Content Management and Meetups

As I get deeper into the fun of DrupalCon, I realize I should start a talk about content management systems. A small one broke out on my Facebook page yesterday when my brother-in-law talked about how his newsroom (The Sporting News) is having a challenging time moving content into Drupal. I think almost all newsrooms are having that kind of problem. CMS is a pretty young tool. Four years ago when my newsroom moved to a CMS instead of Dreamweaver we didn't think beyond the fact that our life would be so much better in a CMS environment. We didn't think we'd want or need to move CMS later down the line. So we didn't think about what it would take to move all of the content from our current CMS and move it into a new one. Well... It's going to be miserable. And now that I'm on the hunt for a new CMS (we aren't spending any money on one yet, I just want to know and be ready the moment it makes it onto a budget line), I am more concerned about the ease it takes to move away from the CMS. That's another reason why I like Drupal. Once the content is in there, you can manipulate and port the information really well. I think that's the wonderful thing about open source products. I'd love to hear what other folks think about CMS and portability.

Also - Since I'm in DC, I'm setting up an impromptu gathering for Mizzou alumni and any of my Twitter/blog followers if they're interested:

It would be great to hang out, enjoy a beer in a hipster kind of place.