Web content management

There are a few simple web content management systems available today. Cushy CMS, Clover and Surreal are three super simple systems that come to mind when we look at PageLime. PageLime is a hosted web content management solution that let's you very easily add content management to your website without making a lot changes. Just give them FTP access to your site, mark up your pages with some CSS classes and you are off to the races. Add Content Management QuicklyYou may have built your website thinking you didn't need — or want — content management. But, like most, you have found that the need to keep updating your content to keep it fresh and relevant is becoming a bit of a pain in the you know what.

It's been a busy summer for the Plone project. In particular, they put out a call for Plone Improvement Proposals (PLIPs) for Plone 4. They also split the initial vision for Plone 4 into a more do-able Plone 4 for this year and a more far-reaching update for Plone 5 slated for next year. Following the PLIP process, the Plone 4 Framework Team has polished off their list of what's to be included in this release. Even with scaled back plans the Plone 4 team chose to include a record 40 improvement proposals.

The Open Text Web Solutions group, formerly known as RedDot Web Content Management (WCM), has just put out a new and significant release of their mid-range Web CMS product. Yes, Vignette (when the acquisition is finalized) will take place alongside Web Solutions version 10 in this WCM quilt. This update brings improvements to the technology stack, more Enterprise CMS and SAP integration patchwork and an updated user interface. But OTEX didn’t stop there. Let's see what else they've done. We spoke with Marci Maddox, Open Text’s director for global product marketing, to get the details.

Vignette Corporation, the company that the world's leading brands rely on for innovative and dynamic Web experiences, announced plans to release Vignette Content Management 8.0 (VCM 8.0) in the second half of 2009. VCM 8.0, a cornerstone of the Vignette Web Experience foundation, empowers marketers and business users to manage media-rich, global Web properties through an intuitive user interface that can dramatically improve an organization's agility. With VCM 8.0, organizations can easily create and manage an engaging online experience while relieving IT of basic, day-to-day Web responsibilities. The new user interface makes the management of pages and content simple. A novice user will be able to build Web sites in minutes rather than hours while maintaining brand consistency using the proven scalability and power of Vignette architecture. VCM 8.0 also includes productivity enhancing capabilities such as personalized toolbars, favorite shortcuts and workspaces that recall user preferences.

Call it rubber-necking or whatever you want, but when one company buys another company in this business we want to know the details.Such is the case with the announcement that Pennsylvania based Really Strategies has just bought out DocZone, a Dutch-based SaaS XML content management provider under — you guessed it — undisclosed terms. DocZone’s DITA solution is known as being one of the most affordable on the market, while Really Strategies’ RSuite is a browser-based web content management system for publishers.

The initial vision for Web CMS Plone 4 was so complex that it wasn't slated for release until 2010. In order to allow for smaller, more focused releases, Plone Founder Alexander Limi announced at the Plone Symposium at Penn State that the Plone Roadmap has been revised. What was originally Plone 4 has been split into Plone 4 and Plone 5. The New Plone 4Plone 4 is due in late 2009 and its release manager is Eric Steele.  This release will feature:

Earlier this week, I blogged about ECM and Open Source -- and the different landscapes buyers will encounter in the Enterprise Content Management marketplace versus the Web Content Management marketplace. I think there's a similar paradigm when it comes to SaaS (Software as a Service). For web content management, there are a plethora of choices including the most significant players that we evaluate in our Web CMS research: CrownPeak, Clickability, and OmniUpdate.

Vivvo, the simple PHP-based Web content management system that we noted lacks basic capabilities but is still suitable for small publishers, is extending its arms.In what’s undoubtedly an attempt to nab some extra fans (and do away with the burden of downloading), the company is now offering hosted trial versions of their solution, free for the asking. The next step, according to the founder, is to provide a full SaaS CMS offering.

Looks like Alfresco isn't the only vendor offering a SharePoint alternative. Australian vendor Intranet Dashboard says they have the perfect alternative to SharePoint, offering an all in one solution for creating Intranets, Extranets and portals. First time we've heard of them. So let's take a closer look. The Intranet DashboardThe Intranet Dashboard is a set of 40 tools designed to help you build your Intranet. Tools are categorized as Web Content Management/Publishing, Business Tools and Collaboration/Communication. Okay, sounds a little familiar.

IBM’s Lotus Web Content Management System is to ship with a second HTML editor following the announcement of a new OEM partnership with Ephox, the web content authoring software developer of EditLive. According to Ephox, the new editor is for non-technical business users who do not know how to manipulate HTML and who are likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future. As it stands Ephox’s EditLive gives users control over the entire authoring process. It contains Word-like editing features ranging from spellcheck as-you-type, to a track changes function. It can be customized and extended, having over 200 APIs. It also allows for integration with a given Content Management System or application platform.

Version 3.3 of the Plone web content management system is on its way, and the Plone Foundation is inviting all and sundry to help test during its short beta cycle. Come one, come all, pound on this baby and make it great. New with 3.3: Features Added, Bugs FixedA number of enhancements and bug fixes are included with this release, such as:

Well this is kind of interesting. Do you have SharePoint Services (WSS) up and running, but would really like to have some web publishing capabilities on top of it. Unfortunately you don't have the money to invest in full blown MOSS just to get web content management. CompleteSharePoint.NET offers you a solution — a Web content management system built on top of WSS.We were interested in understanding a bit more about this new Web CMS, so we asked Tommy Segoro — its creator — a few questions. CompleteSharePoint.NET was built by Tommy Segoro, a Practice Lead working at L7 Solutions in Perth, Western Australia. It is currently a beta solution. Released on CodePlex in October of last year, CS.NET has been downloaded over 519 time to date.

Kentico Software, a Czech Web CMS vendor, released a new version of Kentico CMS for ASP.NET. The 4.0 version, out of beta announced in December of last year, brings to the table Web content management packaged with social networking.  The majority of new Kentico CMS 4.0 features are revolving around the oh-so-popular social networking, online communities and Web 2.0 technologies. Known for its Web 2.0 features in version 3.0, the new version of Kentico CMS targets companies that want to leverage Web 2.0 technologies and engage their customers by using blogs, forums, polls, wikis and focus groups.

It's more than a Web Content Management System. The Affino eBusiness Suite is designed to help you manage every aspect on your online business. It's about publishing, promoting, selling, socializing and it has just been updated to version 5.5. What's new? Let's take a look.

Clickability,  the on demand Web Content Management (WCM) vendor today announced the immediate availability of Clickability Corporate Solutions. Created to meet the urgent needs of global organizations for a reliable, affordable and easy-to-use Web business platform, Clickability Corporate Solutions bring the advantages of a constantly evolving multi-tenant platform and a mature Software as a Service (SaaS) WCM solution to companies eager to fully engage and serve their customers online.

In its biannual report released Feb. 2, 2009, IBM's X-Force research group pointed out significant security threat trends as we enter 2009, and paid particular attention to vulnerabilities found in PHP web content management systems such as Joomla!, Drupal, TYPO3 and WordPress.

Vivvo is an Web Content Management System based on the popular LAMP stack of technologies. Built by Serbian software house, Spoonlabs, the product is designed to deliver and manage interactive publishing websites.This PHP-based Web CMS features a modern AJAX-ified user interface, a clean and easy to use backoffice set of tools, and the ability to create your front-end website without having to write a line of code. Come along as we take a closer look under the covers.

I've heard too many people say Digital Asset Management (DAM) is "kind of like Web Content Management" (WCM) or "just like document management, but for pictures." While there may be similarities between DAM and WCM or DM, DAM is often mis-perceived, or over-simplified, and most of the information out there about DAM is infused with vendor-specific marketing and sales-talk, rather than concrete hard facts about what DAM software does and doesn't do.

Are you in the loop on this? The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) has been approved by the W3C. With it, comes discussion among W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative about what’s new with these guidelines as well as the resources that will be available for web developers and designers. After months of collecting thousands of individual comments from hundreds of sources around the world during the development of WCAG 2.0., the final guidelines have been published.

CrownPeak, a player in the Web content management field, announced significant growth in the third quarter of 2008. The company reports that the company’s record growth was fueled by positive expansion of the overall Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) industry. In addition to the record quarter-over-quarter growth, CrownPeak has announced new high-profile clients that are utilizing CrownPeak CMS for their Website deployment and extranet solutions. To compliment new projects from new customers, CrownPeak has also seen growth from being able to add new projects from existing clients as well.