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Subject:RE: Experiences with Content Management Systems From:"Steven Faulkner" <svfaulkner -at- comcast -dot- net> To:"'Kwiatkowski Richard \(ST-VS/DOC-La\)'" <Richard -dot- Kwiatkowski -at- us -dot- bosch -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Sun, 12 Nov 2006 19:18:36 -0800
Hi Richard,
I'm diving into the Content Management arena (once again) as well so
we have probably visited many of the same sites over the past few weeks. I
have a lot of experience dealing with Information Security and IP
Protection, but the systems we used weren't available commercially. I was
merely a high-volume "super user" of said systems, I had no understanding of
the underlying technical happenings... I just took the security guru's at
their word that things worked properly.
Towards the end of my (decade-long) stint at this company, I *was* involved
with evaluating several enterprise-level products and I learned a lot in the
process.
The first question that comes to mind is HOW are you defining "Content
Management"? If you are just looking for a product that will address
versioning and change-control, there are quite a few open-source solutions
available that are highly supported and really top-tier as far as
functionality and stability.
On the other hand, if you're looking for a product that will address user-
and group-level permissions, incorporates IP/security policy on AND off your
network (persistent security), provides ability to define authorization
and/or authentication workflows, is fully auditable and "compliant"...
well, there are definitely many products to choose from and you're looking
at spending quite a few dollars. QUITE a few. (This is essentially DRM).
Sure it's super-cool and interesting, but I don't envy *any*one put into a
position even remotely responsible for deploying something like this -
especially with a global team like yours.
The one thing I learned from having one foot in the security world over the
years is that the hardest aspect of working in info-security is that the
only time you're ever in the spot-light is when there is a crisis or IP
leak.
So anyway - (trying to arc my tangent back on track) - I've used or seen
some pretty extensive demos of the @Work products, Liquid Machines, Pinion
Desktop, Adobe's policy server, and a few others. I have the most
first-hand experience with the Adobe product, and was most impressed (and
wanted!) the Liquid Machines solution.
I'll let you know if I come across anything extraordinary - I have about 5-6
packages to "try out" over the next two weeks...
Good Luck!
-----Original Message-----
From: Kwiatkowski Richard (ST-VS/DOC-La)
[mailto:Richard -dot- Kwiatkowski -at- us -dot- bosch -dot- com]
Sent: Friday, November 10, 2006 10:20 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Experiences with Content Management Systems
Greetings,
I hope this topic is not too heavy for a nice Friday afternoon (at least
here). I have been researching content management systems for my department
and, frankly, I am confused. It seems that all of the white papers I read
and all of the Web sites that I search never get to the nitty-gritty. I
welcome any experiences, good or bad, you can share with me about using a
content management system. By way of background, we use Structured
FrameMaker 7.2, I have writers based in the United States, Germany and the
Netherlands, and we produce user manuals, technical installation manuals,
single-sheet installation guides.
Thanks for any help and have an enjoyable weekend.
With kind regards | mit freundlichen Grüßen | Met vriendelijke groeten
Richard Kwiatkowski
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Richard Kwiatkowski
Bosch Security Systems, Inc.
Senior Technical Writer (ST-VS/DOC-La3) 850 Greenfield Road - Lancaster PA
17601 - USA
Telephone: +1 (717) 735-6538 Fax: +1 (866) 429-5380
Mobile: +1 (862) 377-9136
richard -dot- kwiatkowski -at- us -dot- bosch -dot- com <mailto:richard -dot- kwiatkowski -at- us -dot- bosch -dot- com>
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