[thelist] CMS and other acronyms

Brent Eades beades at almonte.com
Sun Oct 5 18:42:57 CDT 2008


Christie Mason wrote:

> I started wondering when the shift had occurred that
> CMS became commonly accepted as "Content MS" I strongly doubt it was 10
> years ago, as someone claimed, 

Like some others who have replied, I worked in print publishing before 
moving to the web in 1995.

Certainly there were attempts to migrate print-oriented 'document 
management systems' to the web quite early on. The first I can remember 
is Interleaf's Cyberleaf, released in 1995. See:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_/ai_18012544

The next I remember is Vignette StoryServer. Philip Greenspun has an old 
article online in which he tells of advising a client in 1997 that 
"StoryServer... is not a content management system." See:

http://philip.greenspun.com/wtr/vignette-old

Which suggests that the term 'content management system' didn't require 
explanation (to web-savvy people anyway) as long as eleven years ago; 
but neither does it necessarily imply the term was in common use.

Personally, I recall hearing the acronym WCM (web content management) 
most of the time back in those days. I don't remember hearing 'CMS' 
bandied about with any frequency until around, oh, 2002 or so.


-- 
Brent Eades	
Almonte, Ontario
http://almonte.com




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