Definition
A website could be an organisation's main information portal - where they can publish material about themselves, their work and projects and articles or reports that they have produced. It can also take the simpler form of a standalone blog where content is shared with their intended audience, or may be represented as a forum or wiki where user generated content is published and shared.
An organisation usually depends entirely on their main website as their presence on the Internet and expects it to function at all times.
High Technical
DIY CMS
There are numerous well developed and 'continually maintained' content mangement systems that you can install and configure from scratch. They differ between their application and intended purpose, the majority however relying on a LAMP or WAMP backend. Each CMS has its own particular requirements for webserver, database server and PHP configurations, as well as security considerations for them.
Benefits
- Total control of the CMS software, plug-ins, themes and preferred configuration
- Fine-grained access control and modification of CMS features
Downsides
- A whole software ecosystem to learn with every new CMS
- Responsibility for software updates and malware protection
- Responsibility for data security
Examples
- Wordpress.com installation
- CiviCRM is an open source CRm environment intended for civil society use.
- Custom Django app, allows for creation quickly of high content, high functionality websites. Django's security systems re well documented and well integrated.
- Custom Drupal site, again a ready made configurable solution, with a developed sense of security integration - though as with the other solutions security relies on a holistic approach including server side security.
Hosting Requirements
Intermediary Technical
Hosted CMS
Benefits
Downsides
Examples
Hosting Requirements
Basic Technical
Hosted website
For a basic setup providing a content distribution platform such as a blog user's have the option of using existing free services such as Wordpress, Journoportfolio or similar.
Benefits
Downsides
Examples
Hosting Requirements
Comparison Matrix
| DIY CMS | Hosted CMS | Hosted Website | |
| High technical skill | Intermediary technical skill | Basic | |