[WEB4LIB] Web Editing solutions for sites with many authors

[Larry Campbell]

We're in a very similar boat here at UBC Library -- a number of 
distinct, fairly independent branches and content providers, varying 
levels of html expertise, variety of editing tools (from Notepad to 
Dreamweaver), etc. These branches have their own portions (directories) 
of the web site, and by and large that's how we handle distributed site 
management to this point. We also make extensive use of ColdFusion 
mediated databases for such things as subject guides and metadata pages 
for eresources.

We've been interested in CMSs for awhile, and have embarked on a project 
to redo our intranet using Plone, an open-source CMS, as a way of 
getting some experience with such an environment, and with what's 
involved in migrating content. Like you, we'd very much appreciate 
hearing about anyone else's experiences implementing a CMS of any sort.

Regards,

Larry Campbell
Librarian, Information Technology Services
UBC Library
Email: larry.campbell at ubc.ca
Telephone: 604.822.2076
http://www.library.ubc.ca


garyp at itd.umd.edu wrote:
> (Speaking of lurkers)
> 
> We at the U. of Maryland Libraries have over 150 web authors for our site
> (http://www.lib.umd.edu/), of which usually over 100 are active over the
> course of a semester.  Editing by these distributed authors is done mostly
> on static pages, working directly on the code through the textarea box of
> an aging cgi application, or locally through text editors and uploaded
> through the same cgi app.  Skill sets of these authors range from highly
> skilled to rudimentary.
> 
> Our ultimate goal is to have the site inside a CMS, with editing access to
> the site regulated by the CMS, and a WYSIWYG editor that keeps authors
> away from templates, etc. and generates standards compliant xhtml.
> 
> Our main obstacle to progress in this area has been a dearth of dedicated
> programming resources.  This has contributed to the fact that a large part
> of the site is still static instead of dynamically driven through the
> perl/php/mysql and jsp/tomcat avenues available to us.  It has also kept
> us from considering building a home-grown CMS up to this point.  This is
> changing (we're getting a web app developer added to the team), but
> slowly.
> 
> My question to the list is, IF you have a large number of authors (say
> over 50) how are you dealing with the issues this situation creates?
> Primarily we're interested in how your html code gets generated and what
> editor(s) you are using.
> 
> Is everything stored in databases, content updated through web forms, and
> all code generated dynamically? Is this a commercial/open-source CMS or
> all home grown?  Is all content edited through web-forms or is there a
> browser-based editor you've been able to plug in, like Mozile?
> 
> Do you have a Macromedia Contribute-style client side solution?
> 
> Do you have a WebDAV-driven solution where every author has access to
> their part of the site, and can use Dreamweaver, etc?  How do you handle
> code consistency and look and feel issues?
> 
> Thanks for any information you can offer.  I'll accept input from anybody,
> but am primarily interested in sites where authorship is widely
> distributed, and your solutions for dealing with the same.
> 
> I am VERY interested if you have implemented any of the open-source CMS
> solutions out there (again, VERY interested if you are a large distributed
> site).  I am particularly interested in apache lenya, mostly for its xml
> underpinnings.
> 
> Thanks everybody.  Feel free to email me directly as well.
> 
> 
> ****************************************************************
> Gary B. Phillips               email:          garyp at itd.umd.edu
> Web Systems Manager            phone:               301 405 9025
> ITD                            mobile phone:        301 318 6902
> ****************************************************************
> 
> 
> 
> 
>