Content Management Framework (CMF)

Government websites provide the richest and the most accessible form of information dissemination for common public. However, the value of the information on the websites often depends on the correctness of the information. The existing paradigm does not support active content management on websites. The aim of this project is to increase the value of information on Government websites by migrating these websites to a Content Management Framework (CMF) which would support the evolutionary digital life cycle of information. This includes creation, updation, publishing, translating, archiving and retiring. The CMF allows the authors (in this case the Government Departments and Organizations) to manage the content on a real-time basis as the information is generated or as the content evolves. It also ensures systematic archiving of earlier content which can be used for future references.

Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM) has taken up the task of enabling each Government Department to update the data on their websites, by facilitating the migration of their websites to a Content Management Framework (CMF). Since Free and Open Source (FOSS) offers several powerful CMF applications, for example, Joomla, the project also aims to increasing the use of FOSS in the Government and reducing the dependency on proprietary solutions. More than 100 websites have been migrated to CMF since the beginning of the project in November 2007. This includes 19 ministers' websites and 45 directorates/ departments website . KSITM also intends to transfer the websites of all the Departments, which amount to about 90, to the new framework, which will soon be completed. It also intends to include all official websites of municipalities, grama panchayats, welfare boards, schools and the like in the framework, which amount to more than 2,500. As part of the project, Kerala State IT Mission has trained total service providers who in turn gave training to the nodal officers of Government Departments and enabled them to upload the content themselves on the website. The project could fulfill another objective -standardising the templates of all Government websites - within this short span of time. The project also aims at combining all the Government websites to provide a single window for all Government services.