RE: (ISF) Re: Content management systems

I am the knowledge manager at Freedom from Hunger, an internationally
focused non-profit outside of Sacramento.

We use plone to power our organizational portal
(http://www.ffhtechnical.org <http://www.ffhtechnical.org/&gt; ) We have
been using it for a year and have a number of issues that I am trying to
sort out

1. the file structure is limiting the ability to cross-reference
archived documents
2. the interface is difficult for users
3. the wiki tools use wiki mark-up language which is hard to teach
users

The list goes on...

I am not sure if my plone problems are inherently plone or just our
implementation of it. I am in need of additional contact management,
project management and more refined document management functions that I
also do not believe that Plone will support. As a result I have started
looking to the myriad of other options including e-project and a number
of the big ECM solutions. I am wondering if there is anyone here who has
a lot of experience in the various options that are out there or if
there are education opportunities for me to demo a number of the options
to better redesign or organizational portal

Sara Naab

Knowledge Manager

Freedom from Hunger

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Microsoft Office SharePoint Services (MOSS) 2007. Set up a server and get real document management and document libraries, very good indexing and search capabilities, easy wiki-ing, and excellent collaboration tools. Yeah I know, you may not know the difference between a computer server and the server who waits your table at your favorite restaurant. But sometimes "free" isn't free, and "cheap" isn't cheap. If maintaining a network server is beyond your range, there are folks on the Internet who will host a SharePoint site for relatively cheaps.

Open source and free are nice when they meet an organization's functional requirements, but sometimes proprietary and not-free give a much better return on investment.

-----original message-----
>&gt;I am the knowledge manager at Freedom from Hunger, an internationally focused non-profit outside of Sacramento. We use plone to power our organizational portal (http://www.ffhtechnical.org <http://www.ffhtechnical.org>; <http://www.ffhtechnical.org/ <http://www.ffhtechnical.org/&gt; > ) We have been using it for a year and have a number of issues that I am trying to sort out... 1. the file structure is limiting the ability to cross-reference archived documents 2. the interface is difficult for users 3. the wiki tools use wiki mark-up language which is hard to teach users...The list goes on...I am not sure if my plone problems are inherently plone or just our implementation of it. I am in need of additional contact management, project management and more refined document management functions that I also do not believe that Plone will support. As a result I have started looking to the myriad of other options including e-project and a number of the big ECM solutions. I am wondering if there is anyone here who has a lot of experience in the various options that are out there or if there are education opportunities for me to demo a number of the options to better redesign or organizational portal>>

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Sara,

I should start by saying that NPower Seattle implements Plone websites for nonprofits - so I'm obviously a fan. That said - I'm also aware that Plone isn't the right tool for everyone, and that implementation, training and documentation more often than not are the culprit, not the tool.

All of that said - I have a few thoughts (some depending on which version of Plone you have):

1. You can use the "related content&quot; feature to cross reference documents. You can also create as many internal links as you'd like within the body of your content.

2. The difficult interface may be due to lack of documentation or training. I can't offer much help in that regard, since NPower Seattle only provides services in the greater Seattle area. But you might contact your vendor and ask for documentation, or visit www.plone.org or www.learnplone.org for additional help.

3. We haven't implemented a wiki within Plone. But there is some good documentation on the Plone website about the Plone add in tool, Zwiki, if that is what you are using: http://plone.org/products/zwiki. I'm curious, too, to know more from you (and others) about how you see a wiki as being different than a website that is easy to edit.

In terms of our note about contact, project and document management - you are asking your website to do a lot. Plone is a terrific CMS, and while it has add in products for all of the items you mention - you may have better luck using rock solid project management, contact and document management tools and integrating them (as needed) with your website. For instance - we're having strong success integrating Salesforce data with Plone websites - so our customer get the best of both worlds - a CMS and a great tool for managing contacts.

Warm regards,

Patrick Shaw
Manager, Web and Database Services
NPower Seattle
403 23rd Ave S.
Seattle WA 98144
p. 206.286.8880
f. 206.286.8881
http://www.npowerseattle.org


-----original message-----
>&gt;I am the knowledge manager at Freedom from Hunger, an internationally
focused non-profit outside of Sacramento. We use plone to power our organizational portal (http://www.ffhtechnical.org <http://www.ffhtechnical.org/&gt; ) We have been using it for a year and have a number of issues that I am trying to sort out...>>

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Drupal content management system might meet your needs quite well. A very powerful classification system, a user interface for users built around doing and editing, wiki-like functionality that can use the same syntax as other documents rather than wiki markup.

It is open source free software, with lots of companies (disclosure: including the collective I'm part of) to install, support, and even make custom functionality (as modules that build on core and existing contributed modules).

ben

Agaric Design Collective
Open Source Web Development and DJing
http://AgaricDesign.com/

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