The Ohio State University

CMS Selected

The Web Implementation Team has selected SilverStripe as the Libraries’ content management system (CMS). The selection comes as a result of extensive research and testing, as well as input from a number of Libraries’ faculty and staff.

In August 2007, the Web Visioning Committee began gathering information from Libraries’ faculty and staff on how they use web pages to communicate with their constituents. These interviews were held from October 2007 – January 2008. The results were compiled into a CMS requirements document. The requirements document was used to identify likely CMS candidates through the use of various research techniques including a comparison tool called cmsmatrix.org. Five CMSs were selected as candidates for evaluation:

• Drupal
• MODx
• Plone
• Silverstripe
• TYPO3

Plone and TYPO3 were disqualified due to the difficulty of setting up these two systems. This left three CMSs for evaluation—Drupal, MODx and Silverstripe. In order to evaluate the three systems, 14 individuals representing all divisions of OSUL were brought into the process. The evaluation period lasted from May 21-August 29.

SilverStripe provides the flexibility to meet the needs outlined in the Content Management System user requirements document and for long term maintainability. Ultimately, SilverStripe will provide for multi-lingual pages, easier integration of existing OSUL websites, easier management of media files, search engine optimized (SEO) friendly URLs, and web standards compliance. Also SilverStripe is modular, so web applications and customizations can be easily implemented without modifying the core system.

3 comments October 1st, 2008

Update on CMS Evaluation

The Content Management System evaluation is winding up nicely with a CMS selection announcement at the beginning of September with further details on the content migration timeline.  A big thank you goes out to those folks that participated in the CMS evaluation during the last few months.  The CMS evaluators have provided invaluable feedback that will help determine the best CMS for OSUL. 

Add comment August 20th, 2008

CMS Evaluation Kickoff

The Content Management System evaluation officially started on May 21^st with a kickoff meeting with the CMS evaluators. The CMS evaluators have been tasked with providing feedback about each CMS using a rating system for various categories.

The web content migration process will start in October 2008 and conclude in mid 2009. Starting in October, members of the CMS implementation team will assist individuals responsible for web content with moving their content to the chosen CMS. Part of the migration process will consist of CMS training that will also be provided on an ongoing basis in partnership with the Training Advisory council.

CMS evaluation\implementation tentative schedule:

Add comment May 29th, 2008

CMS Evaluation

The Web Implementation Team is finishing up the configuration of five Content Management Systems. We will be evaluating Drupal, MODx, Plone, Silverstripe, and TYPO3 from mid-May until end of August, 2008. Each CMS will be evaluated by the individuals listed below to provide feedback. This is one of the factors, along with those listed in the CMS User Requirements document, that will be used to determine which CMS will best meet the needs of the OSU Libraries.

Add comment April 30th, 2008

CMS Implementation

The user requirements document was completed in February. This document summarizes the various staff/faculty interviews conducted by several members of the Web Visioning Committee. The user requirements will be utilized to build the functional/technical documents needed to select the CMS system that best meets the needs outlined by the users. Various members of the Web Visioning Committee will be communicating more about this project in different meetings during the spring.

CMS User Requirements

Add comment March 28th, 2008