So – we agree that a WCM built on CMIS would be A-OK. I still have the open question. Can or should the CMIS include at least discovery of consumption services in its scope. (publish targets/where available) Or is it better to stay in the management realm.

Actually, the role for CMIS for WCM is different from what you seem to state as I see it. What I see CMIS doing is relieving the WCM vendors from dealing with the repository, search, workflow, and retention. This will free them up to spend more cycles on the experience of the content creators and making that even better.

I wish I could agree with you but I don’t think that CMIS is quite the panacea WCM implementations need. I agree CMIS makes for a better WCM – but many of our problems are not about content CRUD but access to content that has been released to the wild. I am not sure CMIS is how the world should fetch content.

So much of WCM is about context that there is always a set of compromises when it comes to assembly and presentation. Content creators need, want and demand that content be managed from the context of the consumer.

Pure play WCM products solve for this by creating a tightly coupled relationship between layout and content creation. ECM products that do WCM tend to opt for a decoupled solution with content pushes and duplication of down cycle presentation environments. Can CMIS make this better? Sure – but I’m not sure about the access to managed content from outside the firewall that may result from rewiring pure play WCMs.

this is a post

Right now we have ECM vendors with WCM products and WCM vendors that store content. The ECM guys can do anything with the content, but they are not known for understanding the WCM space or providing user interfaces that work for the problem. Meanwhile, the WCM guys have solved more of the core WCM problems, but sharing content and retention are beyond them now.

CMIS will allow some of those smaller, solid, WCM vendors to keep their applications and allow people to plug it into Documentum or FileNet. This will let them handle all sizes of web presence and allow them to provide the more robust ECM features without having to pick a vendor or lose their focus and edge by developing those features.

Damn, that was almost a post.

To continue beating the shipping analogy. The equipment that needs to remain constant in the logistics scenario is not the vehicle but the containers and the loading equipment. You don’t necessarily change the pallet jacks, forklifts, and hand trucks because the vehicle changes. The add-on and content creation tools are better enabled to scale if the the interface to the CMS is standardized.

But like systems, in logistics – size does matter. Great distance and extreme weight present challenges that affect more parts of the system.Airfreight shipping containers, barges, and what not require special equipment to perform the same logical function (loading cargo into transportation vehicles) as a pallet jack in a distributions center. This is made easier though if the distance between the forks on the equipment is standardized. As content volumes and requirements scale – so must the tools that move them.

First, if customers build their solutions using CMIS, it will allow them to port these applications to other platforms with relative ease. While it may seem that this will only expose a limited set of features to the end user, in fact all traditional library services will be made available in the first release of CMIS. A majority of today’s end user solutions can be built using CMIS. As an application begins to outgrow the current CM repository, the solution can be ported to another ECM with relative ease as compared to re-writing to a new platform. Much like using ODBC allows modeling of database applications with platforms like Access or FoxPro.

Second, it allows vendors to develop add on components to multiple platforms with relative ease. This will mean more add-on products to the ECM platforms that support CMIS. It also means that vendors looking to develop specialty tools integrated to an ECM platform do not need to bet on a single vendor. Ultimately this will bring customers more options on the types of content that can be managed by an ECM system and how that content can be used within the organization.