An Ontology for Content Management Systems

The OSCOM softwareML project is proposing an XML/RDF standard for the description of a CMS, including overview information (name, company, website, technology, license, etc.) and specific features in three broad areas (content creation, management proper, and delivery).

This work will lead to an XML Schema (XSD) and the definition of Resources (a specific vocabulary as an RDF Schema, and then an Ontology) for all the information and features. CMS companies will be invited to enter descriptions and feature details of their products in an online, vendor-editable database. The data will be licensed under a Creative Commons license, making it freely available to all.

The resulting online database will offer complex data feeds as a demonstration example of the semantic web. It will accept search queries on any combination of features and return those CMS that match the search. It will offer side-by-side comparisons of all features for any two (or more) CMS. It will also feed just the features for a single CMS, for use on the vendor's own website.

All feeds will be available in HTML or XML. A short fragment of publicly available code can be pasted into a website to provide that website with CMS search and comparison tools. The results will open in a separate web page, with a style sheet that can be customized by the website.

Knowing that this data will be published widely will give CMS companies a strong incentive to edit their information, keeping it current and accurate (far beyond the ability of any single review site to maintain such data).

Companies are encouraged to criticize the feature list and suggest features to be added. For each feature, an "explanation" resource will allow a vendor to qualify their understanding of the feature.

In this 45-minute presentation, the online database will be demonstrated, and companies wishing to participate will be given instructions and editing privileges.

For companies wishing to see the draft feature list, to participate in the early development, and to get their feature data online soon, please contact me.

Bob Doyle
bobdoyle@skybuilders.com