0         Web 2.0 and CMS

0.1        Web History

After years of email prevalence, now the Web is the most used service provided by Internet. It is an evolving environment, characterizing the IT business and its economy. Up to now, three phases have been identified:

Ver.	Years	Mode	Schema	Front-End
1.0	1980s	r--	Actors: ·         WebMaster ·         Internet Surfers	Text (80x2)	Graphic (640x480)
2.0	2000s	Rw-	Actors: ·         WebMaster/ Social Media ·         Internet Surfers/Contributors	Cooperation	Graphic (adaptable)
3.0	2020s	rwx	Actors: ·         WebMaster/Social Media ·         Internet Surfers/Contributors ·         WebHost/Semantic Server	Automatic Functions:   ·      Semantic Markup: communication gap between human web users and computerized applications (provide context to data) ·      Web Services: software system designed to support computer-to-computer interaction over the Internet ·      Vectoring: Scalable Vector Graphics (adapt to different devices)	Concepts:   ·       Tim Berners Lee (Wikipedia) ·       Kate Ray (flatworldbusiness)

 

Different access level are allowed. The contents could be organized based on types (Static, Article, Image, etc).

0.2        Web 2.0 Architecture

The CMS is an infrastructural layer, offering the following advantages:

·         Interface: the user choose the information (text, images, videos) to display, interacting with the website, according to specific actions (e.g. click, sting insertion).

·         Protocol: it acts like a buffer, uncoupling the information from the way these are displayed. This allow for a more dynamic content uploads and modifications

·         Service: it organize the content, structuring the information along the web interface

0.2.1        CMS: Logical Schema

The web 2.0 is intimal intertwined with CMS, since most parts of vulnerable Web 2.0 are built around a Content Management System, in order to take advantage of the new web experience:

·         Same same: unique interface for all the site-operations (reading, writing, configuring, etc)

·         But different: separation between the content and how it is shown to the user

By the means of only one interface: HTTP (1.1), uncoupling interface, aspect and content. The following picture depicts the CMS addressing its tasks:

 

 

Figure 1- CMS: Logical Schema

The following definitions are used in the picture:

·         Social-Ready: Accepting content from users and usual web-places

·         CMS: Managing Content (Collecting, Elaborating, Harvesting, Presenting)

·         Interface: Picturing content depending on used media device

0.2.2        CMS: Communication Schema

According to [11], only 38,6% of Web Sites make use of a CMS infrastructure (that is, 61.4% are more than static website).

The information are no more static, these are collected, elaborated and presented depending on user input. The following actions are performed orderly:

·         retrieving input (link follow, form fill)

·         translating input as punctual queries to perform interrogation

·         accessing data set (DB), extracting the data

·         calculating information to show (query results)

·         displaying information to user, usually, in a user-dependent way (HTML resources)

HTTP and HTML are used as interface, merely. The Web 2.0 requires intelligence, a proper set of instruction to react to user input (named Web Application). Moreover,

0.2.3        CMS: Technical Schema

Thus, there are 3 main components in CMS-ready Web Infrastructure:

 

 

Three tiers:

1. Presentation: Front-End, user interface
2. Services: Middle-End, communication (the logic)
3. Back-End Applications: DB (the data set)

0.3        CMS Selection Criteria

Before starting building up a web-site, a CMS product should be choosen because it allows webmasters to operate easier.

0.3.1        CMS Working

CMS Functionality: Building and Updating Web-Site dynamically, without:

·         HTML programming

·         Server-side Language (PHP, Java, .Net) Programming

·         DB designing and deploying

Moreover, the CMS allows dealing with today issues (both technical and social):

1. Responsiveness: different display (PC, SmartPhone, TouchScreen, etc) and new technologies (wearable technologies, Internet of Things)
2. Social-Ready: user interaction (blog, forum, wiki, etc)
3. Fulfillness: augmented content types (docs, photos, images, video, audio, presentation, messages, etc)

0.3.2        CMS Foreword

The CMS acts like an un-coupling element, described by the following characteristics:

·         Who: users and web-master

·         What: Technology Set

·         Why: Social and Collaboration

·         Where: Open Media

·         When: need resource for managing, info, contents, relations

0.3.3        CMS Usability

The right CMS should be chosen considering also the following characteristics:

·         Popularity: numbers of implementation worldwide (usually measured in downloads)

·         License: Type of License (GPL, commercial, Free, etc)

·         Site: usual sites adopting it (“most used for”)

·         Update Frequency: healthiness of the project

·         Themes: number of available themes (possibly free)

·         Plugins: number of available extension plugins (possibly free)

·         Installation: time required for installation

·         Moderation: easiness of moderation

·         Required Skill: easiness of day-by-day management

·         Vulnerability: numbers of important vulnerability found

 

0.4        CMS Selection

The following paragraphs try to depict CMS concepts, using a three step top-down approach from higher level to lower one:

·         Strategical (summary): CMS Customization

·         Tactical (view). Full CMS Advanced Functionalities

·         Operational (usability): CMS Solutions

 

0.4.1        Strategical: CMS Customization

The CMS should be properly customized, based on the web-site to be created.

Site Type	Description	CMS Func	Writer	Contribution	Topic	Filtering
Blog	Provide a place in which post messages and comments on these. Tool for creating focused, highly engaing and relevant content	Blog Photo Gallery	User	Individual	Free	Moderator
Community	Provide a place in which post articles and comments about detailed stuff	Forum Photo Gallery	User	Ensuing	Fixed	Moderator
Magazine	Public and General Purposes.	Article	Publisher	Individual	Fixed	Redaction
Company	Provide information to the public about the company.	ShowCase Multi-Language	WebDesigner	Individual	Many
Portal	Horizontal: common platform for several companies Vertical: specialized entry-point to a specific market	Multi-Site Multi-Language	WebDesigner	Individual	Fixed	N/A
e-Shop	Trading in products or services using computer networks	e-Commerce	WebDesigner	Individual	N/A	N/A
Encyclopedia	reference work or compendium holding a comprehensive summary of information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge	Wiki	User	Collective	Fixed	Merging

 

 

The following table compare the usual different functions:

Function	Examples	Needs	SW Modules
Blog	Diary (personal).	SEO Scalpel: knowledge of SEO labor intensive innovation, imagination	Text Management User Management Posting tools SERPS
Forum	Topic management (company): large amounts of vaguely niche oriented content.	SEO Broadsword: active community regular moderation	Text Management User Management Posting tools User Profiling (writer, moderator, etc)
Article	Publish articles and (eventually) comments on these.	Labor Intensive Linkage (Mnemonic)	Text Management Picture Management Posting Tools
ShowCase	Single umbrella containing: Homepage Navigation Bar Look and Feel About us	Uniforming Tool	Text Management Picture Management
Multi-Site Multi-Language	Specially designed Web page which brings information together from diverse sources in a uniform way.	Get information from different sources Put uniform shape (‘metaphor’, based on user)	Portlet Search API User Mgmt
e-Commerce	Trading in products or services using computer networks	Online Shopping Online Marketplace PCI-DSS	B2B EDI
Wiki	reference work or compendium holding a comprehensive summary of information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge	Post Management	Wiki User Management (contributor, moderator, etc) Picture Management Text Management

 

There are 3 ways for customizing CMS, choosing SW infrastructure of different kinds:

1. Open Source: the architecture could be changed, putting on additional modules. Usual example: WordPress, Joomla!, Drupal
2. Specialized CMS: no change should be done in order to address specific objectives. Usual example: Vignette, Spin&Go
3. Custom CMS: designed and deployed on the basis of hosted content, by the means of huge consulting projects. Usual example: WebLogic, WebSphere

0.4.2        Tactical: Full CMS Functionalities

The following table compares advanced technical aspects:

Function	Description
Time to Market	Time to deploy the new site
Usage Easiness	Employable Of-the-Shelf. Easy of use and reduced number of personnel to publish new contents
Huge Community	Blogs, Forums and Groups or searching on-line about technical issues and their resolutions
Themes and Layouts	Availability of already developed components
Plug-ins & Modules	Availabilty of plug-ins, modules and widget to extend the functionalities
Social Networking	Integration with most common social (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, etc)
SEO Oriented	Able to build SEO site (easily analysed anarchived by Google, Badoo and Bing): Usable graphic interface Quality contents Speedy Layout Meta Tags: Title, Keywords e Description Proper title No Flash and JavaScript Image Tag: alt and description
Content Strategy/Organization	Useful to manage intended content (as adopted communication model). Powerful Taxonomy, Ability to Tag: Categorize and Organize complex content
Completeness/Poweness	Capable of producing most advanced sites
Workflow	Providing the needed approval and control infrastructural functions
Concept	Availability of Themes and Layouts
Security	Mode of addressing security issues

 

The data are collected and re-arranged from [15].

0.4.3        Operational: CMS Solutions

According to [11], the top three used product are: WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal. Everyone of these has proper pros and cons. The following graph depicts CMS usage during 2014, according to WebcomWebsites (see [7]):

 

 

Figure 2- Top CMS used in 2014

0.5        Top 3 CMS Comparison

A comparison should be performed on the top 3 CMS as these cover up to 70% of the dynamic web sites.

 

0.5.1        Top 3 CMS Comparison

This document refers to the current versions and their known updates (if available). The following table summarizes a comparison about the “intensive” characteristics of the most popular CMS:

 

 

	WordPress	Joomla	Drupal
Language	PHP	PHP	PHP
DB	MySQL	MySQL	MySQL
Started	2003	2005	2001
Site	www.wordpress.org	www.joomla.org	www.drupal.org
MarketShare	61%	7%	6%
Aim	Blog, Easy	Social	Powerness

 

Data are collected from [14] and self-made controlling.

0.5.2        Top 3 CMS covering of Functionalities

More specifically, the advanced functions that are currently enabled are shown in the following table:

 

Function	WordPress	Joomla!	Drupal
Time to Market
Usage Easiness
Huge Community
Themes and Layouts
Plug-ins & Modules
Social Networks
SEO Oriented
Content Strategy/Organization
Completeness/Powerness
Workflow
Scalability
Security

 

 

0.5.3        Top 3 CMS Usability Table

The following table compares more usability-driven aspects of the top 3 CMS products:

 

	WordPress	Joomla	Drupal
Popularity (million download)	140	30	15
License	GPLv2	GPLv2	GPLv2
Language	PHP	PHP	PHP
DB	MySQL MariaDB	MySQL MariaDB PostGreSQL MSSQL SQLLite	MySQL MariaDB PostGreSQL MSSQL SQLLite Oracle
Usual Top Sites	Commercial	e-Commerce	Government
Free Themes	2000	900	1800
Free Plugins	27000	7000	24000
Installation Time (min)	5	10	10
Easy of Moderation	Difficult	Medium	Simple
Required Skill	Low	Medium	High
Update Period (days)	42	36	51
High Vulnerablities (since 2005)	35	35	12
High Vulnerability Period (mounth)	3.5	3.5	10
Intended Aims	Blog Management Textual Content	CMS Framework	CMS Framework
Functionalities	6/11	4/11	9/11
Version	4.1.1	3.40	7.36

 

The data are collected from [13] and [14].

0.6        CMS used by famous organizations

In the last months, many Education, Government and Political website were migrated from Joomla! To Drupal. Of 10 Top popular WebSites using Joomla! (see [8]) only 6 out of 10 (60%) are effectively using Joomla!, nowadays: 2 WebSite have migrated to Drupal, 2 one to WordPress and 1 is adopting another CMS mechanism. Moreover, the page “10 Most Popular Web Site using Joomla!” is not updated from 3 years (so, what about the software in itself?).

0.6.1        Drupal

Here the organizations that have chosen Drupal:

Institution	Type	URL	CMS
CERN	Research	http://home.web.cern.ch/	Drupal
NASA	Government	http://www.nasa.gov/	Drupal
US-CERT	Government	https://www.us-cert.gov	Drupal
WhiteHouse	Government	http://www.whitehouse.gov/	Drupal
Homeland Security	Government	http://www.dhs.gov/	Drupal
British Council	Government	http://www.britishcouncil.org/	Drupal
Task Force on Childhood Obesity	Government	http://www.letsmove.gov/	Drupal
US Department of Education	Government	http://www.ed.gov/	Drupal
World Food Programme	Government	http://www.wfp.org/	Drupal
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana	Government	http://www.asi.it/	Drupal
Cambridge	University	http://www.cam.ac.uk/	Drupal
Oxford	University	http://www.ox.ac.uk/	Drupal
Harward	University	http://www.harvard.edu/	Drupal
Michigan	University	http://www.egr.msu.edu/	Drupal
Arizona	University	https://www.asu.edu/	Drupal
CyberLaw Standford	University	http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/	Drupal
Cornell Library	University	https://www.library.cornell.edu/	Drupal
Sapienza	University	http://uniroma1.it/	Drupal
CIS	University	http://www.cis.uniroma1.it/	Drupal
LUISS	University	http://www.luiss.it/	Drupal
LUMSA	University	http://www.lumsa.it/	Drupal
SkyBox	Private Company	https://www.vulnerabilitycenter.com	Drupal
RedHat	Private Company	http://www.redhat.com/	Drupal
LinuxFoudation	Research	http://www.linuxfoundation.org/	Drupal
The Economist	NewsPaper	http://www.economist.com/	Drupal
The Hill	NewsPaper	http://thehill.com/	Drupal

 

“Drupal powers twice as many federal government websites as every other CMS combined. That’s more than six Drupal sites for every one WordPress.” [Benjamin Balter, US E-Government and Federal IT Team, Executive Office of the President]. More information on [19].

0.6.2        Other OpenSource

Here some organization that have choosen another OpenSource (GPL) CMS solution:

Institution	Type	URL	CMS
ENISA	Government	http://www.enisa.europa.eu/	Plone
NIST	Government	http://nist.org/	e017
OWASP	Research	https://www.owasp.org	MediaWiki
Linux.org	Research	http://www.linux.org/	XenForo
SlideShare	Private Company	http://www.slideshare.net/	Ruby on Rails
Linux.com	Private Company	http://www.linux.com/	Joomla!
NotreDame	University	https://ace.nd.edu/	Joomla!
ITWire.com	e-Commerce	http://www.itwire.com/	Joomla!
Guggenheim	Private Company	http://www.guggenheim.org/	Joomla!
MTV Greece	Private Company	http://www.mtvgreece.gr/	Joomla!
UNRIC	Government	http://www.unric.org/	Joomla!
TamTamy	Private Company	https://tamtamy.reply.eu	WordPress
IlFattoQuotidiano	NewsPaper	http://ilfattoquotidiano.it	WordPress
RomaOstia	Sport	http://www.romaostia.it/	WordPress
SuSe (Novell)	Private Company	http://www.suse.com	WordPress
The Fashion Spot	e-Commerce	http://www.thefashionspot.com/	WordPress
Singolarity	University	http://singularityu.org/	WordPress

0.6.3        Commercial

Here some organization that have choosen to use a commercial solution

Institution	Type	URL	CMS
NSA	Government	https://www.nsa.gov/	ASP.Net
London City	University	http://www.city.ac.uk/	Squiz Matrix
Statale Milano	University	http://www.unimi.it/	OpenText
Bocconi	University	http://www.unibocconi.it/	IBM WebSphere
Torvergata	University	http://www.uniroma2.it	IBM WebSphere
Maratona di Roma	Sport	http://www.maratonadiroma.it/	Plesk
Splunk	Private Company	http://www.splunk.com/	Adobe CQ5
Financial Times	NewsPaper	http://www.ft.com/	Méthode (EidosMedia)
Washington Post	NewsPaper	http://www.washingtonpost.com/	Méthode (EidosMedia)
Il Sole 24 Ore	NewsPaper	http://www.ilsole24ore.com	Méthode (EidosMedia)
Corriere della Sera	NewsPaper	http://www.corriere.it	Méthode (EidosMedia)
AdnKronos	NewsPaper	http://www.adnkronos.com	Méthode (EidosMedia)
La Stampa	NewsPaper	http://www.lastampa.it/	Méthode (EidosMedia)

 

0.7        References

[11]	Usage of CMS for WebSite: http://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_management/all
[12]	Market Share Trends: http://w3techs.com/technologies/history_overview/content_management
[13]	CMS Comparison Chart: http://websitesetup.org/cms-comparison-wordpress-vs-joomla-drupal/
[14]	CMS Comparison: http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/article/cms-comparison-drupal-joomla-and-wordpress
[15]	Side by Side Comparison: http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/article/cms-comparison-drupal-joomla-and-wordpress
[16]	Vulnerability DB: https://www.vulnerabilitycenter.com
[17]	Webcom Website 2014 statistic: http://www.webcomwebsites.co.uk/our-articles/
[18]	Top 10 popular WebSites using Joomla!: http://magazine.joomla.org/issues/issue-july-2012/item/800-10-most-popular-websites-using-Joomla
[19]	Who use Drupal: http://www.drupalshowcase.com/
[20]	Web Content Management System: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_content_management_system