Institutional Web Management Workshop 2005: Discussion Groups

OK – first discussion group – about the challenge of a CMS (Content Management System). Never blogged a discussion group before – don’t know how this will go.

Currently seem to be some problem – we don’t have a chair for the discussion. OK – so we have a volunteer from City University – Tim Matschak. I since I’m blogging this anyway – I might as well be the ‘reporter’.

So – we need to have 3 ‘challenges’ for further discussion tomorrow.

Firstly – who uses a CMS? Under half – but basically everyone seems to have the intention of using a CMS in the future, if they aren’t already. So – we start with a brainstorm:

Challanges
Choosing – getting the right CMS
Timescales – don’t spend too long on choosing this
Platform independence (with Editor)
How to use it
Setup/Implementation
Buy-in – institutional/user
Delegated rights management
Cost – captial and recurrent
Ongoing support/training
Flexibility
Managing (users) expectations
Integration
Migration
Web standards
Future proofing
Dynamic content
Ownership – IT, Communications
Scope
Accessibility (Output)
Usability (Editor)
Seeing through marketing
Realistic about Open Source developments
Length of trial – longer the better
Visiting successful implementations

So – drawing out 3 themes/issues for further discussion tomorrow:

• Cultural buy-in – CMS as a lever for buy in, organisational issues, how do you persuade people to use the CMS and templates…
• Selection – how do you choose one – criteria/cost/institutional support, open source vs commercial
• Implementation – flexibility, platform (infrastructure and supported for end user), accessibility