Abstract
The question “Do we need a Content Management System (CMS)?” has become a no-brainer. The upcoming disability legislation has provided a useful external driver – the only resource efficient way of providing a consistently accessible Web site is by the templating approach offered with a CMS.
This year’s question seems to be “Do we need an Institutional Portal?”. It is important that any decision about a portal framework is not taken independently of deliberations concerning a CMS. Portals, fundamentally, are content-free – they do not store content but aggregate it from many other places. One content repository from which a portal will provide views is the institutional CMS. But it is also likely that the portal will offer “contributor channels” through which information providers directly edit content hosted by the underlying CMS.
It is therefore crucial to understand the relationship between the portal and the CMS – and not just in technical terms. That said, XML + XSLT has emerged as a key technology in this area.
Resources
The slides are hosted on Slideshare.