There are a multitude of things to consider when planning your new website.  How often will you need to change the content of your website?  Will it be useful for more than one person to be able and make changes to the site?  Do I want to have a site that has a user experience at a user level as opposed to a generic level?  If so, perhaps it is time for you to consider using a Content Management System or CMS.

A CMS is a website that most often has an administrative area (back-end) tied to it that designated administrators can make changes to the website for the viewing public to see on the front-end.  The major benefits is that these CMS's do not require their administrators or editors to have technical knowledge of web languages to code the site in order to change content.  Many offer very elaborate access controls, document work flows, and a lot of functionality to have the site interact with the user in a memorable way.

Because a CMS is database driven, the content for the pages are stored within a database and then displayed through a framework.  Therefore, if you need to make updates to your site that is consistent across all of the pages, such as menu change, it is done through the administrative console.  With a simple adjustment it will apply to all pages across the site.  You can also in many cases make changes to the site that is relevant to a group level access.  So if you group your users in a particular way, you can change what they are allowed to see, how it is displayed, and even when they are allowed to see it.  In essence, it provides a lot of variable controls for your site that can make for a very rich and rewarding experience for your users.

Another great benefit is the ability to allow multiple content editors or authors access the site and make changes to their designated areas of the site.  The articles or pages written by these editors can be put into a workflow that requires approvals before publishing to the public.  

All that said, the most amazing part of a CMS for most people is its extensibility.  To add forums, bulletin boards, twitter feeds, Facebook integration, dazzling themes, image sliders, banners, ads, and much, much more, can be added by someone with little  to no knowledge of programming in a very short amount of time.  With an html site for instance that typically can be expensive as it takes a great deal more time top program.

At TOPSweb, LLC, we specialize in Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress, and SharePoint and can help you get your site to the top of the web.

Today, January 18th, 2012 has been an unusual day on the Internet.  Wikipedia went dark, providing no access to their content, simply a quick blurb about SOPA and a means of contacting your Congressman to offer your own protest.

The best info on the harm that SOPA-PIPA will potentially do is described by Clay Shirky in the video below. This was produced a couple of days ago and was put up on TED Talks website today as an emergency posting. Please watch the video and understand what this proposed bill is all about. Then call your Congressman.

Some time back I did a demo on Screentoaster.com where you could record your screen and host the video there for free.  Well it seems around 2 months ago Vimeo bought Screentoaster.com for a chunk of money and then bankrupted themselves by doing so I imagine.  Vimeo is no longer and has shut down their site.

Unfortunately for TOPSweb, we had a bunch of the tutorials hosted there which now, no longer exist.  I had quit using Screentoaster about part way through the Joomla series.

The good news is that I had already intended on re-recording the dotproject series.  So now that has just been moved up.  I hope to better organize it and produce it in a more professional manner as that was my first screencasts and were ridiculously long and were done in one take.

In light of the fact that Joomla 1.6 is out and 1.7 is soon to be released, I'll likely start a new series on those and point the old to the new if pertinent.

Sorry for the inconvenience, it's been a real learning lesson for me to ensure I control my content, or at least hold the ability to alter it at my own discretion despite any cost. Free isn't always free.

The one thing I hate most in this world is saying I was wrong.  I always think of Fonzie on the show "Happy Days" as he struggles to admit his only mistake in that one episode.  Well I stand before you hat in hand as I just loaded Gnome3 on my laptop.  I spoke ahead of myself in my previous post stating that Gnome3 looked too busy, I think I said "hot mess".  I was so wrong...

This wasn't an easy install on Ubuntu 11.04 I had tons of issues from no desktop at all to it even cracked my KDE installation.  I ended up booting into recovery mode and I found an amazing post on the Ubuntu forums by user slooksterpsv.

[HOWTO] Fix common Gnome 3 install issues in 11.04 - http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1742343

My impression of Gnome 3 couldn't be more positive.  It is beautiful, it is production friendly, and it is clean as whistle.

I complained before that it crowded the desktop, not at all.  Your desktop when idle is completely blank, the way I like it.  When you have a million things going on you hit the 'Activities' menu item and it arranges your open windows for you to jump to what you need to go to, it also allows you to jump to other workspaces (desktops).  I believe this enhances the abilities of having those additional workspaces to you disposal.

I'll do a more formal review soon to show it off.   I don't think what I've seen out there right now does Gnome3 enough justice.  So if you are horribly frustrated with Unity, and KDE leaves you a little bored, then definitely follow the link above and go with the Gnome3.

Michael