Yep, you read it well. Strictly speaking traditional Content Management Systems are at a dead end. Approximately 20 years ago we started building websites with systems like HotMetalPro, Frontpage and Dreamweaver. Then the first content management systems arrived. For example TYPO3 was launched in 1998, Drupal in 2001 and WordPress in 2003. And off course also the closed source variants.
At first the main goal of all these content management systems where nothing like managing content, it was all about communicating with each other.
Now we are almost in 2016, not much has changed. We still use content management systems. Or has something changed? In 2004 Facebook was created, in 2005 Youtube was launched, in 2006 Twitter was born, and in 2010 Instagram started. To name a few. Why is that important in this matter? Very simple. What happened is that content creation moved from content management systems to independent content platforms. Or as Dries Buytaert (Drupal) intended to use Drupal for:
“He (Dries Buytaert) started a small news site with a web board. He and his friends could post notes about the status of their network, talk about where they were having dinner, share interesting news, and more. They’d created a small content framework.” (see: https://www.drupal.org/about/history)
Content Management Systems did not change much
Not much has changed since that time. All content management systems are just doing one simple task which is sharing information through content entered within a CMS. But that’s an outdated concept. Currently most content is shared on platforms other than your own, like Facebook or Youtube.
So, traditional content management systems where we create all our content are a dead end, and for 3 reasons:
- most of your potential crowd is not at your website, but at one of the content platforms mentioned above;
- create-once-distribute-everywhere is the future of content creation;
- embedding standards – like oEmbed – are gaining ground, and can connect to many content platforms, but not your content management system.
Let me know what you think!
