Dear Alex

We would always counsel keeping the two separate. Our experience matches
your own in that it is rare to find one supplier that does both well.

The compatibility issue shouldn't really figure as any CMS worth its salt
should allow design templates to be used which are independent of the system
(this allows you the flexibility to change the template without affecting
the system).

Finally, many designers have a "house-style" and there is a risk that by
going with the CMS system's designer, you could end up with something that
looks like all their other customer's sites. Better to shop around and pick
the design style that suits you and your project best.

Regards

Chris Meaney (AIMC)
Managing Director

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Southover Road, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 1UP
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Registered in England & Wales no. 3766540
Registered Office: 50 Harvard Close, Malling, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 2EJ.



-----Original Message-----
From: This list allows people applying for New Opportunities Fund
Digitisation fu [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Alex
Bromley
Sent: 01 March 2002 12:19
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: FWD: Open Source Content Management


I also have a question relating to Content Management.  We are about to
start
writing up a specification for a system to store some 35,000 digital images
and associated metadata and wondered how other NOF projects had approached
the
tendering process.

We had initially thought of combining the tender for a CMS and the website
design in one document rather than doing them separately. However, we have
found that many suppliers of CMS are not necessarily good web designers and
vice versa. Having said that we can see advantages in dealing with one
supplier as it may reduce costs and will keep both "back end" and "front
end"
of the site compatible.

I would be interested to hear the views of other projects who may have faced
this issue.

Thanks

Alex



>===== Original Message From Dan Morrison <[log in to unmask]> =====
Hi

We're looking at getting the content management side of things into place
on our (smallish) project over the next couple of months and are keen to
follow the 'open source' route if this makes sense. We would be very
interested to hear of anyone elses experiences and of any technical
agencies that offer an open-source package suitable for a NOF-style project.

We are using an internal (Windows) server to store master files and
associated data and then hope to publish the re-purposed resources to a web
server hosted externally. Ideally we need a system which integrates the
Archive Management functionaliy internally with the external web publishing
functionality.

Many thanks,

Dan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dan Morrison
The Who Cares? Trust


Alex Bromley
Project Manager, TUC History Online
University of North London
020 7753 7025
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