This is a fantastic article found on ZDNet UK not only about open source content management systems but the issues that traditional publishers are now facing in either competing or adopting with today's Web CMS. The article is written by Mike Barrett and is titled, "CMS evolution, publishing revolution?". The author writes:
Mainstream content management systems are only now starting to provide similar flexibility for publishers. Open source products such as Drupal and Joomla now offer a viable way for smaller businesses to get on line effectively. Like the blogging platforms [Wordpress and Blogger] they introduce the opportunity to create multiple sites, cost effectively, by re-using functionality, content and platforms. But how many publishers are actually taking advantage of this? Often, even where publishers have multiple sites, many are still designed and built in isolation from their stablemates as businesses fail to understand the benefits of one platform.
Why don't the traditional media just migrate over to open source CMS? Don't forget that when many of the publishers first put their CMS online several years ago...propriety was still king.
The problem for all those publishers (large and small) that built their own systems is that they now have such a huge “cost of exit” that it's almost impossible to migrate to this model. The small publishers probably don’t even have access to their original developers (one story I heard recently was of a developer that emigrated to New Zealand to be a car mechanic!).
Mr. Barrett eventually concludes that "the CMS evolution continues but the real on-line publishing revolution hasn’t even started yet…". There are few articles that I have read online that are as candid as this post regarding where their organization has been with CMS (propriety and in-house) and where they are going (open source). I consider this the best article I've read this year so please don't miss your opportunity to read the article yourself.
This article first appeared on CMS Report.