On to numbers: Improve your website, make it pay off over time instead of putting money into the black hole that is marketing. Good points through the presentation, hinting the many parameters that make up the final outcome.

As a whole, all web projects must include proper work on usability, strategy etc. For the sake of argument though, one could ask how this is directly relevant on a CMS-oriented conference. Important for everyone in the work around the (content managed) website? Sure. But so is a lot of other things, and they’re — as I see it — more part of an overall ‘website’ context.

To be fair, the “test, damnit”-point is spot on as content management ultimately is (among other things) about letting non-coders create. Depending on the setup, content creators can get quite creative. That’s cool — remember to test.

Jacob Hancke made an even more important point: As we entered the room, he shook hands with everyone, asking them what they did and where (I tried to keep it real). He wasn’t provided with attendee-information, so it’d been a bit hard preparing his talk.

How to lay out the management structure, what to present to content editors, content creators etc.

Not a hi-tech subject. Which is interesting. CMS success rarely has to do with the system you’re using. Failure might have, but at its core, content management is a practice (as Byrne noted) — and that process should be managed.

Standards for content creation. Don’t let it slide. Common sense. What’s interesting is how CMS vendors can facilitate best practises. Context sensitive help/link to guides? Different implementation processes, diving more into usability, writing, ‘whole process’? Definately worth a think.

Lesson: “The system will never do anything for you”

Advice: Set people up in conference calls, meetings whatever. Let them brag, get the competition and sharing of knowledge going. Can’t help to think about Flickr. It’s tangible, playful, networked. What if content editors felt the same way about a site they manage that they feel about keeping the interaction and feedback flowing on Flickr?

Aside: This (small) session has more women than men. And the men blog or represent a vendor. Go figure.

Second in set:

Case study: DSB, Jenny Anneberg Olesen.

Website purpose (Danish people, now you know): Ticket sale, product information, traffic information, press.

The usual big corporation defending: “We made lots of compromises, everyone wants to go on the frontpage, the design i five years old but got implemented last year etc.” Not directly CMS-related, but it’s a shame to see all the big guys doing it — in some respects — the wrong way. At least, stop apologizing. If that’s how it will be fine. If not, fix it — and open up; let us know you’re working on it.

On centralization/decentralization:

Only few people can add images etc. Super users have power. Pro-decentralization: Encourage users by giving them responsibility. For those of us not forced to work in larger organisations, this is obvious. Funny, how more people usually means more handholding… Interestingly, DSB doesn’t really use workflow, rather they email back and forth from the central content managers to the content creators in need of images, graphics etc.

Final advice: Build a strong organisation around your CMS. Have support at hand.

The case unfortunately turned out quite light. No real insights…

I missed yesterday’s program because I was demoing an umbraco website I made. That’s the disclaimer part (as in “I hang with the umbraco crew”) — and an excellent oppurtunity to second Hartvig’s take on the complexity as the new black notion.

I basically did the “Write, Preview, Publish” walkthrough, pointed to special modifications made to their implementation. And that was it. They wanted to use their website as a communication platform and liked the simple interface where someone already had made a decision not to bloat everything with buttons and funky functionality noone’s using (or should be using). They didn’t have a list of problems that needed solving, functionality that could be “nice to have”, ambitious plans to take over the world by pushing buttons. Their focus was on writing and selecting content. Which is why I think they’ll walk away with their task completed and their mind clear.

Of course I didn’t manage to get to the right address (went for the footer information) so I started the day off with a little walk. Which wasn’t too bad.

What I couldn’t have found on the website however…is the schedule. I’m on a Mac with Safari and spent a couple of days being grumpy that I couldn’t get an overview of the three days (that I knew was the duration of the conference). Finally complained to a friend that informed me that he didn’t have any trouble. So basically, the site doesn’t just render differently in different browsers — it selects content differently in different browsers.

Maybe someone’s CMS won’t let them use the markup and css they want?

Today’s first keynote is Tony Byrne of CMS Watch. Winther var opmærksom fra starten.

We are here.

Give me a shout if you’re gonna be there.

We’re thinking about doing a small blogger meetup. Stay tuned for details.