In Hand
One of the buzz abbreviations on the internet at the moment is CMS. But what does CMS mean? It actually stands for Content Management System. And it's a powerful tool for any organisation or even an individual.
A content management system is a software system for organizing web content and facilitating the collaborative creation of documents. It includes tools for publishing, format management, revision control, indexing, search and retrieval. It also has the ability to archive and remove information resources from an organised repository. The best thing about a CMS system is you need no html knowledge to create a very whizzy site, the downside is that issues of security and initial installation and set up can cause a headache. So choose your host wisely and you might want to consider hiring a professional to do the initial set up.
Luckily there are many free CMS systems that you can use. I won't try to tell you which is best, it all depends on what exactly you want to use it for. But, I use Joomla for the English Magazine, so do have a look.
Open source simply refers to computer programs where the source code is available to the general public for use and/or modification from its original design free of charge. Of course attempting to change the source code of a CMS is not necessarily what you would want to do.
| Drupal |
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| eZ Publish |
| Joomla |
| PHP-Nuke |
| PostNuke |
| Typo3 |
| WordPress |
Helpful Articles |
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| What is a Content Management System | CMS stands for content management system, a piece of software that manages the contents of a website. It breaks the content into different areas, including the template (which is the basic design of the pages), the text, the images, the functionality and the background stuff (meta tags and data capture). |
| What Can a Web Content Management System Do? | Many organizations now have Web sites, are keen to get one, or to redevelop an existing site. Lots of these Web sites will consist of static HTML pages and will require some degree of technical knowledge to update (e.g. HTML skills, knowledge of Dreamweaver, FrontPage, or some other Web authoring package). |
| What to look for in a content management system (CMS) | Content Management Systems are a great way to maintain the integrity of your web site by allowing you, not a web designer, to have control of your content.. When you look for a CMS, look for one that is designed to provide a user-friendly environment that can accommodate multiple users with varying skill levels. |
| Be careful when choosing a host for your CMS | If you're running a pretty standard website, or you have your own dedicated server (lucky you) you probably won't have to worry. But if you're using a host along with a CMS solution like Joomla or Drupal, or a Wiki, then start worrying. |