[thelist] RE: News.com gets a facelift

[Edward Smith]

"Daniel J. Cody" wrote:
> 
> Madhu Menon wrote:
> 
> 
> > And lastly, Dan asked:
> 
> >> Do you know if they're still using Vingette as their CMS?(or was it
> >> something else) Judging by the URL's it still looks that way..
> >
> >
> > While they still *are* using Vignette for their CMS, they're not totally
> > happy with it. They're building their own CMS using JSP from scratch. I
> > don't have any idea of when they'll actually roll it out though. Possibly
> 
> I think its interesting that they're spending a considerable amount of
> time and money on re-inventing the wheel. There are plenty of CMS
> systems out there that cost less than what it must cost for a group of
> developers for 9 - 15 months, not to mention the ones that are free.

Well, I don't know if this was just whimsical musing, or you were
serious.  Sure, there are a lot of commercial content management systems
out there, but there are also a lot of wheels - the only thing that they
have in common is that they are round.

Most if not all commercial and noncommercial content management systems
are designed around a preconceived notion of how publishing to the web
is done.  If your publishing needs don't match the way the content
management system is designed, god help you.

Most of the CMSs out there are very inflexible about breaking out of
their paradigm.  All these stories you read about people dumping
Vignette and developing their own, or hopping around between products
are running into that problem.

We need a wheel that weighs less then 10 pounds, can be changed by a
child in 2 minutes, and can sustain 200 MPH speeds without coming
apart.  You need a wheel that can go 1 million miles without coming
apart, and can carry a load of 10,000KG.  These are two completely
different products.  Further, next month, my CEO is going to tell me
that I don't need to go 200 MPH, only 150 MPH, but I need to carry twice
as much weight.  Now I gotta get a new wheel design.

I think that many companies publishing on the web are beginning to
realize that the best way to allow themselves the ability to change and
adapt as quickly as the web demands, is to develop and control their own
CMS.

-- 
Edward Smith                      Internet Broadcasting System
Director of Architecture          http://www.ibsys.com