ which lets you compare and contrast the feature sets of about 350 different commercial and open-source CMSs. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of New Technologies Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002 bwy...@denverartmuseum.org --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rlancefi...@mail.wesleyan.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com
Re: CMS
Hi Will My name is Darren Peacock, I run an information and technology management consultancy in Australia- Sweet Technology- specialising in the museum field and in content management systems in particular. I have a range of experience in planning and implementing CMS in a museum environment. For the last three years I have conducted a workshop on content management in museums at the annual Museums and the Web conference. This year I will also be running a version of the workshop at the MCN conference. I would be happy to discuss further with you. regards Darren Peacock Sweet Technology +61 400 500 689 Quoting Will Scott william_sc...@fitnyc.edu: Does anyone on the list have expertise in this area of content management systems for the distribution of museum collections information, or has anyone contracted a CMS vendor for major, long-term museum Web- or intranet-access projects? I would be interested to know more about your experiences and about how you are using the CMS, especially for integration of various museum databases. If replying off-line, please send messages to willscottconsult...@yahoo.com. Many thanks in advance, Will Will Scott Museum Database Freelancer Assistant Registrar, The Museum at FIT willscottconsult...@yahoo.com (917)753-1274 --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: d...@sweet.net.au To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rlancefi...@mail.wesleyan.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com
