WebsiteWebsite

From Open and Closed Source to Managing Your Institutional Knowledge with a Content

Management System, (CMS)

Upside Down Upside Down

making the purchasemaking the purchase

Looking under the hood ... After you buy a car, it’s all yours, from bumper to bumper. You can repair and make mods! Transforming your clunker into…

……a super car a super car (ferrari :-)(ferrari :-)

Car ownerships includes the right to change the car as you wish and make any modifications. …What about other purchases such as homes?

Need new parts?

the 30 year fixedthe 30 year fixed

Owning a home includes the freedom to make many repairs and modifications (at least some) Your neighbors may have ideas… What about software?

software purchasesoftware purchaseIf you purchase the Windows 7 Operating System, do you own it in the same way you may own a car, boat or home?

no, you don’t own the no, you don’t own the codecode

The infamous Windows End-User License Agreement (EULA). You don’t own the source code. So, your ability to make modifications is limited. (The EULA is for copy protection.)

open and closed open and closed sourcesource

• open source software: available in source code form; users may study, change, improve, distribute the software; collaborative development; cost=free

• closed source software: under the exclusive right of the copyright holder; the licensee is given the right to use the software and not much else; restricted from other uses, modifications, distribution, reverse engineering; cost=from ~$0.00 to unlimited

• Not just operating systems, but also Web Frameworks, Content Management Systems (CMS) can be open or closed

a legal aside…go UCB!a legal aside…go UCB!• One of the first court cases regarding the nature of

source code as free speech involved University of California mathematics professor Dan Bernstein, who had published on the internet the source code for an encryption program that he created. At the time, encryption algorithms were classified as munitions by the United States government; exporting encryption to other countries was considered an issue of national security, and had to be approved by the State Department. The Electronic Frontier Foundation sued the U.S. government on Bernstein's behalf; the court ruled that source code was free speech, protected by the First Amendment.

some costs for codesome costs for code• Windows 7 Pro: $79.00 (close)• Apple OS Leopard: $159.99 (closed)• Apache Web Server: $0.00 (open)• Windows IIS Web Server: $423.99 (closed)• Windows SharePoint (2005): minimally ~$140.00 or

$5,619.00 plus $71.00 per device and up (closed)• Drupal Content Management System: $0.00 (open)• Zope: $0.00 (open)• Plone: Content Management System: $0.00 (open)

drawing conclusionsdrawing conclusions• Every software purchase includes the decision to

go with an open or closed product.• What are the potential advantages and

disadvantages of both? Think Microsoft v. Apache Web Server

• Cost• Reliability• Someone to turn to or call• In-house expertise• ?

WebsiteWebsite Upside Down Upside Down

website upside downwebsite upside downIntroducing

Content Management

Systems (CMS)•How are websites for institutions, planned and constructed?•Once implemented, what is the workflow for changes to the website?

web maintenance web maintenance workflowworkflow

Request for changes are typically made via e-mail or trouble ticket system.

←Sample e-mail request.

Now your web developer is a content editor… a total waste of everyone’s time.

why the web anyway?why the web anyway?• Benefits for vendors and customers: global,

publically available, nearly instant access to information, allows for all kinds of transactions, including financial.

• Great, but how does this model fail?• What if your organization has sensitive or

restricted data that you want to be web-accessible but not publicly available? Is there anything you could do?

• Answer: How is a web server not like a file server?

file serversfile servers• Allow for granular,

permissioned control over files and folders

• Thus, access to files is limited. Ex. The sales department only has access to sales files…

web server• The web workflow, performing web maintenance

tasks…

web + fileweb + file• Content Management Systems (CMSes) provide

all the benefits of the web, plus the granular permissions control over files and folders of a traditional file server

• They allow for multiple users to be content creators, thus breaking the web development workflow paradigm and bottleneck

• Using a CMS turns traditional web-site development upside down. This is a good thing. You don’t want your tech people doing non-tech things.

take a CMS test take a CMS test drive…drive…

Go to: http://gsppi.berkeley.edu

Login with first initial + last name for username; your password is `temp4you’

Sample: Jason Christopherusername: jchristopherPassword: temp4you

31+ flavors of CMS31+ flavors of CMS

• There are many content management systems available, including open-source CMSes

• CMSes can be extended in infinite ways and connect seamlessly with databases

next time:next time:“Power-owning the Universe: A

Gentle Introduction to Programming”

(finally ) Quiz - Nov. 29on

Chapters 1 and 2 of“Head First

Programming”