Content migration: options and strategies
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Content migration: options and strategies
by James Robertson-10
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Hi all,
I've just published an article on the options for migrating content when redesigning a website or intranet: http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_migration/index.html Would be interested to hear everyone's thoughts... Cheers, James -- ------------------------- James Robertson, Managing Director Step Two Designs Email: jamesr@... Web: www.steptwo.com.au Phone: +61 2 9319 7901 _______________________________________________ cms mailing list cms@... Subscription controls: http://lists.cms-forum.org/mailman/listinfo/cms Netiquette FAQ and related CMS lists - [cms-forum], [cms-pr], [contentmanagers], [cmpros] http://www.cmsreview.com/NetiquetteFAQ.html http://www.cms-lists.org |
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Re: Content migration: options and strategies
by Adriaan M. Bloem-4
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Hi James,
Well -- I'd really wish I had something clever to add, but you've covered all bases -- any "ah, but..." I had while reading turned out to be addressed in one of the next paragraphs. So only one minor thing... in my experience, as you've write as well, automated or semi-automated migration is rarely an option (you did a great job explaining why). At the same time, having the regular content managers, webmasters, editors etcetera do everything by hand is usually not a viable alternative, either (since you want as short a freeze as possible, and the core team will often simply be too small to manage; and if it takes too long, they'll have to do this parallel to their regular job of maintaining the website, doubling the workload). And again, you're right in saying that semi-skilled helping hands most often won't be able to discern what to rewrite, how to rewrite, where the new content should go, etcetera. (Semi-skilled of course doesn't mean "uneducated" but rather "they won't know enough about the subject matter and/or have the expertise as to what makes a great site, and won't have the time to learn"). So what often happens is that "skilled" editors are brought in. Worst case, these are junior IT consultants (great at building templates -- terrible at doing the editorial stuff for a website, and expensive, to boot). Best case, they're professional web editors -- but they still won't know about your project, your strategy, plans and subject matter enough to make a big difference (other than just a lot of plain copy/pasting). So whereas most people seem to recognize it takes that skill to move items to the right place in the new site, rewrite some of it, reject other pages -- they tend to remedy this by getting expensive outside help, and in doing so, get the worst of both worlds. The crux of course is that sifting through the existing content, noting where it should go, and when applicable marking it obsolete or up for a rewrite, is only a relatively modest amount of time (though I'm all for paperless offices, you could even just print it all out and go through it with a marker, which could be pretty quick; you could also take all the titles, and given a resident web editor will already more or less know the content, that's enough to sort in a spreadsheet, mark the target, etc). Getting the original content, separating text from design and multimedia, uploading that to the new system, pasting the text, etcetera is the tedious 95% of the work. So all the regular editors should be involved in the pre-selection. Then just get a couple of students a comfortable desk job for the holidays in transferring it to the right place. You'll only need one person to coordinate what they do if the directions are clear. It'll save you a lot of money, and more importantly, your regular editors won't be stressed to the point of breaking during the migration. When it's done, they can relax and just check if everything is in the right place. Cheers, Adriaan M. Bloem __ Radagio - Content Management Strategy Benoordenhoutseweg 23, 2596 BA The Hague, The Netherlands web: http://www.radagio.com; mail: bloem@... CMSWatch.com Contributing Analyst mail: abloem@... On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 7:26 PM, James Robertson <jamesr@...> wrote: > Hi all, > > I've just published an article on the options for migrating content > when redesigning a website or intranet: > > http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_migration/index.html > > Would be interested to hear everyone's thoughts... > > Cheers, > James > > -- > ------------------------- > James Robertson, Managing Director > Step Two Designs > > Email: jamesr@... > Web: www.steptwo.com.au > Phone: +61 2 9319 7901 > > _______________________________________________ > cms mailing list > cms@... > Subscription controls: > http://lists.cms-forum.org/mailman/listinfo/cms > Netiquette FAQ and related CMS lists - [cms-forum], [cms-pr], [contentmanagers], [cmpros] > http://www.cmsreview.com/NetiquetteFAQ.html > http://www.cms-lists.org > -- _______________________________________________ cms mailing list cms@... Subscription controls: http://lists.cms-forum.org/mailman/listinfo/cms Netiquette FAQ and related CMS lists - [cms-forum], [cms-pr], [contentmanagers], [cmpros] http://www.cmsreview.com/NetiquetteFAQ.html http://www.cms-lists.org |
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Re: Content migration: options and strategies
by Martin White-6
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James
A first class contribution and one that I am certainly going to recommend to clients. One issue that is starting to emerge is the migration of content from a CMS into a portal. You refer to it in your introductory paragraph but portals present some rather complex issues. At the core of this is whether the content is going to be served up in Java portlets or as HTML pages using an "iFrames" approach. If Java windows are going to be used then because they need to be able to be resized on demand and also because of the very limited functionality of the CMS in most portals, there is a substantial challenge for the organisation in not just migrating the content but in undertaking a total review of how the content is going to be structured for delivery. There are some search engine implications for this as well but that is for another day. In theory JSR 170 and JSR 286 will assist in the inter-connection of portal and CMS products but from my rather limited knowledge of how these will work in practice they are not going to make a major impact on content migration. Another emerging issue is the upgrade of large SharePoint 2003 intranets to SharePoint 2007. Well worth reading http://office.microsoft.com/download/afile.aspx?AssetID=AM102421321033 and then taking a deep breath Regards Martin Martin White Intranet Focus Ltd http://www.intranetfocus.com -----Original Message----- From: cms-bounces@... [mailto:cms-bounces@...] On Behalf Of James Robertson Sent: 21 July 2008 18:26 To: cms@... Subject: [CMS] Content migration: options and strategies Hi all, I've just published an article on the options for migrating content when redesigning a website or intranet: http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_migration/index.html Would be interested to hear everyone's thoughts... Cheers, James -- ------------------------- James Robertson, Managing Director Step Two Designs Email: jamesr@... Web: www.steptwo.com.au Phone: +61 2 9319 7901 _______________________________________________ cms mailing list cms@... Subscription controls: http://lists.cms-forum.org/mailman/listinfo/cms Netiquette FAQ and related CMS lists - [cms-forum], [cms-pr], [contentmanagers], [cmpros] http://www.cmsreview.com/NetiquetteFAQ.html http://www.cms-lists.org _______________________________________________ cms mailing list cms@... Subscription controls: http://lists.cms-forum.org/mailman/listinfo/cms Netiquette FAQ and related CMS lists - [cms-forum], [cms-pr], [contentmanagers], [cmpros] http://www.cmsreview.com/NetiquetteFAQ.html http://www.cms-lists.org |
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Re: Content migration: options and strategies
by Austin, Darrel
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> Another emerging issue is the upgrade of large SharePoint 2003
> intranets to > SharePoint 2007. Well worth reading > http://office.microsoft.com/download/afile.aspx?AssetID=AM102421321033 > and > then taking a deep breath ...and then run as fast and far away as you can... ;o) -Darrel _______________________________________________ cms mailing list cms@... Subscription controls: http://lists.cms-forum.org/mailman/listinfo/cms Netiquette FAQ and related CMS lists - [cms-forum], [cms-pr], [contentmanagers], [cmpros] http://www.cmsreview.com/NetiquetteFAQ.html http://www.cms-lists.org |
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Re: Content migration: options and strategies
by Tony Byrne - CMS Watch
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Hi James et. al.-
This is a very realistic and practical survey of the issues (blogged about it here: http://www.cmswatch.com/Trends/1318-Start-flossing-your-content-now). One recommendation for V2 would be to address the issue of metadata. Redesigns and new system implementations typically involve new metadata schemes and the requirement to classify at least some of the backfile. I think many of the same issues emerge (limited ability to automate, need for domain expertise, value in advance clean up), but can play themselves out in different ways. Cheers, Tony Byrne Founder, CMS Watch Content Technology Evaluations http://www.cmswatch.com/Reports/ > > Hi all, > > > > http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_migration/index.html > > > > Cheers, > > James > > > > -- > > ------------------------- > > James Robertson, Managing Director > > Step Two Designs > > _______________________________________________ cms mailing list cms@... Subscription controls: http://lists.cms-forum.org/mailman/listinfo/cms Netiquette FAQ and related CMS lists - [cms-forum], [cms-pr], [contentmanagers], [cmpros] http://www.cmsreview.com/NetiquetteFAQ.html http://www.cms-lists.org |
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Re: Content migration: options and strategies
by Brendan Quinn
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Seeing as it's all the old guard chiming in on this post, I thought I'd
join in too... James, I actually disagree somewhat with your very first point! ("There is no way to avoid migrating content in a redesign") Having the luxury of working on mostly time-based sites such as news and broadcast-related sites, there is a strong argument for not migrating content at all, and leaving the old (statically published "flat files") sitting on the disk, in their old "page furniture". There is a kind of historical value in having URLs like http://www.bbc.co.uk/election97/frameset.htm still available, and I can tell you, if our only choices were migrating all of that content to a new CMS and republishing, or turning it off, then we couldn't have justified the cost and would have had to flick the switch. Having the opportunity to just leave the content there meant that we didn't have to close it off or leave it for the Wayback Machine to handle. Similarly, as we redesigned the site over time, we mostly left the designs as they were... 1997: http://www.bbc.co.uk/politics97/diana/ 2002: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/review/2159682.stm 2006: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6176769.stm 2008: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7328754.stm The page design gives users a sense of context that they can use to recognise that the site has moved on. Although I guess this is more about a design issue than a content management one. So if you want to avoid migration hell, come work on a statically-published news site! (Having said all that, when we redesign non-news sites, we still have an awful lot of migration to do...) It's just like old times, eh? Brendan :-) -----Original Message----- From: cms-bounces@... [mailto:cms-bounces@...] On Behalf Of James Robertson Sent: 21 July 2008 18:26 To: cms@... Subject: [CMS] Content migration: options and strategies Hi all, I've just published an article on the options for migrating content when redesigning a website or intranet: http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_migration/index.html Would be interested to hear everyone's thoughts... Cheers, James -- ------------------------- James Robertson, Managing Director Step Two Designs Email: jamesr@... Web: www.steptwo.com.au Phone: +61 2 9319 7901 _______________________________________________ cms mailing list cms@... Subscription controls: http://lists.cms-forum.org/mailman/listinfo/cms Netiquette FAQ and related CMS lists - [cms-forum], [cms-pr], [contentmanagers], [cmpros] http://www.cmsreview.com/NetiquetteFAQ.html http://www.cms-lists.org http://www.bbc.co.uk/ This e-mail (and any attachments) is confidential and may contain personal views which are not the views of the BBC unless specifically stated. If you have received it in error, please delete it from your system. Do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way nor act in reliance on it and notify the sender immediately. Please note that the BBC monitors e-mails sent or received. Further communication will signify your consent to this. _______________________________________________ cms mailing list cms@... Subscription controls: http://lists.cms-forum.org/mailman/listinfo/cms Netiquette FAQ and related CMS lists - [cms-forum], [cms-pr], [contentmanagers], [cmpros] http://www.cmsreview.com/NetiquetteFAQ.html http://www.cms-lists.org |
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