Some Frequently Asked Questions on Content Management

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How is Content Management different from Document Management?

Content is the actual units of information, this could be a chart, a diagram, a table or text. A specific document could be a collection of these content units, in fact a given version of a document will contain a specific version of these content units. In a simple case a document may contain only one content unit, however in large documents (e.g. Instruction Manual) it is usual to have a number of text content units and several diagram content units. So Document Management is about managing the Documents in terms of versions, access control, distribution, etc. whereas Content Management is about managing the content units in terms of versions, access control, re-use, etc. So Content Management separately manages the content from the presentation whereas Document Management controls the content and presentation as a pair.

My Web site works - why do I need Content Management?

Most web sites will work most of the time. Content Management is not about making a web site work, Content Management addresses the process of creating, editing, reviewing, re-using, publishing and managing elements of content in an efficient manner so that the web site operations can be achieved at production quality.

We use a Media Agency to do the Web - Why do we need Content Management?

The Media Agency probably do a good job for you. They may well use Content Management themselves in their systems. However, unless your only route to market is via the web and you have no paper versions of any material there would be benefits from using Content Management. Many of the elements of the web site are likely to be used in the production of the paper material. Content Management would allow the re-use of the text, graphics, diagrams, tables, logos, etc. for all of the media you wish to produce.

We have a group who "Tag" our web pages - what could Content Management do for us?

As an advanced user of the web you know that search-engines use these Tags to determine which pages to return in response to a search request by a user. Content Management can help in two areas, firstly allowing your group to Tag the individual elements of content, so that when they are combined to form Web Pages, the Tags can be assembled from the elements of content. So any content which is re-used only needs to be tagged once. Secondly, the most useful tags are ones which the users will remember and use to request from a search engine. This effectively means that Tags for the Content should be adjusted to use the terms entered into search engines. Hence, to enable the content to be most efficiently found by a search engine, it is likely that content will need to be periodically assessed for a revised tag.

We use ColdFusion for developing our web, can that work with Content Management

Content Management can work with ColdFusion. The process that Content Management represents is independent of the web page development tool. However, the software package used to implement Content Management will need an interface to ColdFusion if a high level of automated integration is to be achieved.

We use Dreamweaver for developing our web, can that work with Content Management ?

Content Management can work with Dreamweaver. The process that Content Management represents is independent of the web page development tool. However, the software package used to implement Content Management will need an interface to Dreamweaver if a high level of automated integration is to be achieved.

Content Management sounds complex - we do not need it!

Content Management is very simple in its objective - to get the Right version of the Right information in the Right place at the Right time. This objective can be achieved in a number of practical ways and needs to be at an appropriate scale for the amount of content and the number of people involved in the process.

We only have a small site, about 200 pages, so why would we need Content Management?

Even a small site has the requirement to ensure that the Right version of the Right information is available at the Right place on the web site at the Right time. Content Management is the process to achieve this objective. For a small web site which is created and maintained by just one or two people, the process could be achieved by using simple checklists. The need for Content Management is dictated not only by the number of pages but also by the amount of change to the pages and the number of people involved in authoring / reviewing the content.

Our site does the transactions straight into a database - how could Content Management help?

Transactions being recorded into a database are good but it is rare for a site to consist solely of the data needed for the transaction. The normal situation is that a transaction occurs as result of review of other information such as product description, product specifications, etc. Content Management would be used to manage the process of the production and maintenance of this information. This would apply even, if the final text of the information was held in a database just like the transactions, in essence the database would be the final point of the content management process rather than the web page.

Our web pages are built dynamically - so what role could Content Management play?

Where pages are being built dynamically the need for Content Management still applies. The only change is that the content management process does not focus on the content being placed on the final dynamically built web page but on the library / database which is being used as the source for the dynamic page construction. Content Management is often required to provide version control to the content that is to be held in a database. Most Content Management systems provide an option for storing content both in a database and in the native file system.

What is Digital Asset Management (DAM) ?

As organisations invest considerable amounts creating graphics, text, images, etc. the need to track these assets becomes an important activity. There are a number of software packages available that specifically address this functionality. The better Content Management systems also provide this functionality although some only give access to the assets for objects that are being created within the Content Management's control.

Life Cycle - What is the entire life cycle and why is traditional `content management` unable to achieve this?

Traditional content management only addresses the structure and organisation of content, not the authoring/contribution or delivery/ distribution of content. Organisation’s websites have become more than just html, java script, and animations. Businesses are using these sites as extensions of their businesses integrating their transactional systems and including interactive content. Possibly the criteria for a complete content lifecycle management solution consists of the following:

	A production system that manages the creation, structure, management, and delivery of content
	A platform for integrating information with established business applications
	A personalisation engine that applies business rules to the delivery of customised content to individual users
	A commerce system that connects the web front end to the enterprise’s transactional systems

Workflow in Content Management - how important is workflow technology in the new content management environment?

It is very important in both the authoring/development environment as well as in the run time environment. Without it, it is very hard to `manage` content

Incorporation of data - how do you incorporate more non-traditional unstructured data such as video, audio, images and spatial rather than for example, spreadsheets, into a Content Management solution?

Creating an inventory of all the organisation’s enterprise data both structured and unstructured, and then based on the business rules of the organisation, assign meta data to all data objects. Once the data can be referenced via XML or meta tags, it can then be delivered to a variety of devices.

Content Aggregation - what is Content aggregation and how can it be defined?

Content aggregation is simply the organisation of data in such a way that it can be delivered in a personalised, meaningful format to the end user. Corporate data and information can be grouped, sorted and viewed in an infinite number of ways. Information systems in the past have been organised vertically around departmental divisions which does not promote information integration.
Currently, classification of data within an organisation depends largely on the subjective perspective of the business managers and system architects who are doing the development. Incorporating unstructured data means first having connectivity to those systems.

Planning a strategy for Web Content Management - in terms of the Content Identification and Content Delivery, should an organisation standardise and minimise the devices used to create/disseminate structured or unstructured data?

The fewer devices and systems an organisation has to maintain and administrate, the easier and less expensive it will be to manage its structured and unstructured content.

We already have a Content Management system. Is it easy to migrate to a new CM system from another Vendor ?

Once the investment has been made to install a Content Management system the migration to a new Content Management system is less of a change than the introduction of the original system. Some of the leading vendors
have migration tools to take the directory information directly from a competitive system and most provide an import method for any XML formatted content.

What is XML ?

XML stands for Extensible Markup Language.
It has been defined to provide a flexible approach to managing content and function in a generic way. It is the flexibility which the definition provides that it makes the language attractive for a wide variety of uses.

HTML vs XML

HTML has been widely used for the development of the World Wide Web.
The massive investment which companies have made in creating HTML pages, training staff in HTML and buying HTML tools will ensure that it remains an important feature of the computing world for several years.
XML is a very flexible mark-up language. It would be entirely possible to create all HTML objects from XML, but the converse would not be true.
XML allows web site content to be separated from the format and layout used in the presentation. This permits the development of more dynamic sites by allowing content to be added to a structure which is already defined and understands how to handle the stream of content.
XML is not just limited to handling content which is to displayed on web pages, the flexibility it offers allows it to be used to define and handle data streams.
This ability is used when communication is required between two elements of software which have been developed independently and without knowledge of the exact means data would be transferred between them.

XML's Future

The evolving standards for XML have led to some confusion in the market. In addition, the power of its flexibility has made it difficult for many developers to grasp the potential of the language. However, the stadards are becoming clear and the range of tools which support the use of XML are easing the strain on the developers. So the usage of XML will grow.

Why is XML important for Content Management ?

As XML can be used to separate Content from presentation it generates the opportunity for the separation of skills in the overall Content Management process.
Authors can create content, designs can compose page layout and programmers can make the data available, etc.
XML can also be an important mechanism to allow content to be created once but deployed to many different output media such as web pages, as pages for Wap phones, as pages for interactive TV, as hard copy, etc.

With organisations progressing towards e-business, some content an organisation uses will be provided by suppliers and some the content a company produces will feed directly into its customers content systems. This can only be achieved using the flexibility provided by XML to encapsulate content and facilitate its effective presentation.

Why is XML "Hot" ?

For many in IT, XML is recognised as providing an opportunity to standardise on a mechanism for describing, delivering and exchanging data between applications (or databases). The standards are not yet fully agreed by the World Wide Web Consortium who have the responsibility for XML.
The first stage has been defined, namely the Extensible Style Language (XSL). This is the style sheet which is used to present data from XML into formatted HTML pages.

Software Vendors see this as a means to make their product work and interface with many other products and existing systems used by corporations IT departments. If there is an increased sales opportunity it is not surprising that the XML skills have become "Hot".