[thelist] Blog vs CMS?

Martin Burns martin at easyweb.co.uk
Fri Mar 21 04:52:43 CDT 2008


On 19 Mar 2008, at 17:20, Hassan Schroeder wrote:

> On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 9:16 AM, Jeremy Weiss  
> <eccentric.one at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I'm going to have to disagree. The CMS isn't just the database.  
>> It's the
>> application as a whole, IMHO.
>
> Again, a real "Content Management System" manages content. It in
> *no way* dictates what's done with that content as far as output. It
> may (and usually will) offer role-based access, routing and review
> mechanisms, revision control, etc.

To slightly soften this: a real CMS *need* not dictate what's done  
with the output, which may or may not be web-targeted. It also *need*  
not dictate what happens at the backend, which could be a db, a  
filesystem, a version control system such as ClearCase

What it will nearly *always* do is provide the framework and/or  
services for definition and operation of business rules about how (and  
by whom) content will be created, updated and accessed - they take  
care of the low-level, relatively hard stuff (how many secure  
authentication systems do you want to write in a lifetime?), and let  
you concentrate on defining the higher level, value adding stuff. Put  
together a set of business rules; link in a backend and frontend, and  
you've got an application.

This might be a website; it might be a Knowledge Management System; it  
might be product regulatory documentation; it might be advertising  
copy; it might be raw and edited video.

A CMS can support many different categories of application, although  
many CMSs do have particular strengths in one area, or in one set of  
business rules.

A blog is simply one possible application - a specific set of business  
rules about how content is updated and displayed. Blogging software  
struggles to do much more than this.

Drupal (to pick an example) has particular strength in display and  
business rules that support blogs, but it can do a lot more.

> I suspect your perspective would be different if you had experience
> with something like Documentum or Interwoven Teamsite.

Yep, and Yep. And Vignette. And a bunch of others, mostly now defunct,  
some of which cost $100k and up, and are now surpassed by open source  
offerings.

Oh and portals? The key thing about a portal is that it's a meta- 
application; it focuses on bringing together content from *other*  
applications.

Cheers
Martin

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