Well, the holiday rush is all through and we are settled into the new year. I always love to take this time of year to plan ahead and look at my goals for the year to come. I also find a lot of interest in seeing what other people have for aspirations, it can help serve as an inspiration for myself. As you think about your goals for your business in the year to come, you should also see where your website and content management system is going in the new year. Take a little time and research your CMS, whether it is proprietary or open source, to see what new developments are in store this year… if any.
Check to Make Sure Your CMS is Actively Improving
Your CMS is the driving force behind your website, so don’t you want to know that it is actively being worked on? A CMS should have a development team that is keeping an eye out for security updates, fixing all bugs, and looking for ways to improve and upgrade the system. If you have a proprietary CMS, check in with the company and ask what progress they plan on making in the new year. If your CMS is open source, visit the online community and see when the latest version is coming out, along with the buzz about any new functionality.
While researching, do you find that you hear a lot of news about new updates and plans? Then get excited and interested about a new feature that you can add this year! Little to no action? This could be a sign that your CMS is getting phased out or not going anywhere, in which case it may be time to start looking for a better one that will grow with new technologies.
Open Source CMS Plans for 2011
I don’t know about you, but I like to keep an ear out for any CMS news and updates throughout the year! Here are some tidbits about the 2011 plans for the most popular open source CMSs:
Drupal – The developers at Drupal started 2011 with a bang by releasing the newest version, Drupal 7. New features include a revamped administration area, custom content fields, and other improvements for developers. From what I have seen of the new administrative section, it is a lot easier to move around and manage. The Drupal community is also growing with more testers and developers!
Joomla! – Joomla! has also just come out with a new upgrade from version 1.5 to 1.6. I am excited about this upgrade because it finally includes the ability for advanced multi-level categories, where before you were limited to just sections and categories. Other improvements all add to a faster, more powerful system. Joomla! also has a large community that is always helping with development.
WordPress – Last summer WordPress released the latest version, 3.0. Since then, they have been taking time to improve the community, and are working on the newest version, 3.1. They have asked for suggestions for 2011 and will making more future development plans this month.
No matter what CMS you use, remember that technology is changing super fast these days, and a CMS that does not grow with the times may work now, but will have problems in the future. So keep track of what your CMS developers are up to and make sure your CMS is growing and improving!
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