Have you heard about Joomla?

Joomla! is an open source content management system for websites. That's quiet a mouthful so let's break it down into the two major parts. Open Source means it is free software developed by a community for use by the general public under the GPL (general public license). Linux was the first software offered with this license years ago (for running a server operating system) and now there are hundreds of different types of software operating with this license today. Content Management Systems is the engine that runs the your website. The system allows the owner to log in and change all their content at will. There are many different content management systems out there today. In the last two years two different leaders have emerged, that being Joomla and Drupal. I picked Joomla because from what I learned it has a better user interface and requires somewhat less engineering. This translates into less cost and more usability. Drupal engineers would disagree of course but what can you expect? Both of have won the Packt publishing awards for the best CMS for different years. We will see who wins 2008. Since there is little custom programming which is hugely expensive it is much more affordable to develop and support. Configuration changes that used to require a lot of time and money can be changed in an instant at little or no cost. It is easy to change hyperlinks, create modules (small blocks on the page), and add new features. Once the CMS is installed and configured then extra features can be added. These are called extensions and as of today we are reaching almost 4000. From shopping carts, event calendars, to many different galleries, each can be engineered easily into the system and have their own administration interface. The system is built entirely conforming to the web 2.0 standards. All search engine optimized, with the ability for the user to modify the metadata information themselves. Every page can be set with its own keywords for the search engine spiders or robots to find. The design of the site is separated from the content by using a templating system. Thousands of templates have already been created by designers and can be uploaded and implemented in minutes. By picking a template design and integrating custom graphics you can develop a custom look and feel very easily. For branding purposes a new template must be created but brings the best of both worlds together, custom design and content management. Once your site it created and launched it doesn't stop there. There are constantly new features, technology, and ideas being created. These can be added for a very low cost and integrated into your existing website. Gone are the days of tearing down and rebuilding your site every 3-5 years. Look for an event coming up in the next few weeks where I will demonstrate the administration user interface and you can actually see how easy it is to manage your own dynamic website.