Customer Reviews

Web Content Management: A Collaborative Approach

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This book is an essential resource for anyone who manages web sites of any size or complexity. I purchased this book to research current practices in content management thinking it was applicable only to large sites. I found out that the information was as useful for small sites, including my modest personal site with approximately 20 pages and a few dozen download files.

The book starts out with two parts devoted to context and basic mechanics of content management: Part I is a single chapter that discusses motivation for content management, and Part II consists of 7 chapters covering concepts and principles.

While Part I is self-evident, Part II is a thorough look at all facets of content management from the definition of an asset through managing multiple web initiatives. Some highlights of Part II include: (1) clear definition of versioning and control mechanisms (in principle they are the same as those used in software configuration management for source code), (2)best practices for collaboration, which includes a well-defined cycle of submit-compare-update-merge and publish process, version snapshots and test cycles, (3)workflow processes that cover people, project, process and business factors, and (4) deploying content, which mirrors to a large degree IT practices for releasing code changes into production. I especially liked the way this aligns to IT operations best practices by treating the process in the same manner as a mature change control process, including roll-back procedures. Also valuable about this Part of the book is the frequent inclusion of checklists.

Part III covers design and implementation of content management processes and tools. Here is where workflow, template system and deployment design is elevated from the discussion of concepts and principles in the preceding section into a working system. This part of the book also discusses future trends in content management. Appendices are in Part IV. Each is as valuable as the body of the book, but I particularly liked Appendix B-Workflow Design for Formal Hand Off Between Groups, and Appendix D-Basic Process Steps of a Best-Practice Content Management Process.

This book addresses an important subject because managing content on even a small site is no small task. The authors provide a straightforward method, complete with case studies and checklists, to get a handle on what is probably the most difficult aspect of web site management. The writing is clear and the book is exceptionally well illustrated. It is also completely consistent with traditional IT and software engineering practices for change control and software configuration management.

As the dot-com boom recedes in memory, Web site managers are turning to away from technological whizz-bangery and towards duller but more crucial work - like the task of simply getting content onto sites and maintaining it as cheaply and simply as possible. This task goes by the name of "Web content management", and texts on it are now belatedly appearing, a tribute to our newly pragmatic times. One of the first volumes comes from a computer scientist named Russell Nakano.

The term "Web content management" covers a multitude of jobs - everything from figuring out how your pieces of content work with each other (data modelling), to creating content (authoring), to getting it onto a Web server (publication).

Nakano's chosen title - "Web Content Management: A Collaborative Approach" - hits the mark in at least two ways. First, it shows Nakano is most interested in the team aspects of content management - letting several people edit content together (collaboration), letting the right people do the right things to it (workflow), keeping track of how it has changed (versioning and archiving). Second, it hints at the narrowness of Nakano's approach: he knows just One Good Way to do things. His book concentrates on a specific methodology.

That methodology is aimed at large and complex Web sites, typically consisting of more than 10,000 pages, and owned by large organisation who want to strictly enforce content rules. Such sites often need sophisticated workflow systems to move content from idea to carefully-polished corporate product. Nakano gives such sites the useful title of "states", since they require systems of formal responsibilities, rights and privileges. He distinguishes them from "chiefdoms" and "tribes", controlled less by formal structure than by informal agreement and social pressure.

More broad principles like this would be welcome. Most of the time, you read in this book of the One Good Way that's suited to a few big Web sites. Fortunately, in describing his One Good Way, Nakano still manages to illustrate many of the underlying principles of collaboration, workflow and versioning. What's peculiar is that these principles appear almost by accident, when they should be the core of the book. And that Nakano gives no hint that they're long-established principles at all.

Take versioning. Nakano's book describes a "WSE Paradigm", with WSE standing for "work area/staging area/edition". Neologism aside, this appears to be the standard software version-control system that smart developers long ago adopted to Web development. Users "check out" site assets, work on them, commit them back into the system and merge them together if necessary, all in a way that minimises the risk that a team will muck up the existing site or obliterate each other's work on the new one. (A quick Google search will find you a swag of documents on using the open-source Concurrent Versions System, Component Software's CS-RCS, Microsoft's Visual SourceSafe and other versioning tools to build Web sites.) If Nakano's paradigm goes beyond this old approach, he never explains how. Indeed, he takes pains not to mention the traditional version-control practices at all. He also avoids naming any software tools which you might use to implement his paradigm. There are some valuable lessons and examples here; they're just not as accessible as they might be.

A few chapters in, I began to suspect Nakano's book was created as a marketing and customer support tool for CMS vendor Interwoven. More than any other CMS, Interwoven specialises in collaboration, workflow and versioning for large sites. It is in some ways more a CMS component than a complete product. Nakano co-founded the company, and Interwoven's site promotes it heavily. If you're paying the $A500,000 price tag of a typical Interwoven installation, I'd thoroughly recommend "Web Content Management: A Collaborative Approach". If you have a more modest implementation in mind, Nakano still has something to say - he's just not talking right at you.

Nakano has delivered clear, useful descriptions explaining the step-by-step "how to," for mapping editorial workflow for web-based publishing. This is critical to the success of the best corporate portals,intranets and .com sites. This approach is also a fundamental requirement for those seeking to get the most out of high-end, enterprise content management solutions their organizations may have purchased (ex:Vignette and Interwoven.) This book will be a strong tool for project managers, corporate subject matter experts, intranet staff and a variety of consultants.

This book has received both criticisms and accolades, and depending on one's perspective, both are warranted. The best way to determine if this book is for you is to answer the following questions: Are you in a large-scale web environment? Are you using Interwoven? Is content management your job? If you answered yes to two or more questions, then you'll find this book useful.

The collaborative approach and the tool features described in this book satisfy the first two questions - the author has obviously chosen to illustrate collaborative content workflows that apply to large-scale sites, and the tool is Interwoven. To readers who work in such an environment and use Interwoven this book is worth its weight in gold. For the reader who has content management responsibilities, the principles and techniques that are presented can be scaled down and put to good use.

What I like about the book is that the workflow and techniques, regardless of scale, answer some thorny configuration management and change control issues that are unique to web sites. While the traditional data center world, especially in mainframes, have mature and proven processes, they do not apply to the faster paced requirements of web sites. This is especially the case in web sites because there are competitive pressures, marketing initiatives and other drivers that demand fast changes. Yet, there are opposing forces, such as legal issues, corporate image and systems management processes that counterbalance the drivers. The workflow and techniques for content management that the author proposes shows how to achieve reasonable speed in deploying content, while exercising the necessary due diligence.

I obviously like this book, but In can understand the frustration of some readers who had different expectations when they purchased it. I do highly recommend it to anyone who meets the criteria I cited above.

the book is good as it presents a way in which website content is managed. the downside is it religiously follows how Interwoven teamSite is designed (understandable, as the author is the co-founder of the company Interwoven). all the proposed designs are too TeamSite'ish.
A better way to learn content management is look at various content managment products available ( vignette, teamsite, documentum....). that will give a more holistic picture on content management. Try some forrester research or Yankee group reports on content management

By the way, there is quite a few differences between source code and web content management. the book highlights those and I being a project leader for content managment in my comapany agree to those differences.

Co-founder of Interwoven, Inc., the market leader in web content infrastructure solutions, Russell Nakano draws upon his many years of expertise and experience to write a truly "user friendly" instructional guide for business managers and web practitioners seeking to create effective (and profitable) websites in Web Content Management: A Collaborative Approach. Aspiring web masters will learn the development principles allowing a website to be effectively entrepreneurial; proven ways to organize an enterprise website; website versioning including concurrent changes and templating; work area/staging area developmental paradigms; distinguishing source files from generated files; work flow and approval patterns for website innovation; handling multiple web initiatives; integrating web systems with databases, template systems, document management systems, deployment and backup systems; and trends in content managements now and in the future. Web Content Management is a strongly recommended title for anyone charged with responsibility for the development and operation of an entrepreneurial website of any kind or category.

Unlike many books of this type, this book was actually well writen and interesting to read! Nakano makes what could have been very dry discussions more entertaining by including real-life scenarios.

The book takes you through web development processes, all the way from the one-man shop to the huge, mega-corporation. Yes, it does not give implementation details, but I think it does a very nice job at explaining the basic models in a black box way. (It is up to you to decide how you are going to do version control or enterprise content management.)

Interesting how polarized readers are on this book! I can see that folks needing specific details on web development would not appreciate this book.

However, for me, since I wanted a general discussion of how companies develop web sites, it was perfect. My experience in web development for small and medium-size companies tells me that the problems and solutions presented in this book are very real-world.

Unlike many books of this type, this book was actually well writen and interesting to read! Nakano makes what could have been very dry discussions more entertaining by including real-life scenarios.

The book takes you through web development processes, all the way from the one-man shop to the huge, mega-corporation. Yes, it does not give implementation details, but I think it does a very nice job at explaining the basic models in a black box way. (It is up to you to decide how you are going to do version control or enterprise content management.)

As a System Architect working with Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and particularly with Interwoven's Teamsite, I was eagerly awaiting the publication of a book that dealt with Content Management.
However, on recieveing the book I was disapointed to release once again that the subject had been treated at such a high level as to be nearly useless to someone who already works within the field.
I agree with other reviewers of the book that it does present a reasonable overview for those first dangling their feet in the CMS swamp.
However, there is currently a great need for a book on ECM where the underlying principles and process of specifying, creating and validating a "Content Architecture" and Management System are seriously considered.
Unfortunately this book is not it.
If I had the time or money I would write one myself.
Until then I keep my fingers crossed that Nakano is already working on one

I donot like the style of this book. Same story or same meaning was told again and again. Anybody who wants to work for a big/medium website (targetd audience of this book) would definitely understand what is the problem. But the book doesnot clearly mention the solution to the key points or any very very interesting stuff. In fact only the summary of each chapter is the best part and worthy of reading. I regret buying this book.