If the content on your website needs to be altered frequently, then you would perhaps need access and control of your site rather than request updates through your web developer. This is when a CMS comes into the picture.

So when you have decided that you need a CMS, the following suggestions can help you choose the most appropriate one for your projects.

Budget: The first step is to determine the amount you can spend on a CMS. While determining your budget, don’t forget about the implementation and support costs.

Review the volume of content and consider scalability: Determine the volume of content you have today, and will have tomorrow. Your system should be able to support your maximum projected users at least for the next five years. Once you have evaluated your needs, match the volume with real life case studies to know what your intended Content Management System can handle.

Format Flexibility: Evaluate the format flexibility of your CMS. If you will be publishing in several formats (social, web, mobile, video, audio, XML, etc.) then ensure that the content can be re-formatted easily.

Printing Flexibility: Websites and web technology flourish on change. So make sure that your web content or site design is twisted or totally changed at least every 12 months. Go for a CMS that does not limit your ability to make changes.

Some of the recommended content management systems are:

Wordpress: This CMS system is best for websites that have four or five static pages, like “About us”, “Contact us”, etc. and pages that change frequently, like the blogs.

ExpressionEngine: This CMS system allows for more dynamic content, and also allows easy multiple changes at once.

Drupal: When a website grows, it becomes difficult to manage information. Drupal CMS is specifically designed for large sites that feature several pages of individualized content.

Make an informed decision about the right content management system and see your business soar to new heights.

This is a promising New Year, and we have it for real. There are going to be many new surprises that will follow, The Bloom Box is just the beginning. Our long awaited revolutionary energy breakthrough is finally here. A little power plant in a small box giving you inexpensive and clean energy with no emissions at all, and this is no more a pipe dream. With the help of this box, we will be able to generate our own electricity, and, which will be wireless. This is like having your own ‘Sun,’ our source of energy in the backyard.

The big power plants and transmission line grids, can now be replaced, and expected to be a thing from the past. We sure are good enough to make this world a better place to live in, just give us a little freedom and lots of time.

Bloom-Bloom energy – Bloom time

Dr. K. R. Sridhar is the CEO, and principal co-founder of Bloom Energy, KPCB’s first green-tech investment; a company engaged in the making of these tiny fuel cells called “Bloom Boxes”, that are able to create massive amounts of power. These flexible fuel cell systems produce clean, reliable and affordable energy using a wide range of fuels. This enables the consumers to be able to generate our own cheaper electricity. This will also help us cut carbon emissions by 50-100% per kW, depending upon the fuel consumed.

Fortune magazine has cited Dr. Sridhar as “one of the top five futurists that are inventing tomorrow today.”  Dr. Sridhar had earlier led a team developing technologies for sustaining life on Mars for NASA, and also worked as a professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, as well as Director of the renowned Space Technologies Laboratory (STL) at the University of Arizona, before founding his brainchild ‘Bloom Energy.’

Green-tech solution – a milestone

He is also a sought after speaker and adviser on energy and environmental issues. We are closing on to realizing his dreams, like he says “we can solve our current energy problems through a combination of technology, innovation and conservation.” May his words, as they are, come true.

“Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.” This is the Wikimedia commitment.

Wikimedia, owned and operated by the Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit foundation devoted and dedicated to bring free content to the world through the internet. The stated goals of the Wikimedia Foundation is to develop and maintain open content on Wiki based Projects, and to provide these to the general public free of any charges. This acquired name “Wikimedia” was first coined by the American author Sheldon Rampton in a post to the English mailing list in March, 2003.

The Wikimedia Foundation relies heavily on the generous support offered by the users themselves. The Foundation is incorporated as a 501©(3) non-profit organization in the United States, where donations from US citizens are tax deductible. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. is presently headquartered at San Francisco, USA.

Following is the list of Content Projects relating to Wikimedia –

• Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia with multilingual content
• Wiktionary – A Wiki-based Open Content dictionary
• Wikiquote – A Free Online Compendium of Sourced Quotations
• Wikibooks – A Free Library of Educational Text Books
• Wikisource – The Free Online Library of Free Content Publication
• Wikinews – The Free News Source Where You Can Write articles
• Wikiversity – Open Learning Community
• Wikispecies – Free Species Directory
• Wikimedia – Incubator
• Wikimedia – Commons
• Wikimedia – Meta Wiki
• MediaWiki – Free Software Wiki Packages

Helping to contribute and collaborate makes it simple and easy. The idea behind the basic Wiki concept is just this. It is willing to provide us with an online platform where we can pool in our resources and build something which all of us in the future can make use of. Wiki will only check the genuineness and authenticity of the subject and help preserve and maintain the database. Terrific idea, and terrific work combined with some non-profiting motives are spelling out some online wonders, which shall be very difficult to duplicate. The entire global community using and building Wiki’s resources sincerely hope that Wiki, some day will come out of the red and make some money without compromising.

Globalizing Collective Online Resources

The best part of Wiki products and packages is that they come in many languages, so that a truly global community can benefit using Wiki’s services. Then, the content is always open to editing, which again makes the material more substantial and truly updated. It is no wonder that most Wiki’s sites are in the best lists and highly rank on all search engines. Wiki products, as time goes by are turning to be the most popular and most frequented websites.

• A corporate communications director making sure that the widest possible coverage of her latest press release through an RSS feed and ensuring dissemination via a news aggregator.
• The internal communications manager sending out daily reports, both internal data and externally sourced information, to all his company employees all around the world in the chosen RSS option. He is assured that no one is inadvertently left off the circulation list.
• A consultant needing to keep his customer regularly updated on a particular project. He creates a weblog and makes this available to his customer through a RSS feed; Rest assured.
• A competitive information professional using the RSS reader to gather regular information from direct competitors web sites, industry blogs, independent analysts, and the news media.
• A company who just released a new service and is expecting direct and regular feedback from chartered customers who agree to keep weblogs of their experiences with these services; and the company regularly receiving updates using RSS.
• A sales executive wanting to send regular messages to a valued customer concerning special promotions; they agree that the RSS feed is the surest, and the best answer.
• A Vice-President of marketing is organizing his company’s annual conference which includes customers, suppliers and staff. As the agenda and logistics keep changing, he uses the RSS to keep everyone updated. The updated document can be posted on the corporate intranet, and the changes can be highlighted using RSS.
• Corporate bloggers like the CEO wanting to communicate directly with staff or customers – need an audience. RSS is that quick trick for reaching out and getting a response.
• Project teams could be working on different continents, where RSS is an effective and secure way of sharing data and highlighting issues.
• When Company Documentation, including procedure manuals, employee handbooks, health and safety regulations, or price-lists need to be kept up-to-date, since they regularly change and the concerned staff needs to be notified; the updated documents could be posted on the intranet, and RSS used for highlighting changes.

Why should corporations promote the adoption of RSS technology?

There are a myriad of other uses where RSS can be put for use within a corporate environment. Broadly, RSS is best at delivering ‘FYI’ information, while e-mail is good for active – two way communication.

However, few companies have taken a policy decision to comprehensively deploy RSS within their organizations. RSS readers currently in use in companies are on account of personal initiatives alone.

Drivers for further uptake

The debate so far has only focused on the benefits of RSS versus E-mail. Increasing junk mail has given rise to even more draconian anti-spam measures. This is making it hard for the corporate managers to decide – a flood of unwanted e-mails each day, or risking with anti-spam software capable of blocking a vital message.

RSS is looking like an increasingly attractive and secure option for sending or receiving a regular report, message or an electronic newsletter within the corporate firewall, where the end user can control the flow in terms of what is received, the frequency and whether it alerts the users to the arrival of a message.

The “pull” aspect of RSS technology is appealing, and fundamentally differentiates from the “push” aspect of e-mail.

Just Imagine This Scenario

• A corporate communications director making sure that the widest possible coverage of her latest press release through an RSS feed and ensuring dissemination via a news aggregator.
• The internal communications manager sending out daily reports, both internal data and externally sourced information, to all his company employees all around the world in the chosen RSS option. He is assured that no one is inadvertently left off the circulation list.
• A consultant needing to keep his customer regularly updated on a particular project. He creates a weblog and makes this available to his customer through a RSS feed; Rest assured.
• A competitive information professional using the RSS reader to gather regular information from direct competitors web sites, industry blogs, independent analysts, and the news media.
• A company who just released a new service and is expecting direct and regular feedback from chartered customers who agree to keep weblogs of their experiences with these services; and the company regularly receiving updates using RSS.
• A sales executive wanting to send regular messages to a valued customer concerning special promotions; they agree that the RSS feed is the surest, and the best answer.
• A Vice-President of marketing is organizing his company’s annual conference which includes customers, suppliers and staff. As the agenda and logistics keep changing, he uses the RSS to keep everyone updated. The updated document can be posted on the corporate intranet, and the changes can be highlighted using RSS.
• Corporate bloggers like the CEO wanting to communicate directly with staff or customers – need an audience. RSS is that quick trick for reaching out and getting a response.
• Project teams could be working on different continents, where RSS is an effective and secure way of sharing data and highlighting issues.
• When Company Documentation, including procedure manuals, employee handbooks, health and safety regulations, or price-lists need to be kept up-to-date, since they regularly change and the concerned staff needs to be notified; the updated documents could be posted on the intranet, and RSS used for highlighting changes.

Why should corporations promote the adoption of RSS technology?

There are a myriad of other uses where RSS can be put for use within a corporate environment. Broadly, RSS is best at delivering ‘FYI’ information, while e-mail is good for active – two way communication.

However, few companies have taken a policy decision to comprehensively deploy RSS within their organizations. RSS readers currently in use in companies are on account of personal initiatives alone.

Drivers for further uptake

The debate so far has only focused on the benefits of RSS versus E-mail. Increasing junk mail has given rise to even more draconian anti-spam measures. This is making it hard for the corporate managers to decide – a flood of unwanted e-mails each day, or risking with anti-spam software capable of blocking a vital message.

RSS is looking like an increasingly attractive and secure option for sending or receiving a regular report, message or an electronic newsletter within the corporate firewall, where the end user can control the flow in terms of what is received, the frequency and whether it alerts the users to the arrival of a message.

The “pull” aspect of RSS technology is appealing, and fundamentally differentiates from the “push” aspect of e-mail.

While writing a good blog post or article, almost everyone mentions to put the reader first. But what exactly does that mean? Does it mean that we always try to please our readers and write about things that only cater to their whims and fancies or does it mean actually writing something that benefits them? Mostly, I have seen people focusing on the former. But it should be the latter.

Whenever you are writing, irrespective of the audience, think about why the reader should read what you are writing. Are you merely trying to please your visitors so that they visit your blog or website again and again or do you really intend to communicate your actual feelings? We at Word Chillies have seen many instances when either people read the content and went away or they read and provided feedback. Its a myth promoted on the web that people like to read content that pleases them. No, this is not necessarily true. Instead, write such content so as to really share something genuine with your readers. Be natural while writing. Provide some interesting facts and figures, give them a unique example, share a light pun with your readers. Comment on other blogs providing valuable feedback. Thats how your readers will stick to your content and will visit your website or blog again and again.

Another good advice I would like to give on developing useful content is to research your readership. Survey your readers, ask their feedback. We at Word Chillies often ask our readers for feedback as it helps us in realizing how important and helpful our content is. If you do not have a blog or website, you can survey your potential readers by looking at other blogs on a particular topic. Forums and Discussion groups are another resource which can provide nearly accurate results because multi way communication is going on in these places. You get to know many people and their views. And over a period of time you begin to realize what people want and what you need to do to suffice their needs.

So go out there and be open. Write because you want to share your experience with the world. You have the voice. Soon someone will hear it and join hands with you and you will have a community fostering healthy discussion, that will attract more towards you.