The Use of Open Source and Open Standards in Web Content Management Systems

Abstract

The World Wide Web is drowning with too much content. Stagnant websites, dead hyperlinks, inconsistent web-design and chaotic site-maps are all symptoms of a polluted Web where valuable content is hard to find. Web content management (WCM) systems have become an increasingly popular solution to these problems. In fact, these systems are so high in demand that competitive vendors seek to lock their users to their proprietary solutions and standards. An anti-reaction to this trend is the range of open source solutions appearing to relieve the web content pressure, as well as an emerging suite of open standards specifying how web content can be transported and stored. By developing WCM systems, both inside a commercial company, and by participating in an open source project, we have disclosed the relations between web content management, open standards and open source software. The results include how certain requirements of WCM systems are influenced by open source environments and the use of open standards, as well as the implications such environments have for developers.