Online Publishing & Content Management with Open Source Software

1. Online Publishing & Content Management with Open Source Software The Non-Profit Technology Conference March 27, 2004

2. Session Overview • Introductions • Where We Are Today • Is an OSS CMS Right for Your Organization? • Examples of Open Source CMS in Use • A View from Within • Resources • Q & A

3. Introductions • Panelists • Jeff Herron, Beaconfire Consulting – Washington, DC • Shefali Gupta, HealthWrights – Palo Alto, CA • Manu Gupta, HealthWrights – Palo Alto, CA • Questions for Audience • What is your role in your organization? • What would you like to learn today?

4. Current State of OSS CMS • 50+ OSS CMSes to choose from • Nearly all on LAMP platform • Linux • Apache • MySQL • PHP • Standards finally emerging • Forking still rampant

5. Decision Making Challenges • Decision Making Challenges • No clear decision maker or ‘owner’; budget = control? • Lack of buy-in and support from stakeholders • Making the case for spending $ on technology • Not determining and budgeting for full cost of ownership • Complex mix of choices, sacrifices, trade-offs and risks with few clear ‘right’ answers – How to choose? • Will I get stuck with something obsolete, proprietary, or tied to a particular vendor? • Viability of vendors and technology options. Will they survive?

6. Considerations • Functional Considerations – Project Specific • What features are required? • What features are nice to have? • Budget • Timeline • Business Considerations – Organization Specific • Opportunity Cost / Strategic Goals • Total Cost of Ownership (one time, recurring, support costs) • Change Management - Impact to Organization • Time to Implement • Risk Tolerance (to project and to organization) • Usability • Vendor Characteristics (financial viability, culture, customer service, licenses)

7. Considerations • Technology Considerations – IT Specific • Maturity of Product/Technology • Scalability & Performance • Portability – multiple platforms, lock-in • Reliability • Interoperability: Compatibility, Data Exchange, & Integration • Security • Flexibility / Extensibility

8. Decision Making Criteria • Must have a clearly defined and widely accepted basis for making a decision, otherwise… • Lack of buy-in • Pre-determined selection – just a formality • Decision by intuition or gut feel or style of sales team • Don’t realize how minor vendor differences affect organizational priorities • Which considerations rise above the rest? Make your decision criteria reflect your priorities and USE THEM. • Common Decision Making Criteria • Budget • Key Features • Timeline • Technology Ownership Model Preference

9. Best Practices • Selection Process Steps • Prioritize requirements • Determine Key Decision Criteria • Research available solutions • Head to head comparison of options • Objective evaluation of capabilities vs. sales claims • Demos • Q&A with vendor/solution reps / Due Diligence • Negotiations and contracts etc • Recommendations • Making smart technology selection decisions is based on clearly defined criteria and an understanding of your needs. • Evaluate Functional, Business AND Technical considerations. • Realize limits of the process and overcome challenges with planning. • Most often the business considerations are overlooked. Functional and Technical considerations are usually part of the process

10. Technology Ownership Models • There are several common models for technology ownership. • Ownership Model Impacts: • Total Cost of Ownership • Fit to client requirements • Development time frame • Dependence on vendor • Upgrades and innovation • Control of code and future enhancements • Maturity of features

11. CMS Solution Options • Depending on the Features and functions required of a CMS, there are several categories of solutions. • Open Source software can be present in any of these solution categories. Majority of well known open source tools in the CMS Framework, CMS Product and CMS + Community categories.

12. Pros & Cons

13. OSS vs. Proprietary CMS Tools • Total Cost of Ownership • Lower Acquisition Costs for OSS (no license) • Often higher implementation effort – requires customization and polish for business users • Maturity of Solutions? • Explosion of OSS CMS tools means more options • However, many are fragmented and development stalled. • OSS best suited for use by technologists not business users • Derivative products more refined (PostNuke better than PHPNuke) • OSS Strongest in Content Delivery • Evolved from application server environments (Zope) • Frameworks for development rather than fully formed solutions • Best suited for intranet/extranet or workgroup CMS • OSS Weakest in Content Production (entry, workflow, versioning) • End user features & administrative interfaces are less polished

14. OSS vs. Proprietary CMS Tools • Support • Documentation and training often less complete for OSS. • OSS projects supported by a company (Plone, eZ Publish) are be better. • Developer Community – typically a strength of OSS; • Upgrades & Enhancements • OSS driven by user community rather than a company. • Great if community is motivated and innovative. • Less ideal if effort stalls or becomes fragmented. • Proprietary Solution Competition • Inexpensive, feature rich proprietary solutions are emerging that mitigate OSS’s most compelling benefit vs proprietary solutions – price.

15. Examples • African Conflict Journal – PHP Nuke http://www.africanconflict.org • OneWorld.net - eZpublish

16. Case Study: HealthWrights Knowledge Sharing Network • Spectrum of health & policy issues • Participatory: representing global voices • Professionally managed and edited

17. Case Study: HealthWrights Why CMS? • Content Management • Create truly collaborative network • Ease of use for all audiences (international, low tech)

18. Case Study: HealthWrights CMS Selection Criteria • Desired features in CMS: article submission, workflow, referencing… • Costs • Technology familiarity • Support: documentation, community, • Clients/references using CMS

19. Case Study: HealthWrights Implementation • Prototype • Volunteer Model • Collaborative • Learning curve • Model Sites • OneWorld.net • Customization

20. Case Study: HealthWrights Project Management • Timeline • Technology Building Capacity

21. Case Study: HealthWrights • “Our experience with Open Source CMS technology has revolutionized our thinking.”

22. Resources • opensourceCMS.com http://www.opensourcecms.com • Content Management System Comparison http://www.commonsgroup.com/ideas/fulltext.shtml?x=212 • OSCOM http://www.oscom.org/

23. Final Thoughts & Questions • Open source ≠ Free • Not all OSS CMSes are created equal • Hit the books

24. Closing Ryan Ozimek PICnet, Inc. www.picnet.net cozimek@picnet.net (202) 585-0239 Shefali Gupta HealthWrights www.healthwrights.org shefali@healthwrights.org (650) 325-7500 Manu Gupta HealthWrights www.healthwrights.org mgupta1013@yahoo.com (650) 325-7500 Jeff Herron Beaconfire Consulting www.beaconfire.com jeff.herron@beaconfire.com (703) 534-1559