Underachievement
The under-achiever is the person who can achieve but is too wrapped up in other things to actually do it. How many times do you see gifted people who put off those things until tomorrow? Under achievers have little ambition. What they do have is gifts which to all intent and purpose stay unwrapped. It’s almost like being given the ability to walk and refusing to take that first step.

The under achiever will be known to say “I shall do that one day”, though rarely does. Often this is a sign of underlying problems or fear of failure, emanating from some experience of rejection of some kind, or can simply be laziness of character. The under achiever isn’t always to blame for their lack of achievement. Imagine an artist such as Monet being encouraged by his parents to give up art as a dream and to work in banking. Parental influence often means that children are discouraged from achieving in areas where they have natural talent, and then as they get older, choose to ignore those skills in favor of others, making them lazy at using the gifts they were given.

Avoidance of responsibility
How does this relate to laziness? What happens here is that underachievers tend to blame others for their shortcomings. They often blame lack of time, or responsibility and are seen to play the martyr and victim of circumstance. If they had more character, they can overcome this kind of laziness because what it puts their needs in life on the back burner, and hurl blame at those around them for not achieving.

In Conclusion
So I end this by saying…when we do just enough to get by…

1. Who are we really shortchanging?
2. Why do we shortchange ourselves so much all the time?

• Extend the functionality and increase ease of use for the end user
• Increase the functionality of a site without increasing the work load for the administrative user
• Bring excitement back into the Cascade Server community

With this in mind, we are pleased to announce the completion of the the Cascade Server Photo Gallery Extension.
 

What this Means for You

Historically, organizations wishing to implement a typical photo gallery had to step outside the realm of Cascade Server to accomplish this task. This meant that time and money would be expended on either researching, developing, or acquiring additional functionality that is typically found in most content management systems. Additionally, when an organization is forced to abandon their content management system to achieve such goals, they must also abandon the core benefits and usability that centralized content management provides, negating the benefits that their CMS provided originally. As we look back on the definition of content management, we will realize quickly the we have lost the ability to establish processes and workflows associated with creating, organizing, and structuring information so that it can be stored, published, and re-purposed to multiple formats or locations. By introducing the Cascade Server Photo Gallery Extension into your organization, these desired attributes can be upheld.
 

Introducing the Cascade Server Photo Gallery Extension

The Cascade Server Photo Gallery Extension is a powerful yet simple utility for displaying a collection of photos. This solution can be placed within any existing Cascade Server template and has been packaged with a custom asset factory plugin that allows any user to easily upload a zip file of their images and have them automatically extracted within Cascade Server. Additionally, thumbnails of all objects are created as they are added. The Cascade Server Photo Gallery Extension is a utility that can be set up in minutes rather than days. This is a great tool for any organization that maintains its web presence with Cascade Server.
 

Additional Value

• Can be used across your CMS implementation
• The Cascade Server Photo Gallery Extension can be easily skinned for use in multiple templates
• The included Asset Factory Plugin for uploading images can be reused beyond the scope of creating photo galleries, thus allowing you to control access to the zip archive functionality at the Asset Factory level
• Cascade Experts provides free installation support
• Any future updates to the photo gallery extension are available without further cost to you
• The Cascade Server Photo Gallery Extension has an affordable cost of $5,000

From inception, we realized our strength as an organization would come from creating a culture where the client comes first and we proactively listen to your needs.  It is important for us to create the atmosphere where we think of ourselves as a partner rather than a vendor.  With this concept applied to our strategic goals, the end result will be a solution that not only meets your needs but evolves with your business.

As we continue to develop the Cascade Server Expansion Kit, our intent is two fold….

• Extend the functionality and increase ease of use for the end user
• Increase the functionality of a site without increasing the work load for the administrative user

As indicated by client feedback, we feel developing with these goals in mind will allow our customers to realize a greater amount of success and a renewed appreciation for their CMS product. 

I would like to thank you again for your participation and support, and please keep watch for more details to come!

Sincerely,

Brock A Brown M.S.
Executive Director
brock.brown@secondvue.com

We would love to hear from you. So, please join us at one of the popular social networks listed below!

The list below contains 6 ways a content inventory will help the success of your CMS Implementation:

• Assess the state of the content on the site. Is your content up-to-date? Do you have information ROT (Redundant, Outdated or Trivial information)? Even the best-kept sites have it. Now is the time to identify the content that needs to be updated and make those changes before migrating it into the CMS.
• Identify who is responsible for editing and approving the content on your site. You’ll need this information to set up the workflows in the CMS.
• Establish a set of keywords or topics for each page. This information will become the keyword metadata in the CMS.
• Determine how frequently the content should be updated (daily, weekly, monthly, each semester, annually, etc.) and use this information to set up automatic review notices in the CMS.
• Identify content that can be reused within the site or on other sites.
• Organize your site so that menus and breadcrumbs can be automated in the CMS.

For more insight and discussion on this topic, please view the following article….

Performing a Content Inventory
A content inventory is a tool to help you review and prioritize site content (text, photos, audio/video, documents, etc.) for migration into the content management system (CMS). It is also a way to gather information that will be used to set up site templates and workflows in the CMS environment. While many refer to this as a “mind numbing experience,” it is critical to the success of your migration project and doing the work up front can save a lot of development time later on.

For more insight and discussion on this topic, please view the following article….

10 Reasons for a CSS Based Design
Let's take a look at 10 reasons why a CSS based design is better than the traditional table based web design and why it has become the preferred method of modern web design.

Before this current release, Hannon Hill had already upgraded Cascade Server for improved back-end performance and the flexibility to more easily manage a greater number of users. With 6.0, Cascade Server will continue to expand its dominance in the CMS market as it now offers improved administration functionality through the addition of 'sites' as well as the added capability to design customized roles to better match the responsibility of the users or sites. These most recent additions will make it easier than ever before to bring multiple sites into Cascade Server and take advantage of all the functionality it has to offer.

In our opinion, the team at Hannon Hill employs some of the most ambitious, intelligent, and hardworking young professionals in the CMS community today. The dedication and effort put forth by the Hannon Hill team shows a continuous commitment to product improvement and development and reaffirms their commitment to provide a positive client experience through the duration of an organization's use of the product.

We are excited about the release of Cascade Server 6.0 and look forward to discovering what the future holds for our friends at Hannon Hill!

This brings us to the next question. How does this affect me? Due to the digital revolution, organizations large and small have collected an immense amount of digital information of many types. Maintaining a non-structured repository for this information involves many hours of non-efficient labor and drives the increase of operating expenses.

From this evolved a market for systems to manage both information and data. Organizations needed a way for its members to create new information and be able to organize this information in a logical manner. They needed the ability to easily locate and access old data and information. Most of all they wanted a central location or repository for this to occur.

Today, content management systems have filled the need for these organizations. Modern content management systems have given the organization a central repository to create, store, edit, and publish information while organizing the items in a logical format. Next we will discuss the key attributes of a content management system.

Content Creation – A content management system should allow its users to easily create or add new information to the system. This should be done in a fashion that equals or reduces the amount of time needed in relation to the previous process. It should also place or reference the newly created in a central repository so it can easily be located and accessed at a later time.

Content Editing – A content management system should allow its users to easily locate a document for editing. The application should have the functionality to track different versions and the accompanying changes. This will give the organization the ability to audit changes and updates to existing information while allowing them to revert back to previous versions if needed.

Content Publishing – A content management system should allow an organization a mechanism to publish content in an organized manner. The system needs to allow for a workflow or approval sequence in the publishing process so that no item is made “public” without being reviewed.

Content Archiving – A content management system should allow an organization to define a logical structure in which to store or catalog new and existing items. The system should be flexible enough so that the defined structure meets the business logic of the organization.

While Cascade is a great tool to meet these basic functions, it is important to remember that each key attribute in a CMS should be matched with a business process that adds value or increases efficiency.

• CSS tableless design allows web designers the possibility to make more complex layouts and designs when producing a website. With table based layouts, web designers are confined to creating layouts that can be rigid, inflexible, and based on grids. CSS tableless based layouts, on the other hand, allow the designer to be as creative as their imagination allows them to be.
• If your intention is to improve search engine rankings for your website, then a CSS tableless design will help your cause. CSS tableless designs result in smaller web page file sizes, a reduction in the ratio of code to content, and the elimination of the extraneous "junk" HTML markup that many table based web editors use. This makes it easier for search engine spiders to crawl through your website and results in a more favorable ranking in search engines.
• By using CSS style sheets it is extremely easy to maintain visual consistency throughout your website. When using table based layouts, it is easy to lose this consistency because each web page's style, layout, and design are frequently hard-coded individually into every page. If you need to make a change to your website across all pages, you'll have to change the code on each individual page. With CSS, all pages can use the same CSS document for their layout and styles. If you change a property in the CSS file, the changes will be instantaneously reflected across all pages of your website.
• Updating a CSS tableless website is easier and less time consuming than compared to table based designs. For example, if you want to change font sizes and colors within your website, your external CSS file can be simply opened and the necessary changes made without making the change on each and every page of your website. To change the look of your website for special or seasonal promotions, the entire website "look and feel" can be completely altered simply by changing properties in the CSS file without touching the HTML code of the web page.
• Redesigning a website using CSS tableless design is faster and less expensive than redesigning a website using table based design. This is because CSS tableless designs have separate files for content and visual data including web page structure whereas table based designs mix layout information with content in the same file. By separating the visual data and layout from the content, a web designer is able to quickly and easily make changes across the entire website.
• Table web page designs rely heavily on the use of spacer .gifs, a transparent image used to control blank space within a table based web page. Having to create a series of custom sized transparent images to organize your web page layout creates messy code and a rigid page structure that can't be easily changed. CSS tableless design eliminates this problem by using DIVs instead of tables which can be easily resized, positioned anywhere on a page, or even dynamically manipulated through the use of scripting languages.
• A common advantage of using CSS tableless web design is a reduction in web page file size which equates to your web pages loading faster. When compared to a CSS tableless layout, a table based web page frequently takes twice as long to load. Also, the amount of bandwidth you will save using a CSS tableless based approach, especially as your website grows in size, can be vast resulting in a faster overall loading website while saving you money.
• Using CSS tableless web design makes your website more accessible by making content consumption and site navigation easier for users. You'll also do a much better job of accommodating those with visual impairments and other disabilities. Screen readers, Braille devices, and special browsers for the impaired have fewer problems with tableless designs because they can control the CSS file making font sizes larger, or even modify the web page structure to make it easier to read.
• CSS enables the web designer to attach multiple style sheets for different media types. If a potential customer visits your site with her Blackberry or mobile phone, a different CSS style sheet is called which dictates a completely different layout and styling for your entire website formatting it for optimal viewing on the small screen of the device.
• Cascade Server is driven by W3C standards abd much flexibility is gained by making sure that all templates consist of valid XHTML and CSS.  This will give you greater control of how content is presented and will allow for greater flexibility with using Cascade Server itself.  For example, if templates and content are structured properly Cascade will allow for multiple formats of the same document.  Formats such as a full html version, printer friendly version, text only, etc.

CSS tableless design is a great method for developing modern websites and offers many valuable advantages over traditional table based design. Using CSS tableless design will provide your website visitors better usability and accessibility, faster page load times with greater, more elegant design possibilities. For the web developer and website owner, CSS tableless websites are easier and less expensive to redesign, update and maintain. When given a choice, CSS tableless design will be the best option for most present day website designs.

The content inventory will help you:

• Assess the state of the content on the site. Is your content up-to-date? Do you have information ROT (Redundant, Outdated or Trivial information)? Even the best-kept sites have it. Now is the time to identify the content that needs to be updated and make those changes before migrating it into the CMS.
• Identify who is responsible for editing and approving the content on your site. You’ll need this information to set up the workflows in the CMS.
• Establish a set of keywords or topics for each page. This information will become the keyword metadata in the CMS.
• Determine how frequently the content should be updated (daily, weekly, monthly, each semester, annually, etc.) and use this information to set up automatic review notices in the CMS.
• Identify content that can be reused within the site or on other sites.
• Organize your site so that menus and breadcrumbs can be automated in the CMS.

Getting to know your content

Inventorying the content on your site will be a team process and should include both content creators and Web developers. Completing a content inventory differs from creating a site map or a map of the site’s directory structure. While you may refer to the directory structure periodically to make sure you haven’t missed hidden content, you’ll actually be working with the published Web site most of the time. As you click through the site, you’ll be reviewing the content on each page — something that can’t be done by a computer.

Filling out the content inventory

Start at the homepage and click through the site, one section at a time, recording the pages and/or content pieces as you go.

If you have a section with many similar pages (example: news releases or events), you may not need to inventory every page in that section. News releases, for example, may be published on your current site for archival purposes. The individual releases are unlikely to require updates, and it would be extremely time-consuming to inventory every release. In this case, you may want to make a “global” note in the inventory for that particular area by listing the number of releases, the type and a note that they are archived.

Content inventories will vary from site to site, so feel free to add columns to the spreadsheet to collect information you believe to be useful for your particular site. Remember this is a tool to help you get organized, so do what you need to make it useful to your situation.

Content inventory fields:

ID – The ID is attached to each piece of content in the site and should reflect the way a user moves through the site rather than the directory structure itself. Start with the homepage at 0.0. A main-level section page would be 1.0 and a sub-section would be 1.1 and so forth.

Title- The unique title or headline of the page or piece of content.

URL/filename – URL or directory path of content.

Content format – Choices may include:

• HTML paragraphs (may also want to specify a type specific to your site (e.g., news release, profile, etc.)
• HTML aggregate (an “index” page with links to other pages. Example: news releases, events, profiles).
• HTML form
• Image
• Image/text
• Intruder/sidebar text
• PDF
• Word document
• PowerPoint presentation
• Script (may need to specify type)
• Web Application
• External Link (a link to another site)

Keywords/topics (metadata)

Keywords or topics for a particular page. Think of these as the words someone might type into a search engine to find this particular page. Your team may want to create a controlled vocabulary to ensure consistency across the site. This helps you avoid situations where one person may enter the keyword “courses” while another uses “classes.”

Content status (ROT)

Up-to-date or needs review/revision? Also check for information ROT: Redundant (located elsewhere and doesn’t need to be reproduced here); Outdated (should this be updated or discontinued?); Trivial (unimportant, should be discontinued).

Editors

CMS users who should have access to edit this content.

Approvers

CMS users who should approve this content before it is published.

Content Review

How frequently should this content be reviewed? Daily; monthly; each semester; annually; every October; August and January of each year; etc.

Reuse

Is this content reused elsewhere on the site or on other sites? If so, where? If it isn’t currently being reused, could it be and where?

Notes

Any other notes you’d like to make about the content. Noting broken links, HTML display problems, graphic problems, etc.