What makes a CMS a CMS?

[flutem3]

David,

Is Homestead a CMS? There are templates a person can use, but as you know, I do the design myself. I know some people don't call it much of a design, but I am working on it. :)

Carol

[David Gillaspey]

Is Homestead a CMS? There are templates a person can use, but as you know, I do the design myself. I know some people don't call it much of a design, but I am working on it.Hi Carol,

I assume Homestead is a proprietary software program. If so, then this program, along with Macromedia (now Adobe) Dreamweaver, Adobe GoLive, BBedit, and a host of other software programs you buy in stores or order onlive, are examples of proprietary software used to create websites. I can include with these a number of freeware and shareware programs that do the same thing. The point is, they are all software programs that one has to obtain, install and learn, before one can do any web design.

What goes unspoken (but is understood) in discussions of CMS products is that most of the latter are browser-based. That is, a browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, whatever) is itself used to add, delete and modify the content, links, navigation and graphics on a website. Just because a CMS is browser-based doesn't mean it's free, however. Some are, some aren't. Regarding the latter, well, a CMS developer is entitled to make a living from his or her work.

It takes more than just a browser to have a CMS, of course. A scripting language such as PHP or ASP (Active Server Pages) is often used, as well as a backend database (e.g., mySQL) to store content for a website. The browser interface merely allows relatively unskilled people to access the power of PHP and mySQL.

Let's examine this from another point of view. All web design programs, include Homestead, are, strictly speaking, content management systems. That's because when you use such a program to lay out a web page, you are, in fact, managing content. However, the program may have cost you money to acquire and certainly cost you in time because you had to learn how to use the program. Moreover, the design or update of any given webpage is laborious in and of itself.

Now consider that there are definite advantages to making it possible for others beside you to modify your church's website. (Let's assume for the moment there are such willing bodies in your church.) Will they be expected to purchase and learn the web design program that you use in order to help with your church's website? No, because that would be a barrier to people getting involved in and having ownership over their church website.

The answer, of course, is true, dedicated content management system. With a CMS, many people in a church can help add content to a church's website without their having to purchase a particular software program or having to spend a lot of time learning it. As stated above, CMS programs are generally browser-based. Since one or more browsers come pre-installed on all computers today, everyone in your church, if they have a computer, has already the software they need to help keep their church website up to date.

There may be a bit of a learning curve to learn how to use a CMS, to be sure. But CMS vendors go to great strides to make website updates easy to do.

(I'll tweak this tomorrow.)

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

David Gillaspey
President
Great Church Websites