WCM is an acronym for Web Content Management which is an approach to creating (Internet) Web Pages using Content Management principles and tools.

Most web pages are created from external, standalone web design packages or even directly from front-office tool suites like MS Office. While these pages can be very attractive and useful, they are a middle-man to production and one that introduces a lot of headaches along the way. Most web design packages focus on what end-users like, good design ... smooth, curvy lines, overlapping pictures and properly placed titles so that everything looks esthetically pleasing. The cost, however, is much large than most realize ... web pages become large collections of images that can't (easily) be indexed for searching (this is to overcome simple HTML shortcomings); new and confusing titles are given to created pages; and generally a lack of direct control of the display (that is their function after all).

WCM works differently, it treats content as chunks of data ... in GATE Village we call these chunks "Information Objects" but all WCM platforms use their own terminology. The point is that there is an abstraction from the content and the display of that content. This means that you can distribute the work of content creation and centralize the work of content display --- generating a site-wide look and feel while distributing the hard work of authorship to as many people as possible.

GATE Village is a WCM platform that produces the GATE Village content you are reading right now.