Content management strategy -- need advice!

[Lou Quillio]

siliconwriter at comcast.net wrote:
> I would really appreciate some advice and examples from other
> folks who have solved these problems. I should point out that
> under no conceivable circumstances is my company going to pay
> more than $30K for a professional CMS. I have to pretty much sell
> and then implement this idea.

Get your CMS feet wet with a Wiki:

  http://stcforum.org/viewtopic.php?id=436

I'm linking there to MoinMoin Personal Wiki.  Put it on your
desktop.  Play around with it.  Make each discrete topic a page.
Organize topic pages under category pages.  If you use the built-in
GUI editor, you can copy-paste blocks of text and images to and from
MS Word; it'll preserve emphasis, too, though I don't think it'll
make judgments about heading levels.  That's okay.  You're chunking
anyway.

Everything you put in it is searchable and version controlled.

Like it?  Switch to regular MoinMoin, put it on your LAN and let
others play.  It's all free, hackable, and she'll output DocBook XML
to boot.  At these prices you can't afford to overlook this stuff.
Would probably deliver 85% of your wishlist (if you think about what
you really *need*), and the last 15% (print production) ... well
that's why they still need you.

Think of it as simplified DITA.  DocBook output, native HTML4 Strict
output, scripting, and the fact that everything's stored in text
files means you're never locked-in.

Can't hurt to try it.  Do a private trial before you show anybody.

LQ