Site Review: opensourcecms.com

Scott Goodwin is the founder of the fantastic website www.opensourceCMS.com, a site where you can completely test content management systems, before taking the time to install one. Here, he talks to Packt Publishing about the website and the world of content management systems.

Scott Goodwin is the founder of the fantastic website www.opensourceCMS.com , a site where you can completely test content management systems, before taking the time to install one. Here, he talks to Packt Publishing about the website and the world of content management systems.

Name: Scott Goodwin
Location: Falls Church, VA USA
Age: 33
Education: MIS Undergraduate degree / M.B.A.
Status: Married with young a daughter

Q. Please could you give us some background to the opensourceCMS.com website and what made you create the site?

A. A little over two years ago I was unaware of content management systems.  I was at hotscripts.com just looking around, and found their listing for 'portals'.  I was vaguely familiar with open source, but figured all 'content management' type systems would cost money.  I immediately became fascinated with the open source concept and had no idea these types of powerful systems were available for ?free?. 

Needless to say I spent a lot of time installing and trying out many of these systems.  After spending a tremendous amount of time doing this, I realized what a great idea it would be to put all the better systems in one place.  Doing this would allow people to come to one place and test them out without laboriously installing each and every one.  I realized immediately I would have to narrow my focus or there would be no way I could keep up.  I decided to demo only php/mysql systems that didn't require root to install.    


Q. Looking through the site, it is evident that there are a large number of different Content Management Systems available; do you think that it has become a crowded field, and how do you think the market will look in 5 years time?

A. The problem you have is just about any system you choose won't do EXACTLY what you want it to do.  There is usually some type of compromise you must make.  With that in mind, you?ll have some programmer take a system and like most of it, but then change a few things and a new system is born.  Now whether or not that system takes root and gathers any type of following is a different story.  There are probably hundreds of systems out there, but just a few that have any type of real following and continuous development.  Now back to the question at hand.  Is the field crowded?  Yes.  Is that necessarily a bad thing?  No.  With a plethora of systems, it does make a newbie feel very overwhelmed and intimidated with the many choices at hand though.

What do I think the market will look like in five years?  That's a tough question and I hate to speculate.  Five years is forever when you're talking about Internet programming.  What you dream may very well be reality by then.  I will say this though.  The major complaint about most CMS's is they almost all have the 3 column look whereby you're very limited in the presentation of the content.  That's a major trade-off when you separate the content from the presentation in a relatively simple manner.  The use of themes makes the presentation layer simple, but very rigid. 

I think the next major advancement will be in aesthetics.  Some systems are trying to overcome this by using the smarty templating engine or other methods.  Unfortunately, this can add another layer of complexity to the system.  It?s a difficult situation separating the content from the presentation, yet wanting to allow for a unique presentation while keeping things simple. 


Q. Do you have any updates or new features planned for the site, and if so, are you prepared to reveal any of them?!

A. I wish I had a great answer for this, but I don't.  Not right now at least.  If I could get a few people to help I would love to break the site out into different sections like blogs.opensourcecms.com, ecommerce.opensourcecms.com, groupware.opensourcecms.com, etc.  I would like to have sub sites of opensourceCMS.com that are more focused on its particular genre.  Then have a leader in each section that would be the resident expert within their particular field.  Hopefully I can get this done one day.  


Q. open source Content Management Systems can be a bit daunting at first, what advice would you give to someone choosing and using a CMS for the first time?

A. I get this question a lot.  The very first thing is not to freak out when you realize there are too many choices out there.  Your search will be infinitely easier if you have a pretty clear vision concerning what you are trying to accomplish with a CMS.  You first need to decide what features are 'must have's', which are 'that'd be very useful to have'?, and which are 'that'd be cool to have'.  You must keep in mind that you most certainly will have to make a compromise when choosing your CMS.  'Out of the box' it likely won't do exactly what you want it to do, the way you want it done.  So when I say features I don'?t necessarily mean what's available in the core or what's available as an addon or module.  I also mean how helpful is the community surrounding the system?  Are there any commercial developers for the system, if that's something you need?  How much time and effort are you willing to put in to learn the in?s and out?s of the system?  Generally the more complicated the system, the more powerful.  On the surface, the world of open source CMS'?s appear mind numbing with all the different choices.  However, if you can decide beforehand what your needs are then half the battle is won.     

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Q. What should people do if they know of a CMS that isn't listed on your website?

A. If a system is not listed, and you think it should be, just email admin@opensourcecms.com and let me know.  Let me first warn the readers that I get a lot of emails about different systems so please make sure the system fits our current criteria first.  It must be php/mysql based, it must not require root to install, and if it's not open source then the free version cannot be crippleware (severely limited).  As the site has gotten larger, and I'm still the only one who really keeps the site current, I've become a lot pickier about what I install and keep up to date as it becomes a huge investment of time. 

Q. And finally, other than opensourceCMS.com, what is your favourite website?

A. I visit news.com, wired.com, and thedailydeals.com, regularly.  Other than running OpenSourceHost.com, and trying to keep up with the systems at opensourceCMS.com, I don't surf around like I once did.

Thanks Scott.

Packt Publishing

For more information, please visit: www.opensourceCMS.com