Content Management System

[Water Cooler v2]

I know what it is, and yet the knowledge of what a CMS is, is so vague
that I find myself asking this question every now and then. I've
googled and read the resources too. However, the knowledge is still not
clear. It is so vague.


Me: Just what is a content management system?

Myself: A place where content can be stored.

Me: OK. So, then what's a file system?

Myself: That's not web-based. File-Systems are desktop-based.

Me: You can have a file-system on a common network server. I can even
have a network server and give remote access to people over a VPN. I
can host content on a terminal server, I can give them VNC clients, or
an RDP client, and let them browse what they want to.

Myself: How will they know "where" to find what?

Me: Come again?

Myself: With all those avenues you mentioned, you won't publish
content. There will not be a taxonomy. You will just be dumping files
on another remote server. How will the users "find" what they want?



So, is a CMS all about:

1. Taxonomy
2. Publishing content in a Web based format

Me: What about binary objects that cannot be published in HTML?

Myself: Yeah! What about them, dude? Use your head. What about them?
Heard of a hyperlink? Heard of HTTP? FTP? No?

Me: OK. I get it. But...I *still* don't get it, man. Why did we need
this? More importantly, where are the boundaries? I believe CMS also
lets users edit and publish content on-the-fly.


So, again, where are the boundaries? What about non-public content?
What about access rights? Do you have seperate users on CMS's having
their seperate folders as well, where they could put their own private
content? Or, is the idea behind CMS about "sharing" and so they put
only that which they need to share and not the private stuff.

Do CMS's also allow access rights or authorization levels *per*
resource/file/unit of content that is uploaded on to them? Or, are they
role-based - e.g all users of this group will be able to access all
files, and users of that group will have read-only access to this
website.