What is “Open Source” and “CMS” you might ask? Which is not a stupid question at all, a few of my clients often ask me what do they mean? What do they do? Who owns what?  So here are those answers in a nut shell:

Open Source refers to a program in which the source code is available to the general public for use and/or modification from its original design free of charge, i.e.. Open source code is typically created as a collaborative effort in which programmers improve upon the code and share the changes within the community. Open source sprouted in the technological community as a response to proprietary software owned by corporations. (Read more on Webopedia also view the definition on Wikipedia)

In other words anyone can copy, modify and redistribute the source code. But the awesome factor is that the code is passed around the developing community to test, refine and correct any bugs in the code, creating an excellent platform for software and developing companies to use.  Another important factor to bring to your attention is that free open source software can be installed and managed on your supplied web server opposed to Software as a service (SaaS) where the software vendor supplies the software, hosting and support. There are benifts for the two and this really depends on your requirements for your site at the end of the day. (I feel another blog coming on)

A Content Management System (CMS) allows publishing, editing, and modifying content as well as site maintenance from a central page. It provides a collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment. These procedures can be manual or computer-based. (Read more on Wikipedia)

In other words you or one of your employers, most CMS systems you can set up users and content restrictions, can alter, update, store, upload, share, write, manage, publish and alter content on your website on any computer with any internet contention. Put it this way, you could be sipping a Pin Colada on a yacht sailing the Whitsundays updating your website. I might be dreaming a bit, not everyone has Telstra coverage right..

Therefore an open source CMS is software that allows a group of users to modify content on a web server. As you can imagine there is a long list of these CMS software out there in the market place, some free and some not. The best list I have found is on Wikipedia, it’s worth looking at to get an understanding of what is on offer and what framework the sofware uses.

Getting to the last question of ownership, I think you will grasp the concept so far that most open source is free, the opposite of propriety. For example when I design a web site for a company using WordPress, which is a free open source (PHP language with MySQL databases), the company takes ownership of those files, however not the WordPress software. Lets say I decide to sell my business and sail around the Whitsundays on a yacht for the rest of my life, sticking to the theme here, the client can download their site files from the server and pass them on to another design company who will be able to modify the files. However some companies do have different policies on ownership of these modified open source files, which is important to establish with them before proceeding with any web project.

Another factor to bear in mind with open source CMS software, while there are free and anyone can upload them to a server and set up a site, they still require the design and internet coding expertise to produce a final product. Put this way, it’s like buying a kit sports car still in a box, you still need the mechanical know how to assemble the car together for a road worthy final product. Or else you are left with a go cart in the backyard!

Hopefully this gives you a better understanding of open source CMS definition. Tune in next blog where the magic words will be.. “Benefits of WordPress”.

Hi welcome to my new site!

It has been awhile in the making due to the time factor, especially when I have my own website lower in the priority list after my clients. Good things always take time..

I have received excellent feedback from my clients with the new website especially the functionality and look of the site. This is thanks to the development community creating one of the best and free open source CMS (Content Management Systems) called WordPress.

After years of working in the industry on various CMS systems, I have managed to narrow it down to two systems that stand out in my mind, not only from a designer / developer point of view, but more importantlely from an end users point of view. WordPress, obviously, and Adobe Business Catalyst.

However before I start explaining why these two CMS system are so awesome and how they would benefit your business please read the following blog on the “Definitions of ‘Open Source CMS’”. This should hopefully answered a few questions for those who aren’t familiar with the terminology.