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Looking for 3 fantastic content management systems

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By Bryan - Posted on 02 February 2010

Since the early days of CMSReport.com, I have been providing a list of the top 30 Web applications that interest me the most. This list is called CMS Focus. If you take a close look at this list, you will find that I currently need three additional content management systems to complete the list of thirty. Which CMS/ECM would you recommend be placed on my list?

One of the three CMS that I'm considering to focus on is EPiServer. Deane Barker, a CMS guru from Blend Interactive, has a lot of good things to say about EPiServer. I have a lot of trust in Deane and if the WCM is good enough for his company then it's likely good enough to be placed on my list.

If you prefer to see your product comparisons placed in a matrix or quadrant you have come to the wrong site. I don't believe in complicating the simple as picking 30 preferred CMS isn't really that difficult to do. The 30 Web applications on my list are what I consider "game changers" or "attention getters" in the world of CMS and ECM. If I'm not completely sold on the product, it is often the user groups and support communities behind the CMS that convinces me or not on whether I should focus on the Web application here at CMS Report.

So if you would like to recommend a CMS or ECM to CMSReport.com, this is the time to do it. Feel free to leave a comment below or send it my way via Twitter. I'll be anxiously listening to what you recommend.

Three IT/CMS books on my 2010 reading list

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By Bryan - Posted on 11 January 2010

At the start of every year, I like to resolve to read a number of IT, CMS, and business related books. The Internet is a good resource, but perhaps because I'm too old school I still like to learn a thing or two from a book. So far I have three books on my reading list for 2010.

I plan to review each of these books at a later date but since I'm a slow reader I thought I'd share them now. Links to the books go to Amazon for a possible purchase are our available in CMS Report's Amazon store.

Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization's Toughest Challenges
By Andrew McAfee

Enterprise 2.0 by Andrew McAfeeI waited for much of 2009 to see this book get published. This is the book for companies and organizations wrestling to understand the impact Web 2.0 and social media applications can have on their business. I had hoped to have read the book by now, but the holidays were too busy. You can expect that this will be the first book I'll review in 2010.

McAfee brings together case studies and examples with key concepts from economics, sociology, computer science, consumer psychology, and management studies and presents them all in a clear, accessible, and entertaining style. Enterprise 2.0 is a must-have resource for all C-suite executives seeking to make technology decisions that are simultaneously powerful, popular, and pragmatic.

Judging Five Overall Best Content Management Systems

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By Bryan - Posted on 09 December 2009

This year, I had the privilege of participating as a member on the judging panel for Packt Publishing's Overall Best Open Source CMS Award. As I mentioned last month, WordPress was declared the winner of the award followed by MODx, SilverStripe, DotNetNuke, and finally XOOPS. Since the award announcement, I've had a lot of inquiries asking me how and in what order did I rank the content management systems. I decided to wait for a month before my posting my rankings of the Web applications because I wanted focus to remain on the declared winners and not my individual choices.

My rankings for the Overall Best Open Source CMS (with number one being the highest) were:

  1. WordPress
  2. DotNetNuke
  3. SilverStripe
  4. MODx
  5. XOOPS

Each of the judges on the panel, selects their top three CMS from the five included in this category. The judges are given a lot of reign for how they rank the CMS and may consider a number of factors such as performance, usability, accessibility, ease of configuration and customization, scalability and security. Despite the criteria given, the fact is the best CMS is the CMS you determine is best in meeting your project requirements. In other words, you may find that all five CMSes in this category meet your project needs or in some cases none of the given applications will meet your requirements. Despite how I ranked the CMS you still need to do your own homework before choosing what your "best" CMS.

ImpressCMS is awarded Most Promising Open Source CMS

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By Bryan - Posted on 11 November 2009

Logo for Packt 2009 CMS AwardPackt Publishing announced that ImpressCMS has won the Most Promising Open Source CMS category in their 2009 Open Source CMS Award.

While ImpressCMS took first place in this category, Pixie and Pligg weren’t far behind and settled for a tie in the first runner up spot.

ImpressCMS has featured in the top three in this category for the second time in a row, and has lived up to its reputation this year by winning the top spot.

Pixie and Pligg, on the other hand, featured in this category for the first time and managed to impress a lot of judges with their quality and support.

The "Most Promising" category is my favorite of all the categories in Packt's open source CMS award system. The CMSs in this category are lesser known applications requiring the judges on the panel to do a lot more homework than usual and sometimes coming up with some surprises in their analysis. This category is Packt's biggest contribution for getting lesser known open source CMSs the exposure they most likely deserve.

Last year, I had the honor of judging the Most Promising category and was pleased to see SilverStripe get the nod from this award. In 2008, ImpressCMS was also evaluated for this category and left me with a positive impression.

Ektron, FatWire, ocPortal and Sitecore added to CMS Report's top 30 list

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By Bryan - Posted on 08 September 2009

During the past few weeks, I have been quietly updating CMS Report's CMS Focus page. CMS Focus is a list of the top 30 Web applications representing what I see as the Web applications of today and tomorrow which interest me the most. In a world where niche CMS news sites try to cover it all for their readers, I feel one of the strengths of CMSReport.com is limiting our focus on a certain number of CMS. The CMS on this list are applications I recommend site owners first look at before moving into the deeper waters of content management and social software.

Recently added to this list of content management systems are Ektron, FatWire, ocPortal, and Sitecore. The new additions are heavily weighted toward enterprise content management systems and are a reflection of my shifting focus from Web CMS for the Internet to those applications that run on an organization's intranet. Don't worry though, I still plan on talking about some of our favorite Web CMS such as Drupal, Joomla!, mojoPortal, and SilverStripe as I'm broadening not limiting my interests.

I bumped five CMS off the list and placed them into the "Hall of Fame". Those CMS no longer being listed under CMS Focus include SMF, OpenEdit, eGroupWare, e107, and dotCMS.