Content management systems: the history and the future
Content management systems (CMS) are any method of organizing electronic information. With the rise of the Internet, the phrase was adopted as a whole to describe a wide range of systems that allowed users to create, edit, manage, and publish website content.
Although in the early 1990s people could update some kind of content online with products from Microsoft and Lotus, the first example of a pure content management tool came from Vignette with StoryServer around 1996. they released many CMS packages. from the likes of Documentum, Interwoven and Broadvision.
Between 2000 and 2005, the industry went through a massive wave of mergers and acquisitions that left a number of users unsupported after packages were abandoned and difficulties arose as packages were merged.
By 2007 there were 3 types of Content Management System:
1) Software Edition
These systems take care of editing on a local machine or network and then rely on publishing to upload the new content to the website. Typically, these offline systems require software to be installed before editing can take place.
2) Online edition
These systems typically do not require software to be installed, giving you the flexibility to edit on any machine, as long as the user has password access. Online content management systems can range from very simple, like Wiki, to sophisticated CMS editor features, like Vx.
3) Hybrid Systems
Hybrid systems allow users to edit content online through an online editing system, but allow “verified” content to work outside of the system before the content is placed back into the online editor.
2008 and beyond…
Content management systems have become extremely sophisticated, allowing users to manage and manipulate text, images, documents, audio, video, and animations.
New developments have brought the concepts behind content management systems (non-technical or design staff managing your websites) into other fields of the marketing mix. Several systems have integrated email marketing functionality into their CMS, allowing tracking between email and website functionality.
State-of-the-art systems have started to bring the offline into the content management platform. Printed materials, PDFs, and other offline communications are now managed through CMS systems similar to websites and emails.