Professional SharePoint® 2007 Web Content Management Development: Building Publishing Sites with Office SharePoint Server 2007

Foreword

The importance of Web technology has increased tremendously over the last few years. People rely on the Internet to find and research information, interact with applications, connect with people, and make purchases. In a world where storage is becoming cheaper and broadband access is becoming increasingly ubiquitous, companies both small and large are competing for the attention of an entire generation that has grown up with applications such as MSN, Facebook, and YouTube. The ability of a corporation to deliver a compelling Web experience is not just important, but essential to stay alive. If your content is not relevant, then you'll lose your business to your competitors with a simple Internet search.

For more than a decade, many software vendors have addressed the Web content management (WCM) need with specialized, vertical software. I remember when Microsoft acquired NCompass Labs in 2001 for its WCM technology and released subsequent versions of Microsoft Content Management Server (MCMS). In fact, that's when I first met Andrew, when he was working closely with MCMS 2002 and developing cutting-edge applications. While MCMS met the needs for WCM, the consistent feedback from customers was that Web content management was a misnomer. It's not "Web content" management; it's content management for Web applications. This means it's important for a technology to really take a look at the entire life cycle of all content that eventually makes its way to the Web — intranet, ...