A primary characteristic of the Web 2.0 concept is the facilitation of content creation (including successfully posting such content to be viewable online) without the necessity of "crunching code" to create the webpage itself, as was necessary in Web 1.0. Think of it as being able to be a published author without the necessity of also being a typesetter/bookbinder to create the hardcopies you need to reach your audience.

In the early days of the web, in order to create a container for one's content (i.e. the webpage itself), one needed to become proficient with HyperText Markup Language (HTML) code, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and in many cases perform (to some degree) server administration. Web 2.0, as exemplified by today's popular interactive websites (Youtube, MySpace, Blogger, Flickr, etc), as well as by easily installed server-side applications, liberates the creator of content from such burdens by providing customized infrastructure to handle the "heavy lifting" for the content creator. Today's internet provides writers, photographers, graphic artists, musicians, commentators and casual users of every stripe the ability to post original content with ease.

While the viral advantages of utilizing popular commercial CMS sites cannot be overrated, there is also a strong need in today's world for independent content creators to post content within their own website/domain. For example, WebYep, an inexpensive, easily installed, server-side CMS, offers anyone with a hosted domain of their own the ability to streamline the content generation process under his/her own brand, without the necessity of strong HTML, FTP or other skills.

The page you are viewing, in fact, was generated entirely through the author's web browser, within the author's website, utilizing the WebYep server-side CMS application.

 

 

You will research what a Content Management System is
How it relates to the Web 2-0 concept
Learn the features offered by most CMSs
Review the advantages of using a CMS
You will also explore some popular commercial CMS websites, as well as websites offering software for creating a CMS in one's own hosted domain.

 

 

Steps for completing the tasks:

• Read the information found in the first site (Wikipedia) for a general overview of CMS's.

• Visit the YouTube and MySpace sites and create a user account in each site, familiarizing yourself with the various procedures these sites utilize in the process of posting content to the web.

• Visit the Web-APP and WebYep sites and study the overviews for these user-installed server-side applications.

• After reviewing all sites, post your thoughts in a blog. Be sure to answer the following questions:
  a. What is a content management system?
  b. How does a CMS fit into the definition of Web 2.0
  c. What the primary advantages of Web 2.0 CMS's.
  d. What differentiates a commercial CMS from a user-installed server-side CMS.

 

 

Websites to visit:

* Wikipedia > Content Management System: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management_system
* YouTube -- A popular commercial CMS: http://www.youtube.com
* MySpace -- Another popular commercial CMS: http://www.myspace.com
* Web-APP -- A user-installed server-side CMS: http://www.web-app.net
* WebYep CMS -- the user-installed server-side CMS used to generate the webpage you're viewing right now: http://www.obdev.at/products/webyep/index.html

 

 

Before the advent of the printing press, books had to be copied by hand in order for more than one person (or group of people in close proximity) to have access to the content of the book. This laborious fact of life meant that manuscripts and books were exceedingly rare, and could only be found in monasteries or a few repositories such as the ancient library of Alexandria. The dissemination of information in those days (and hence, the general quality of education) was, as one might expect, extremely limited, reserved only to a privileged few. The common man had little access to available information, much less the ability or wherewithal to generate and distribute content of their own.

With the availability of relatively easily mass-produced printed matter and the gradual spread of literacy among the masses, access to information and content became increasingly commonplace. But the media via which the information was disseminated remained under the control of commercial entities (i.e. book and newspaper publishers, and later radio, television, recording and film producers). The primary focus of these enterprises was, of course making money, providing for distribution only those titles which fell within their definition of commercial viability. Independent talents considered poor risks for return on investment by the media moguls did not enjoy a means by which they could make their content available to the world.

The Internet, of course, changed all that. Now there existed a medium of the people, a means by which anyone with a computer, a connection to the web, and the requisite skills to code a webpage could present their words (and eventually their images, music, video and film works) to the world.

However, creators of content in those Web 1.0 days were still strapped with the responsibility of learning and executing the rather exotic coding necessary to create the web container for their content. This necessity hampered those whose proclivities did not extend to such esoteric areas of knowledge or interest.

And as the web quickly evolved, aesthetic considerations soon emerged. simply writing up some content and posting a page became insufficient -- one needed better design elements, images, links, menus and the like. There have been many, many writers, artists and commentators who would have liked to self-publish their work online in an appealing manner, but the technical requirements involved with the task proved too daunting, and so their contributions continued to remain unavailable.

It was inevitable that internet technology would eventually solve these issues. With today's hyper-efficient content management systems, some incorporated into commercial sites and others available for easy installation in a hosted domain, the drudgery of self-publishing to the Internet has been reduced to the point of near non-existence. Creators of content can now focus most of their time to the content itself, and much less to the nuts and bolts of getting their creations online.

It's been said that "now anyone can self-publish to the world" can be taken two ways. While it's certainly true that many online sources of content are best ignored, this unfortunate fact does not diminish the desirability and creative potential of online self-publishing. And insofar as technologies such as CMS enable the best and brightest among us to be available to the entire planet, we can be very thankful that the old days of rare, inaccessible, hand-copied manuscripts are long behind us.