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Content Management Systems for Future-proofing your Web Site
Content Management Systems are Open Source and Commercial software products that allow multiple people to update Websites (even at the same time).
Content Management systems are crucial for keeping a site current, and keeping a site current is one requirement for future-proofing the site. (The reason that content management systems are crucial is that obtaining fresh and accurate content about the campuses and departments of a school district from campuses or departments is difficult. The content management system places the responsibility for site updates upon the campus or department.)
As search engines become more intelligent; analysis for how long the page has been published, how often the page is updated, and what the nature and quality of the updates will determine the rank of the page.
So, keeping quality content fresh on many pages (important now), will become more important.
CSS, XHTML and XML remain important strategies in maintaining the consistent look and feel, design, and navigation of a future-proofed site. Content Management Systems can work with these technologies to streamline future management.
Open Source CMS Products
Here are links to Open Source Content Management products available on this site.
Link to more information about Moodle.
Note: Moodle is a course content managment system.
Link to more information about Plone.
Link to Choosing a Content Management System (CMS).
Commercial CMS Products
Commercial CMS products are expensive, often requiring budgets and expertise that are beyond the reach of school districts.
Web Services
However, school districts often do subscribe to Web services that perform a similar function as a Content Management System.
Web service companies provide update capacity (using just a Web Browser) so that each teacher, counselor, campus, department, etc. can maintain their own information.
Sometimes these vendors advertise themselves as a “Content Management System.” However, these systems are probably better described as "Web Services."
The difference is that the Web services allow only changes in color and a logo from the standard page design. The pages often look “boxy and bland,” and the navigation system takes viewers down “box canyons” which require stepping backward to escape from the dead end.
Other difficulties include the use of tables for page layout, and the repeating of style elements for each page. This limits accessibility, and increases bandwidth requirements. This is the equivalent of fielding overweight and out of shape players for the district's varsity sports team competitions.
On the other hand, these systems are less expensive than hiring Webmasters and licensing lots of high-end software. These sites are more useful to the patrons of a school district than the “brochure-ware” sites that only describe the school district from the central office point of view.
Future-proofing your Web Design or Webmaster Job
For future-proofing your Web design or Webmaster job, i.e., to keep someone in authority from converting your district's Websites into a Web service site, we recommend the following:
- Revamp your site to use CSS, XHTML and XML so that updates are quick, efficient and inexpensive
- Implement content and service features on the site that provide real value to students, teachers and patrons
- Solicit and collect comments and feedback from students, teachers and patrons to document that the site is really serving their needs
Links to choosing a CMS on this site.
Links to information about other Technologies on this site.