CMS Weekly

Archive for October, 2009

Social Media Policies from 80+ Organizations
Transcript From Episode CMSW2009-09-21

One of the key challenges for modern organizations is to define a social media policy.

Mashable has been a major resource here, with articles such as 10 Must-Haves for Your Social Media Policy and Social Media for Business: The Dos & Don’ts of Sharing. If you’re looking to define your own social media guidelines, however, one worthwhile task is to read the policies of other organizations.

Chris Boudreaux, author of the upcoming book “Social Media Governance” has assembled 82 such policies on the book’s website Socialmediagovernance.com. From companies to charities to military organizations, it’s a treasure trove for those struggling with social media guidelines.

This Week’s Episode

Tweet This Post

Alfresco Wants Enterprise Content Management in the Cloud
Transcript From Episode CMSW2009-09-21

The open source enterprise content management company has unveiled a developer program for those looking to host both the community and enterprise versions of its software on the Amazon EC2 cloud computing platform. Alfresco is a leading open source alternative for document and Web content management, competing strongly with ECM giants like Open Text, Documentum, and SharePoint.

The core of what Alfresco is offering is an AMI (Amazon Machine Image), a pre-built software package for creating a virtual machine on EC2. The first Alfresco AMI is only for the community edition, and doesn’t include their SharePoint module or the mobile browser UI for accessing Alfresco from smartphones. Alfresco is planning future releases that will support all editions.

See the last TechPodcasts roundtable for a simple introduction for getting started with Amazon cloud services – that used an older AMI from Bitnami – so put in the new image, and you should be ready to go.

This Week’s Episode

Tweet This Post

Joomla and Joomlashack in Packt Awards
Transcript From Episode CMSW2009-09-28

More news this week about Packt Publishing awards.

Joomlashack’s Inspirion template is among the finalists for the Best Joomla! Theme award. The other finalists in this category are: Affinity by RocketTheme, IT Cinema by IceTheme, Creative Bliss by Pixel Point Creative, and Blue Fractal by Pixel Theme Studio.

For the category Best Joomla! Extension Finalists:

JCE, JoomlaPack, J!Research, Mosets Tree, and noixACL.

You can vote on line now at packtpub.com/joomla-award, and you can see the current standings in the voting.

This Week’s Episode

Tweet This Post

Realtime Web Search Vendor OneRiot Launches Developer Network
Transcript From Episode CMSW2009-09-28

News from Colorado, the launch of OneRiot Developer Network. ORDN is a community designed to support, and no doubt expand, the OneRiot API partner community.

OneRiot.com is a real time internet search engine. From the ORDN, one can get access to the API, ask questions, connect with the development team and engage with other developers using the API. You can also see what other apps have been built with the OneRiot API.

OneRiot co-founder Robert Reich is credited with creating this community, and his previous claim to fame is that of founder and organizer of the wildly popular Colorado New Tech meetup, the country’s third largest meetup.

This Week’s Episode

Tweet This Post

Work At Play: How To Convince Your Boss Why Drupal is Better Than Proprietary CMS
Transcript From Episode CMSW2009-09-28

In large organizations, convincing your boss or department or project to use Drupal can sometimes be met with resistance. But in fact, a lot of the arguments work for Joomla as well. This following table has been instrumental in convincing decision makers regarding why Drupal (and by extension open source) is leaps and bounds better than proprietary content management systems.

From think.workatplay.com, a table to help convince decision makers that Drupal and Open Source are leaps and bounds better than proprietary content management systems. The table compares Drupal to a commercial CMS on factors such as cost/licensing, development community, business continuity, add-on functionality, cost to make changes to the core, and awards. Of course the table is designed to show Drupal as the clear choice, so each category highlights limitations of the proprietary CMS in contrast with the strength of Drupal.

Proprietary CMSs have a department that can work on the website, assuming they are all proficient with it. There are many thousands of Drupal developers (and companies) around the world. If the CMS company ever goes out of business, bought, or the vendor relationship changes, there is a risk of being stuck with a website no one knows how to operate.

If a Drupal company or vendor ever goes out of business or the relationship changes, there are a well-qualified group of others who can take over instantly.

There are typically a handful of extensions to any proprietary CMS system such as Shopping Cart, Forums, etc. All involve additional licensing and customization costs. With more than 1,800 available modules, (over 4000 extensions to Joomla), the vast majority of your site’s requirements can be addressed with Drupal CMS and the available add-on modules (in a shorter period of time).

This Week’s Episode

Tweet This Post

Google Goes After SharePoint with New Sites API
Transcript From Episode CMSW2009-09-28

Given the amount of data that sit in SharePoint worldwide, given how eager Google seems to be about enterprise apps these days, and given the size of Google’s appetite for data, we must say — it’s about time.

With the introduction of Google’s new Sites API — and some tools that explicitly pull stuff out of SharePoint and place it into Google Sites — the real heat between Redmond and Mountain View is finally starting to build. Finally, the missing link. Google is finally providing a way to share data between Google application, through their Data Liberation Front.

Google Sites, an application that allows users to create a website, is now supported by the Data Liberation Front. Previously data and content couldn’t leave or enter a Google Site. The new API supports creating, modifying, deleting and retrieving pages and content, up and downloading attachments, accessing revision history and displaying user activity.

Now Google has another avenue to challenge SharePoint. In fact, Google Enterprise partner LTech has already designed a data migration application called SharePoint Move for Google Apps. It migrates files, documents, lists, events and more, and generates a detailed report about the migration.

This Week’s Episode

Tweet This Post

DAM Solution – Why?
Transcript From Episode CMSW2009-09-28

Some are struggling with the whole idea of adding a Digital Asset Management system to their organization.

Another darn acronym – DAM – Digital Asset Management. On anotherdamblog.wordpress.com he implores companies to invest in a DAM solution. First, why do you need one? Ask yourself these questions:

Can you find every file created last month or last year?

What if the person looking did not create nor archive any of the files they are looking for themselves?

How quickly can these files be accessed?

How many files do you have?

Where are these files kept?

Are they archived for future use?

How many files are redundant (not a backup copy nor a different version)?

How can you be sure without opening each file?

With a DAM, you can know the answer to all these questions.

Here are some other advantages:

Planning for a DAM will force an organization to audit their assets and their workflows.

A properly implemented DAM can make an organization streamlined and standardized. With a DAM done right, people can efficiently and effectively store, archive, search, find, use, reuse and repurpose assets as needed.

Anyone who should be able access files can securely find out what is available at anytime from anywhere with an internet connection.

How to get started?

Start with whatever procedures you do have when it comes to dealing with digital assets from start to finish. Who does what when and how is it done? Document this in writing. Consolidate the procedures. Streamline where possible and standardize it. What is missing?

Get feedback and fill in the gaps. You’ll see for yourself what you need. Then, communicate this to stakeholders with clear solutions.

If an organization doesn’t have standardized workflows, not only does that make it harder to train anyone new within the organization, but reveals that there is probably very little consistency and lots of waste.

This Week’s Episode

Tweet This Post

Alfresco Open Source CMS one of a number of Open Source products used to assemble a solution for AQA
Transcript From Episode CMSW2009-09-28

An interview with Peter Morris, program manager and Justin Codd, systems architect on open source products used in a solution for the largest British college exam board Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA). The project requirements were a secure extranet capable of delivering materials to 35,000 examiners and moderators at low cost. Also, meet an insanely tight schedule of 6 weeks to deploy, test and get it into production. Optaros consultants were hired to work with existing team members on integrating open source technology with their existing architecture.

Cost savings are believed to be in the range of £100,000, mostly just in printing and shipping costs for the required materials. Lessons learned – could be applied to most any project. Morris and Codd’s Dos and Don’ts for taking the open source path:

Do…

Apply the same levels of due diligence and assessment applied to open-source-based products to any other proprietary solutions that may also be in the running.

Carefully research the reputation and operational models of any organizations whose open-source products and services you are investigating for eventual deployment.

Clearly communicate with management the aims and goals of assessing and implementing open-source products and regularly brief them with progress.

Evaluate and assess any candidate open-source products and services against a common benchmark incorporating any key business specific requirements in the assessment.

Examine subscription (licensing) and support models of open-source solutions, and understand how they contrast with proprietary commercial software vendors models.

Understand how open-source software and services compare and contrast with proprietary commercial products.

Don’t….

Skimp on conducting comparative evaluations and assessments.

Assume that open-source technologies can necessarily be implemented to a quicker timescale or a lower manpower overhead than proprietary ones.

Assume that you will always be able to find a viable open-source product to service your particular set of organizational or technical requirements: so be realistic and pragmatic when presenting the case for open-source to management.

Skimp on support or rely on community support alone for important systems and services.

Make your organization’s first venture to open source higher-risk than it needs to be. Explore running open-source alongside existing proprietary software.

Overlook or ignore the gap that may exist between the current skills of staff and those that may be required to use/operate any new open-source products or services that are introduced into an organization.

This Week’s Episode

Tweet This Post

Alfresco is offering “master classes” on CMIS, Share customization, RM & Impl best practices at our fall #Alfresco meetups
Transcript From Episode CMSW2009-09-28

6 Alfresco meetups have been scheduled for the US and Europe. Washington, DC and Madrid on Oct 20; Atlanta GA and Milan Italy on the 27th or 28th of October. Frankfurt, Germany on Nov 3; Los Angeles, CA on Nov 10.

A day or two left to get the early bird fee (end of Sept deadline). This event is designed for Alfresco Enterprise Customers, Certified Partners, Active Community Members and Developers. Sessions are suitable for both business and technical users of Alfresco.

These are informal one day events for updating and educating Alfresco Enterprise Customers, Certified Partners, Active Community Members and Developers on the latest developments at Alfresco Software. They also provide the usual networking opportunities as well as Alfresco Master Classes.

Specific topics include

• Getting Started with CMIS
• Records Management Trends & Usage Best Practices
• Customizing Alfresco Share
• Implementation & Migration Project Management
• Rollout and Adoption Best Practices

This Week’s Episode

Tweet This Post

Magento Preview Version 1.4.0.0-alpha2 now available
Transcript From Episode CMSW2009-09-28

From magentocommerce.com, we receive the news that Magenta Preview Version 1.4.0.0-alpha2 is available for download as of Sept 25th. Disclaimers on the site state that this is a preview version only, not available for upgrade from the Magento Connect Manager, and not recommended for use in a production environment. This is simply a sneak preview of an upcoming release which will feature WYSIWYG support for CMS pages, Magento Widgets, and improved indexing.

Their release notes page contains extensive lists of improvements, changes, and bug fixes. If you have reason to play with this early code, take note of the link to the bug tracker. http://www.magentocommerce.com/bug-tracking/report/

This Week’s Episode

Tweet This Post