Feeding the Web: Blogs as Makeshift Content Management Systems

Troy Swanson, swanson@morainevalley.edu

Library 2.0, May 2, 2007

The Meaning of Life: Managing Content

Dewey, LC, ISBNDNAHTML & WWWMy AccountantDictionaries

Tim O’ReillyWeb 2.0 is about Control of Data

“That goes back to a major theme of web 2.0 that people haven't yet tweaked to. It's really about data and who owns and controls, or gives the best access to, a class of data.”

Tweney (2007), Wired, 4/13/2007

So, how well do you manage your Web content?How easily does content flow to your Web site?

Content Management Systems

“Such systems separate the construction and displays of Web pages from their content. CMSs allow for controlling the look and feel of Web pages centrally while distributing responsibility for the content.”

Powel & Gill (2003) Educause Quarterly #2

CMS Parts

Streamline & Automate Content Admin.Implement Web-forms-based content admin.Distribute Content Management and ControlSeparate Content from Layout and DesignCreate Reusable Content Repositories

Powel & Gill (2003)

Managing Content

Librarian’s

Brain

Content

Content

Content

Content

BLO

GS

Homepage

MV Library Aggregator

Web Searches

Staff Forum

Blackboard

Personal Aggregators

The Moraine Valley Library’s Blogs(bringing blogs to campus)

MLS hosts our blogsSix Different Blogs Library News Information Resources Construction News (infrequent

updates) Staff Forum Blog Development Blog Frankenstein News (not updating)

Purposes

Marketing & PromotionKnowledge Base for research questions, news, organizational historyWeb posting available for nontechnical staffSearchable research tool for students (“topic shopping”)Internal/external communications (staff & news blogs)-- but be careful with names, id’s, opinions, etc.

Research & Search Tips Blog Headlines

News Blog Headlines

Frankenstein Blog Headlines

RSS

“Really Simple Syndication”

RSS Resources “Publish and Syndicate Your News to the Web,” a workshop/tutorial

from “RSS in Government”: http://rssgov.com/rssworkshop.html Fagan Finder’s “All About RSS”

http://www.faganfinder.com/search/rss.shtml#dis It Really Is Really Simple: RSS for Educators

http://www.infinitethinking.org/2007/04/it-really-is-really-simple-rss-for.html

Displaying RSS in a web page

Computer code reformats (parses) content for displayYou can do the coding or you can use a remote parsing “service”Resources

A List of RSS parsing programs and services from “RSS in Government” of the Utah State Library Division is available at: http://rssgov.com/rssparsers.html

We used an older iteration of Feed2JS (http://jade.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/feed/) from Alan Levine of Maricopa County Community Colleges.

Search terms: “parsing rss feeds” etc.

Aggregator Page: http://www.morainevalley.edu/LRC/blogs.htm

On-Campus Politics…

Our Goal: Decentralize creation of Web content Organize Content...to some degreeAdministration’s (Justifiable Fear): Publication without oversightNeed for standards, clear purpose of each blog, clarification of responsibilities Clarification of relationship between MLS & MVCC (who owns content)

On-campus PoliticsClearly, document Definition of terms Mission statement How related to MVCC Core Values Statements of purpose for each blog Guidelines for posters List of posters with their posting privileges SLS agreement

Final Approval—to our surprise(They didn’t get it...still don’t.)

Advantages of Blogs as CMS

Fairly Easy to Set UpAllows Manipulation of Content Across PlatformsFairly Easy for non-techie people to use

Disadvantages of Blogs as CMS

Not a “true” CMS system Not full manipulation of content (can’t

turn content on or off, place by date, etc)

Limited to placing content via RSS

Use of categories sometimes awkward

Obstacles & Challenges

Building staff commitment takes timeOnce in place, difficult to changeOur use does not build community in ways that other blogs might (They do what they do, and that’s what they do.)