Content Management System
Content Management System is a software system that is used to create and manage online web content such as text, pictures, graphics, audio, and applications. CMS allows people with little or no web design knowledge to create a web site, as well as help expert web designers efficiently create an online presence.
Some example of CMS are YouTube, Facebook, PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, Netflix, and WordPress. These examples meet my definition of Content Management Systems because they all manage some sort of digital content and does not require the user to have a computer programming background to utilize and greatly benefit from it.
- YouTube allows people to post video contents and allow other people to subscribe, share, and like videos.
- Facebook allows people to create an online profile by managing pictures and text posts and connect virtually with other users.
- PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, and Netflix are CMS that allows management of digital entertainment products and applications.
- And WordPress is a CMS that allows beginners such as myself to create this very only blog site with ease.
I think that WordPress is very popular because of the ease of use. Creating a web site is a challenging and intimidating task to people with very little computer programming background. A WordPress site can be created without any computer programming knowledge, although being familiar with Hyper Text Markup Language (html) and Cascading Style Sheet (css) would be advantageous to the user. Starting off in WordPress is not much different than starting off in a social networking profile (like Facebook) for the first time.
The most difficult part about installing WordPress was that I didn’t know what I was doing. I’m completely new to web hosting, so my first obstacle was to shop around for a web host (GoDaddy, Wix, SquareSpace, FastComet, etc.). Then, after paying for hosting, there is a cPanel web hosting account that I had to learn to navigate. After that, I had difficulty going about how to actually install WordPress so I can actually use it. Fortunately, I reached out to my instructor and with great guidance, I overcame this difficulty and I was able to get this very blog page online for which I am very thankful.
Still very new to WordPress, but my first impression is very promising. There’s much to learn about WordPress, but it is not a scary thing because it is something that I am very much looking forward to. I already see that there is an option to edit as html, so I’m looking forward to that among other possibilities with WordPress. I’m sure any confusion can be resolved by actively working with WordPress in class.