Articles - Page 199

What I Mean to Say: A Practitioner Perspective on AI, Semantics, and Content Evolution

msalvatierra

As VP of Research and Lead WCM Analyst at Gartner, Mick MacComascaigh knows more than a thing or two about enterprise web content management systems. In the recent podcast “The BIG Shift: Building a Global Online Strategy with Cloud WCM”, Mick talks about the challenges many organizations face in building a global web presence, in most cases with very limited and outdated legacy installed content management systems. The frustration generated from these challenges is what has been driving the attention of global enterprises towards software-as-a-service (SaaS) web content management, also known as Cloud web content management. As a much-improved alternative solution, Cloud WCM delivers on the failed promises of speed, agility, and interoperability once expected from on-premise content management systems.
<a href="http://www.crownpeak.com/lp/gartner-podcast-building-a-global-online-strategy-with-cloud-wcm.aspx?utm_source=cmswire&amp;utm_medium=article3&amp;utm_campaign=gartnerpodcast">Watch “The BIG Shift: Building a Global Online Strategy with Cloud WCM”</a>
As the podcast explains, Cloud WCM provides tangible and quantifiable benefits such as 80% faster deployments than on-premise CMS at 70% total cost of ownership (TCO), no hardware or software to purchase hence significantly reducing capital expenditure, global accessibility, no technical requirements resulting in better usability for business units, and much more.
<a href="http://www.crownpeak.com/lp/gartner-podcast-building-a-global-online-strategy-with-cloud-wcm.aspx?utm_source=cmswire&amp;utm_medium=article3&amp;utm_campaign=gartnerpodcast">Click here to watch the podcast.</a>

Gartner: Building a Global Online Strategy with Cloud WCM

mike-johnston

Now with Sitefinity you can conveniently create exclusive welcome and fan pages that drive engagement and invite visitors to become your fans on Facebook. Sitefinity CMS allows you to manage the content and layout of these Facebook pages and track conversions directly from the CMS interface.
The ready to use Facebook template is available from the Sitefinity marketplace: <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/marketplace/themes/facebook-template.aspx?utm_source=cmscritic&amp;utm_medium=template&amp;utm_campaign=facebook">Facebook Template for Sitefinity</a>

Using Sitefinity to manage your Facebook Fan Page

The end of June marked one of the most impressive milestones to date for the world's most popular blog platform. <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/tag/wordpress/">WordPress</a> is now officially powering over fifty million websites.
What an achievement for creator <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/wordpress-cms-founder-matt-mullenweg-interview/">Matt Mullenweg</a> and his team of developers. The adoption of the platform has been steadily increasing as blogs have grown in popularity and authority and it's not expected to slow down anytime soon. With the recent release of their 3.2 version, WordPress continues to drive innovation on the web.
Overall, the system has matured from what was once just considered a blog platform, to a full fledged CMS capable of powering much more than just your average website.
Congratulations to the WordPress community, we look forward to many more amazing achievements in the years ahead.

It's Official, WordPress has conquered the Web

Nuxeo, the Open Source Enterprise Content Management (ECM) platform company, today announces that Nuxeo Document Management is now available in the Ubuntu software partner catalog, ensuring ease of installation and deployment for developers building content management applications designed to run on the Ubuntu server environment. This new packaging and partnership with Canonical will ease installation, upgrades and the customization experience for the growing developer community selecting Ubuntu.
<blockquote>
“With more businesses running content applications on Ubuntu, working more closely with Nuxeo ensures joint customers have the support and services they need to make open source a core part of their IT strategy,” said Zaid Al Hamami, Director of Products &amp; Engineering, Corporate Services at Canonical. “Clearly demand for the Ubuntu operating system continues to grow as software partners like Nuxeo and its vibrant developer community leverage it for new applications.”
</blockquote>
John Sims, systems architect at Jeppesen, a Nuxeo customer running Ubuntu, notes, “We wanted a content management system that was modular and flexible, based on industry standards, and priced right. Our operating system needed to fit the same requirements, and we’re pleased to see this partnership evolve.”
While Ubuntu has long been a supported operating system for Nuxeo Enterprise Platform and its packaged applications, including Nuxeo Document Management, the adoption of Ubuntu as the preferred Linux distribution continues to grow across the Nuxeo customer base, as well as becoming the operating system of choice for most of the Nuxeo R&amp;D team. The Ubuntu distribution is ideal for massive cloud deployments, and is used by Nuxeo as a component of its cloud offering. Nuxeo will continue to support a wide range of open source and proprietary operating systems, including a bare Debian distribution.
<blockquote>
“Having our Nuxeo EP distributions, including Nuxeo Document Management, optimized for Ubuntu is yet another step in our ongoing commitment to simplify the creation of cutting-edge content applications on the Nuxeo Enterprise Platform for architects, Java developers and system administrators,” said Nuxeo CEO Eric Barroca. “Nuxeo is unique in the ECM market by executing on our strong commitment to streamline the end-to-end platform acquisition, installation and customization process to help application builders deliver content management solutions to their clients quickly and efficiently. Nuxeo Studio, Nuxeo Marketplace and the Nuxeo Connect portal also help developers expedite prototyping and design–with just a few clicks and in a matter of minutes after download.”
</blockquote>
Nuxeo seeks active participation from the Debian and Ubuntu communities, who have deep expertise on how to package and run mission critical applications on a wide range of Linux servers and for a large population of users. Nuxeo encourages community contributions such as developing applications and add-ons for the Nuxeo platform.
For details about installing Nuxeo products in Ubuntu, visit https://doc.nuxeo.com/x/94RH.
About Nuxeo Nuxeo delivers an open source document management application built with a complete, modular and extensible open source platform for enterprise content management. Other packaged applications built with the platform provide solutions for digital asset management and case management. Designed by developers for developers, the Nuxeo Enterprise Platform offers modern technologies, unmatched modularity, a powerful plug-in model and extensive packaging capabilities. Using a fully open source development model, Nuxeo provides a subscription program with software maintenance, technical support and customization tools. Nuxeo ECM is trusted by 1000+ organizations across 145 countries, including Cengage Learning, Pearson Education, AFP News Agency, EllisDon and Jeppesen, a Boeing Company. Nuxeo is dual-headquartered in North America (Boston) and Western Europe (Paris). More information is available at <a href="http://www.nuxeo.com/en">www.nuxeo.com</a>.

Nuxeo Releases New Open Source ECM Packages for Ubuntu Server

The <a href="http://www.fuel.ie/about/packages/">Fuel Standard Package</a> is based on the fantastic Open Source Sapphire CMS framework from <a href="http://www.silverstripe.org">Silverstripe</a>. Heavily customised to be more user-friendly and feature many more features ‘out of the box' than the default Silverstripe CMS, but all developed within the open source framework guidelines.
This demonstration video uses a sample ‘bare-bones' website design to illustrate all of the features available from the standard package.

The Fuel CMS 'Standard Package' - Introduction

As the public sector begins to get to grips with the transformation of services to online delivery, it is more important than ever that councils and local authority departments select the right supplier to support their Web Channel Strategy.
It is well recognised that there is a plethora of web content management (WCM) systems in the marketplace. Many are feature rich solutions offering the tools required to develop and manage successful websites. Out of the box core solutions are widely available that deliver websites with Web 2.0 functionality in conjunction with a range of features that have become standard requirements for most Local Authorities all underpinned by varying degrees of support and maintenance. Some will offer, hosting, additional modules and other such tools – it is a familiar landscape to many Local Authority IT and Web Managers; as one recently commented ‘they are all about the same'. So, if many suppliers' systems are still developing in roughly the same direction at about the same pace (give or take), then where lies the differentiates? How do you make sure your web partner is the partner of choice?
Selecting a good WCM system and publishing an engaging website is not by itself going to get public sector bodies where they now need to be.  The measurement of a successful website is now and will continue to be, the extent to which it effectively delivers services and this is where the role of the solution supplier can become a significant and valuable differentiator.
Digital by default
Some WCMS vendors have recognised the transformation in the public sector market and have adjusted their messaging to reflect the need for effective channel shift to online self service to deliver cost efficiencies or more for less whist increasing customer satisfaction. Products and solutions have developed rapidly to offer the means to engage customers in the online transactions that are the heart of online services.
Making the difference
The demands on Councils require a more complete service from web partner suppliers than simple solution provision.  Ask yourself the questions, is my WCMS supplier helping me to get the very best from my chosen solution? Are they genuinely focused on assisting me to achieve channel shift to meet my strategic objectives?  Are they working with me for the long-term?
In everyday life we strive to get the best value from the suppliers we work with, sometimes there is value in going to the same supplier, but in other instances staying with one supplier may keep our view narrow minded and is influenced by the product's capability. It is therefore imperative to consider the long term plan of what your web channel strategy is trying to achieve and if the aspirations of the partner fits with your requirements.
Through evaluation of what your current partners provide you can make judgements on whether they are suitable to help you deliver that change. This may lead to the realisation that strategic change throughout the organisation is required, and that corporate buy in is holding back the website rather than the technology itself. However, by looking to different suppliers for different aspects of your website will ensure you have a comprehensive review of your website and new ideas may unfold. A supplier who is in tune with your needs and requirement will work with you to optimise your website, delivering effective user journeys and maximising long term transaction fulfillment.
The importance of realising your objectives makes it crucial not to be held back by a web partner who is not focused on them. Don't be afraid to go elsewhere to obtain the expertise you need to make your website as effective as it should be and to deliver the savings you need.
Article by Jens Sorensen of GOSS Interactive <a href="http://www.gossinteractive.com">Web Content Management System</a>.

How dynamic partnerships will be a necessity to local authorities' web channel strategy

WordPress and Textpattern are two of the most well-known blogging platforms out there. Each has its own share of advantages and disadvantages as well as supporters and critics. Both have a great user base and power many wonderful websites! In this article, I shall attempt to provide a comprehensive comparison of both WordPress vs Textpattern. Be informed though, this piece is just based on personal experiences and most users of either WP or TXP might agree (or disagree) at will. For the sake of clarity, I've attempted to sub-divide this article into multiple heads.
Functionality
WordPress seems to be the leading CMS when it comes to functionality and ease of use. Its latest version has undergone a good revamp and the organization of the administrative back end is now as user-friendly as it can get! You can control every major section of your blog through it in a matter of few clicks.
TextPattern, on the other hand, has a slightly less refined administrative back end. Yet, it still is fairly user-friendly and very robust. The only catch is that TXP's back end looks slightly dated, in comparison to that of WP.
Customizability and Extendability
Both Textpattern and WordPress are equal customizable by means of themes and templates. On a similar note, both TXP and WP have a good quiver of plugins and extensions. However, if you delve deeper, you'll find that WP has more themes and plugins as compared to TXP. While this clearly does not mean that WP is a better CMS than TXP, it surely goes a long way in building the user base for WP. Since majority of commercially viable tech blogs and websites are powered by WordPress (not to mention the millions of blogs at WordPress.com), it is but natural that WP has a large number of themes and plugins.
If you are geeky enough, you really should not be worried as you can tweak TXP to your liking and build a website. But if you are just planning to get a blog or website up and ready with as little technical expertise as possible, WP should be your safest bet!
Usability and Operation
This seems to be the most debatable topic. WordPress has a WYSIWYG Editor that makes editing posts and articles a breeze.
<img style="max-width:300px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/weaver_elizabeth_submission_manager_screenshot_gcloaz.jpg" alt="WordPress vs Textpattern" />
Textpattern, on the other hand, has an equally awesome (though not so end user friendly) editor, which can do almost all that you want it to, but is slightly confusing in operation (at least for starters). While Textile and other related items can be your best friends if you get used to them, they really will seem mind boggling features if you are a stranger to them.
<img style="max-width:300px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/weaver_elizabeth_submittable_screenshot_rpavbu.jpg" alt="WordPress vs Textpattern" />
Moving around the back end too, you'll find that installing themes or plugins, checking your blog's stats or even upgrading the CMS – all can be accomplished in WP in a way easier manner as compared to TXP.
Are they alive?
Both WordPress and Textpattern are in active development (so this sub-heading perhaps should've been different, but I couldn't resist). Similarly, both TXP and WP have a good community base and many forums where you can turn for support.
However, WP is updated on a more frequent basis as compared to TXP. Supporters of WP will be tempted to portray this as higher level of activity at their developers' end, while supporters of TXP can attribute this fact to a sign of maturity of TXP in itself.
To sum it up
With that said, lets summarize each CMS's pros and cons:
Textpattern (<a href="http://www.textpattern.com">http://www.textpattern.com</a>):
Pros:
<ul>
<li>Textile is a very popular element among TXP users, and once you get used to it, you really will find WP's interface bit over done.</li>
<li>The Template System lets you tweak your website to the heart's content.</li>
<li>Extensive documentation.</li>
</ul>
Cons:
<ul>
<li>Admin back end slightly unattractive.</li>
<li>Confusing for beginners.</li>
<li>Lesser number of themes or templates (as compared to WP)</li>
</ul>
WordPress (<a href="http://www.wordpress.org">http://www.wordpress.org</a>):
Pros:
<ul>
<li>Arguably the easiest CMS out there</li>
<li>Numerous themes for customization</li>
<li>Easy updates</li>
</ul>
Cons:
<ul>
<li>Unless you install WPMU, it can power only one blog</li>
<li>Slightly limiting back end (if you're a geek)</li>
<li>Editing article meta data is difficult</li>
</ul>
The verdict?
Well, ideally picking a CMS is a decision that is governed by the user's specific needs (and perhaps bias towards a personal favorite). Still, if you need a CMS just to power a blog or a small website, WordPress should do the trick for you. If, however, you have plans of doing something beyond the ordinary such as having multiple blogs or prefer to tweak your articles before posting them (or simply like to get to the bottom of things), Textpattern might solve your purpose.
Have you used either WP or TXP (or both) earlier? Got some opinions to share on either of these two blogging platforms? Let me know in the comments!

WordPress vs Textpattern

Hotjar - Spot what confuses

Spot what confuses your users with Hotjar & AI

#ffffff

When it comes to sharing your images on your website in the form of a web gallery, the CMS options for managing the same are many. Whether you wish to create an online portfolio, or simply want to share some photos, choosing the ideal CMS for your web gallery goes a long way in effectively managing the gallery! In this article, we bring to you some of the best known CMS options for web gallery management.
<h2>Zenfolio</h2>
Zenfolio allows you to create beautiful galleries for your photographs with an easy to use and incredibly powerful platform. Features include a portfolio style home page, customizable slideshows with music, custom page elements, photo blogging, scores of themes, pre-built pages that you can choose from, mobile optimization (for tablets and phones, multiple user accounts and much more. There's even an e-Commerce component should you choose to sell your photos for a fee.
http://youtu.be/FWvI-liiXec
Website: <a href="https://en.zenfolio.com/">Zenfolio</a>
<h2>Wix</h2>
Wix is a website builder but it has some amazing functionality for managing picture galleries as well. From sliders to full galleries for your photos, you are sure to find a way to showcase your pictures. The advantage to using a hosted solution such as the one that Wix offers is the speed at which the site loads. With a hosted solution like Wix, your site will not be bogged down with media.
Here's an example of one of their templates:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/f772689190b08068bff2c0c6dd8db184_wix_mp.png" alt="wix" />
Website: <a href="http://www.wix.com/" target="_blank">Wix</a>
<h2>WordPress</h2>
There are numerous themes available for creating amazing galleries with WordPress. Here is a list of direct links to places where you can find some amazing gallery / photo based WordPress themes and Plugins:
<ol>
<li>Photocrati is one of the most advanced gallery centric setups for WordPress you can find – <a href="https://www.photocrati.com/demos/" target="_blank">Try the demo</a></li>
<li>Themeforest has a wide selection of gallery / photo based WordPress themes – <a href="https://themeforest.net/category/wordpress#content" target="_blank">Visit Themeforest</a></li>
<li>Enigma by RocketTheme has an amazing gallery plugin – <a href="https://demo.rockettheme.com/joomla-templates/enigma/" target="_blank">Check it out</a></li>
<li>ElegantThemes has a ton of amazing themes and you get every theme they have for one price (less than $50) – <a href="/elegantthemes" target="_blank">Check them out</a></li>
</ol>
<h2>Coppermine 
</h2>
Coppermine is one of the most popular web gallery CMS based on PHP scripts. It employs a MySQL back end. It is highly customizable by means of plugins and seems to be a perfect choice for creating a photo blog or image gallery online.
Website: <a href="http://coppermine-gallery.net/" target="_blank">Coppermine</a>
<h2>Zenphoto 
</h2>
Zenphoto is arguably the most popular CMS when it comes to sharing images. The goal behind Zenphoto is simple: web gallery management! The interface is sleek and wonderful, with separate tabs for configuring the different components of your gallery. Further more, Zenphoto is supplemented by numerous templates and plugins (including some that feature integration with a WordPress blog).
Website: <a href="http://www.zenphoto.org" target="_blank">Zenphoto</a>
<h2>Piwigo</h2>
If you prefer having a gorgeous theme or template for your gallery (who doesn't, by the way?), Piwigo might just be the right CMS for you. With numerous themes and plugins in its arsenal, Piwigo is a popular open source CMS for web gallery management. It is packed with features, and just in case you are still looking for a web host, Piwigo.com also provides web hosting!
Website: <a href="http://www.piwigo.org" target="_blank">Piwig</a>o
<h2>Gallery</h2>
Gallery is an open source web based photo album organizer. Gallery gives you an intuitive way to blend photo management seamlessly into your own website whether you're running a small personal site or a large community site.
Website: <a href="http://gallery.menalto.com/" target="_blank">Gallery</a>

Ten Content Management Systems for Photo Galleries

Percussion is a company that has been steadily growing in the CMS space and we decided to take some time to get to know the company and their products a bit further. We had a chance to connect with Joseph Wykes, President of Percussion and here are the results of that interview.
CC: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you came to be with Percussion?
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wordpress-v-logo_nxe2ba.png" alt="Joseph Wykes - Percussion" />
JW: I had been practicing law in the UK and realized how much I enjoyed the business development side of the law firm. I found myself energized by the opportunity to build a business, build relationships, and grow my career, and jumped at the chance to be part of the early stages of forming the Percussion business. In a bit of an unusual move, I left London to help launch Percussion’s content management product—then called Rhythmyx—in Santa Monica. When it came time to expand the business overseas in Europe, it was natural for me to “come home” to London and establish our UK office. Once the UK Operations was ramped up, I came back to the States; first to San Francisco, and then to Boston. It has been an exciting journey and I am very glad I made the leap from Law to software.
CC: How did Percussion come to exist? What is the back story behind the CMS?
JW: Percussion was originally incubated as a set of tools that focused on content transformation, database integration, and security services. As these tools grew into products, addressing hot spots in the technology market, sister companies were spun off. Rapid7 was first spun out in 2000 to focus on a security and threat management opportunity. Later, Axceler initially spun off from Percussion to focus on an integration with Lotus Notes (as a relational database opportunity), and then more recently to focus on a SharePoint data migration opportunity. Percussion launched its web content management offering in 2000, and since 2006 has stayed exclusively focused on the web content management market.
In 2000, we recognized that as web sites became more sophisticated, managing content was going to be a major challenge. At first, this meant building tools to manage the Create, Approve and Publish processes that we are familiar with today. As we move forward, we are focused on returning web content management to its true product roots, rather than abide by the complex, custom built services frameworks the market has become. This is our core focus for the company today.
CC: Can you tell us about the differences between CM1 and CM System?
JW: Sure. We think that the market for web content management has gone through a number of fundamental shifts over the last 10 years as web sites have evolved, and consumer behavior have shifted in how they interact with the web. As sites have become more complex, content has taken a back seat to other dynamic site features creating even more complex technology solutions. In turn, this makes attempting to deploy an “all in one suite” incredibly difficult, leading to services-to-licenses ratios of 6, 7, and even 8:1. Percussion’s CM1 and CM System attack this over-customization head-on, and provide an alternative product strategy for both the business and IT departments.
At their core, both CM1 and CM System are based on the same dynamic code structure, and are both fundamentally de-coupled architectures; meaning that Percussion’s products do not require clients to add any technology on the delivery tier. This is important particularly for companies with higher-end websites, who have invested substantial amounts of time and money into a complex delivery architecture. These companies appreciate the fact that Percussion can publish content to the site without requiring changes to that architecture. For sites like AutoTrader.com and Weather.com, this is their number one requirement. Furthermore, since higher end sites like Healthcare.gov and Vegas.com often have other complex applications running in their delivery tier, CM System has a number of integration points to ensure that the WCM technology can be configured to fit their environment.
The WCM products’ roles in the market diverge from here. CM1 was designed and developed to address this critical issue noted earlier: systems are just too complex to deploy and use and are getting more complex every day. This results in companies paying relatively little for the software license, but then spending a massive amount in services to deploy the software and get it working.
Unfortunately, once deployed, user adoption is often low because these more complex WCM systems are not easy for the content owner to use and still require ongoing support from the web development team. For a company with a relatively small web marketing team, this appears to be an extremely daunting task which is why a large number of companies still use custom developed Dreamweaver-type applications to run their sites.
Through its “drag and drop” style user interface, CM1 returns control to the marketing/business owner. Marketers are now able to make the vast majority of changes they require; from content updates, to new template creation, to navigation changes, forms, etc., without having to go back to their IT teams for assistance.
Also noteworthy; CM1 uses a widget-based approach to new functionality. New features are made available as a widget that can be plugged directly into the existing installation. This gives marketers the flexibility to take advantage of new features when the need arises, rather than trying to guess at what their needs might be in the coming years.
In short, CM System is most appropriate for high-volume, highly complex web sites with thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of pages. Whereas CM1 is the perfect solution for the smaller organizations that do not have a large web support team, but recognize the value of a true content managed website.
CC: What success stories has Percussion had over the last few years? Have there been any significant implementations that you are especially proud of?
JW: The last several years have been quite good for Percussion and we are pleased with our results so far. On the product side, we’ve made some significant enhancements to CM System as it reached its 7th major version. And we are particularly proud of the effort to launch our CM1 offering as an alternative for companies in search of a WCM solution with features similar to more complex products, but more streamlined for non-technical teams.
With CM1 we set out to fundamentally re-think how web content could be managed. We looked at the key problems that were still unresolved in the market, and determined that giving the power of controlling content creation and delivery back to the Marketer was a critically important need not being addressed. In general, Marketers were continually making trade-offs between the promise of the web; and what was possible with their systems, and between what was required; and how much bandwidth IT had to develop against those requirements.
Starting with that basic buyer pain, we examined every aspect of managing content to identify ways to apply innovation and “change the game”. We started with the user experience. The dynamic approach that we took to the UI in CM1 is fundamentally different than anything we have seen in the commercial WCM market to date. We developed the user experience with the business user in mind, adopting their language for activities, and designed things such as; the ability to create new templates with a “drag and drop” style to empower the business user to do more on their own. We were recently named a MITX Award finalist for Best UX which was an extremely gratifying testament to what we have achieved.
The second area we applied innovation is around “how to get started using web content management”. Most commercial systems require a substantial investment in services to customize and integrate the technology framework that the vendor provides. We wanted to deliver a system that the organization could deploy on their own, with little intervention from the web development team, and most importantly, no involvement at all from a services organization. Our support team assists when needed, but our clients appreciate that they can cut out the services investment and just focus on buying a software product.
As CM1 approaches Version 2.0 we have made significant inroads into the market. Right at the end of June, two new customers—Saba Software and MacPhail Center for Music—went live on CM1 and the momentum continues to build.
We have had a number of other very exciting developments on the customer front, including a new win with The Weather Channel’s weather.com. And long-time customer AutoTrader.com continues to transform their publishing model to ramp up the volume of content. They are going from a pace of under 100 new articles in a full year, to one where they publish over 10 new articles a day — a pretty dramatic transformation for sure.
Our work with the US Department of Health and Human Services continues to ramp up as well. Our success here has created a number of different partner ecosystems around Percussion, both in the technology and integration communities. Embracing these new channels is leading to some new and interesting opportunities in the near term.
Perhaps one of the most interesting stories came from our work at HHS (US Department of Health and Human Services). We were recently asked to deploy a new site www.stopbullying.gov in just six days! The President and First Lady were planning to announce a major anti-bullying initiative through Facebook this past March, and the main website needed to be live to support the scheduled launch date of March 10, 2011. Therefore the new site had to be developed and deployed in an extremely tight timeframe. Needless to say the President’s deadline was not arbitrary, and we made it easily.
CC: What do you think differentiates Percussion's CMS product line from the numerous other products on the market?
JW: We have our opinions on what differentiates us for sure. These are generally on our bias towards product rather than frameworks, our decoupled architecture, and our relentless focus on control over web content for the end user (Marketers). But we prefer to let the work we are doing with our customers define that point of differentiation.
I talked a moment ago about Weather.com. We have a great video on our site offering a testimonial on why they chose us. Interestingly, they had already evaluated other vendors in the market and had resigned themselves to building a content management tool internally. When they saw that they could get a fully functioning web content management system, and not have to make ANY changes to their newly launched website, they saw tremendous value in Percussion’s decoupled architecture.
From the perspective of CM1, we are providing our customers with an un-matched level of control. We have a few customers who have taken on the deployment process themselves, with only “check-in” help from us. And now that they are live, will have greater flexibility than ever before, as we discussed earlier.
There are many features along the way that are truly different, but the value we provide our customers — to help solve their most pressing challenges — is the true meaning of our differentiation.
CC: There is a strong call for social enablement and integration within websites and intranets nowadays, how does Percussion handle these requirements?
JW: I would have joked that “Social is the new black” but it has become clear that actually “Mobile is the new black”, and Social is the black shoes that you just have to have in your wardrobe—you are never sure when you are going to wear them, but you know you have to have them.
Knowing that most companies are still testing “how they will drive social engagement”, we handle this in two distinct ways:
The first pivots on our integration capability with other systems. If you already have a social CRM or personalization process in place, we simply plug into that rather than requiring that you rip it out and start over with ours. That approach substantially lowers the risk to the organization in rolling out our web content management products.
The second approach for companies embarking on this journey, is through our community marketing modules. This is an add-on module that allows companies to get started with delivering personalized content, manage things like favorites, comments and ratings, and user generated content. And of course our blog platform provides a strong content managed blog that integrates with the overall structure of the site, and enables content re-use across the blog, the site, and micro sites.
In addition, as part of our ongoing quest to give greater control and flexibility to our customers, we are working to make this even easier to install down the road. We hear often from prospects that they are “thinking that they want to do personalization but just not yet….” In short, they want to know that they can embark on the social enablement journey when they are ready, rather than being forced to take it on when they first deploy the WCM.
CC: What do you consider the most important / powerful feature of your software?
JW: As noted earlier, the ability to return control over content to the business user, while giving the technology team the flexibility to easily deploy a web content management product is Percussion’s most important development.
CC: What can we expect to see from the next release?
JW: Everything we are focused on is to make the experience of managing content easier for our customers. With that in mind, we aim to make each release even more about product, and less about services. We work to provide greater control and flexibility for our customers to do what they want to do on the web today, and prepare better for whatever is coming next on the web.
CC: We often ask each of our intervieweeʼs to share their personal definitions of the word CMS? These are shared on our <a href="/what-is-a-cms">What is a CMS?</a> page.
JW: Over the last few years there have been many shifts in how people use this term. We have WCM for web, WEM for experience or engagement management “suites” etc. Most of it is driven by vendors trying to carve out a space for themselves in the market.
We are pretty comfortable with sticking to the term web content management as a definition that supports publishing content out on to the web. However, clearly the concept of “the web” has morphed from your static company site, to reflect new channels and communities like Facebook and mobile.
So today we think much more broadly about where that content winds up then the old year 2000 view of the web. But at the end of the day, companies need to push content (and much more than ever before), in many forms, out into many more digital channels. For now, and the foreseeable future, a web content management system is your best platform to achieve that goal.
CC: Thank you sir, it's been a pleasure talking to you.
You can learn more about Percussion from their website: <a href="http://www.percussion.com">Percussion CMS</a>

Interview with Joseph Wykes, President of Percussion

Check out our more expansive <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/list-of-social-network-software/">List of Social Networking Software</a> in our Product Directories/Software Lists.
So you want to start a Social Network do you? Fear not, there are tons of way to do so, from software you can download to online solutions that are both free / require a fee. There's definitely more than one way to make it happen. Check out our list of Social Network Software below for some great options.
What you'll find below is a mix of free and commercial solutions designed to make starting a social network as easy as can be. Some of these require customization and some offer great out of the box solutions that might fit your needs, either way, there's something for everyone.
<h2>Self Hosted Solutions</h2>
The solutions below are scripts or software packages that you can download to host on a web host such as <a href="https://www.hostgator.com/">Hostgator</a>.
<h2>1. BuddyPress</h2>
BuddyPress was conceived in 2008 while working to add social networking features to a WordPress MU powered site. The first official stable release was in May 2009. The platform has grown and morphed considerably since then, into the dynamic, easily extensible package you see today.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen.png" alt="BuddyPress" /> BuddyPress
Just like its parent project WordPress, BuddyPress is a completely open source endeavor. Everything from the core code, to the documentation, themes and plugin extensions are all built by the BuddyPress community. This means anyone can help the project by contributing their time and knowledge.
Cost: Free
More Info: See some sample sites that are running BuddyPress in their <a href="http://buddypress.org/showcase/">showcase</a> or give it a whirl on the <a href="http://testbp.org/">demo site</a>.
<h2>2. Elgg</h2>
Elgg is an award-winning open source social networking engine that provides a robust framework on which to build all kinds of social environments, from a campus wide social network for your university, school or college or an internal collaborative platform for your organization through to a brand-building communications tool for your company and its clients.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wordpress-vs-ghost1_tok7el.jpg" alt="Elgg" /> Elgg
Cost: Free
More Info: You can read our <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/elgg-review/">Elgg review</a> to get a more detailed look at the system, test it out on their <a href="http://community.elgg.org/">community site</a> or download it from <a href="http://elgg.org">Elgg.org</a>
<h2>3. Commons (formerly Drupal Commons)</h2>
Commons is a ready-to-use solution for building either internal or external communities. It provides a complete social business software solution for organizations.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wordpress-vs-ghost-editor_z5lcxv.jpg" alt="commons" /> commons
Commons helps organize content into topic (organic) groups with blog, discussion, document, wiki, and event content types. It also allows users to create (user) relationships with each other in order to follow each other's activities on a site. Authenticated users can view a personalized dashboard containing content from all their subscribed groups. Site owners can quickly and easily change the theme (powered by Fusion from Top Notch Themes) to incorporate their own branding. Plus many other features for community-building.
Cost: Free
More Info: You can test it out on the <a href="http://commons.acquia.com/">Commons demo site</a>, download it from the <a href="http://drupal.org/project/commons">project page</a>. There is also a commercially supported version of it available from <a href="http://acquia.com/products-services/acquia-commons-social-business-software">Acquia</a>.
<h2>4. SocialEngine</h2>
SocialEngine is a commercial product that has been designed for an advanced social network. Complete with a wealth of features and available plugins, it is a great option for those looking to start their own network without a high level of required customization.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/socialengine-580x478.png" alt="SocialEngine" />
SocialEngine
SocialEngine gives you a good-looking social network out of the box with minimal setup required, you simply customize from there.
Cost: $299
More Info: <a href="https://www.socialengine.com/">SocialEngine.net</a> or read our <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/socialengine-php-review/">SocialEngine Review</a>
<h2>5. JomSocial</h2>
JomSocial is an addon for Joomla that adds social network functionality.  You can easily enable social networking to collaborate with your community with features such as activity streams, flexible templating &amp; design, photo gallery, video support, organic groups, event management, social graph management, customize profile, private messaging, external social network integration and many more.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/magnolia14_zkpv5t.jpg" alt="JomSocial" /> JomSocial
Cost: $99 – $499 (depending on license) 

More Info: <a href="http://www.jomsocial.com">JomSocial</a>
<h2>6. Ning</h2>
Ning competes with social sites like MySpace, Facebook and Bebo by appealing to people who want to create their own social networks around specific interests with their own visual design, choice of features and member data.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/magnolia13_sv9tsk.jpg" alt="Ning" /> Sample of a site running on Ning
The central feature of Ning is that anyone can create their own social network for a particular topic or need, catering to specific membership bases.
Cost: $2.95 – $59.95 / month
More Info: <a href="http://www.ning.com">Ning</a>
<h2>7. SocialGO</h2>
SocialGO is similar to Ning in that it offers you an opportunity to start your own hosted social network. It allows you to build your own social network with drag and drop tools. Some of the features include: personalized profiles, easy messaging, sub groups, event promotion, text and video chat, forums, blogging, photo &amp; video sharing, facebook integration and more.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/magnolia13bw_q6ugl9.jpg" alt="SocialGO" /> SocialGO
Cost: Free – $149 / month depending on plan
More Info: SocialGO
<h2>8. Spruz</h2>
Spruz allows you to create your own website with full member and social features. With Spruz you can create your own social network, blog, business website, or a site about almost anything.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/magnolia16_oxxf4o.jpg" alt="spruz" /> Sample site running on Spruz
We have many features built into our website platform that makes it easy for you to create a website that is very robust. Add blogging, forums, discussions, galleries, calendars, and much more! And the best part you can create and use your website completely free!
Cost: Free to $49.95
More Info: <a href="http://www.spruz.com">Spruz</a>
<h2>9. PhpFox</h2>
PhpFox is a featured packed social networking solution. Our goal is to provide your community with features found on major social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace right out of the box. phpFox is built on a platform that gives you full control with your websites layout giving you the ability to easily create a unique look direct from the comfort of your Admin Control Panel.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/magnolia21_amyixd.jpg" alt="phpfox" /> PhpFox
Cost: $99
More Info: <a href="https://www.phpfox.com/">PhpFox</a>
<h2>10. Dolphin</h2>
Dolphin is an open-source, downloadable, scalable, customizable, full-featured, independent and free software package for building social networks, dating sites and niche communities. Dolphin is the only “all-in-one” bundle of PHP community scripts, Flash plugins, Adobe AIR and Mobile apps that provide full control, freedom and flexibility.
Cost: Free to $999 (depends on license)
More Info: <a href="http://www.boonex.com">Dolphin</a>
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a large number of options that should fit most needs. Do you know of one we haven't included in this list or have experiences with any of these (good or bad) that you'd like to share? Please do so in the comments below!

List of Social Network Software

Three hot topics right now on the web are content management systems, the cloud and shopping cart software. New products are being released every week offering an increasing level of choice and a number of companies are doing well to establish themselves in these distinct areas.
As exciting as all of this is, when it comes to actually building a site these choices can start to become more of a problem than a solution. By the time a site is up and running you are likely to a using a combination of installed CMS software, a shopping cart system, a third party payment processor and in some cases additional functionality left out of the CMS such as HTML mailing systems.
Thankfully a new system, INZU, can do away with all of that and provide a comprehensive solution that meets the needs of most small/medium businesses and organisations. Going one step further, INZU is cloud based meaning there is no learning of a CMS templating language required. Data is instead accessed through a user friendly API that makes the code on your site understandable to any developer, not just those familiar with a particular CMS.
INZU was first established as a payment provider for digital downloads nearly four years ago when there was little competition in this area but since then the system has steadily grown to incorporate new features on a regular basis. In late 2008 the first attempts at creating a cloud system were introduced with product information for downloads and by at that time mail orders being available through a very basic API.
With the success of this it was clear that for INZU customers managing their shop on their own site via the admin area on inzu.net was not only a great success but could easily include other sections of their site. Through discussion with a number of selected users in 2009 work began on a fully-fledged CMS system that sought to achieve that goal.
Beta testing of the system was completed in 2010 and this year has seen the introduction of the CMS to a wider audience as well as the addition of some powerful new features.
The idea of CMS in the cloud is relatively new but offers some genuine advantages over installed systems such as:
<ul>
<li>No installation, saving time and money</li>
<li>No updating required</li>
<li>No extra programmatic/templating tier, everything is accessed via XML/JSON data feeds giving total freedom in site architecture and design</li>
<li>Multiple access point for data, so you may have multiple websites and mobile apps all up-dateable from the same CMS</li>
<li>Totally unobtrusive, meaning it works very well alongside bespoke CMS systems/elements or even other installed system</li>
<li>Tiny site footprint, usually between 1-5MB means only very cheap hosting is required for the user's site</li>
</ul>
To understand the architecture a bit more clearly the CMS admin suite is accessed on inzu.net by logging into a user account. Here updates are made and new products added. For sections such as galleries and events images are hosted on INZU servers. The user then creates a site template on their own domain which accesses the data via the INZU API using whatever server side language they like e.g PHP or ASP.
Thankfully an entire site template (built in PHP) that covers all the sections of the CMS and how to connect to the API is available for free and a dedicated developers site fully documents how to access the API. You can even test out the example site without registering as it is set up to access example data from INZU.
Although the CMS and API is laid out for a typical site with sections you'd expect to see such as home, contact news etc what you can achieve with the system goes way beyond that. A handful of clever extra features make for a very flexible system with all the power of other installed CMS packages, these are;
<ul>
<li>SQL style calls</li>
<li>Tagging of entries</li>
<li>Versatile articles section</li>
</ul>
The API allows for a range of SQL style parameters to pass to each call so you may for instance select a certain news entry, the second page of news entries, change the ordering type or select by a certain tag.
This comes neatly onto the second point. Tagging each entry allows you to create sections within sections, so by tagging entries as you upload you can define which section it belongs to for example you may wish to have one gallery for people and one for events. Tagging may also be used to group other section types together so you could display the first three entries of news and galleries for the tag “what we're up to” and have both those feeds display on the same page.
Mixing and matching feeds or elements of feeds on the same page is very straightforward and no different to how you would normally access different database tables.
As well as the more structured section types like news and galleries, the articles section is built to allow the publishing of general HTML pages and so is great for articles or blogs. With the ability to create sections within the articles section (without using tags) there is really no limit to the variety of pages on your site.
What this amounts to is a very clean easy-to-use CMS from both the user's and the developers side. Developers get to mash up the the API in lots of interesting ways using the language of their choice and with no worries about fitting into a templating architecture they don't like whilst the user gets a streamlined admin suite where not only do they update their site content but also manage their shop, direct payments and mailing system, all from one account.
And with the increasing importance of mobile in the world of online, it is becoming increasingly clear that your web data needs to be in more than one place at a time, with INZU that is a reality.
To learn more about Inzu, visit their website: <a href="http://inzu.net/">http://inzu.net/</a>

Inzu blends CMS with the Cloud and tosses in some eCommerce

Yfactor is thrilled to announce the release of iCMS 8.0. iCMS 8.0 has all the powerful content management features that our iCMS 7.0 clients are used to, but also brings new functionality for mobile friendly pages, accessibility compliance and video.
Mobile Friendly Pages 
Whenever a visitor accesses an iCMS 8.0 website on a mobile device, a mobile friendly website that has been automatically created is shown to them. The site loads quickly, is easy to navigate and has an optimized layout for viewing on a mobile device.
Accessibility Yfactor's iCMS 8.0 follows the WCAG 2.0 Level A guidelines for accessibility by providing a simpler, more enjoyable experience for website visitors with accessibility needs. Accessibility compliant websites are automatically generated with iCMS 8.0. From one screen staff enter content for the main website and in a new tab the accessibility compliant page is created for them.
Yfactor has partnered with ReadSpeaker to provide additional accessible functionality. ReadSpeaker can be integrated into any iCMS 8.0 website and provides web-based text-to-speech. A “Play” button is available on each page of an iCMS website which, when clicked, will read the page aloud to the web visitor. Joop Heijenrath, director at ReadSpeaker, is excited about the partnership, “After our growth in Europe, we have been interested to grow with our services in the US and Canada. Yfactor is well positioned to help us grow. The seamless integration of the ReadSpeaker functionality in the Yfactor iCMS is proof of our successful partnership.”
Video 
The new video gallery makes adding video to your website a breeze. iCMS 8.0 allows upload of video from all popular digital formats which is then automatically converted to web-friendly Flash movie files. These movies can be added to any webpage including the video gallery page which enables visitors to browse, rate, and comment on videos.
Anya Codack, CEO of Yfactor, is delighted about the new functionality. “iCMS 8.0 empowers website staff to manage one set of content that can be displayed in standard, mobile and accessible formats and is accessible to everyone.”
Yfactor's first iCMS 8.0 website is already up and running. <a href="http://www.yfactor.com/nonprofit/Press-release-our-kids-network">Click here</a> to read more about the new Our Kids Network site.
About Yfactor 
Yfactor Inc., a Toronto-based marketing and technology solutions provider specializing in websites with integrated content management systems for municipalities, nonprofits and businesses, takes a collaborative approach with its clients to deliver “solutions that fit.” Founded in 1997, Yfactor has delivered thousands of creative and innovative solutions for more than 400 clients. Yfactor's flagship iCMS 8.0 and Ytools software feature powerful data and content management tools designed to provide a high degree of reliability, flexibility, ease of use, and cost control. For more information, please visit <a href="http://www.yfactor.com">http://www.yfactor.com</a>.

Yfactor Releases iCMS 8.0 with Mobility and Accessibility Features

Sitecore, the company that has redefined Web Content Management, announced today it has acquired the development team and the intellectual property of Pectora. A long-standing Sitecore technology partner, <a href="http://www.pectora.com/">Pectora</a>, provides Web publishing solutions for deep integration with print-based projects. The combined offering brings together print and Web design teams to deliver more dynamic, personalized, customer-facing print media including brochures, catalogs and magazines.
<blockquote>
“We are continuing our investment in providing business and marketing solutions that make the customer experience more personalized and engaging,” said Michael Seifert, CEO, Sitecore. “The way in which we retrieve information has changed immensely. As consumers, we expect our interactions with companies to be consistent whether via the Web, email, mobile phone or reading collateral. Our acquisition of Pectora allows us to bring consistency and personalization to print and digital communications.”
</blockquote>
The Pectora technology enables marketers and Web designers to utilize Sitecore’s Web platform as a central hub for all Adobe InDesign content as well as all document layouts and settings. The offering brings rich content management capabilities to print designs in the InDesign and InCopy products, including team collaboration, multi-lingual management, security and workflow control and dynamic document delivery.
The combined solution brings the best of digital marketing capabilities to the offline world, allowing marketers to utilize content across all channels. Marketers can also deliver highly relevant and targeted content and offers to users based on interests, behavior, location and buying – in a channel independent way. Furthermore, it is now possible for organizations to connect customer behavior through collateral pieces directly into websites and campaigns. By taking advantage of rich document capabilities of InDesign, InCopy and Adobe’s Creative Suite, including dynamic linking and QR (Quick Response) code embedding, it’s possible to close the loop on marketing performance in the offline world.
For example, by utilizing the Pectora technology integrated with Sitecore’s Customer Engagement Platform, a consumer can read a printed piece of collateral or signage, scan it with a smartphone camera and be automatically brought to a relevant Web page for a mobile experience, while tracking the campaign performance for the marketer.
About Sitecore
Sitecore redefines how organizations engage with their customers online, powering experiences that can sense and adapt to a customer’s needs to increase revenue and customer lifetime value and satisfaction. Sitecore was the first Web Content Management system (WCM) to incorporate marketing automation, intranet portal, e-commerce, Web optimization, social media and campaign management technologies into a cohesive, integrated open platform. Sitecore’s software makes it easy for businesses to identify, serve, engage and convert new customers online.
Sitecore’s broad choice of capabilities enable marketing professionals, business stakeholders and information technology teams to rapidly implement, measure and manage a successful website and online business strategy. Its powerful development platform, integrated marketing automation tools and intuitive editing workspace enables successful websites of all types.
Thousands of public and private organizations have created and now manage more than 27,000 dynamic websites with Sitecore including ATP World Tour, Austrian Airlines, CA Technologies, Ergo Insurance Group, Heineken, ISS, Lloyd’s of London, Microsoft, National Suisse, Nivea, Thomas Cook and Visa Europe.
Connect in the <a href="http://www.sitecore.net/Products.aspx?sc_camp=BFD5C644E3E04C7E95B832F57B8F59B4">Sitecore Community</a> to experience Sitecore’s success and that of its customers, partners and developers.

Sitecore Acquires Pectora to Bridge the Gap Between Print and Digital Worlds

CMS Kickoff 26

Find out at CMS Kickoff 26, January 13 - 14, St. Pete FL

What's the future of CMS in the AI era?

Explore a wide range of informative articles, insights, and industry updates. Stay informed and ahead of the curve with our diverse collection of news and posts covering the latest trends and developments in the industry. Page - 199