ASIS&T event: Introduction to Content Management Systems (CMS)

The Carolinas Chapter of the American Society for Information Science and Technology is hosting this workshop on content management systems…

Event details

There are roughly a gazillion open-source CMS products using a variety of means (PHP, Ruby on Rails, Java, blogging software, etc.) to manage documents, graphics, text, and other digital creations. They can also be used to manage web content, and hold the promise that all you need to do is create the content and leave the HTML markup and publishing to the CMS.

But just what exactly is a CMS? What does it look like? How does it work? Many CMS products are free or open-source–but does that mean they’re cheap in terms of the time you spend setting them up?

This event is intended for beginners or those new to the CMS idea. It’s especially for anyone who’s been asked to use a CMS to revamp their organization’s web site, but doesn’t know where to start or where to go for more information.

There will be no hands-on activities at this event, but there will be plenty of opportunity to see a few choice CMS products in action and to ask lots of questions.

When

Saturday, April 18

9 a.m.-1 p.m. (approx)

Where

Manning Hall, UNC-CH campus

Directions

Registration Fees

Students (with ID or student email address): $15

Members of STC or ASIS&T: $25

General: $35

You can pay via credit card at the cc:ASIS&T site.

Register now: https://www.asis.org/Chapters/carolinas/ccregform_041809.html

Sponsors

• Carolinas Chapter of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (cc:ASIS&T)
• STC Carolina
• NC State Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication

Program

9:00-9:30 “What Is A CMS? Do I Need One?”

9:40-10:10 Break-Out Groups (one presenter for each room, one CMS for each room)

10:20-10:50 Break-Out Groups

11:00-11:30 Break-Out Groups

11:30-Noon Lunch and chat

Noon-1p.m.  Continue eating during informal Q&A with all three presenters

Presenters

Jeff VanDrimmelen: “What is a CMS? Do I Need One?”

Dan Frey: WordPress

Julia Kulla-Mader: Drupal

Jonathan Pletzke: Joomla

Q&A session will be with all four presenters listed above.

Workshop recap: “Reboot Your Work” by Matthew Cornell

Overview

Matthew Cornell (see his site, http://www.matthewcornell.org/, for lots of ideas and tips on personal productivity) presented “Reboot Your Work: Modern Methods for Productivity, Sanity, and Control” on Monday, January 12th.

This was the first full-day workshop in TriUPA’s 2009 professional training series.  Nearly 30 TriUPAians from around the Triangle attended.  Special thanks to TriUPA’s generous sponsors, who made this workshop (and all of TriUPA’s events!) possible:

• GSK
• BlueCross BlueShield
• Insight
• Lenovo
• Hesketh.com
• Capstrat
• User-View
• SAS
• MoreBetterLabs

You can help support our workshops, virtual seminars, World Usability Day celebration, and other events: join TriUPA today!

Key take-aways

Here are some of the key points that I took away from the workshop.  Please add your own comments, notes, and questions!

Matt emphasized the importance of systematically processing all new inputs (whether email, voicemail, paper, a conversation, etc.) using a consistent workflow [see Matt’s flowchart].  Regular, thorough processing prevents inputs from piling up, which can cause anxiety and stress.  Ideally, it’s best to set up minimum number of collection points, then train yourself and others (colleagues, family, etc.) to use them consistently.

Calendars are often overloaded with many types of information.  Matt argued it’s better to keep calendars as clean as possible, containing only appointments/meetings, as well as reminders of upcoming deadlines, and date-specific actions (such as, “Pick up a cake for Fred’s birthday party sometime on Friday”).  By keeping our calendars clean and current, we can work with confidence: checking our calendars for “must do today” meetings and actions, then reviewing and working from a defined list of actions.

Strong parallels between personal productivity and user-centered design emerged during the workshop. We can treat the challenge of personal productivity as a design problem at the personal level.  Consider thinking of yourself as the end user, and imagine how to design a workflow system to support your needs, tasks, and information flows.  Matt provided a set of heuristics and guidelines that can inform this personal design process.  A related problem is that we’ve never been taught how to manage ourselves, so need training in “Workflow 101.”  By combining better design of our personal systems with education and training, we can achieve huge gains in effectiveness, efficiency, and reduced stress. (And as we learned in the workshop, the CDC estimates that 80% of health problems in the US are stress-related!)

Matt recommends people consider planning each day the night before, so as to have a structure in place before diving into a work environment that’s often filled with distractions and interruptions.  Since multitasking and constant interruptions dramatically reduce our ability to concentrate and do complex intellectual work, it’s essential to build defenses that can protect our focus and attention.

Overall, the workshop helped me “reboot my work” by reflecting on how I manage my inputs, calendar, projects, actions, and review processes.  I know from experience that personal systems become stale over time, and it’s critical to regularly re-assess and improve them.  Thanks to Matt for helping me, and others, begin that crucial work.

Resources mentioned:

• Matt’s recommended resources [PDF]
• “Getting Things Done” book
  
• “The Four-Hour Workweek” book
• Jott
• Remember the Milk
• ruzuku

Upcoming workshop: Design Research!

Todd Wilkens (design researcher at Adaptive Path) will visit TriUPA on February 20th!  Register for his workshop now at: http://triupa.org/DesignResearch

Tools of the Trade Presentations

At our final event of 2007, Janey Barnes and I (Jackson Fox) presented on “Tools of the Trade:”

• TechSmith’s Morae
• TechSmith’s UserVue
• Bolt|Peter’s Ethnio

Our presentations are now available online:

Morae

UserVue & Ethnio

Refresh the Triangle

Refresh the Triangle …

is a community of designers and developers working to refresh the creative, technical, and professional culture of New Media endeavors in their areas. Promoting design, technology, usability, and standards.

World Usability Day 2007

• Where: Ruvane Auditorium @ GSK
• When: November 8, 2007 — 6:00PM to 9:00PM
• RSVP for World Usability Day!

Join UX professionals from around the Triangle area for an Interactionary (a live design competition), keynote speech, food, drink, and fun!

Keynote Speaker:

Anthony D. Hall, Ph.D.
IBM Global Web Strategy and Enablement

Interactionary

Simply put, the Interactionary is a live team-based design competition. Teams are given a design problem and 10-20 minutes to design a solution to the problem. Teams then present their design to the audience, and the judges.

Click here to join the competition