Submitted by Graham Mitchell (not verified) on Sat, 02/16/2008 - 03:40.
CMS is dead. Long live WAF
I agree that CMS is a limiting term. We’ve now moved beyond the notion of content management to a much broader space which is about delivering tools to non-programmers that enable us to build web applications. Hence the term ‘web application framework’ is I think a succinct description of Drupal and where it is/should be headed.
In terms of the barriers to Drupal’s success, for me one of the biggest issues is that clients seem to almost want more complex solutions. They seem convinced that their requirements are so unique that only bespoke and costly coding from scratch can meet their needs. My biggest problem is convincing them that Drupal can not only meet the vast majority of their needs out of the box, but with a little training they can probably do the rest of the development themselves, with no knowledge of PHP.
Taking ownership of this emerging space, and creating the required credibility around/confidence in the product (especially amongst corporate clients, for many of whom open source remains somewhat leftfield - still in that ‘no-one ever got fired for buying IBM’ mindset) to convince narcissistic clients that their problems are not so obscure as to require rocket scientists to solve them, could place Drupal in a commanding position.
CMS is dead. Long live WAF
I agree that CMS is a limiting term. We’ve now moved beyond the notion of content management to a much broader space which is about delivering tools to non-programmers that enable us to build web applications. Hence the term ‘web application framework’ is I think a succinct description of Drupal and where it is/should be headed.
In terms of the barriers to Drupal’s success, for me one of the biggest issues is that clients seem to almost want more complex solutions. They seem convinced that their requirements are so unique that only bespoke and costly coding from scratch can meet their needs. My biggest problem is convincing them that Drupal can not only meet the vast majority of their needs out of the box, but with a little training they can probably do the rest of the development themselves, with no knowledge of PHP.
Taking ownership of this emerging space, and creating the required credibility around/confidence in the product (especially amongst corporate clients, for many of whom open source remains somewhat leftfield - still in that ‘no-one ever got fired for buying IBM’ mindset) to convince narcissistic clients that their problems are not so obscure as to require rocket scientists to solve them, could place Drupal in a commanding position.
Goodbye CMS, hello WAF.