InformationWeek Content Management Weblog

The Trouble With Movable Type 5

Serdar Yegulalp — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:46:17 -0500

I've been using Movable Type as my blogging system of choice for several years now -- not just because it's open source but because it's a good program with great features. And yet the newest revision, version 5, feels like it falls far short of what could -- and needs -- to be done.

Melody: Movable Type, Reloaded

Serdar Yegulalp — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:57:16 -0500

It's always compelling news when an open source project of some renown is forked. It's twice as compelling when it's a fork of a project you use and rely on personally. I speak of Melody, a spinoff of the open-source branch of the blogging and publishing system Movable Type.

OpenText Acquisition Puzzles Analysts

Andrew Conry-Murray — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:44:28 -0500

Analysts didn't have many good things to say about the recent announcement that ECM vendor OpenText will acquire Vignette, a maker of Web content management software, for $310 million.

Oracle's Grand Collaboration Ambitions

Andrew Conry-Murray — Thu, 07 May 2009 11:23:14 -0500

Oracle hopes its Beehive collaboration platform will lead to sales of other Oracle products. And if it happens to shove Microsoft Exchange out the door, that's a bonus.

Ambitious Startup Wants To Manage All Your Unstructured Data

Andrew Conry-Murray — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:40:38 -0500

Digital Reef swings for the data management fences by indexing and classifying all unstructured data in the enterprise. Top applications include e-discovery and storage management.

Content Management Conference Season Is Upon Us

Peter Hagopian — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:04:37 -0500

Late winter and spring seem like prime time for content management conferences. If you were so inclined, you could practically make back-to-back reservations so that you're out of the office from March through June. Here's a quick look at a few of the conferences and events coming up for the first half of 2009. Ladies and gentlemen, start your frequent flyer miles!

Asbru's Latest Web CMS Delivers Impressive Features, Value

Peter Hagopian — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:02:31 -0500

Asbru may not snare as many headlines as some other content management systems, but over the last decade it has built up an impressive client base, and has continuously made impressive enhancements to its CMS. The release earlier this month of Asbru Web Content Management v7.0 is no exception and I don't think it's hyperbole to say that it's their strongest release to date.

SilverStripe CMS 2.3.0 Builds On A Solid Foundation

Peter Hagopian — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 23:06:41 -0500

This week the SilverStripe team released version 2.3.0 of its open source content management system, which packs in literally hundreds of bug fixes and dozens of enhancements. While I wouldn't consider anything in the latest release to be particularly groundbreaking, the development team is doing a commendable job of adding onto an already solid foundation.

A Content Management Head To Head (To Head)

Peter Hagopian — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:23:56 -0500

There's no shortage of people willing to rhapsodize about why their favorite open source content management system is better than everyone else's. So it's sure to be interesting to watch three skilled, dedicated teams trying to prove the superiority of Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress, respectively, in a three-way showdown next month at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival.

Kentico's Latest CMS Focuses On Social Networking

Peter Hagopian — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:10:28 -0500

I've been keeping an eye on Kentico CMS for a while now, and I've been consistently impressed with its products. With each release, it has been adding substantial new features to an already solid foundation and Kentico CMS 4.0, released earlier this month, is no exception. This release focuses on a number of social networking tools, including support for blogs, wikis, and community-building and management features.

CMIS Continues To Gain Momentum

Peter Hagopian — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:15:37 -0500

Up to this point there's been a tremendous amount of excitement surrounding the proposed Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS), but it takes a lot of work to take something from the proposal stage into something more concrete. As with any issue that requires broad-based consensus building, there's always the risk that two or more parties just won't see eye to eye and the whole project will go flying off the tracks.

At Last, A Major Update For PortalApp .NET

Peter Hagopian — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:23:50 -0500

In the content management system world, there's a fine line between "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and simply letting your product get stagnant while competitors race ahead. While it had been starting to look like Iatek's PortalApp .NET might be falling into the second category, the release last week of PortalApp .NET Enterprise 4.0 puts the company squarely back into the thick of things.

Radiant Improves Their Promising Ruby On Rails-Based CMS

Peter Hagopian — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:14:55 -0500

After nearly half a year of heavy development, Radiant 0.7.0, a content management system built on the Ruby on Rails framework, was released this past weekend. This newest version delivers a nice set of new functionality and backend improvements that are sure to make it even more appealing to small teams with basic content management needs.

Jahia Launches New Version Of Enterprise CMS

Peter Hagopian — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 23:05:03 -0500

Jahia launched version 6 of its open source enterprise content management system a couple of weeks ago, adding some slick new features to the content creation tools, and adding a number of improvements to its document management functionality.

IT & Legal: Can't We All Just Get Along?

Andrew Conry-Murray — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:29:31 -0500

A new survey shows there's a long way to go before IT and legal make a good e-discovery team.

How Simple Is Too Simple?

Peter Hagopian — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:42:04 -0500

As traditional blogging platforms such as WordPress and Movable Type seem to make their products more like full-fledged content management systems with each release, there's an interesting counter-movement bubbling up: content management tools that seek to provide simplicity over deep functionality.

Umbraco's New CMS Is An Impressive Step Forward

Peter Hagopian — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:27:31 -0500

Almost a year and a half after its last major release, the open source .Net-based Umbraco 4 content management system was finally released this week, and based on the impressive set of new functionality and features, it looks to have been worth the wait.

Content Management Recommendations That Pull No Punches

Peter Hagopian — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:09:01 -0500

You can barely take two steps on the Web these days without tripping over another "picking the best Web content management system" article, but I came across one published earlier this week on Webdesigner Depot that was particularly informative, funny, and certain to stir some mild controversy.

Hard Decisions Loom As CMS Vendors Face Tough Times

Peter Hagopian — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:32:03 -0500

It's an unfortunate reality that in an economy like this not every content management vendor is going to stay afloat. While many ultimately will make it through, some are certain to be taken over and others simply will be forced to shut their doors.

Adobe Launches Two New Content Authoring Suites

Peter Hagopian — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:46:45 -0500

Content management tools aren't just used for posting content to Web sites -- they also can be used for authoring and presenting documentation, creating interactive courses, and countless other purposes. Adobe this week announced the launch of two new content authoring suites, each with a separate target audience but a similar focus on delivering compelling content using mature, well-integrated tools.

Truevert's Semantic Search

Fritz Nelson — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:05:31 -0500

Semantic search is like porn: I'm pretty sure I'll know it when I see it. So when semantic search upstart Truevert came by for a visit, I got all googly (I think I might have even screamed "yahoo"). The Truevert system, powered by OrcaTec's discovery toolkit, is narrowly defined around green, but it's definitely an eye-opening, fresh approach to an elusive problem.

MixedInk Helps Large Groups Find A Common Voice

Peter Hagopian — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:11:08 -0500

While there's no shortage of collaboration tools for small workgroups, large groups with dozens or even hundreds of individuals are somewhat limited in the ways they have to work together. With a multitude of opinions to consider, authoring and building consensus on a single document can be challenging, and while traditional wikis have their place, a company called MixedInk has launched a new service aimed at making the process easier and more efficient.

Looking Ahead To Joomla's Future

Peter Hagopian — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:45:56 -0500

It appears that the Joomla community won't have to wait much longer to kick the tires on the next major release. The alpha release of Joomla 1.6 may be ready for testing within the next month or two, according to a blog posting from a Joomla lead developer Andrew Eddie.

Google Blog Converters Project Simplifies Platform Migrations

Peter Hagopian — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:47:15 -0500

Content migration can be one of the more technically challenging tasks facing administrators, whether you're running a complex site with thousands of articles or a simple blog with a handful of posts. Hoping to ease the pain a bit for the latter, Google recently introduced the Google Blog Converters project, which features tools intended to make migrations easier to and from a number of popular blogging and content management platforms.

MojoPortal A Solid CMS Option For .NET Shops

Peter Hagopian — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:34:59 -0500

While there are plenty of options to choose from if you're looking for free, open source PHP-based content management systems, the list is much shorter for organizations using Microsoft's .NET framework and coding in C#. While DotNetNuke has received the lion's share of attention over the past year or so, it certainly isn't the only game in town.