Synergy

1
Synergy

• Simple Content Management
• Jeff Pruett, Fred Tu

2
The Problem

• Small organizations need tools to manage online
  content
• Departmental control of content
• Maintaining a consistent professional appearance
• Most tools are complex and possess a high
  learning curve

3
Inconsistent Websites

• www.spanport.ucsb.edu
• www.dlink.com
• www.wamu.com

4
Current solutions

• Server-based solutions
• phpNuke, postNuke, Zope
• ASP.NET, Java servlets
• Dreamweaver, Contribute
• Client-based solutions
• FrontPage
• CityDesk

5
The Synergy Solution
6
Synergy Key Features

• Zero administration
• Non-technical content generation
• Template driven presentation
• Version control and revision history
• Server independence
• Collaborative authorship
• Group-based permission scheme

7
Synergy Architecture
8
Synergy Client
9
Target Consumer

• Small-cap organizations
• Approximately 100 employees or less
• Majority of workforce consists of non-tech savvy
  users
• Main concern is to post content quickly and
  easily
• Willing to maintain the site only if costs are
  not high

10
Is there a market?

• US SBA, Office of Advocacy Statistic

11
Is there a demand?

• Macromedia sold more than 100,000 copies of
  Contribute over the last 5 months
• More than 40,000 firms purchased the product
• 35 of those firms were small businesses

12
How much benefit?

• Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Network/System Administrators earn approximately
  (2002)
• 27-29 per hour
• 57,000-61,000 per year
• Administrators are too expensive to dedicate time
  to content management

13
Challenges

• Partial Publishing
• Versioning
• Enforcing consistent presentation
• Controlling user access

14
Production Timeline

• System Design 1/22
• Implement DatabaseProvider, SecurityManager 1/29
• Test DatabaseProvider, SecurityManagerImplement
  SiteManager, VersionController 2/5
• Test SiteManager, VersionControllerImplement
  ConnectionManagerBegin SynergyClient
  Implementation (GUI) 2/12

15
Production Timeline

• Test ConnectionManager, SynergyClientComplete
  SynergyClientBegin PublishAgent implementation
  2/19
• Test SynergyClient, PublishAgentImplement
  Staging WWW ServerComplete PublishAgent 2/26
• Test Staging WWW Server, PublishAgentSynergyAdmin
  implementation 3/4
• Test, Test, Test 3/11

16
Q A
17
www.spanport.ucsb.edu
18
D-Link
19
Washington Mutual
20
Our Approach

• Partial Publishing
• User flags article as Ready to Publish
• Only Ready to Publish articles go live
• Versioning
• Keep entire copies of the content in the database
• Snapshots can be previewed, and restored by user

21
Our Approach

• Enforce consistent presentation
• Content is stored textually in the database
• At publish time, rendered as HTML through a
  site-wide template
• Controlling user access
• Username/Password authentication
• Group based permissions assigned at folder level