Before the internet was the huge resource that it is today a company that wanted a website had to hire a programmer who would create each page of a website using HTML, the primary language of the internet. The programmer would control the text as well as the format of the page using HTML. For web pages with a lot of content this process was extremely time consuming and costly. Updating a web page was not an easy task and required an experienced and trained person to do them and even then the updates were not always as timely as a company might hope.
Eventually open source software came along. Open source software is software that allows the source code or computer code to be shared and made available for users. Open source does not always mean free software though most open source software is available for free.
An open source content management system is a content management solution. It helps you to keep track of each piece of data on your web site. CMS content can include text, video, audio, documents, or any other web materials. A CMS allows a person with little to no HTML knowledge to publish, edit, delete, manage, and organize the content of a website. Instead of needing to reprogram a webpage every time an update needs to be made the website administrator is able to login and control the content of the site easily. Updating a webpage can take just minutes instead of the hours that it took in the past and with no programming knowledge necessary.
Most content management systems have some version of workflow which allows the management of content creation and modification. This is an added security so that your site cannot be edited without someone’s approval. Workflow or the approval process can be customized for different documents and site areas.
Search here to find which open source content management system is best for your company. Learn more about the popular Drupal, Sharepoint, and Joomla templates. Or find a software company who will be able to help you with a customized content management system as well as all the support you will need for implementation of your new website.
