Vignette and Its “Enterprise WCM Vendor Meme.” Really?

Announced on Vignette’s Facebook fan page and by Jules, here’s yet another CMS vendor meme. They call it the Enterprise Web Content Management (WCM) Vendor Meme. And this is exactly where I have a problem with it (OK, several):

1. I know the lines are blurry between ECM vs.  WCM (vs. micro CMS). Some call themselves “enterprise-ready” WCM. What is enterprise WCM? Enterprise CMS or Web CMS? Decisions, decisions…
2. Why can’t you put up a corporate blog using your latest VCA release instead of using Facebook, where I have to become a fan to leave a comment or otherwise participate?
3. What happened to the “traditional” ECM attributes like DAM, document and records management, eDiscovery, retention, ODR, workflow, BPM, IM, KM, etc., etc.? None of which are mentioned in the questions list.
4. The question list seems to be tailored specifically around Vignette’s products (keywords: portal-like, financial and government deployments, see #6, etc.)
5. Hence, no need to answer the questions — just do the tagging bit?
6. “We provide a one-stop shop for enterprise Web Experience (VIGN keyword — see #4) needs, offering a full range of capabilities including at least 6 of these 7 commonly requested enterprise functionalities:
   1. Web Content Management” — Doh!

Maybe, I am just completely and utterly confused, but I don’t get this. No offense, I applaud the effort to engage further with the community, but this one is me meme not. Or, like others said:

[updated April 4] Alfresco’s @LuisSala offered his opinion on Vignette’s ECM meme effort. Very detailed, with many examples, which should not come as a surprise given that Sala is a former VIGN employee. One of the quotes I found interesting:

…these are instantly recognizable as a thinly veiled and highly biased checklist highlighting Vignette’s self-perceived “strengths”.

My take-away: some things are better to be vendor-neutral, not vendor-authored. Another reason why we have organizations like @cmswatch.

Vignette Community Apps 7.1: One Way to Manage Social Media

It’s hard to review two so seemingly close, yet so strikingly different product releases on the same day.  Especially, when it comes to the integration of social media and ECM/WCM.

EPiserver has done their version of it. Day and Vignette played in on the same day. The big V has released the updated Vignette Community Applications 7.1.

This social media solution targets organizations looking to engage with internet audiences and spice up their online presences with communities, social interaction and collaborative communication. The goodie box has all the usual suspects: blogs, wikis, forums, ratings and reviews, user-generated events, ideas management, photos, calendars,  community spotlight and the sharing of multimedia assets including videos and podcasts.

My main concern with VCA 7.1 is its complex architecture. The entire Vignette Community Application 7.1 engine is comprised of several moving parts. On the presentation layer you have Vignette Portal. On the portal side, you have an aggregation of JSR-286 portlets. There are 78 of them shipped with the license, and you can add more. MOSS integration is also possible, as Vignette continues to enamor SharePoint.

The social media engine is separate. Vignette’s WCM system part is yet another separate bit that is not integrated with the social media engine.

The whole architectural design may sound a bit clunky; but, surely, those already working with Vignette are used to this approach. If you don’t already use Vignette Portal, you will need to buy an extra license; although, a limited portal license is included. This is the reason they’re called “modular products,” and it is up to you what to choose.

Full article on CMSWire: Managing Social Media With Vignette Community Apps 7.1

Day’s CQ 5.2: DAM and Social Collab Feast

I don’t really have much to say about this release, since watching a pre-cooked demo is not the same as getting a first-hand experience, but here it goes.

Day Software, continuing to ride the CQ 5 and CRX momentum waves,  released CQ 5.2 with new Social Collaboration (SoCo) and Digital Asset Management (DAM) applications. Not to mention some interesting multi-site and multilingual enhancements.

While marrying web content management with social media, web 2.0 and DAM is hardly revolutionary — nowadays, it’s more about execution than the idea itself.

All in all, Day did fairly well with CQ 5.2. Next time there are questions about negative numbers on the balance sheet, the answer will (still) be simple: R&D and associated product launch costs (including time per day spent on Twitter with marketing efforts).

Full article on CMSWire: Day Software’s CQ 5.2: Weaving in DAM and Social Collaboration

Lars Trieloff (Day’s product manager for collab and DAM, and the person who spent the past 1.5 years of his life on this release) proudly welcomed CQ 5.2 and shared hidden CQ5 gems he didn’t show in demos.

The first one is the workflow launcher designed specifically for CQ5 DAM.

cq5 workflow launcher

The workflow launcher listens to all content repository events  and triggers the actual processing of any new asset added to the system. All event types (+other info) are clearly visible in the launcher tab.

The second one is (not pretty enough to be shown in demos, I gather) feed importer.

cq5 feed importer

The importer is used to talk to remote sources, parse them and create nodes in the content repository. it is currently used for subscribing to  remote iCal files and in the blog tool for content aggregation.

In order to implement a new parser and importer, Trieloff  says, “all you have to do is implement one OSGi component.” And, voila, your Twitter mashup is done.

Twitter Profiling: You Know You’re a #CMS Exec If…

1. Your tweets are flooded with airport codes, #boarding, #delayed and upgrades updates
2. When no upgrade, you make it a point to express coach dissatisfaction by tweeting @ stinky, snoring, farting, barking, screaming (_insert your adjective of choice_) neighbors
3. Often, you can decently converse in at least two languages. #Natuurlijk!
4. That is because, chances are, you’ve “done time” at a boarding school somewhere in the UK, or an ivy establishment somewhere in Stanford
5. You refer to your children in version numbers and “private beta” is used to indicate the soon-to-come version number(s)
6. You’re obsessed with expensive watches
7. You often find yourself on (often boring) conf calls at 3:30 AM (local time)
8. When not on conf or Skype calls, you’re charming away #analysts and the media (using Skype, phone, lunch invitations, IM, Twitter, etc.)
9. You thought about hiring a ghost twitterer for those cool “#worth reading” and “#note to self” entries from news feeds
10. Your entire PR agency is following you *and* all your followers
11. You’ve had at least one “waking up in… New York/Rome/London/ _insert_” tweet, just so you can un-disorient yourself and figure out where the heck you’re that day
12. Your #waking up tweet is often posted at some ungodly hour
13. When not @work, your tweets often mention inches of #snow, pies, hardware tools, Shakespeare, foie gras, various gadgets, historic monuments and *beer*
    
14. On the health side, you’re most prone to dental work (#crown sans anesthesia), broken bones, exhaustion and insomnia
15. Your most commonly used acronyms include HST, CEO, RTM, AIIM (seasonally), RC, GSA, POC, VC, API, SCRUM, CMIS, GA and — LOL, of course, #CMS
    

What’s Bad for Economy is Good for Open Source

Open source offerings and associated services are getting better and starting to seem less risky, while IT budgets are shrinking.

Result? What’s bad for economy is clearly good for open source. A recent survey shows that web content management is one of the prime “targets” for disruption by open source.

Open source vendors rejoice, closed source companies nod in agreement and utter the magic word “interoperability.”

Full story on CMSWire: Bad Economy Is Good for Open Source

FirstSpirit 4.2 CMS Continues to Focus on Ease of Use

Continuing in the spirit of making content management as simple as possible, e-Spirit launched FirstSpirit 4.2.

Having done some research, e-Spirit is reporting that content volumes are growing, and more effort is needed to keep content from snowballing out of control with efficient content management systems and practices.

In the spirit of CMS Vendor Meme kicked off by Day Software and inspired by CMS Watch’s Kas Thomas, I’d be curious to see how e-Spirit would do.  I couldn’t even find any mentions of FirstSpirit 4.2 on the company site. They say they’re in the process of “migrating our own Website.”

Full story on CMSWire: FirstSpirit 4.2 Aims to Prevent Content Snowballing Out of Control