Presented at Gilbane Boston 2010 by Deane Barker.

1. Web Content Delivery Systems @gadgetopia

2. Blend Interactive Working in content management since the late 1990s. @gadgetopia

3. Sioux Falls, South Dakota

4. The Point To get you thinking about content delivery, as opposed to content production Identification of various delivery architectures To consider the delivery tier in terms of what services it provides to enhance content To use the delivery tier to enhance content, no matter where it originated

5. What is content delivery?

6. That moment when you display some media in a browser window and an end user consumes it.

7. The Four Disciplines Content Modeling Content Creation Content Management Content Delivery

8. Two Tiers Content Modeling Content Creation Content Management Content Delivery Production Delivery

9. In the end, delivery is the only thing the end user directly cares about.

10. It’s like a duck… Photo Credit: Flickr user “theharv58”

11. Production vs. Delivery Content production is everything that it took to create and manage a piece of content Everything up until you press the “Publish” button Content delivery is everything is takes to get that content to a consumable location in a form that allows a user to interact with it

12. Allows consumption Allows interaction Transmission and Transformation Enhancement

13. The Delivery Tier This is the environment from which the content is served to the user “Delivery / Presentation + Tier / Layer” “The Runtime”

14. Delivery Tier Enhancements A/B Testing SEO Analytics Permissions Navigation Commenting Rating Search

15. Delivery Architecture Coupled vs. Decoupled

16. Coupled Systems Content production and delivery take place on the same system Most low- to mid-range systems today are coupled Common for .Net and open-source systems

18. Producers CMS Consumers

19. Decoupled Systems The delivery tier is decoupled from the production tier Content is produced in one system, then transmitted to another system for delivery Common for Java-based systems Delivery tiers have varying degrees of intelligence

21. Producers CMS Consumers Web Servers

22. Survey

23. Advantages of Coupled More immediate for editors Delivered content is still connected Has the full power of the CMS behind it Intake of user-generated content is easier

24. Advantages of Decoupled Delivery tier can be simpler Delivery tier not bound to CMS platform Easier and cheaper to scale Integrates better with existing systems Security – the external Web site is not the repository

25. How smart is your delivery tier? In a coupled system, the delivery tier is as smart as the CMS In a decoupled system, it can vary wildly The trend is towards smarter delivery tiers productized by the CMS vendor

26. How smart is your delivery tier? “Raw” Web server Has no idea where the content came from Has no knowledge of or connection to the CMS Active Delivery Tier Hand-built or productized Often serves other purposes Is there another option?

27. Having content in an ECM system behind the firewall is a long way from publishing it in a usable format.

28. Producers CMS Web Servers Consumers Repo Repo Part of the CMS publishes to the delivery tier.

29. Producers Consumers CMS Application CMS publishes to an application written solely for content delivery.

30. Producers Consumers CMS WCMS CMS publishes to a genuine WCMS.

31. Delivery Tier Enhancements A/B Testing SEO Analytics Permissions Navigation Commenting Rating Search

32. My Press Release

34. Web Server

35. Photo Credit: Flickruser “jhf”

37. Rating

38. Search

39. Permissions Management

40. Navigation Management

41. A/B TestingWCMS

42. Photo Credit: Flickruser “Tjflex2”

43. The delivery tier must not only deliver content, but much enhance it.

44. CMS Consumers Flat Files WCMS SQL Allow content to be aggregated in the delivery tier

45. Flat Files Consumers WCMS SQL Producers Allow content to be aggregated in the delivery tier

46. Producers Consumers CMS WCMS CMS publishes to a portal

48. “Uh…”

49. Photo Credit: Flickruser “aaipodpics”

50. Are portal-ish products the future of content delivery?

51. Things to look for Solid API and integration points Strong import/export functionality Repository abstraction

52. Blend Interactive http://blendinteractive.com Gadgetopiahttp://gadgetopia.com Twitter @gadgetopia Email deane@blendinteractive.com