Happens every time

Ok, I give up. I admit it, it's too much trouble. I have been looking for a combo LMS/CMS for about a month now and I'm sick of it. This happens every time I go down this path; I get so far and then end up giving up. There are so many LMSs and many CMSs in the market that after looking for awhile the features become a confusing mass of meaningless drivel.

My friend Lisa did something amazing. She gave up her job to work with her family on her niece's emerging career as a singer/actress. Demi's currently traveling all over the place to promote her new gig "Camp Rock" and Lisa is traveling with her. To me this is an amazing act of love and sacrifice.

What does this have to do with my hunt for content management? Well, for one thing, it showed me how non-sacrificial I am. Just because I cannot concentrate well enough to wade through features doesn't mean I should give up. After all, this doesn't require me to give up everything like Lisa did.

So, every time I want to give up (and, believe me, it's often these days), Lisa's story will remind me not to. I want to turn "happens every time" into "happens sometimes". Wish me luck...

Still Hunting...

I have now seen more online video presentations than I ever cared to. Tip to some of you CMS/LMS vendors out there... If you go to the trouble of creating a video, at least create one with words! Come on - if I wanted to read, I would have downloaded your white paper from the home page. :)

One good thing has come out of this search, my co-worker Bill and I are talking about cool ways to educate people. He has some great tips in this post.

So, I'm saddened by the lack of what I need in the marketplace. I really want a combination LMS/CMS.

The closest I have found so far is RWD uPerform. This is a very interesting product. I'll let you watch their demo and comment on it. I'm keeping my eye on it though.

The Hunt for Content Management

Something's been keeping me up at night... It's horrible, terrifying really. I have content.

I guess this is not surprising considering that I am a writer. I write all kinds of documentation for the user community for a web-based product called Fellowship One. This blog entry is not so much about the unique challenges I face writing for a non-technical audience, so I'll skip that for another time.

What's scary is the amount and variety of documentation I have created in 4.5 years. I have online help, PDF documents, 300+ knowledge base answers, training handouts, case studies, white papers, preview guides, and on and on. It's pretty much never ending.

Content is not my problem, which is great to say when you're a one-woman show. What has become a very pressing problem is managing all this content. I'm pressed to even tell you where everything is anymore - I have to search. Just like my users do.

Sigh... So I've finally admitted defeat and am on the hunt for a combination content/learning management system. I am defeated because RFIs, trial accounts, and endless "why do you want to spend our money again?" meetings loom in my future. All to a good end but tedious nonetheless.

Anyone out there had a good experience with a CMS/LMS combo? I would appreciate your feedback as I start my search.

Live Writer

I'm a terrible blogger. I don't know why I expected to be good at it. I never kept a diary successfully so what made me think I'd be able to post to a blog more often.

I think part of the problem is that when I started the blog you had to visit the site to post. Since then, there have been some cool additions. For one thing, I could email my post to my blog. That's better.

Now I found something even better - Windows Live Writer. In my day job, I have to use Windows Live Messenger to communicate with my co-workers. This add on is really cool. Since I'm already in the messenger, it's just a fast click away and I can see my blog as if I'm logged into Blogger. Way cool!

Maybe the new tool will get me blogging more! Let's hope.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Live Writer