This Week: The Great CMS Debate

Happy to announce (a bit late, I suppose, in that the event is sold out – though folks coming who don’t get to see the debate can still join us for networking and beer) that I’ll be moderating the Great CMS Debate this Thursday, Feb 25th, 7:00pm, upstairs at The Grog in lovely downtown Newburyport.

The event will be hosted by North Shore Web Geeks and sponsored (as in some free beer) by The Atom Group.

(I still think of myself as a North Shore Web Geeks member despite no longer living in Newburyport – Salem, MA is still the North Shore, isn’t it?)

We’ll talk a bit about some popular content management systems, including (but not limited to) Expression Engine, Drupal, Kentico, and WordPress. Representing each of those platforms will be:

• Marc Amos, who will be talking about Expression Engine (a proprietary PHP/MySQL CMS with quite cheap licensing for small businesses and free-of-cost licensing for non-commercial, non-profit use).
• Jay Batson, who will represent Drupal (a free and open source PHP / MySQL CMS and web application framework)
• Tom Herer, who will speak about Kentico (a proprietary ASP.NET based platform with what I’d call low-end-of-market pricing for small to medium sized businesses)
• (Fellow WordCamp Boston organizer) Jake Goldman, who will represent WordPress (another free and open source PHP based platform, traditionally more focused on blogging but also increasingly used as a broad CMS)

I’ll be moderating, though I can’t (and won’t) claim to be impartial. ;)

In truth, all of the folks on the panel have worked with a number of different platforms – they’re representing one just for the sake of the panel.

I’m hopeful we’ll get beyond “what CMS is the best” and on to a more nuanced “how do I select a platform that meets my needs, risk profile, budget, and skillset?” or even “how do I figure out what my needs are?” which is where most folks who ask me which CMS to use should be starting.

If not, at least there’s networking and beer.