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Choosing an Open Source CMS: Beginner's Guide
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It's a sunny Sunday morning in Miami. Oprah picks up her coffee and settles in her favorite patio chair. She is in a quiet trance-like state. Gazing at kids playing on her left, her expression turns from deep thoughts to confusion to puzzlement.
Oprah Casey is an established Yoga expert. She is just back from her class. She starts thinking about her web site. She has a four-page web site that Mario, a friend, created a decade ago.
Her current web site consists of an introduction on Yoga, her own biography, a testimonial page, and a page with her Yoga center's address and phone numbers. Last time she wanted to add driving directions to the address page, it took her two weeks to get that done. Here's what happened:
Day 1: Oprah calls Mario and explains what she wants.
Day 3: She calls again to check if the work is done. Mario had completely forgotten about it. He asked her to email him the driving directions.
Day 4: Mario tells her he is finding source files of Oprah's web site and the server login/password.
Day 7: Mario shows a page with the driving directions updated. Oprah suggests a couple of changes.
Day 9: Oprah is happy with what's on the contact page now. She gives a go-ahead.
Day 10: Weekend!
Day 12: Mario says he is uploading on the server.
Day 14: After another call, Oprah gets confirmation that it's live. She checks and finds it alright.
Oprah is happy that now she will get less calls asking for directions. At the same time, she is annoyed with this whole process of change. She does not want to go through another such ritual for a new change. What if her phone number changed? What if she wanted to update her bio? Or what if she wanted to add another page to her site? She can't afford to wait too long. She does not even want to take favors from her friend anymore!
She grabs a pen and paper and starts scribbling.

Oprah is clear that she can't continue with her current web site and the way it's managed. She needs a complete reorganization of her web site. Oprah wants her web site to have the following features:
Web site must be easy to manage
Oprah wants her web site to be easily manageable. She can understand technology, but is not a programmer. She wants to manage the web site content on her own. Whether it's adding a paragraph on a page or removing some old information, she wants to do it on her own.
Web site should be dynamic
She wants the changes that she makes to be reflected immediately. It should be possible to add a new section or link easily. Oprah wants to add photos and Yoga class information. And this should be updated on the web site immediately.
Other features
There are many other things that Oprah wants such as e-commerce, class booking, better design, and so on. The new web site should allow addition of all these features. If not right now, she wants them in the near future.
Finally, Oprah calls Mario. She politely explains to him the problems and what she wants. She then pauses to hear Mario's reply.
Mario is quick. He asserts that Oprah needs a Content Management System (CMS). It's a software that will give her all the required features, and he can set it up on her web site. Apart from managing site content and navigation, a CMS may also allow interactive content such as discussions, newsletters, blogs, photo galleries, and so on.
Mario explains a variety of benefits from using a CMS. They are:
Dynamic content—changes reflect immediately
Easily make changes—using just a browser and familiar editing tool (similar to Word)
Manage site navigation and sections—ability to add or order pages and other content
Control over design—tweak the entire site the way you wish from a single place
Add interactive content such as discussions, class schedules, shopping cart, and so on.
Add photos, links, and other rich media easily
Get full control over the web site
Allow multiple people to manage the site
Oprah interrupts Mario and says she appreciates these benefits, but wants to know if there are any other alternatives.
"What you need IS a content management system. We can go ahead with a readily available system, or hire someone to build one from scratch. I could write a CMS for you, but your needs are not so specific. I would rather use an open source CMS and customize it to your needs. Who wants to reinvent the wheel, you see!", Mario says.
"This makes sense." Oprah is thinking. "If I want things to be dynamic, I will need some kind of software to do that. I know that people use some web-based software to manage their sites. I can easily pick that up..."
Mario continues, "If you simply wanted to publish photos, you can use some photo management software on your machine and publish the site on a server. If you want to write regular updates on Yoga, you could start a blog. And you could use a 'hosted' blog where you don't have to do any server setup, or the like. You just write content. If you want static content, we can use some other online tools that help design web sites. What you want is manage content and site frequently, and on your own. We also want full control and our own site to be the host. That certainly is what CMSs are designed for."
Oprah is now convinced that she needs a CMS.
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