Beginning SharePoint® 2007 Administration: Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0 and Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007

9.1. Introduction to Content Management

The term content management (CM) is very broad, and means different things to different people, but the general meaning is a technical process that supports the management of digital information, during its life cycle. Very often when people talk about content management they mean either or both document management and web content management, and this is also what this chapter will focus on. The type of digital information that is the target for content management is anything that requires some management during its life span, that is, any information that you want to keep for a while, for example:

• Standard files: text files, configuration files, source code, and files created with any type of application, including non-Microsoft applications, such as desktop publishing files, and computer-aided design (CAD) files.

• Multimedia files: Music and audio files (e.g., MP3, WAV), image files (e.g., JPG, GIF, PNG), and video files (e.g., AVI, MPEG).

• Document files: Files created by MS Word, MS Excel, MS OneNote, MS InfoPath, and similar applications.

• Web content files: Files, or pages, displayed on a web page, typically an intranet or public web site.

One goal of content management is to make it easier for users to add, update, and delete these types of files. This in turn will make it easier for the users to organize, find, and control how these files are used, during the file's life cycle. The management process can be divided into the following steps: ...