Background on Content Management
This provides basic background information on the new technologies revolving around content management systems and XML.
What is content management?
A content management system (CMS) is a technology system used to manage the content of an enterprise.
It involves creating, storing, controlling, versioning, reusing, and publishing content that can be
- developed by a potentially large number of contributors
- stored in a single source
- published in a variety of media, and
- published for a variety of purposes, such as news articles, user guides, technical manuals, sales guides, marketing brochures, Web sites, and wikis.
Content management technologies rely on XML, eXtensible Markup Language.
What is XML?
The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is a general-purpose markup language that
- facilitates the sharing of information across different systems as it can be published in any format by any system, and
- allows authors to tag the information so it can be readily identified by the technology.
XML is recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium. It is a fee-free open standard. The W3C recommendation specifies both the lexical grammar and the requirements for parsing.
XML is the basis of content management and single source publishing.
Single source publishing
Single source publishing allows the same content to be reused in different documents and/or in various formats.
Benefits of CMS
The benefits of content management are so significant that it is fundamentally changing how information is developed and used.
- Create content once and reuse it in a variety of media for multiple purposes.
- Establish consistent messaging and documentation control.
- Decrease time to market.
- Reduce duplication of content and effort.
- Reduce costs.
- Maximize resources.
- Improve communications and customer satisfaction.
