Content management
Content Manager
The job title Content Manager has an established place in web business. The task is to manage the content of a website. Depending on what other experts are involved, this may include:
- Project Management
- Obtaining good text
- Commissioning a good design
- Selecting good images (picture research)
- Organising the content
- Planning the information architecture and site navigation
- Creating a good user experience
- User testing the website
- Planning a keyword and content strategy with regard to Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
- Link administration
- Public Relations (PR) and Brand management
- Monitoring and metrics
Note the use of the word 'good'. It is used in the Platonic tradition. For a 1970s interpretation see Robert Prisig Zen and the art of motorbicycle maintenance. Prisig worked as a technical author and had a job teaching students how to write 'good' text. This led him into a philosophical review of what he meant by 'good'.
Content Management in Very Small Organisations (VSOs)
Every web publication has content and it must always be managed. It can be done using nothing except the software on a typical PC or Mac. One could, for example create and publish a website using a word processor (eg Word) and a file manager (eg Windows Explorer):
- text is written in Word and images are imported direct from a digital camera
- hyperlinks are inserted using the Insert>Hyperlink (Ctrl+K)
- the documents are saved in web format using File>Save As>Web Document (*.htm)
- the set of documents is published to a web server by typing the http: address into the Address bar in Windows Explorer
- the content can also be re-purposed, as a CD or .doc file or, if Adobe Acrobat is installed, a .pdf Portable Document file
It is use of the content for several purposes (web, paper, CD, .pdf etc) which distinguishes a content management operation from the production of paper documents using a word processor.
Content Management in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
Software can be chosen ranging from simple to complex and free to expensive. The chart below categorises software components and gives examples of 'industry standard' and open source alternatives. Open source software should receive careful consideration: it is gaining a reputation for being almost as sophisticated as the commercial alternatives. Many people think it is also more reliable, because it has thousands of programmers instead of hundreds of programmers.
| Software Type | Industry Standard | Open Source |
| Database | Access or Oracle | MySQL |
| Word processor | Word or Word Perfect | OpenOffice |
| Web Editor | Dreamweaver or Frontpage | OpenOffice |
| Image Editor | Photoshop or Photopaint | The Gimp |
The principle difference from the Very Small Organisation solution, proposed above, is the use of database software. The advantages of a database are:
- all the data is kept together
- each record (eg a telephone number or room number) exists in only one source document
- data can be extracted and used for a wide range of purposes
- the database can be used to support a dynamic website
Medium sized enterprises can consider the use of open source content management software. See openCMS Open Source Content Management Software and the OpenCms Project. As with the CM Systems used by large organisations, staff are likely to require education and training. These systems are installed on a web server and content is uploaded using a web browser interface. They allow workflow management so that changes by each contributor are stored and logged.
Content Management in large organisations
Large organisations use large and expensive Content Management Systems (CMS) to accomplish the above tasks. They are managed by experts with training in specialist content mangement software. The links below take you to examples of these programmes.
There is a guide to CMS, with a links page, at A European resource for Content Managers and CMS Suppliers.
The Microsoft guide to Using Microsoft Content Management Server and Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server for Enterprise Web Solutions asks the question 'What Is Content?' and gives the answer 'Content is the incredible wealth of information that organizations are struggling to manage and share with their employees, partners, customers, and the general public. For the purposes of this paper, it is important to understand what content means in the context of SharePoint Portal Server and Content Management Server'.
Content manager jobs include posts with
- organisations with private intranets
- retail companies which see e-Commerce websites
- e-businesses with computerisation of all their internal and external data flows.
Sun Microsystems explain that their Content Management System (CMS) 'helps any novice & non-technical web user to change their web site content. They can easily choose the design most suitable for their web site and then enter through CMS to add text, images, navigations etc'