[thelist] CMS: opensource or hand-roll?

[ekm at seastorm.com]

Back in the day (by which I mean, in the late 90's and early 2k's) I think
it made a lot of sense for smaller orgs to roll-yr-own CMS.  And maybe
even today.  I worked for years supporting a home-rolled CMS.  It was
built w/ no budget (tho required ongoing user support, and ongoing
refinements) and it served our purpose specifically. There is no way this
org could have spent the money required to buy a CMS (esp ten years ago).
I also know of orgs which have blown hundreds of thousands of $$$ on CMS's
that they later had to abandon completely.

That was in the past... I'm not a CMS expert but I think that things have
come a long way, and there are ever-more great open-source tools out
there.  But of course if you provide an open source solution to a client,
that does not make it "free."  Software needs to be maintained and end
users need to be supported.   Can be a lot of work, esp w/ multiple
clients.

Erika

-----------------------------


> I have been thinking of creating a CMS lately but have been daunted by the
> number of existing systems out there.   My wife is starting a law practice
> and I think I would like to use the CMS to mainly target law firms.  I
> would
> also like to target churches, schools and small ecommerce.  In one way, I
> am
> reluctant to use an existing system because I will likely get into the
> site
> and decide I don't like the CMS or that cool feature or add-on isn't quite
> so hot after all.  Anyway, I would like to discuss the merits of
> hand-rolling a CMS that I would use for these clients vs using an
> open-source or commercial.  Is there some advantage to creating one?  I
> want
> to explore this before I jump into coding... er... requirements gathering.
>
> Thanks,
> Zach
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