First Welsh Language CMS - Commercial Vendor's Ludicrous Claims
Yesterday I saw a news item go past on Twitter. The item in questions was by a digital agency called Sequence whom implement the Alterian CMS. Their news item originally make the ludicrous claim that they had released the first CMS that supports the Welsh language.
I was actually alerted to this by a Twitter post which translates as 'First Welsh CMS? A complete lie (see joomla / wordpress / plone / sharepoint)'. I contacted Sequence and pointed out to them that they are nearly three years behind Plone (other systems may have been before then even), as Russ Ferriday of Topia demonstrated the Welsh translation of Plone back in 2006. And Plone has been shipping with a Welsh translation out of the box ever since.
Sequence then issued an apology and revised their news item (you see the revised one in the link above). Their apology is that the word 'Enterprise' was edited out of their news item.
This still leaves the claim:
"Sequence have made available what is believed to be the first enterprise CMS (content management system) available in the Welsh language, creating a unique 'back-end' technology system in Wales' national language."
So I guess that leaves the questions as to is Plone an 'Enterprise' CMS? I've always thought the word 'enterprise' to be a particularly nebulous term and originated as a term for commercial vendors to add a few extra zeros to the price tag of whatever they were selling.
Whatever the definition, I'm sure the likes of Novell, Akamai, Belron, Konica, Uniq, Honda and many others might fit it.
See also: "weasel words".
Pathetic, but par for the course, I guess.
Comment by Alexander Limi — Jul 23, 2009 11:21:00 AM | # - re
A bit of a sceptical view, but a sound point well made. It is my belief is that organisations and individuals shold be able to adopt whatever platform suits their reuirements, ethos and budget. A good report that goes some way to providing a definition on what an Enterprise CMS is be can be found at mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/microsoft/vol6/article3/article3.html. Sadly only in Englsh. Hwyl.
Comment by Rich Baker — Jul 25, 2009 9:04:06 AM | # - re
I totally agree with you, and customers should definitely choose whatever platform they want based upon their requirements. Vendors making false claims doesn't particularly help this though.
If you like magic quadrants and the likes though you will be interested to see Plone as being the only system in 'balance' in CMS Watch's Enterprise Portals report last year:
www.cmswatch.com/Feature/173-Portals-2008
-Matt
Comment by Matt Hamilton — Jul 25, 2009 11:56:03 AM | # - re