In the modern world, we are all used to the idea that we can create our own documents – but if you
go back 15 or so years – the only way you could create a website was by understanding ‘HTML’ - which few did.
Products like Dreamweaver and Frontpage were not around – which meant that pretty much if you wanted to have a
website (internet, extranet, intranet) then you needed someone with technical skills to write it – but not only
that - once they had written it you still needed someone technical to change it – as it involved reading HTML code to
determine where to add content.
As a result of the above – anyone with a website pretty much ran a ‘centralised creation process’ for web content.
The ‘norm’ would be that if you had information you wanted on a web page you would send it via email to the ‘web team’
who would then amend an existing page or create a new one (if you were lucky you would get to ‘approve’ the page before
it went live – if not you just accepted the formatting of the web team).
Web Content Management systems were developed to solve this issue. If you talk to vendors you will hear phrases like ‘decentralised
content creation’ or ‘separation of layout from content’. In essence, a WCMS exists to allow non technical staff to create or amend
web pages without the need to involve the technical staff.
Unlike a Document Management System that does not necessarily enforce a structure on the documents being created – a WCMS typically
enforces a structure on the pages being created – often referred to as templates. The structure (representing the layout ‘code’ for
the web page) is typically concealed from the editor or author – so that the only task they have to complete is the insertion of
content into a ‘blank structured web page’.
Whilst products like Dreamweaver and Frontpage have evolved to emulate the above scenario with features such as drag and drop
resulting in the generation of code without technical intervention – they should not be confused with WCMS systems. As products
it could be argued that they serve a small niche segment of the market for managing web pages. Its hard to put an exact figure on
suitability but probably up to 200 pages is the amount of content you could manage via such products (though there are certainly
examples of more). It would be more correct to describe such products as ‘website builders’ than Web Content Management Systems.
A WCMS can be characterised or summarised by the following;
it manages small units of information (web pages) – each unit of information is interconnected via a navigation structure or path.
each unit (web page) is defined by its location on the site – hierarchies of information are created by the location of each unit in relation to all the other units of information within the overall web event. Further definition can be created by ‘verticals’ of navigation that determine the type of information stored under it
there is extensive cross-linking between pages – which determines that a visitor can move from one page to another by means other than the navigation
it is focused primarily on page creation and editing - it facilitates content creation, content control, editing, and many essential web maintenance functions by presenting the non technical user with an interface that requires no knowledge of programming languages or markup languages to create and manage content.
it provides a publishing engine that allows created or amended content to be made available to a website visitor
it often provides an approval process or workflow that ensures that content is validated before it is released or published to a website.
Download the 'Benefits of Web Content Management' as a pdf
