The Past, Present, and Future of the CMS World
The internet is one of the biggest hosts of information in today’s world of technology. Websites like Amazon.com and Facebook.com have specific ways in which they categorize and maintain user information. A web system that organizes and facilitates content created by users is called a content management system (“Web Content”, 2008). Over the past 20 years, content management systems have changed the way online businesses and platforms maintain content for their users.
When the internet began to develop into a sustainable market in the mid 90’s, online businesses needed certain softwares to manage how they processed their orders, products, and customers (Sommerville, 2000). These softwares became an important part of the businesses’ functionality. When the market and customer demographic evolved, the softwares had to evolve as well through minor yet frequent changes (Sommerville, 2000). These specific softwares, or legacy systems, are the predecessors to the content management systems we see online and are an important part of the global CMS conversation.
Legacy systems are partially named after their age. Most businesses do not replace their initial legacy systems with newly developed ones because of its potential risk to hurt the business. A system that has already been tailored and made to fit the business’ needs and goals is foundational and could damage the growth of the business if replaced (Sommerville, 2000).
One example of a legacy system still seen in the world today is NASA’s software for their defunct shuttle missions (Rossi, 2011). Although their legacy system is almost 30 years old, it is still reliable and can process as much information as a modern day system. Over the years, NASA has updated and revised certain parts of their legacy system but the foundation still remains the same. If they were to change it into a more current system, the software would have to go through the certification process, which is incredibly expensive and can take months to complete (Rossi, 2011).
In today’s world of technology, content management systems are used for almost every online platform available- shopping, social media, blogs, video, photo galleries, etc. These platforms would not function the way that they do now without content management systems and their predecessor, legacy systems. Content management systems evolved from legacy systems in the early 2000’s when technology began to expand into a more mobile environment (Kelsey, 2015). As technology evolved, so did the internet and the websites that needed them. Certain websites, especially blogs and social media platforms, began to focus on allowing more user-oriented features and options on the front end rather than the back end of the system (Kelsey, 2015). This allows the user to have more control over what and how they want to manage their content. Unlike legacy systems, content management systems are more fluid and can be as tight or loose as they can when it comes to the front and back ends.
Content management systems are particularly helpful for those in the graphic design industry. Many artists utilize the internet to showcase their work and communicate with others around the globe. It is important for them to have a sense of customization and freedom when it comes to showcasing their work online. Some will often choose a website based on how its content management system works. One example of an open content management system is Behance, a design-sharing social media platform run by Adobe. Artists can upload their work into a folder; customize how the folder is presented; change the title, description and tags; and upload it for other artists to see. The CMS for Behance is user-friendly and gives the artist as much freedom with their content as possible.
There is no doubt that content management systems will evolve with technology in the next 5, 10, or 20 years. As more and more user-generated content is posted online each day, the internet expands, giving more information to more people around the world. In the next several years, I believe that content management systems will grow into more open yet solid systems that tailor to the user’s needs, whether that be through profile customization, automatic posting, or even personalized html coding. There could even be several universal CMS’ for any website to use, similar to how Wordpress.com or Drupal.com utilize their systems. It’s only a matter of time until content management systems revolutionize the relationship between users and their content.
References
Kelsey, M. (2015). The future of the CMS. Retrieved from http://blog.invisionapp.com/the-future-of-the-cms/
Rossi, B. (2011). The shuttle: NASA’s it legacy. Retrieved from http://www.information-age.com/the-shuttle-nasas-it-legacy-1641693/
Sommerville, I. (2000). Legacy systems. Retrieved from https://ifs.host.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Resources/Notes/Evolution/LegacySys.pdf
Web content management systems. (2008). The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Retrieved from http://www.infosec.gov.hk/english/technical/files/web.pdf
