Empower the People

The concept of empowerment has taken hold in the business world. In many businesses and organizations management has come to understand that putting the power to affect positive change in the hands of front-line personnel makes good business sense. That same empowerment concept is beginning to inform decision about the direction of technology in the business world. In this context it seems very natural that, for example, a marketing or customer service department might take a lead role in presenting the public face of a business to the World Wide Web. Content management systems have found a foothold in today’s business environment in large part because they have empowered non-tech employees to assume roles that are in-line with their abilities. A pleasant side-effect of this form of empowerment is the reduction of confusing and conflicting messages typical of layered bureaucracy.

Types of Content Management Systems

Just as your favorite burger shack has more than one variety of hamburger, likewise there is more than one variety of content management systems. Sticking with the hamburger analogy, I could point out that, like the hamburgers from competing shacks, there are a few similar ingredients among CM systems. One of the defining characteristics common to all CM systems is that the application runs in a hosted environment rather than resident on a local machine, thus allowing assigned users to make changes to a given site directly over the web. Another commonality among CM systems (or more precisely Web Content Management systems) is the fairly straightforward graphical interface. The typical CM system utilizes standard web browsers.

DIY Content Management

D.I.Y. content management systems, such as Joomla®, serve the needs of the non-technical, budget-driven audience who are in need of a web presence. This isn’t to say that in the right hands a D.I.Y. CM system is incapable of creating sophisticated or multi-dimensional websites. However, a seasoned Web developer may be more aware than others of the limitations of such systems and would be more likely to choose a program that would compliment, rather than limit, the skill-set they possess.

A positive note worth mentioning about Joomla® is that since the code is available for all to see (open source) there are constant improvements to the software. Also, there is a fairly sizable forum population to turn to for technical assistance. On the flip side however we must make mention of the fact that websites developed using D.I.Y. CM systems typically don’t have the look or functionality of custom built websites, and the system gives little consideration to search engine ranking/placement. D.I.Y. CM systems are closely related to WYSIWYG programs such as FrontPage® or Dreamweaver® in the sense that the user(s) is fully responsible for the quality of the end product.

Also noteworthy is that although these systems are somewhat for the do-it-yourself crowd, a novice should perhaps still seek the assistance of a professionals such as YourNew.com for setup and initial configuration of the system.