[Web4lib] CMS/Wiki discussion

[James Fournie]

For those of you deciding on CMS and Wikis, I highly recommend you
visit http://www.opensourcecms.com  It allows you to try out numerous
php/MySQL based systems, including MediaWiki and Drupal.  It's a good
way to get a feel for the systems.

Unfortunately Plone is not represented, however you can try it at
http://demo.plone.org

I set up and tested dozens of systems for a library school project.
My personal opinion is that the CMS depends on the usage.  Drupal is
very popular and has a large community, but I found it tricky to
customize.  Mambo is a decent system, and the users I tested it with
responded well to it, however I found it to be unreliable, and missing
some important features I needed.  For a system with a lot of users
uploading and downloading content, I'd recommend Plone, although the
learning curve is steep, and it can be quirky to set up.  If only one
or two people are going to be updating the website, if it meets your
needs, I'd recommend Wordpress.

Wikis are wonderful, but I found that people in positions of authority
were uncomfortable with the lack of security and control.  I also find
them less user friendly when dealing with things like Word
documents.

Good Luck,

James Fournie
james.fournie at gmail.com