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=What’s the state of content-management systems?=
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=CMS Talkfest: How to Choose a Content Management System=
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[[Image:Rji-indicia.jpg|180px|thumb|right|[http://rji.missouri.edu Reynolds Journalism Institute home]]]
  
What drives news and information web sites? “Content-management systems” – CMS. While the presses which print daily newspapers are relatively standardized, CMS are not. There are a dozen or more that are in common use by U.S. newspapers and probably hundreds more – purchased or home-baked – in use.
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''Notes by [http://newshare.typepad.com/about.html Bill Densmore,] RJI Fellow, 2008-2009<br> and [http://rji.missouri.edu/fellows-program/stevens-j/index.php Jane Ellen Stevens], RJI Fellow, 2008-2009 (Please use the wiki function to correct, update or supplement these notes)''<br><br>
  
What do these systems have in common? How are they evolving as the Internet becomes increasingly multimedia and serving mobile devices? Is it possible to have a single system which integrates all the business, editorial, marketing and technical needs of a multi-platform news organization.
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What drives news and information web sites? Content management systems – CMS -- do. While the presses that print daily newspapers are relatively standardized, CMS are not. Adding to the confusion are the hundreds of CMS providers, each different from the next.  
  
The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute convened a one-day seminar at the Missouri School of Journalism to answer some of those questions. Invited to provide the overview was [http://www.bgvmedia.com/ BGV Media] -– Amy Webb, Dorian Benkoil and Adam Glenn. BGV is an independent consultancy that researches and recommends CMS.  Afterward, three CMS developers describing their emerging systems – Steve Yelvington of Morris Communication, in Augusta, Ga.; Richard Anderson of Village Soup in Rockland, Maine; and Ralph Gage and Dan Cox of MediaphorMedia in Lawrence, Kan.
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Just how does a news organization choose a CMS? Before choosing a CMW, what questions should you ask? How are CMS evolving as the Internet becomes increasingly multimedia and serving mobile devices? Is it possible to have a single CMS that integrates all the business, editorial, marketing and technical needs of a multi-platform news organization? 
  
Amy Webb began the day with an overview.
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To answer these questions, the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute convened a Talkfest, the first in a series of a one-day seminars at the Missouri School of Journalism, to answer some of those questions. Providing the overview in the morning was [http://www.bgvmedia.com/ BGV Media] -– Amy Webb, Dorian Benkoil and Adam Glenn. BGV is an independent consultancy that, among its many talents, researches and recommends CMS. In the afternoon, three CMS developers described their CMS – Steve Yelvington of Morris Communication, in Augusta, Ga.; Richard Anderson of Village Soup in Rockland, Maine; and Ralph Gage and Dan Cox of MediaphorMedia in Lawrence, Kan.  
  
==First decision: Open source, enterprise or make-your-own==
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Wikipedia has a page which lists [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_content_management_systems features of content management systems.]
  
Webb says the open-source Drupal platform is free, but setting it up isn’t free because of the lack of good documentation. Once place where it’s good, however, is when you are feeding the same data into multiple websites. The good thing about Drupal is there is a big developer community, and they are all building modules – specialty plug-ins that do special tasks.  
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Amy Webb began the day with an overview of CMS, and the three main types: open source, enterprise and a category she calls "getting creative".
  
Apture has built a module for Drupal.
 
  
Reuters has a Drupal-based project called Calais, described as “a rapidly growing toolkit of capabilities that allow you to readily incorporate state-of-the-art semantic functionality within your blog, content management system, website or application.”  It’s an automatic system for culling through stories and pulling out relevant words for tagging.
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== THREE CHOICES: Open Source, Enterprise, Getting Creative ==
  
Advice: If you are a small shop and you know Drupal – go with it. If you are a large shop, you need to hire someone who understands Drupal. The approach of for example, students, to publishing, is going to be different from an enterprise perspective. “You need to document the crap out of everything you do.”  The developer should keep a daily log, “an absolute description of every nook and crany of that code.” 
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=== Open Source ===
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Webb chose Drupal as a discussion point for open-source CMS.The open-source Drupal platform is free, but setting it up isn’t free. Because of the lack of good documentation, you need to hire a Drupal programmer. The good thing about Drupal is there is a big developer community, and they are all building modules – specialty plug-ins that do special tasks. It's also useful if you're feeding the same data into multiple Web sites.
  
“If you’re working with an enterprise consultant and there are questions about whether they are willing to give you all that stuff, that’s a sign that you are working with the wrong consultant,” says Webb. “You need to have full documentation of everything about how your website works.” Also, she adds: Anybody who is spectacular at the back end is either subbing out the front end to someone else or they are going to do subpar front-end stuff.”  Be careful when you are working with one company that promises to do both.  
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There are several questions to ask before choosing a CMS. Do you need to:
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*manage multiple organization Web sites?
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*streamline Web site functionalit?
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*share digital assets across multiple sites?
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*easily train people to manage sites?
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*standardize underlying technology?
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Everyone wants to take Drupal to the prom this year. Apture has built a module for Drupal. Reuters has a Drupal-based project called Calais, described as “a rapidly growing toolkit of capabilities that allow you to readily incorporate state-of-the-art semantic functionality within your blog, content management system, website or application.”  It’s an automatic system for culling through stories and pulling out relevant words for tagging.
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In choosing a CMS, you should remember that the journalism comes first. A CMS should facilitate the publishing. These tools are a means, not an end. You have to take a chance. You have to accept change. You must take a multi-platform approach.
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If you are a small shop and you know Drupal – go with it. If you are a large shop, you need to hire someone who understands Drupal. The approach of for example, students, to publishing, is going to be different from an enterprise perspective. “You need to document the crap out of everything you do.”  The developer should keep a daily log, “an absolute description of every nook and cranny of that code.” 
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“If you’re working with an enterprise consultant and there are questions about whether they are willing to give you all that stuff, that’s a sign that you are working with the wrong consultant,” says Webb. “You need to have full documentation of everything about how your Web site works.” Also, she adds: Anybody who is spectacular at the back end is either subbing out the front end to someone else or they are going to do subpar front-end stuff.”  Be careful when you are working with one company that promises to do both.  
  
 
Dorian advises get some understanding of who owns the intellectual property.  
 
Dorian advises get some understanding of who owns the intellectual property.  
  
Phase2 Technology is developing something . . . similar to Ellington, also.  
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Watch for companies that are developing ways to make it easy for lots of people to use the same system -- Drupal modules to drop onto a Drupal framework. Modules such as blogs, videos, podcasts, events, RSS feeds, twitter feed, online ads, photo galleries, topic-based social communities, content tagging.
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Django is another open-source CMS. It's based on Python, which is wickedly hard to code. It's not easy to learn from scratch and then launch a site based on it. You want to work with a tested known entity.  
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Open source is a good solution if you want to get your content to the Web fast.
  
Coding in Python is wickedly hard. Jango uses Python.
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=== Enterprise ===
  
There are hundreds of CMS – SaxoTech, Clickability. She talks about SaxoTech. It is big in Europe and they also power CanWest.   
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There are hundreds of enterprise CMS – SaxoTech, Clickability. She talks about SaxoTech. It is big in Europe and they also power CanWest.   
  
 
*Fully integrated CMS – big in Europe and Canada  
 
*Fully integrated CMS – big in Europe and Canada  
*Not just about content management – workflow
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*Not just about content management – it's also about work flow
 
*Considers project and team management  
 
*Considers project and team management  
*Publishing ffor print, web, mobile
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*Publishing for print, Web, mobile
 
*Archiving and filtering across vast catalogs of content  
 
*Archiving and filtering across vast catalogs of content  
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*Prohibitively expensive, both in setup and ongoing support. A news organization can easily spend $150K for setup and $90K yearly for support and maintenance
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*Not customizable without great effort
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*Not able to keep up with cutting edge
  
===Assumptions about enterprise sources===
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An advantage, however, is that all the work-flow aspects of news – from the story-idea meeting to multi-platform publication – is included in the package.  “It starts with the creation of an idea.”  It allows creating of assignments. “I like SaxoTech. … It’s pretty phenomenal.” 
  
*Prohibitively expensive, both in setup and ongoing support
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It starts with the creation of an idea, like a whiteboard in an editors meeting room. People are able to comment. It's easy to create assignments. Take digital assets that go with a piece, as teams of people in different departments provide photos, video, graphics, text. Everything stays together. It's sent to the Web, or paginated and sent to the printing presses. Most open source tools can't handle that yet.
*Not customizable without great effort
 
*Not able to keep up with cutting edge
 
  
An advantage, however, is that all the workflow aspects of news – from the story-idea meeting to multi-platform publication – is included in the package.  “It starts with the creation of an idea.”  It allows creating of assignments. “I like SaxoTech. … It’s pretty phenomenal.” 
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Some enterprise systems have WSIWYG editors. You can design pages. Definite pros for being centralized, core product managed. It's a way to cut down on third-party tools.  
  
Advice overall: Cut down on third-party tools.
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=== Getting Creative ===
  
===What are people doing with Ning and wikis?===
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This means cobbling together third-party software: e.g., a blog with a Ning site, and/or a wiki.
  
Ning is a very simple platform you can customize without knowing code to create your own social network.  
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Ning is a very simple platform you can customize without knowing code to create your own social network. It's free to a point. Amy is on the board of the Online News Association. ONA has a Web site. It started a social-network site on Ning because the CMS that ONA uses couldn’t do social networking. If you attended the ONA conference, you had to go to the conference Web site to register, but to a separate site to connect with your buddies. Getting creative is not suggested for organization. “You can deploy Ning if you need to, I just would recommend against it.” Why: Because it's not integrated, and it creates confusion with your main site.  
Amy Webb is on the board of the Online News Association. It’s social-network site is on Ning because the CMS that ONA uses couldn’t do social networking. “You can deploy Ning if you need to, I just would recommend against it.” Why: Because it creates confusion with your main site.  
 
  
A word about wikis – There’s PBWiki and there’s WordPress.  “You could decide to do your whole site in Wordpress . . . Wordpress is just a platform . . . a blog is just a platform.  
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For blogging, “you could decide to do your whole site in Wordpress." And, by the way, a blog is just a platform. "Blog" has nothing to do with content. Blogs can be all opinion, or they can be a platform for journalism.
  
Q: Amy, what’s you impression of the stability of these hosted blog sites?
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A wiki is a way for groups to edit and share information. This is a way to integrate and manage content. 
  
A: What if the host doesn’t support in the future? Where is the server? How is it being maintained? What about content migration?  
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Q: Amy, what’s your impression of the stability of these hosted blog sites?  
  
===Other things to think about if using someone else’s infrastructure===
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A: These are questions to ask: What if the host doesn’t support in the future? Where is the server? How is it being maintained? What about content migration?
  
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Other things to think about when using third-party software:
 
*Who owns the information?  
 
*Who owns the information?  
*Who’s liable for malfunctioning open-source tools, missing files, or plaigerism or libel issues?  
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*Who’s liable for malfunctioning open-source tools, missing files, or plagiarism or libel issues?
 
*Can you trust your server farm or hosting company? What’s your plan B?  
 
*Can you trust your server farm or hosting company? What’s your plan B?  
 
*What about illegal/copyrighted content? Ads gone wild?  
 
*What about illegal/copyrighted content? Ads gone wild?  
 
*Example: Pornographic ad on Philly.com served by their ad-serving company
 
*Example: Pornographic ad on Philly.com served by their ad-serving company
  
==How to start your technology assessment==  
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== How to start your technology assessment ==  
  
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Questions:
 
*Do you have technical staff with enough knowledge and time to work with an open-source system?  
 
*Do you have technical staff with enough knowledge and time to work with an open-source system?  
*Are you on a tight launch deadline?  
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*Are you on a tight launch deadline? (if so, hire a company)
 
*Have you budgeted for pre-launch, post-launch fixes and ongoing maintenance?  
 
*Have you budgeted for pre-launch, post-launch fixes and ongoing maintenance?  
 
*Are you a single or multi-site shop?  
 
*Are you a single or multi-site shop?  
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*Will your site be mobi-compliant?
 
*Are you preparing for semantic tags and social networking?  
 
*Are you preparing for semantic tags and social networking?  
  
Get help, start from the back and world forward to the user interface. Design for 12 months ahead, plan to launch in three months after that, and “prep for an extensible future that comes quicker than you anticipate.”  
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Process
 
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*Start from the back and work forward to the user interface.  
====Make a list of every function that your website needs to do====
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*Design for 12 months ahead, plan to launch in three months after that, and “prep for an extensible future that comes quicker than you anticipate.”  
What is every conceivable thing you want and how is it going to work?  
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*Create a narrative taxonomy. Make a list of every function that your Web site needs to do. What is every conceivable thing you want and how is it going to work?  
 
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*Design is the END of the process.
====Create a narrative taxonomy====
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*The final version of your site is never the same as the thing you launch.
*Local Newshare Corp. *Context in from TBD
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*You should have a detailed, page-by-page, function-by-function handbook to the entire site. Plan for it to be 50-60 pages long. It describes the functionality, not the looks.
*Semantic tags, image search, multimedia
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*The last section should be a list of items and, more importantly, explanations for everything you anticipate the site doing for 6 months, 12 months and beyond.
*Taxonomy important to you
 
*Archiving, serving, etc.  
 
  
==You can’t select a new CMS without anticipating change==
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== Trends On the Horizon ==
*Big, disruptive, wonderful change. Make sure your vendor is also anticipating change.  
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Big, disruptive, wonderful change. Make sure your vendor is also anticipating change.  
  
===Social aspects===
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=== Social ===
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Amy's referring to Twitter, Facebook, etc. Expect seismic change.
 
*Make sure your content is syndicated to Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere. Make sure it is more than just RSS, it can be syndicated to different platforms.  
 
*Make sure your content is syndicated to Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere. Make sure it is more than just RSS, it can be syndicated to different platforms.  
 
*Accept that current services may not be popular tomorrow, and plan for it.  
 
*Accept that current services may not be popular tomorrow, and plan for it.  
 
*Allow others to fully connect with your content, share it and serve it..  
 
*Allow others to fully connect with your content, share it and serve it..  
*Pluck is a third-party provider of social tools – you can default to them or other third-party providers rather than set it up yourself  
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*'''Open-source''' CMS are quicker to offer modules than '''enterprise''' system. But enterprise systems may be willing to work with you.
====Example: Apture enhancement of Baltimore Sun story about American Idol ====
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*'''Getting creative''': Third-party providers, such as Pluck, provide social tools. You can default to them or other third-party providers rather than set it up yourself.
*Putting multimedia into an otherwise boring text account  
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==== Example: Apture ====
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Apture's enhancement of Baltimore Sun story about American Idol, which can put multimedia into an otherwise boring text account. The example's on Amy's blog -- [mydigimedia.com] “This thing is doing a better job than the providers are. And this was built by a dude who had some free time.
  
“This thing is doing a better job than the providers are. And this was built by a dude who had some free time.
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=== Aggregate or die ===
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Amy says news sites are going to have to aggregate content from anywhere – or die. “Why use me to an aggregator? Why not aggregate yourselves?” 
  
====My sites: Aggregate or die====
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Watch for third-party "my aggregator" services launching in early 2009. Multiscreen "my versions" that work across platforms.
She says news sites are going to have to aggregate content from anywhere – or die. “Why use me to an aggregator? Why not aggregate yourselves?” 
 
  
 
Is RSS a friend or foe? Example: Automated Content Access Protocol in Europe blocks RSS.  
 
Is RSS a friend or foe? Example: Automated Content Access Protocol in Europe blocks RSS.  
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You have to syndicate your content. Will your CMS provider offer an aggregator that will allow a user to customize their experience on your site – allow them to bring in other content. “It is OK to have other content on your website as long as you keep your people there.”  
 
You have to syndicate your content. Will your CMS provider offer an aggregator that will allow a user to customize their experience on your site – allow them to bring in other content. “It is OK to have other content on your website as long as you keep your people there.”  
  
====What’s going on with mobile?====  
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=== Mobile ===  
*Webb reviews innovations in mobile phones and devices outside of the United States.  
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*Amy shows eight-year-old iMode phone from Japan. On this phone, you could buy tickets for the bullet train, look on the Internet, check for traffic and transportation schedules and delays.
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*3G phones can stream live TV, find a nearby restaurant, watch the news, receive breaking news.
 
*Ulocate suggests content to you based on where you are located.  
 
*Ulocate suggests content to you based on where you are located.  
*The iPhone is neat – but what’s coming next?
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*Broadcast companies using new CMS that will enable them to syndicate content on air to mobile phone in a way that makes sense.
*Finding restaurants, watching news, getting breaking events that are targeted
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*Super-micro-thin screens for mobile phones.
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*5.0- megapixel camera, GPS enabled, recognize face...snap photo of you, will tell me who you are if I don't know who you are.
  
====Two-dimensional bar codes (“Q-codes”) ====
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=== Two-dimensional bar codes (“Q-codes”) ===
*About 2-D (two-dimensional) barcodes  -- you can embed content – “print hyperlinks” – the come in all shapes and forms. You take a picture of it with your mobile phone, which then scans the bar code and gives you information back from it. They are everywhere in Japan. They are on food packaging.  
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*About [http://www.barcodeman.com/faq/2d.php 2-D (two-dimensional) barcodes] -- you can embed content – “print hyperlinks”. It makes print publications of all kinds interactive. You take a picture of it with your mobile phone, which then scans the bar code and gives you information from a url. They are everywhere in Japan. They are on food packaging.  
*BBC is using them on their website
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*BBC is using them on their Web site
 
*They are being used for editorial content  
 
*They are being used for editorial content  
*New York Magazine had an ad for Ralph Lauren which included a 2-D barcode.  
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*New York Magazine had an ad for Ralph Lauren which included a 2-D barcode.
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*Scan QR code, gives you a map.  
 
*Firefox has a mobile barcocode creator.  
 
*Firefox has a mobile barcocode creator.  
*Application – put a 2-D code in an ad as an upsell to more information  
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*Application – put a 2-D code in an ad as an upsell to more information.
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*Makes magazine and newspaper stories bookmarkable.
  
===Apple’s new multi-touch Mac===
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=== Another thing to watch ===
A patent application from Apple published April 28 describes this.  
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Apple’s new multi-touch Mac. A patent application from Apple published April 28 describes this.  
  
===Following the consumer===
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==Takeaways==
*From computer to phone, to TV to Tivo – anywhere
 
*You are a content provider, information gatherer and aggregator.
 
*There are no long print, online or broadcast distinctions anymore
 
  
==Takeaways==
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*Breaking news moves from computer to phone, to TV. Tivo a word, go to Twitter.
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*A journalist is a content provider, information gatherer and aggregator of the best sources.
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*There are no longer print, online or broadcast distinctions anymore
 
*Don’t develop yourself into a corner  
 
*Don’t develop yourself into a corner  
 
*Don’t work with a company that is not flexible  
 
*Don’t work with a company that is not flexible  
 
*Always create extensive documentation  
 
*Always create extensive documentation  
  
==SPECIFIC CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS -- Three examples==
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== THREE CMS DEVELOPERS EXPLAIN THEIR SYSTEMS ==
  
 
===First: Steve Yelvington, Morris Digital Works===
 
===First: Steve Yelvington, Morris Digital Works===
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*News alone won’t get us there  
 
*News alone won’t get us there  
 
*News and town square and community resources  
 
*News and town square and community resources  
*Everyone has to be involved, not just the “web team”
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*Everyone has to be involved, not just the “Web team”
 
*We need tools that ‘uncork the bottle” and empower the entire staff  
 
*We need tools that ‘uncork the bottle” and empower the entire staff  
  
They are doing away with separate web teams across the Morris network. Jacksonville.com is first, CJOnline.com is second. The Cabin.net is third.  
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They are doing away with separate Web teams across the Morris network. Jacksonville.com is first, CJOnline.com is second. The Cabin.net is third.  
  
 
Old world vs. new world – greater diffusion of knowledge and authority.  
 
Old world vs. new world – greater diffusion of knowledge and authority.  
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He thinks social networking tools common on Facebook or MySpace and elsewhere will be very viable on local sites. If you are a blogger, you automatically get a profile page, for example. You can provide a photo and some background information on yourself. Staff members will be required to participate.   
 
He thinks social networking tools common on Facebook or MySpace and elsewhere will be very viable on local sites. If you are a blogger, you automatically get a profile page, for example. You can provide a photo and some background information on yourself. Staff members will be required to participate.   
  
===Major points===  
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====Major points====  
 
*Anyone with permission can update from anywhere, anytime, immediately.  
 
*Anyone with permission can update from anywhere, anytime, immediately.  
 
*Web-first multimedia: Text, images, audio, video  
 
*Web-first multimedia: Text, images, audio, video  
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*Serve as a hub for navigating to other websites in the community (RSS aggregation)  
 
*Serve as a hub for navigating to other websites in the community (RSS aggregation)  
  
===Collaborative development process===
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====Collaborative development process====
 
The goal: Produce a standard configuration of Drupal that everyone can use everywhere. It is a configuration they intend to make publicly available. The enhancements and improvements will be contributed  back to the open-source community.  
 
The goal: Produce a standard configuration of Drupal that everyone can use everywhere. It is a configuration they intend to make publicly available. The enhancements and improvements will be contributed  back to the open-source community.  
  
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*Produce something everyone can use everywhere  
 
*Produce something everyone can use everywhere  
  
===Creating special-topic pages===  
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====Creating special-topic pages====  
  
 
“Pulling everything together about a topic is going to become I think a major function of online content producers.”  
 
“Pulling everything together about a topic is going to become I think a major function of online content producers.”  
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“Putting them into action on a website is not a small process.”  “A newspaper will still need people who are literate enough in technology to know how to administer a server.”  “Most newspaper companies that have technology departments are going to be able to take advantage of the toolset we release.”  
 
“Putting them into action on a website is not a small process.”  “A newspaper will still need people who are literate enough in technology to know how to administer a server.”  “Most newspaper companies that have technology departments are going to be able to take advantage of the toolset we release.”  
  
===Richard Anderson – VillageSoup.com – Rockland, Maine===
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=== Richard Anderson – VillageSoup.com – Rockland, Maine ===
  
 
Anderson’s company received an $800,000 grant from the Knight Foundation to develop a freely-distributed open-source software system called the Village Soup Platform to develop VillageSoup Common’s around the country. “We agreed to let it go open source . . . these platforms while being open source, are not for everybody – there is a cost to implement them.  
 
Anderson’s company received an $800,000 grant from the Knight Foundation to develop a freely-distributed open-source software system called the Village Soup Platform to develop VillageSoup Common’s around the country. “We agreed to let it go open source . . . these platforms while being open source, are not for everybody – there is a cost to implement them.  
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Target is five- or six-newspaper owner companies among the 5,000 or 6,000 weekly newspaper owners in the United States. They will will come up with a fee for monthly service for operating the site on a hosted or otherwise basis. Users (businesses) will make money on hosted websites, banners and buttons.
 
Target is five- or six-newspaper owner companies among the 5,000 or 6,000 weekly newspaper owners in the United States. They will will come up with a fee for monthly service for operating the site on a hosted or otherwise basis. Users (businesses) will make money on hosted websites, banners and buttons.
  
==Dan Cox – Ellington CMS – from Lawrence, Kan.==  
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He thinks one news organization for community of 30,000 people or less.
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=== Dan Cox – Ellington CMS – from Lawrence, Kan.===  
  
 
http://www.ellingtoncms.com/  
 
http://www.ellingtoncms.com/  
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Came out of the Lawrence Journal-World CMS. The created a new company called xxx media. Some of the clients are the Lawrence Journal World, the Washington Post, Scripps, the Las Vegas Sun and the Napes Daily News. Scripps has about 15 license that their newspapers run. The San Diego Reader is using it, along with the San Diego Union-Tribune (for their speciality projects only).  
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Came out of the Lawrence Journal-World CMS. The created a new company called Mediaphormedi. Some of the clients are the Lawrence Journal-World, the Washington Post, the Las Vegas Sun and the Scripps family of newspapers, including the Naples Daily News and the Ventura County Star. Scripps has about 15 licenses for their newspapers. The San Diego Reader is using it, along with the San Diego Union-Tribune (for their specialty projects only).  
  
 
It includes embedded photos and video, and a video gallery. It includes user comments.  
 
It includes embedded photos and video, and a video gallery. It includes user comments.  
  
For workflow purposes, there are many disparate objects. There is search functionality in Jango (the framework on which Ellington was built) to find and bring together those elements. For example, this means that objects can be reassembled in different ways – for example, record objects associated with staff photographer Thad Allender can be assembled under his name from all the stories they were initially created for.  
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For work-flow purposes, there are many disparate objects. There is search functionality in Django (the framework on which Ellington was built) to find and bring together those elements. For example, this means that objects can be reassembled in different ways – record objects associated with staff photographer Thad Allender can be assembled under his name from all the stories they were initially created for.  
  
 
You can set up a custom RSS feed on any set of searchable objects.  
 
You can set up a custom RSS feed on any set of searchable objects.  
  
The story interface is designed to simplify how you post stories so you don’t need any code. Also, it outputs to any platform – including reformatting for a cell phone.
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=== Additional comments by Ralph Gage of LJW ===
  
===Additional comments by Ralph Gage of LJW===
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Gage, who is general manager of The World Co., talks about the build-it-yourself philosophy.  Adrian Holovaty created Django, which LJW turned over to the open-source community and has developed a foundation to manage that. They are developing Ellington in that mindset. Their business philosophy is to deliver news 24-7.
  
Gage, who is general manager of The World Co., talks about the build-it-yourself philosophy.  Adrian Holovaty created Jango, which LJW turned over to the open-source community and has developed a foundation to manage that.  They are developing Ellington in that mindset. Their business philosophy is to deliver news 24 by 7.  
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Storyteller is a module designed to simplify how reporters post stories so that they don’t need any code. Also, it outputs to any platform – including reformatting for a cell phone.  
  
He talks about a story based on the Feb. 23, 2008, shooting in the head of a 5-year-old girl from a stray bullet. The story is in every imaginable format – text, photos, multimedia video. “The whole package came out to our community web first.”  They want their reporters to break news on the web so that it is out there first.  
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He talks about a story based on the Feb. 23, 2008, shooting in the head of a 5-year-old girl from a stray bullet. The story is in every imaginable format – text, photos, multimedia video. “The whole package came out to our community web first.”  Their reporters break news on the Web so that it is out there first.  
  
 
http://www2.ljworld.com/photos/galleries/2008/oct/09/katherine_cook/ <br>
 
http://www2.ljworld.com/photos/galleries/2008/oct/09/katherine_cook/ <br>
 
http://www2.ljworld.com/videos/sets/2008/oct/09/past_coverage_katherine_cooks_ordeal/  
 
http://www2.ljworld.com/videos/sets/2008/oct/09/past_coverage_katherine_cooks_ordeal/  
 
COX: The overriding philosophy is that a journalist who doesn’t know any code can go in and create a storytelling piece.
 
  
 
GAGE: “It’s just a better tool to create information to our community” . . . To reporters: “We’ve tried to preach to them that the story content should dictate the format in which that is presented.  Storyteller allows us to use the best of all that media to convey information to our viewers and readers.”  
 
GAGE: “It’s just a better tool to create information to our community” . . . To reporters: “We’ve tried to preach to them that the story content should dictate the format in which that is presented.  Storyteller allows us to use the best of all that media to convey information to our viewers and readers.”  
  
COX:
+
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Latest revision as of 13:12, 28 May 2011

CMS Talkfest: How to Choose a Content Management System

Notes by Bill Densmore, RJI Fellow, 2008-2009
and Jane Ellen Stevens, RJI Fellow, 2008-2009 (Please use the wiki function to correct, update or supplement these notes)


What drives news and information web sites? Content management systems – CMS -- do. While the presses that print daily newspapers are relatively standardized, CMS are not. Adding to the confusion are the hundreds of CMS providers, each different from the next.

Just how does a news organization choose a CMS? Before choosing a CMW, what questions should you ask? How are CMS evolving as the Internet becomes increasingly multimedia and serving mobile devices? Is it possible to have a single CMS that integrates all the business, editorial, marketing and technical needs of a multi-platform news organization?

To answer these questions, the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute convened a Talkfest, the first in a series of a one-day seminars at the Missouri School of Journalism, to answer some of those questions. Providing the overview in the morning was BGV Media -– Amy Webb, Dorian Benkoil and Adam Glenn. BGV is an independent consultancy that, among its many talents, researches and recommends CMS. In the afternoon, three CMS developers described their CMS – Steve Yelvington of Morris Communication, in Augusta, Ga.; Richard Anderson of Village Soup in Rockland, Maine; and Ralph Gage and Dan Cox of MediaphorMedia in Lawrence, Kan.

Wikipedia has a page which lists features of content management systems.

Amy Webb began the day with an overview of CMS, and the three main types: open source, enterprise and a category she calls "getting creative".


THREE CHOICES: Open Source, Enterprise, Getting Creative

Open Source

Webb chose Drupal as a discussion point for open-source CMS.The open-source Drupal platform is free, but setting it up isn’t free. Because of the lack of good documentation, you need to hire a Drupal programmer. The good thing about Drupal is there is a big developer community, and they are all building modules – specialty plug-ins that do special tasks. It's also useful if you're feeding the same data into multiple Web sites.

There are several questions to ask before choosing a CMS. Do you need to:

  • manage multiple organization Web sites?
  • streamline Web site functionalit?
  • share digital assets across multiple sites?
  • easily train people to manage sites?
  • standardize underlying technology?

Everyone wants to take Drupal to the prom this year. Apture has built a module for Drupal. Reuters has a Drupal-based project called Calais, described as “a rapidly growing toolkit of capabilities that allow you to readily incorporate state-of-the-art semantic functionality within your blog, content management system, website or application.” It’s an automatic system for culling through stories and pulling out relevant words for tagging.

In choosing a CMS, you should remember that the journalism comes first. A CMS should facilitate the publishing. These tools are a means, not an end. You have to take a chance. You have to accept change. You must take a multi-platform approach.

If you are a small shop and you know Drupal – go with it. If you are a large shop, you need to hire someone who understands Drupal. The approach of for example, students, to publishing, is going to be different from an enterprise perspective. “You need to document the crap out of everything you do.” The developer should keep a daily log, “an absolute description of every nook and cranny of that code.”

“If you’re working with an enterprise consultant and there are questions about whether they are willing to give you all that stuff, that’s a sign that you are working with the wrong consultant,” says Webb. “You need to have full documentation of everything about how your Web site works.” Also, she adds: Anybody who is spectacular at the back end is either subbing out the front end to someone else or they are going to do subpar front-end stuff.” Be careful when you are working with one company that promises to do both.

Dorian advises get some understanding of who owns the intellectual property.

Watch for companies that are developing ways to make it easy for lots of people to use the same system -- Drupal modules to drop onto a Drupal framework. Modules such as blogs, videos, podcasts, events, RSS feeds, twitter feed, online ads, photo galleries, topic-based social communities, content tagging.

Django is another open-source CMS. It's based on Python, which is wickedly hard to code. It's not easy to learn from scratch and then launch a site based on it. You want to work with a tested known entity.

Open source is a good solution if you want to get your content to the Web fast.

Enterprise

There are hundreds of enterprise CMS – SaxoTech, Clickability. She talks about SaxoTech. It is big in Europe and they also power CanWest.

  • Fully integrated CMS – big in Europe and Canada
  • Not just about content management – it's also about work flow
  • Considers project and team management
  • Publishing for print, Web, mobile
  • Archiving and filtering across vast catalogs of content
  • Prohibitively expensive, both in setup and ongoing support. A news organization can easily spend $150K for setup and $90K yearly for support and maintenance
  • Not customizable without great effort
  • Not able to keep up with cutting edge

An advantage, however, is that all the work-flow aspects of news – from the story-idea meeting to multi-platform publication – is included in the package. “It starts with the creation of an idea.” It allows creating of assignments. “I like SaxoTech. … It’s pretty phenomenal.”

It starts with the creation of an idea, like a whiteboard in an editors meeting room. People are able to comment. It's easy to create assignments. Take digital assets that go with a piece, as teams of people in different departments provide photos, video, graphics, text. Everything stays together. It's sent to the Web, or paginated and sent to the printing presses. Most open source tools can't handle that yet.

Some enterprise systems have WSIWYG editors. You can design pages. Definite pros for being centralized, core product managed. It's a way to cut down on third-party tools.

Getting Creative

This means cobbling together third-party software: e.g., a blog with a Ning site, and/or a wiki.

Ning is a very simple platform you can customize without knowing code to create your own social network. It's free to a point. Amy is on the board of the Online News Association. ONA has a Web site. It started a social-network site on Ning because the CMS that ONA uses couldn’t do social networking. If you attended the ONA conference, you had to go to the conference Web site to register, but to a separate site to connect with your buddies. Getting creative is not suggested for organization. “You can deploy Ning if you need to, I just would recommend against it.” Why: Because it's not integrated, and it creates confusion with your main site.

For blogging, “you could decide to do your whole site in Wordpress." And, by the way, a blog is just a platform. "Blog" has nothing to do with content. Blogs can be all opinion, or they can be a platform for journalism.

A wiki is a way for groups to edit and share information. This is a way to integrate and manage content.

Q: Amy, what’s your impression of the stability of these hosted blog sites?

A: These are questions to ask: What if the host doesn’t support in the future? Where is the server? How is it being maintained? What about content migration?

Other things to think about when using third-party software:

  • Who owns the information?
  • Who’s liable for malfunctioning open-source tools, missing files, or plagiarism or libel issues?
  • Can you trust your server farm or hosting company? What’s your plan B?
  • What about illegal/copyrighted content? Ads gone wild?
  • Example: Pornographic ad on Philly.com served by their ad-serving company

How to start your technology assessment

Questions:

  • Do you have technical staff with enough knowledge and time to work with an open-source system?
  • Are you on a tight launch deadline? (if so, hire a company)
  • Have you budgeted for pre-launch, post-launch fixes and ongoing maintenance?
  • Are you a single or multi-site shop?
  • Will your site be mobi-compliant?
  • Are you preparing for semantic tags and social networking?

Process

  • Start from the back and work forward to the user interface.
  • Design for 12 months ahead, plan to launch in three months after that, and “prep for an extensible future that comes quicker than you anticipate.”
  • Create a narrative taxonomy. Make a list of every function that your Web site needs to do. What is every conceivable thing you want and how is it going to work?
  • Design is the END of the process.
  • The final version of your site is never the same as the thing you launch.
  • You should have a detailed, page-by-page, function-by-function handbook to the entire site. Plan for it to be 50-60 pages long. It describes the functionality, not the looks.
  • The last section should be a list of items and, more importantly, explanations for everything you anticipate the site doing for 6 months, 12 months and beyond.

Trends On the Horizon

Big, disruptive, wonderful change. Make sure your vendor is also anticipating change.

Social

Amy's referring to Twitter, Facebook, etc. Expect seismic change.

  • Make sure your content is syndicated to Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere. Make sure it is more than just RSS, it can be syndicated to different platforms.
  • Accept that current services may not be popular tomorrow, and plan for it.
  • Allow others to fully connect with your content, share it and serve it..
  • Open-source CMS are quicker to offer modules than enterprise system. But enterprise systems may be willing to work with you.
  • Getting creative: Third-party providers, such as Pluck, provide social tools. You can default to them or other third-party providers rather than set it up yourself.

Example: Apture

Apture's enhancement of Baltimore Sun story about American Idol, which can put multimedia into an otherwise boring text account. The example's on Amy's blog -- [mydigimedia.com] “This thing is doing a better job than the providers are. And this was built by a dude who had some free time.

Aggregate or die

Amy says news sites are going to have to aggregate content from anywhere – or die. “Why use me to an aggregator? Why not aggregate yourselves?”

Watch for third-party "my aggregator" services launching in early 2009. Multiscreen "my versions" that work across platforms.

Is RSS a friend or foe? Example: Automated Content Access Protocol in Europe blocks RSS.

You have to syndicate your content. Will your CMS provider offer an aggregator that will allow a user to customize their experience on your site – allow them to bring in other content. “It is OK to have other content on your website as long as you keep your people there.”

Mobile

  • Amy shows eight-year-old iMode phone from Japan. On this phone, you could buy tickets for the bullet train, look on the Internet, check for traffic and transportation schedules and delays.
  • 3G phones can stream live TV, find a nearby restaurant, watch the news, receive breaking news.
  • Ulocate suggests content to you based on where you are located.
  • Broadcast companies using new CMS that will enable them to syndicate content on air to mobile phone in a way that makes sense.
  • Super-micro-thin screens for mobile phones.
  • 5.0- megapixel camera, GPS enabled, recognize face...snap photo of you, will tell me who you are if I don't know who you are.

Two-dimensional bar codes (“Q-codes”)

  • About 2-D (two-dimensional) barcodes -- you can embed content – “print hyperlinks”. It makes print publications of all kinds interactive. You take a picture of it with your mobile phone, which then scans the bar code and gives you information from a url. They are everywhere in Japan. They are on food packaging.
  • BBC is using them on their Web site
  • They are being used for editorial content
  • New York Magazine had an ad for Ralph Lauren which included a 2-D barcode.
  • Scan QR code, gives you a map.
  • Firefox has a mobile barcocode creator.
  • Application – put a 2-D code in an ad as an upsell to more information.
  • Makes magazine and newspaper stories bookmarkable.

Another thing to watch

Apple’s new multi-touch Mac. A patent application from Apple published April 28 describes this.

Takeaways

  • Breaking news moves from computer to phone, to TV. Tivo a word, go to Twitter.
  • A journalist is a content provider, information gatherer and aggregator of the best sources.
  • There are no longer print, online or broadcast distinctions anymore
  • Don’t develop yourself into a corner
  • Don’t work with a company that is not flexible
  • Always create extensive documentation

THREE CMS DEVELOPERS EXPLAIN THEIR SYSTEMS

First: Steve Yelvington, Morris Digital Works

New site design and site management

Understand the problem – Trying to solve a technical problem, not a business problem.

We have huge, huge audiences, but the occasional user audience is the big part of that, the loyal user audience is very small.

  • Need to radically grow our loyal audience
  • News alone won’t get us there
  • News and town square and community resources
  • Everyone has to be involved, not just the “Web team”
  • We need tools that ‘uncork the bottle” and empower the entire staff

They are doing away with separate Web teams across the Morris network. Jacksonville.com is first, CJOnline.com is second. The Cabin.net is third.

Old world vs. new world – greater diffusion of knowledge and authority.

Reporters can post directly form the field. Koz Community – a good idea that was before its time. Will use Drupal’s groups-management capability to allow formal groups to enjoy many of the same benefits that Morris will. As simple as putting up a basic page and linking off to an existing website or using Jacksonville.com for complete services.

He thinks social networking tools common on Facebook or MySpace and elsewhere will be very viable on local sites. If you are a blogger, you automatically get a profile page, for example. You can provide a photo and some background information on yourself. Staff members will be required to participate.

Major points

  • Anyone with permission can update from anywhere, anytime, immediately.
  • Web-first multimedia: Text, images, audio, video
  • Easily create special packages/layouts for special events, topics pages, etc., without knowing HTML
  • Community blogging, buddy lists, social networking
  • Self-publishing tools for community groups
  • Ranking/rating, commenting, recommendations
  • Serve as a hub for navigating to other websites in the community (RSS aggregation)

Collaborative development process

The goal: Produce a standard configuration of Drupal that everyone can use everywhere. It is a configuration they intend to make publicly available. The enhancements and improvements will be contributed back to the open-source community.

  • Open source (free) software base
  • Open, fast-track development process
  • Began with extensive training in Augusta
  • MDW, Jacksonville.com and CJOnline.com all contributing time, energy, resources, ideas
  • Produce something everyone can use everywhere

Creating special-topic pages

“Pulling everything together about a topic is going to become I think a major function of online content producers.”

As a result, they create topics pages. The old way required some techno literacy – the pages tended to be hand tooled or built on the fly. The new way is that any editor can make and populate a special layout or page, and you don’t need server access, HTMl or scripting languages. To do this, they use a Drupal capability called “panel.” You add a page and then create a layout from a menu.

Then you get a form, where you give the name a name, a title and a patch directory.

“We’re putting in the hands of designers and editors design flexibility. Section fronts and the home page are produced in the same way. That allows speed of deployment never had before. You can create templates to help guide production and standardize results.

Target is high end. They are not planning to make money on it. They are giving it back to the open-source community.

“Putting them into action on a website is not a small process.” “A newspaper will still need people who are literate enough in technology to know how to administer a server.” “Most newspaper companies that have technology departments are going to be able to take advantage of the toolset we release.”

Richard Anderson – VillageSoup.com – Rockland, Maine

Anderson’s company received an $800,000 grant from the Knight Foundation to develop a freely-distributed open-source software system called the Village Soup Platform to develop VillageSoup Common’s around the country. “We agreed to let it go open source . . . these platforms while being open source, are not for everybody – there is a cost to implement them.

Have 18 sites under contact to become part of the VillageSoup Common.

Target is five- or six-newspaper owner companies among the 5,000 or 6,000 weekly newspaper owners in the United States. They will will come up with a fee for monthly service for operating the site on a hosted or otherwise basis. Users (businesses) will make money on hosted websites, banners and buttons.

He thinks one news organization for community of 30,000 people or less.

Dan Cox – Ellington CMS – from Lawrence, Kan.

http://www.ellingtoncms.com/ http://tabo.aurealsys.com/archives/2006/01/19/ellington-the-django-powered-cms/


Came out of the Lawrence Journal-World CMS. The created a new company called Mediaphormedi. Some of the clients are the Lawrence Journal-World, the Washington Post, the Las Vegas Sun and the Scripps family of newspapers, including the Naples Daily News and the Ventura County Star. Scripps has about 15 licenses for their newspapers. The San Diego Reader is using it, along with the San Diego Union-Tribune (for their specialty projects only).

It includes embedded photos and video, and a video gallery. It includes user comments.

For work-flow purposes, there are many disparate objects. There is search functionality in Django (the framework on which Ellington was built) to find and bring together those elements. For example, this means that objects can be reassembled in different ways – record objects associated with staff photographer Thad Allender can be assembled under his name from all the stories they were initially created for.

You can set up a custom RSS feed on any set of searchable objects.

Additional comments by Ralph Gage of LJW

Gage, who is general manager of The World Co., talks about the build-it-yourself philosophy. Adrian Holovaty created Django, which LJW turned over to the open-source community and has developed a foundation to manage that. They are developing Ellington in that mindset. Their business philosophy is to deliver news 24-7.

Storyteller is a module designed to simplify how reporters post stories so that they don’t need any code. Also, it outputs to any platform – including reformatting for a cell phone.

He talks about a story based on the Feb. 23, 2008, shooting in the head of a 5-year-old girl from a stray bullet. The story is in every imaginable format – text, photos, multimedia video. “The whole package came out to our community web first.” Their reporters break news on the Web so that it is out there first.

http://www2.ljworld.com/photos/galleries/2008/oct/09/katherine_cook/
http://www2.ljworld.com/videos/sets/2008/oct/09/past_coverage_katherine_cooks_ordeal/

GAGE: “It’s just a better tool to create information to our community” . . . To reporters: “We’ve tried to preach to them that the story content should dictate the format in which that is presented. Storyteller allows us to use the best of all that media to convey information to our viewers and readers.”

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