Web Directions North
February 6-10, 2007
Put together by designers and developers, for designer and developers, this conference is brought to you by Dave Shea, Derek Featherstone, Maxine Sherrin and John Allsopp.
Over two days and nights, Web Directions North is packed tight with sessions by renowned, inspiring, entertaining speakers and experts, parties and other events.
Beginning with an optional day of workshops from some of the web’s best educators, and rounded off with two optional day’s skiing and boarding and Blackcomb Whistler, Web Directions North is 2007’s web design and development event not to be missed.
Blogging for Success
November 15, 2006
Blogging for Business - hosted by Frontenac CFDC and facilitated by David Colburn of Island Design Works. Learn how to understand this on-line communication and its application for your business.
When: November 15, 2006 Time: 6:30 p.m. Location: Frontenac CFDC Harrowsmith office. Please RSVP by November 13th as seating is limited! Email: info@frontenaccfdc.com or call 613-372-1414.
What’s the buzz on Content Management?
Your viewers may not be able to see the difference between an old-style site, expensively and pain-stakingly built by hand, and one using a content management system, but you will right where it matters — in costs, time and results.
What is it?
Content Management Systems (CMS) are web applications intended to control the repetitive aspects of running a web site:
- storing content
- building pages to match your site design
- uploading of files and images
- revising and editing pages
- site search engine
- expanding sections and navigation menus
A CMS will allow just about anyone to add new content, revise old content, and manage the site structure from an Internet browser—of course, you’ll need the correct authorization to enter the editorial system. If you can use e-mail, hotmail for example, you can be taught to use a CMS.
What are the benefits?
- No need for a specialized HTML resource either in-house or on retainer;
- Site updates occur as quickly as you wish;
- No software to purchase and learn how to use;
- Consistency in style and look and feel throughout the site;
- Built in searching of all pages;
- Well structured to support good search engine optimization (SEO) practices.
- Faster site development times.
In short: improved communciation value and reduced costs.
What do I need to do?
Instead of working with designers and developers that produce static sites—one page at a time—requiring constant cost and effort to maintain speak to firms like IDW that have the experience and ability to build your site using a content management system. The time wasted on manually creating pages more than covers the time to configure and deploy a CMS for you.
CMS resources
Currently, we deploy one of two content management systems. Depending on the scale of the project we’ll recommend Wordpress or Drupal. Both are open-source web applications which means there is no cost to use the software and both have active development teams. Smaller sites, like this one, are well served by Wordpress and larger sites are easily implemented with Drupal. We’ll be very happy to discuss the benefits and long-term business advantages of CMS with you.
