Content Management Systems (CMS)

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1 Overview
2 Guidelines
3 Resources

[edit] Overview

Within the context of Media On Demand, Content Management Systems (CMS) offer another layer of functionality that Media Asset Management and Digital Asset Management systems do not.

(Onion metaphor courtesy of Dave McCarn, WGBH Educational Foundation)

At the core of the discussion is the creation and presence of Content, whether video, audio, text, images, or interactive objects. All too rapidly, the quantity of items grows to the point when individuals can no longer recall what they have or where it is located. As a digital content manager was overheard saying the other day, "I've got so many items that have been added to my DAM System, I can't possibly keep track of them in my head anymore."

Managing content becomes mission critical if content creators and content consumers are extended the capability to search for, evaluate, review, play, download or re-purpose media items. Developing strategies and tactics to enable content management ultimately promotes the "findability" of media items, which in turn enhances their value to individuals and organizations.

Media Asset Management Systems (MAM) are analogous to digital file cabinets. They offer a layer of management over the media items themselves. Content items can be categorized and organized into logical groupings in order to facilitate faster retrieval. Often times, MAM systems are accessible only to desktop, departmental or internal business operations. External Internet access is usually not an option.

Digital Asset Management Systems (DAM) are enhanced MAM systems, and thus encompass MAM functionality, but with additional features. Depending on the vendor and the software capabilities, a DAM system not only categorizes and organizes content, but also manages the distribution of media items to content consumers, both within and external to an organization. User groups and access privileges are also possible in order to control the availability of media items to authenticated users or those with matching digital use rights.

Content Management Systems (CMS) are often referred to as Web Content Management Systems. They incorporate enhanced editorial and publishing functions, allowing an organization to separate actual content from the manner or form in which it is presented. Content can be modified or updated without parallel modifications to the presentation layers that display content over the World Wide Web. Before approval for publishing, the creation, modification, and authorization of content are subject to the business rules and workflows operating within an organization; CMS Systems often incorporate workflow management utilities into their functionalities. Digital Rights Management controls are also folded into many Content Management Systems.

The connection between Media On Demand and these various management systems is undeniable. If a media item can be cataloged, categorized, and made retrievable through either a MAM, DAM, or CMS System (with workflow, editorial, and publishing approval processes in place), then the consumers of content items have been empowered to demand media items at the time and place of their choosing (if a New Media Ecosystem is functioning across its converged media delivery and consumption profiles with seamless mobility).

Often identified are four core elements or engines that are integral to digital content management systems.

1. Managing the Content

With a database operating in the background, a collection of assets is organized through some sort of user interface. User interactions with the assets are managed through this engine, whether requests are made to temporarily take content off-line or to ask for content "ingests" to the system or content "downloads" or "streaming" for consumption.

2. Describing the Content

The actual media item is referred to as "essence." The item itself represents half of its value to an organization or consumers. The other half is captured in the well-formed descriptions associated with the item, whether the descriptions are about intellectual content, ownership, rights and use restrictions, or identifications of the forms and formats in which an item is available for review and playback. This is metadata, and it is captured in another engine driven by a database.

3. Finding Content

With metadata in place, a search engine is engaged in order to allow consumers to find and display desired content. Searches can be conducted by keywords, database field values, virtual catalogs of items, or by hierarchically nested directories of content.

4. Controlling Access

Often referred to as security logic, a layer of controls are present in order to generate types of user groups whose members have certain access and re-purposing privileges over content items. Access control is permissions control.

Regardless of the levels and layers of sophistication and complexity for management systems over digital content items, the true impact of Content Management is to ignite the "findability" of desired information or media items. If a thing cannot be found, then the thing cannot be applied. Media On Demand, as a service and a concept, typically requires some sort of media or content management, whether it is implemented on a desktop scenario, through an open source "embrace and customize" process, or is built with an enterprise-class suite of integrated utilities that is evaluated and installed throughout an organization's business rules and organizational structures.

[edit] Guidelines

The University of Utah and its Information Technology Council (ITC) are currently invested in the implementation of a centralized infrastructure for a Content Management System. Recall that its power lies in its enhanced editorial and publishing functions, allowing an organization to separate actual content from the manner or form in which it is presented. Content can be modified or updated without parallel modifications to the presentation layers that display content over the World Wide Web.

One benefit is that the responsibility for revisions and the ability to update published content can be placed back in the hands and minds of the original folks who generated or created the content in the first place. If a system is in place to streamline the content updating and publishing processes, especially if the published information is volatile and transitory, then the demands on IT personnel (who typically manage the distribution processes) are diminished.

In a proposal to the Univesity of Utah for a "Centralized Infrastructure, Locally Controlled Web Content Management System," it is stated that:

The university spends an estimated $3M-$4M annually on IT personnel and resources to deploy and manage a proliferation of mission-critical web sites. Similar to most institutions, the U has not strictly managed the content and deployment of web sites, but has left individual units to grow organically with the Internet. Few processes exist at the U to manage web content; no enterprise-wide supporting technologies exist. This has resulted in varying levels of quality among college websites, duplicative programming of identical web functionality, inconsistent navigation and taxonomy among websites, and multiple copies of institutional data stored locally.

The Office of IT proposes that the university provide an enterprise web content management and delivery system to any colleges choosing to adopt a centralized web content management model (similar to the College of Humanities). The support and administration is provided centrally by computer professionals, but the actual content management is distributed, working locally according to a given college’s workflow. The solution addresses three main dimensions of web content management:

a reliable, integrated, cost-effective "back-end” system for web content management enabling content repositories to be built, edited, tagged, aggregated and deployed in appropriate delivery contexts
a reliable, integrated, cost-effective “front-end” for delivering and displaying content that enables content managers to dynamically associate content with one or many delivery endpoints
compatibility with current university portal technology to facilitate content aggregation and syndication.

The potential benefits to Media On Demand are self evident.