Mike,
Anytime you're up for that 'Zero to Wordpress site with integrated
collections search' onstage speed challenge, I'll be there.
On a more prosaic note, my number 1, all-time WCMS bugbear is software
that won't let you control the structure and layout of the site. I don't
mind having to strip out MS Word markup from text, but not being able to
change my navigation architecture, or having to ask someone else to
change the hard-coded parts of my front page because the CMS treats it
differently from all the other content, is likely to make me want to
hurl my PC out of the window.
All best,
Nick
Nick Poole
Chief Executive
Collections Trust
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-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Mike Ellis
Sent: 18 August 2011 09:07
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: What would an open source museum CMS look like?
Blimey, you turn your back for five minutes and a thread the size of the
BM
explodes on the MCG... :-)
Brilliant posts - thanks everyone. Couple of misc thoughts:
> The thing that always seems to be missing in CMS conversations (or
represented far too low down in order of importance) is usability. And
by
that I mean usability for the editors, not the front-end. One of the
whole
points about CMS is to enable non-technical people to edit content, and
yet
it is here for these non-technical types that many CMS's fail..
> The perennially awful thing about almost all of them is the rich text
editing. I found it totally astounding for example that Sitecore -
the incumbent CMS at NMSI - has a mindblowingly flexible API that do and
talk to pretty much anything. Try and actually *edit* some text or
*gasp*
paste from Word? Result: horrible markup and frustrated users...
> The reasons for choosing O/S are as much about the community that sit
around the product as anything else. Wordpress is a blinding platform
because you can always find answers to questions. The community is
enormous,
and growing. This isn't me saying WP is the right platform for museum
sites
(although I think WP is a damn good answer for many sites *up to a
certain
scale*) - but that the "bespoke vs open" thing isn't just about the
licensing.
> I don't think Drupal can ever be presented as a "plug and play"
solution
:-)
Personally I think Nick and Danny nailed it - there is no single
solution,
and the best response to this is surely building plugins, modules and
connectors.
Thinking that I might put together a "Wordpress for Culture" hackday....
Anyone in?
Mike
_____________________________
*Mike Ellis *
I've gone freelance! Find out more about our new digital agency:
http://thirty8.co.uk
...and I wrote a book - all about digital heritage strategy:
http://heritageweb.co.uk
On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 2:36 PM, Cristiano Bianchi | Keepthinking <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Or maybe to have one system that does it all, in terms of (extended)
> content management.
>
> Website, collection (both internal information, the 'real; collection
> management, as well as the web display of collections), exhibition and
> events. And everything else that a museum or gallery needs. Plus the
shop
> (e-commerce for tickets, donations, merchandise, membership, etc), all
> integrated into one, single database, and managed using one
integrated, web
> based software. With no compromises in terms of quantity and quality
of
> meta-data you can have, flexibility to adapt to individual and
changing
> needs, access to external resources and vocabularies (e.g. Getty),
mapping
> to ontologies (e.g. CIDOC-CRM, Lido or Dublin Core), integrated rights
and
> digital asset management (local as well as online), production of
reports in
> PDF as well as XML, APIs (that can easily This would cover most of
the
> needs of any small of large museum, leaving out (thanks to Nick Poole
for
> his excellent analysis):
>
> - School Group Bookings Systems
> - Office/productivity systems (including Contacts systems)
> - Customer Relationship Management Systems
>
> The problem we have with Drupal and the likes is that... we already
have such
> a system, which has been built from scratch over the last ten years
> following our work with museums and galleries. In time (next year)
will
> integrate what is outstanding. Should that system be open source? It
can be,
> if we find a compelling reason for it: in any case we do not charge a
> license fee for it, only implementation (i.e. we do not make money
from
> selling it, at this stage).
>
> And regarding what Tim Trent said:
>
> > I think the most important WCMS element is WYSIWYG.
>
> With similar vigour I would say this is not what's important, quite
the
> opposite. What you get depends on where you get it and when you get it
and
> changes all the time, with new browsers, new technologies, new
platforms.
> Stick to WYSIWYG and your content is out-of-date as soon as you have
created
> it. What you want to see is the web of logical connections between
content
> objects, the network of relationships that define meaning for content
> according to contextual environments, in an abstract way. This goes
back to
> the point I was trying to make earlier: content is one thing and
> presentation another. They should talk to each other as little as
possible.
>
> Best, Cristiano
>
>
>
> > I think the difficulty comes when you want to use a Content
management
> system (like Drupal and WordPress) to exhibit collections.
> > Then the webCMS has to have many of the attributes of a musCMS.
> >
> > I think the answer, as has been suggested, is a three part system.
> > * Collections management
> > * Exhibition Data management
> > * Presentation system (web or otherwise)
> >
> > I think I now understand the original question to relate to the
> specification of a presentation system for web use that would
integrate
> exhibition data with the other important elements of museum website.
> >
> > However, it seems to me that the missing part that needs to be
built, is
> something that can import data from a wide variety of collections
management
> systems and export it for use in a wide variety of off the shelf open
source
> Content Management Systems?
> >
> > e.g. Import objects, output articles (with rich metadata)
>
>
> --
>
> Cristiano Bianchi
> Keepthinking
>
> 43 Clerkenwell Road
> London EC1M 5RS
>
> t. +44 20 7490 5337
> m. +44 7939 041169 (uk)
> m. +39 329 533 4469 (it)
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
> ---
>
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>
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>
>
>
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