Gesca chooses Nstein Technologies for its online properties (2)
Gesca Digital, which operates cybepresse, lapresseaffaires, technaute among others, will be switching to Nstein’s Content Management System. Nstein Technologies is a Montréal company which specializes in solutions for online publishers. Officially, its solution has been choosen because of its “web2.0 tools”, and because it supposedly increases page views, which will make Gesca ad revenues rise.
Online media in Québec, and in Canada in general, is the subject of many discussions. They pale compared to their print edition, and always seem a copy&paste of the print article, without leveraging at all what might be done with the Internet. None of the online newspapers allow users to comment or interact with an article, and none of them publish pictures or multimedia shows that allow a better understanding of a story. Of course, CBC and RadioCanada publish extras along an article, such as video and audio clips, but given their mission in radio and television, it’s the least they could do.
Now, I went throught Nstein’s website. They state that their CMS is already used by 12 other online newspapers, and it automatically tag content, which will allow the software to show automatically related articles to users. I guess that what they referred to with “increased page views”. The CMS also allows visitors to create their profile, and can also manage wikis, RSS and blogs. So that would be the “web2.0 tools”. Although I don’t expect none of those online newspapers to allow their users to start their own blog any day.
I took a look at NStein’s website:
1. Title: “Content management software powered by advanced text mining - digital asset management, web content management for press, magazine and media” - FAIL
2. URL for press releases: http://www.nstein.com/cgi-bin/fe/pr.pl?language=en - FAIL
3. Scrolling headlines - FAIL
4. They also provide services for Canoe. Isn’t that a conflict of interest?
5. 107 validation errors as XHTML 1.0 Transitional - FAIL
I’m not impressed.
thanks for pointing that out Steve. I don’t want to go this path though, because we can spend days and weeks pointing problems. In Québec, I have long accepted the fact that most websites are done with “duct tape” methods.
for number 4, Nstein Technologies is an independent company, so they should be able to do business with whoever they want with. I see it more like an advantage (more experience) than a problem.
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