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> I think of a content management system as something that makes it easy
> to single-source fairly small chunks: feature descriptions; answers to
> RFP questions; company profile; officer bios; standard disclaimers;
> standard warnings; etc. The critical distinguishing feature, I would
> think, would be the ability to search the system easily on the basis of
> a cleverly selected collection of object attributes covering the obvious
> (author, date, title, subject, etc.) and the less obvious (medium,
> format, size, keywords, diction--marketing fluff, user doc, technical
> spec, etc.). I'm not suggesting that this list is the right list, and it
> certainly isn't exhaustive.
I agree. CM implies more than version control, though that's likely to be
part of the equation in any good CM system.
CM is not so dependent on the size of the information chunks as on their
accessibility. I believe metadata is the key word here. A simple CM system
will tie together the information with data about the information (metadata)
in a manner that can be indexed and searched to allow users to find and
access the information they need. (Whew!) More robust systems may even allow
users to generate new documents from exisiting pieces and choose from a
number of channels for output (print, PDF, HTML, XML, WML, etc).
In any case, a data repository is the starting point for any customized
solution. So, Access should be a workable tool for starters (though not my
first choice).
ciao,
John
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Root
Publishing Systems
jroot -at- publisys -dot- com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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