Content Management as a Marriage

By Deane Barker • July 14, 2003 •

An absurd analogy: content management is like a marriage in so many ways.

I got to thinking the other day that the content management field is flooded, especially the open-source systems. Go to sites like CMSInfo.org, OpenSourceCMS.com, CMSWatch.com, etc. and you’ll see hundreds of them. Then, every week, I get notifications that new ones have been released: NetWizard…

The author expresses concern over the overwhelming number of open-source content management systems available, suggesting that users should focus on one reliable system and stick with it. They compare the current trend of switching between systems to a superficial relationship, suggesting that users need to focus on delivering real value to their users rather than just seeking new, superficial relationships.

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I’ve tried very hard to keep track, but there are too many. And there’s so much duplication. Every day a new system comes out that says it’s better than the last one. But is it? Has anyone really broken any new ground in content management in the last two years? We run from system to system like we have CMS attention deficit disorder.

I’m a guilty as anyone – I dutifully dash off a new posting when something new hits the fan. Lately I’m thinking that I’m doing people a dis-service. I feel like I should find one competent system and stick with that, plumbing the depths of it for all it’s worth so that people can move from the superficial layer to something deeper: providing actual value.

I challenge you to pick one system, live with its flaws, celebrate its strengths, but more or less forget about the technical and architectural end of it and instead concentrate on the user at the other end of the keyboard. Focus on delivering him or her actual content. (You remember, the reason we install these system in the first place?)

At the risk of an absurd analogy, it’s like a marriage. You can work the bar scene, hopping from one date to another, which is very exciting and sexy, but it’s all so superficial. You never really get to know any of them. Your time is pre-occupied with the process of getting to know them and their value to you is based on them providing romantic interest.

However, one day, if you’re lucky, you find someone that fits – they may not be perfect, but they fit for the most part – and really get to know them (marry them, even), then you can move to another level where this person catapults you to new areas, and let’s you explore things beyond just romance for the sake of romance.

I’ll say it again, we have enough platforms. We need to stop dating, settle down, and actually do something with our lives.

Sometime after I wrote this, I found a funny list of “Why Content Management Systems Are Like Relationships.”

There comes a point in your life when you feel that you really should be in one.
They’re expensive up front, and you never stop paying for them.
People who are already in them tend to be a bit superior about being in one.
Both aren’t that easy to get into and you wonder if you’re choosing correctly – you’re sold this myth that there is “the one” out there for you.
When you get into one, you have to adapt your behavior to suit your partner.
Once you’re in one you miss the freedom that you have before and you find it’s invariably more work which you fail to see the need for.
You’ll be scorned or ridiculed by people who don’t see the point in them.
After a few months of excitement, you realize that you’re basically doing everything that you were doing before.
You occasionally have wow moments that make you realize it was all worthwhile.
You can only really use one, conflicts arise if others hang around.
Soon you notice new ones, and your affection begins to wander – but the upheaval of changing is just too much to consider moving on.
After a while, keeping the set-up going becomes more important than anything you once thought you might get out of them, or even put in.
Having been in one, you need some time to recover before you start your next.

I included this in the conclusion of my third book.