CMS

ECM in the Pantheon of Content Management

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“May you live in interesting times” is reported to be a Chinese curse. Well, in the world of Content Management, we are in interesting times.  In the last week, I have read about how ECM is growing in stature and read a call for the killing of ECM.image Scary thing, I think that if Peter read Carl’s post, he would state that it supports his point that ECM needs to die.

Pardon me for disagreeing.

Here is the basic problem, because we can’t agree on what to call anything, we can’t agree where anything is going.

  • Is ECM Dead? That depends if you think ECM means one repository.  If so, then yes.  It doesn’t mean one repository though, or at least, it shouldn’t.  If we can’t agree on what it is, how can anyone claim it needs to die or is already dead.
  • Is WordPress a CMS? That depends on how you define the “Management” in CMS.  Maybe it is a Website Management System?  Maybe the WCMS is going to go away as what actually goes into a website broadens.

If we don’t agree on the terms as practioners, how can we expect the business users, and the users in the rest of the world, to understand what we are talking about?

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To Be a CMS, WCMS, or WMS, That is the Question

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So I’ve said that that WordPress isn’t a Content Management System (CMS).  My point was more than semantics as it isn’t a Web CMS (WCMS) either.  That said, I have never said that WordPress is anything but a great tool.

So the question remains, if WordPress isn’t a WCMS, what is it? Maybe we need a new term….how about “Website Management System”?

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What is a CMS? Really…

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image There is continuing debate about whether or not WordPress is a CMS, which I have participated in already.  There are two things fueling the debate:

  1. Lots of WordPress users seem to take the attack personally.  This has allowed vocal supporters to drown-out those few with rational arguments.
  2. The more traditional, non-web, Content Management crowd say that WordPress isn’t feature rich enough to qualify.  Of course, nobody has actually provided a comprehensive definition of CMS or a list of features.

So the fight continues.  While I am in no way trying to resolve the argument in this post, I am trying to solve the crux of a matter….What is a CMS?

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ECM and CMS Living In Harmony

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So I ranted a week ago about the term CMS.  I was more upset how people used “CMS” than the term itself.  Assuming that the term has legs, how does it fit in the grand scheme of things, like the world of ECM?

So today, instead of tearing things apart, I thought I would try and help add to the world.  This will also let people tear my thoughts apart.

ECM as a Strategy

Enterprise Content Management is not a system.  You can’t install it and expect it to just work.  You can do that with systems, but ECM is a little more than that.  It is the strategy to managing content in the organization.  Have content, need control.

I last visited the definition of ECM around the New Year.  Pulling the update from the comments and adding the word Strategy gives the following.

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is a strategy for the coordinated management of all content throughout an organization, allowing for people and systems to find and use content from within any business context using platform agnostic standards.

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A Rant Against "CMS"

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This is a rant. I rarely write rants, but here is one. It is based on one of my largest pet peeves in the technology industry.  It is about a commonly accepted term and not about the people who use it.

It is about “CMS”.  This is a term that for many is synonymous with Web Content Management. This just gives me the screaming heebie jeebies.  Let me illustrate.

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What Makes a CMS a CMS?

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There has been a lot of debate of late on Twitter about whether or not WordPress is a CMS (ignoring the “WCM v CMS v ???” issue for now).  Peter Monks is an proponent against the concept [Edit: He isn’t, see comments], as is Irina Guseva, a senior editor for CMS Wire.  Ron Miller over at Fierce Content Management says that WordPress is a CMS and Tony Byrne at CMS Watch says it is for a simple reason: Many organizations are using WordPress as a CMS. That makes it a CMS.

That is a fallacious argument.  I’ll explain why in a second, but some important facts.  This blog, Word of Pie, is hosted by WordPress.com and I love it.  If I decided to host the blog personally, I would use WordPress.  For my blogging needs, it is perfect.

So do not read into any of this as an indictment against WordPress.

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