Moving a major cultural institution onto an Open Source WCM

environment Richard Morgan

Introductions

•  The V&A •  The world’s greatest museum of art and

design •  http://www.vam.ac.uk

Introductions

• Richard Morgan • Web Technical Manager •  r.morgan(at)vam.ac.uk •  rpfmorg(at)googlemail.com •  rmorg on twitter

Introductions

•  A website redesign for the V&A •  Putting the entire collections database

online • Creating a new website for the V&A •  A new Content Management System

Procurement – what we did

• Create a short shortlist •  A mixture of Open Source and

Commercial offers •  Tender designed for companies to “choose

a system” and “propose a model” •  Statement of requirement focus was on

the company, not an endless list of CMS features

Evaluation

•  A technical evaluation of the system – Asked for a Virtual Machine for us to play with – Could we accomplish basic tasks on the

system – without a manual?

User testing

•  Even a little user testing is a lot better than none

• No training, no previous experience – the ultimate usability test for “museum” users

•  A simple task

Import and migration

• Could we import items into the system without much help?

• Was it going to work?

Interviews with stakeholders

•  Test of the cost model •  Test of the project management approach •  Test of the relationship • We made a nuisance of ourselves

Technical strategy

• Web Content Management is hard … • … and Content Management Systems are

all terrible. •  As for Content Management System

clients…

No Platonic CMS

•  A good CMS is not an end in itself • Who wants to be known for great

management of content?

Linked data and applications

• CMS was not the “master” system •  Play to the strengths of the system • Use alternatives rather than squeezing in

functionality that doesn’t work •  But consumption and provision of services

is vital

Spread the risk

• Using multiple systems reduces the risk associated with any one system

•  Is ok to be complex, not complicated

Spread the cost

• Different sources of funding available at different times

• Many projects, not coordinated means a variable cost model throughout the financial year

Open Source or Commercial?

•  The “traditional” risks of open source are well known

• OpenSource is free … but it still costs money

•  But commercial solutions cost money too

Software or services?

•  Focus on delivery, not elegance •  The museum does not want a Content

Management System, it wants a website •  Time and materials requires firm project

management •  But broken promises on fixed cost projects

help nobody

Flexibility

•  A variable cost model allows migration to be done piecemeal

•  An opensource model where functionality can be extended …

• … delivers incremental improvements to challenged users

Agility

• Migrating content incrementally •  Improving interfaces incrementally • Delivering many small projects with a

small ace team •  An agile project management approach is

required

“Mixed model” development

•  Empower the museum to create its own website

•  But guard against variable staffing levels • Co-location days transfer knowledge • Doing simple things with a few systems is

easier than doing complicated things with one system

Conclusions

•  Buying CMS “software” is just taking a hit before getting to work

• Content Management Systems should do services well

• Content Management Systems should not poorly replicate functionality in other systems

•  Flexibility, agility, delivery and service