Re: CMS vs. Wiki

Hi :)

Plone (www.plone.org) offers great CMS functions and Wikis too ....and its
free


Br
/sune


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dierk Seeburg" <dierk_seeburg-E0T7EY2UX4gpIyhaTEd/[email protected]>
To: "Seth Gottlieb" <sggottlieb-/[email protected]>
Cc: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 10:24 PM
Subject: Re: [CMS] CMS vs. Wiki


> Seth,
> Thanks for your feedback!  Please see more below...
>
> Seth Gottlieb wrote:
> > Choosing a CMS is a lot more complicated than choosing a Wiki.  This is
> I've noticed.
>
> > mainly because the CMS is broader than the Wiki market, there are more
> > products, and there is a diverse set of definitions of what is a CMS
> > is.  I highly recommend the CMS Report by CMS Watch.  There is a free
> > downloadable version that gives some information that you are looking
> > for but the whole report (I have heard) is excellent.
> >
> > Bob Doyle's site CMS Review has some excellent free content.  In
> > particular, you should check out:  http://www.cmsreview.com/Steps/
> Thanks!
>
> > Many CMS (open source and proprietary) focus on managing content at the
> > page level.  Just managing data in a database might not be a good fit
> I'm finding that out, too.
>
> > for what is classically defined as a CMS.  Recently, I have been talking
> > to multiple clients who initially call us in for a content management
> > project.  After digging deeper into their requirements, we learn that it
> > is more of a data management problem with some content management
> > aspects (particularly workflow and deployment).   Just something to
> > think about.  Let me know if you want to discuss further.
> I think this should be a web application after all, maybe I can write
> something in PHP and store it in MySQL - any hints on where to go for
> templating tools?
>
> BTW, great list!
>
> > --Seth
> >
> >
> >
> > Dierk Seeburg wrote:
> >
> >> Thanks, Seth!
> >> I was contemplating the collaborative aspect for our purposes and
> >> appreciate your pointers.  We need to manage a number of records in a
> >> database for which I would like a web interface.  Is there a place
> >> with information on how to choose a CMS like there is for Wikis at,
> >> e.g., http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ChoosingaWiki ?
> >> Thanks again!
> >> Die
> >>
> >> Seth Gottlieb wrote:
> >>
> >>> Hi Dierk,
> >>>
> >>> In general, Wiki's are more appropriate for collaborative content
> >>> management with little or no need for editorial control.  Web CMS are
> >>> better for situations where you want to have an editorial process
> >>> that controls what goes on the site.   Here are some questions that
> >>> might steer you to one or the other.
> >>>
> >>> Which is worse, having something wrong appear on the site (like a
> >>> typo or incorrect information) or discouraging/impeding someone from
> >>> publishing an idea or some information that has the potential to help
> >>> others?  If the goal is to harness the creativitiy and knowledge from
> >>> as many people as possible,  a Wiki might be the right tool.
> >>>
> >>> Is there any need for workflow?  Wiki's generally do not have
> >>> workflow or even an approval mechanism.  Once a user makes an edit,
> >>> it is live.
> >>>
> >>> Do you trust your users to manage the content?  Or, said another way,
> >>> are your users motivated to improving the quality of the resource?
> >>> If so, go Wiki.
> >>>
> >>> Is your organization engaged in a taxonomy initiative to organize
> >>> content?  If so, a traditional CMS model might be preferable because
> >>> you can delegate an authority to organize and tag content according
> >>> to the corporate taxonomy.  The organiziation of a Wiki is totally
> >>> organic.  People create pages, people notice redundencies, people
> >>> merge pages.  It is a chaotic process that eventually gravitates
> >>> towards order (or doesn't).
> >>>
> >>> Do you intend to reuse conent in an automated way?  Content in Wiki's
> >>> is totally unstructured and, therefore, difficult to reuse in other
> >>> applications.   Many web CMS have structured content (including
> >>> metadata) that allows assets to be used by different sites in
> >>> different ways.
> >>>
> >>> I realize that you can solve a lot of these problems with some simple
> >>> access control, but I believe it is best to choose a technology for
> >>> what it was designed for.
> >>>
> >>> So here are some examples of good Wiki's
> >>> * Wikipedia is able to harness the knowledge of thousands of readers
> >>> with a common goal of sharing information.
> >>> * Open Source Software documentation.   Most Apache projects have a
> >>> Wiki where project contributors can quickly and easily add
> >>> documentation about the project.  The ease of contribution is one
> >>> less excuse for a programmer to procrastinate documentation!
> >>> * My company uses a Wiki for an internal knowledge base and also a
> >>> collaborative workspace on projects (however, we need to take the
> >>> text from deliverables and port them into professional looking
> >>> documents).
> >>>
> >>> Here are somethings that would be better served with a traditional CMS
> >>> * Your corporate website.
> >>> * A policy manual.  While I would not be worried about people
> >>> tampering with it because their is an audit history, someone might
> >>> with good intentions add information that he thought was correct and
> >>> temporarily mislead another reader.  Plus, you might want to
> >>> transform the online version into a print version and that might be
> >>> hard with a Wiki.
> >>>
> >>> Dierk Seeburg wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Hi,
> >>>> I'd be interested in people's opinion on when to use a CMS and when
> >>>> to use a Wiki?  For what tasks would you use or not use one and not
> >>>> the other?  What are advantages of one over the other?
> >>>> Thanks a bunch!
> -- 
> Cheerio,
> Dierk Seeburg, +1-602-953-4496, dierk_seeburg-E0T7EY2UX4gpIyhaTEd/[email protected]
> Web Content Administrator, Choice Hotels International
> http://www.choicehotels.com - http://www.choicecentral.com
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