CMS Primer

Submitted by Jon Lebkowsky on .

CMS stands for content management system which is just a fancy way for saying a web site that normal people can change without the need for web experts.  A content management system will look like any other website however once a manager or editor logs in, they will be able to change menu links with a few clicks, add calendar items, update inventory, change prices for products etc. etc.

All of this has changed radically in the last ten to fifteen years as CMS's have grown in maturity and stability.  We at Polycot advocate the open source CMS Drupal for our larger or more sophisticated sites. For simple smaller sites, we use Wordpress.  The reason why we like open source is because the software is essentially free for anyone in the world to use.  It is maintained by thousands of people worldwide.  No single person is in charge of developing these products, rather interested and brilliant engineers contribute to make them what they are. This is a radically different approach to traditional software development which has been under the control of one company and quietly done behind closed doors.  And the results are spectacular.  Check out this list of websites that use Drupal: The White House, Sony Music, The Grammys, The Economist etc. etc.