ECM in the Pantheon of Content Management

“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

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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