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2004 Urisa Presentation

The document discusses strategies for using open source content management systems for e-government initiatives. It reviews the benefits of CMS for websites, describes different types of CMS like pre-built proprietary, custom-built, and open source. It also summarizes five innovative open source CMS like Drupal, WordPress, Moodle, TikiWiki, and Plone that can be used for applications like community websites, blogs, learning management, wikis, and intranets.

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38 views

2004 Urisa Presentation

The document discusses strategies for using open source content management systems for e-government initiatives. It reviews the benefits of CMS for websites, describes different types of CMS like pre-built proprietary, custom-built, and open source. It also summarizes five innovative open source CMS like Drupal, WordPress, Moodle, TikiWiki, and Plone that can be used for applications like community websites, blogs, learning management, wikis, and intranets.

Uploaded by

aspahic
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Developing an Open Source

Content Management Strategy


For E-Government
Abhijeet Chavan
Chief Technology Officer, Urban Insight
www.urbaninsight.com
Co-Editor, Planetizen
www.planetizen.com

Presented at the
42 Annual Conference of the
Urban and Regional Information Systems Association
November 9th, 2004
Reno, Nevada
nd

Copyright 2004, Abhijeet Chavan


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

Introduction
How content management systems (CMS) can
assist in building and maintaining sophisticated
e-government websites
Why Open source CMSes are suitable for egovernment
Review five innovative approaches to content
management

Content Management Systems (CMS)


Software system to facilitate management of
website content
Data is generally stored in a database
Separation of content and visual display
Includes tools for managing users and workflow

CMS Benefits
Enables non-technical staff to add, edit, and
manage website content
Maintains a consistent look-and-feel across a
website and makes it easy to change design
Facilitates gathering, organizing, and archiving
information
Search tools facilitate information retrieval
Can supplement or replace email-based
collaboration

E-Government Initiatives
Govt. to Citizens

Access to information
and services

Govt. to Govt.

Sharing and
integrating data

Govt. to Business

Streamline data
collection and
eliminate
redundancies

Source: www.egov.gov

CMS Strategies for E-Government 1


Communicating with
Citizens

Outreach
Feedback
Participation

Communicating with
Businesses

Services
Transactions
Data exchange

CMS Strategies for E-Government 2


Inter-agency
collaboration

Shared knowledge
bases, discussions,
document repositories
Access to databases

Intra-agency
collaboration

Internal coordination
and documentation
Training

Pre-built Proprietary CMSes


Quick complete solution
Technical support
Are you buying more than you need?
Entrusted with public data -- vendor lock-in
can be a problem
Expensive licensing costs
Closed source may hinder customization
Restrictive license may prevent redistribution

Custom Built CMSes


Built to your specifications
Not dependent on a commercial vendor
Need in-house technical expertise
Can be complex and time-consuming to build
Can be expensive to build and maintain
Can you sustain in-house technical support?

Open Source CMSes


Open source CMSes: pre-built but customizable
Source code is available
Can be customized and redistributed
No licensing costs
Numerous alternatives to match different
requirements and platforms
Commercial technical support may be available
Control your own data and CMS strategy

Open Source LAMP Platform

Choosing an Open Source CMS


CMS for conventional
websites: Mambo
Review five
innovative
approaches to CM
All examples licensed
under the GNU
General Public
License (GPL)
www.mamboserver.org MySQL, PHP

Community Website / Portal


An information hub
Both distribute and collect information

Discussions: create a community


Personalization: Customized view
Syndication: distribute content to other sites
Aggregation: pull in content from other sites
Metadata: categorize information
Retrieval: Indexing and search
Workflow: author, preview, edit, publish

Drupal
www.drupal.org Apache/IIS, MySQL/PostgreSQL, PHP

Weblog / Blog
Periodic posts by single or multiple authors

Links, summaries, commentary, comments

Not just for bloggers writing online journals


Simple and familiar interface

Format benefits authors as well readers

Friendlier face to a complex collection

Personal voice provides a guided tour

Effective single-purpose CMS


Internal use: project log, documentation

WordPress
www.wordpress.org MySQL, PHP

Learning Management System


Conduct online education
Supplement face-to-face instruction
Uses:

Internal staff training


Virtual teamwork
Build institutional knowledge

Open source LMSes provide affordable


alternatives to high-cost proprietary LMSes

Moodle
Multiple courses
WYSIWYG Editor
Chat and
Glossaries
Multimedia delivery
Email integration
MySQL, PHP
www.moodle.org

Wikis
Collaborative hyperlinked writing
Quick - no need to know HTML
Flexible structure - meant to evolve over time
Combination of system and social rules
Version control: Roll back changes
Knowledge bases, internal documentation
Intra-agency collaborative writing, brainstorming

TikiWiki
www.tikiwiki.org MySQL, PHP

Intranet
Features

All discussed in previous examples


Customizable workflow
Flexible task delegation

Plone CMS

Complete cross-platform solution


No need to install web server or database
Web usability and accessibility (Section 508)
Can be used as public website, intranet, or both

Plone
www.plone org Zope web application server

Tips
Choose stable open source CMSes
Commercial technical support may be available
for certain CMSes
Check CMS for web accessibility (Section 508)
Security

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