A look back at my favorites from 2009

This time of year, we tend to look back at what we accomplished for the year, and in that spirit, this week's Editor's Corner is devoted to the most interesting columns from FierceContentManagement this year. This is our first full calendar year publishing the newsletter--as we began publishing in July, 2008--so it's a good opportunity to review what we've accomplished before launching into 2010.

The Editor's Corner is my chance to stretch out each week and discuss broader industry trends. It's not easy producing a column like this every week and I have to be constantly vigilant to find ideas I can expand upon. It was a big year for content management and fortunately, I was never at a loss for ideas (well, almost never). Keep in mind that this is a purely subjective listing, based on what I personally liked best. Next year we plan to query you, the readers, for your favorites.

Highlighting the best columns is a difficult exercise, but here are some of them in no particular order:

• Rolling your own CMS just doesn't make sense
  I reacted to a column suggesting that developing your own CMS was the best way to go. Obviously, I disagreed with this notion. There may not be a perfect solution out there, but going your own way seemed even more flawed to me.
• The recession casts a long shadow over AIIM 2009
  I attended the AIIM show in Philadelphia last March at the height of the current recession, and the talk was all about ROI and how to maximize investment. It was hard to miss the trend and I felt compelled to write about it.
• Why are we still blurring Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 concepts?
  I wrote this one one after attending Enterprise 2.0 in Boston and observed that there was an annoying tendency to mix these two concepts. It also offered me the opportunity to slip in a reference to the old Mike Myers' All Things Scottish skit on SNL.
• You could learn a lot about content from Jason Bourne
  I like this one because it was so spontaneous. While watching the Bourne Ultimatum one night on TV, it struck me that Bourne was awfully good at accessing and using content and it gave him a big advantage over his pursuers, allowing him to always stay one step ahead. I'm fairly sure the writers never thought about in these terms though.
• Is the vendor solely responsible for WCM project failure?
  This was another case of "riffing" off of an idea I picked up in a blog post. In this case, Janus Boye was posting in his blog ahead of a presentation. He threw out one of many ideas, suggesting perhaps vendor payment should be based on project success, and I ran with it. I didn't necessarily agree with this notion, suggesting there were many factors at play affecting the success or failure of a project.

Honorable mentions go to: Could ECM save the American justice system and Time for the news business to get its head out of the 20th Century.

So there you have it, my choices for my favorites for the year. I feel fortunate to have this outlet each week and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do writing it. As always, thanks for reading each week, and I welcome your comments and feedback. Look for my 2010 predictions next week when I begin to look forward to the coming year. - Ron