quote

"What is Content Management?

My definition is...

Content Management is the management of content."

-Tony Byrne, What is Content Management, Real Story Group, February 24, 2010

As strange as this sounds, one of the biggest debates among CMS gurus is over the very definitions of content management and content management system. I have always preferred utilizing the simple but precise definitions for the terms we use. "Real life" tends to complicate everything we do and starting simple is sometimes the only edge you have when facing increasing complexity. This is why I think the best definition for content management out there comes from Tony Byrne.

"These habits and rituals, developed over many years now are hard to break. I find it quite staggering for instance that the collective wisdom of a very established global manufacturer is contained in folder after folder after folder of files on shared drives with seemingly very little actual captured knowledge, context or lifecycle management."

-James Hoskins, "#fixwcm – some thoughts from the front line…", 2020 Visions, November 5, 2009

"Innovation initiatives that used to take months and megabucks to coordinate and launch can often be started in seconds for cents."

"This new environment also has big implications for managers. Simply put, bosses must be prepared to give up some control. With testing so cheap, easy and accessible, there's less need to ration it as they have in the past. Managers used to directing the company's innovation efforts must give their workers the freedom to come up with ideas on their own and pursue them without lots of red tape."

"Some of the best experiments come from outside the chain of command."

"Not only do we expect managers to solicit and welcome more ideas from lower down in the ranks, we expect that lots more people will be invited to review experiments and make changes."

-Erik Brynjolfsson and Michael Schrage, "The New, Faster Face of Innovation", The Wall Street Journal, August 17, 2009

There are some people blessed with the rare skill of saying something of value under 140 characters or less. One of those people is Addison Berry. Addi is an active contributor to the Drupal open source project, Lullabot team member, and former civil servant . Two tweets from Twitter by Addison Berry that made me smile when I first read them can be found below.

"I find the kinder and gentler I am to myself, the kinder and gentler I am to others."

-Addison Berry, @add1sun, Twitter, 3:46 PM Apr 24th 2009

"Being a jack of all trades, master of none, gets old after a while. Just kind of means I can do lots of things half-ass."

-Addison Berry, @add1sun, Twitter, 9:47 AM Jul 29th 2009

"We frequently counsel customers not to default to SharePoint (or Google, Oracle, IBM, et. al.) just because there's a lot of awareness of that package in the marketplace. Awareness is a marketing concept that cannot convey how a product will fit for you, architecturally, functionally, and financially."

-Tony Byrne, Analyst, CMS Watch, "Is Drupal Over-hyped?", June 11, 2009.