Latest Web Publishing News & Articles

A new study revealed this week that approximately 46% of Americans say that on a typical day they get news from four to six different media platforms. Just 7% get their news from a single media platform.

Some say that Microsoft hasn't really made many changes to SharePoint 2007's web content management functionality for SharePoint 2010 (news, site). While the underlying architecture may not have changed, there are some improvements that you are bound to like. Here are 8 changes to SharePoint WCM that you need to know about.

The wired world is jibber-jabbing nearly non-stop about iPhones, iPads and the next generation of publishing. Open source web content management vendor eZ Systems (news, site) aims to keep its customers on the edge with the release of a new iPhone and iPad content delivery product complemented by services designed to facilitate custom application deployment to the Apple application store.

Customers are much more likely to get impatient with your website than they are to be bored with it.

We are. Even though the Gilbane Group (news, site) was recently acquired, the show must go on.

Gilbane San Francisco, scheduled for May 18 - 20, has just opened up for registration. The conference promises four tracks to serve specific roles in the organization (marketing, IT, a business unit, or an internal function):

1. Customers & Engagement
2. Colleagues & Collaboration
3. Content Technology
4. Content Publishing

If previous Gilbane shows are any indication (check out our coverage of Gilbane SF and Gilbane Boston 2009), this one promises to have something interesting for everyone in the web content management industry and beyond. Gilbane SF 2010 will feature around 40 sessions, panel discussions, workshops, product labs and more.

Here’s some helpful information for you to check out the event and to register:

• Conference schedule
• Session descriptions
• Pre-conference workshops
• Registration
• Twitter: @gilbanesf

See you in San Francisco. Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair ;)

This week web publishing goes blogging. From intranet corporate behaviors to online newspapers, blogs are making headlines.

Heads up, publishers, Google wants to help you make more money. Yesterday the search giant launched what they’re calling the next generation of ad-serving technology.

2010 is proving to be about user experience. Even in the past few weeks, we have covered the trends and needs associated with improving usability online, from web design to promoting transparency.

With the upcoming MX: Managing Experience conference that will focus on usability and user experience best practices, we'd like like to revisit the three key variables Jared Spool once indicated as being critically important to the field.

Offering web publishing and strategic content management, Escenic packs in 140 fixes and improvements into its latest updates of Escenic Community Engine 3.3-1 platform.

In December, Google’s Living Stories, one of the latest Google Labs endeavors, was used in collaboration with the WashingtonPost.com and New York Times to re-purpose content online. In February, Google is opening up Living Stories so that any publisher can adopt its experiment in presenting news online and in real time.

Packt Publishing (news, site), one of our favorite providers of IT books for professionals, has just kicked out a book to help you boost Drupal 6 performance.

The book is aimed at users of all experience levels—that includes you, beginners!—as well as, designers, themers and webmasters.

Think you know what websites have the best usability?

A survey by the UK-based research firm Webcredible found that the top performing industry sectors were news and media websites, followed by travel and utility websites. The sites voted most unfavorably belonged to local authority and government sector websites.

The study surveyed 1,000 users during the last quarter of 2009. The results indicate that some industries could improve from a renewed focus on their interfaces.

WordPress.com (news, site) was down for approximately 110 minutes yesterday—their worst downtime in four years. The crash took all WordPress.com blogs off the map, including those registered in the VIP program. Wuh-oh.

It seems like everyone and their mother is trying to integrate social media into their solutions, and WordPress (news, site) is no exception.

BuddyPress, a package of social tools initially designed to add networking to sites based on WordPress MU, can now be used with standard installs. 
 

Are you among the WordPress.com (news, site) elite? The team behind the popular Web CMS just re-launched their VIP services, providing exclusive hosting and developer-to-developer support for high-profile and high-traffic sites.

Demanding modern consumers want not only rich, engaging online experiences, but, according to Forrester's research, they also expect these experiences to extend transparently across multiple channels — from the web to call centers, to direct mail, mobile, social networks and in-store displays. In fact, recent research says that more than 70% of U.S. consumers use the Web plus another channel when making purchase decisions.

We've said it before, 2010 is shaping up to be a year where experience management needs drive the Web CMS sector in new, and in our opinion, interesting directions.

On Thursday February 25 at 8am Pacific, 11am Eastern and 4pm GMT CoreMedia and Forrester are holding a webinar entitled The Role of Web CMS in Cross-Channel Customer Relations.

The live event will be presented by Forrester's Tim Walters and aims to:

• Review the emerging trends in cross-channel communications and experience management
• Explore how Web Content Management solutions can a play key role in driving customer responsiveness
• Demonstrate that synchronizing, updating and optimizing your digital content for a wide variety of consumer end points can quickly increase your customer engagement

If you're tasked with optimizing your customer communication and interaction channels, then this event might be just what you need. Inquiring minds can register here.
 

In my last article, I described how to avoid the analysis-paralysis trap and quickly make your way to a short list of content management software options. If you missed that article, check out Selecting a CMS: How to Build a Short List.  If you followed the recommended approach, you should have a good idea of your high-level vision (what type of website you need to manage), your financial and technical constraints and few promising products to look at.

In this article I describe how to define some practical usage scenarios which you will use to shape the product evaluation process.

This week, our web publishing roll-up focuses on smaller, niche magazines that seek independence from the main audit bureau, as well as the younger generation of digital media users.

Good complexity leads to greater convenience, choice and options. Bad complexity leads to frustration, wasted time and wasted money.

WCM Field Notes is a regular column written in collaboration with Jon Marks (@McBoof), Head of Development at LBi. This issue lists 15 questions you can use to judge the state of your content management project.