Government Computer News
Behind every good e-Gov program ...
Tools for managing Web content are as varied as the agency sites they support
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The nature of government Web sites has changed dramatically over the past five years. The number of Web pages published by state, local and federal agencies has grown exponentially, and the expectations of citizens, businesses and other government agencies have grown just as much.
On top of that, the need for compliance with regulations for everything from record retention to accessibility highlights the need for more than just simple editing and posting tools.
And as the number of e-government initiatives involving online transactions and interactive content grows, the old approaches to managing Web content just don’t cut it. Web content management is increasingly tied to the core business processes of agencies at all levels.
Today’s Web content management systems are built to deal with new challenges and are increasingly tied to larger enterprise content management strategies.
Many allow users to contribute content directly from office applications, without having to use HTML.
And most provide ways to enforce standards for content, including accessibility, as well as approval processes that correspond to different types of content.
The evolution
While previous generations of Web tools often relied on a mish-mash of application program interfaces and scripting languages, today’s Web content management systems are moving to open standards (and in some cases, even open-source software). They’re using established technologies such as WebDAV (a Web file-sharing protocol), and Web services based on Java and Microsoft .NET. The adherence to standards like Java Enterprise Edition means WCM tools can be more easily integrated with high-end Web portals and other enterprise applications.
New choices
These changes have created new choices for agencies in need of a better system. As established players such as Vignette Corp. have moved their products’ architecture to open standards, they’ve forced customers to either move with them or move to new technology.
Many organizations have opted to build their own systems or adapt open-source solutions rather than pay for a new system.
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