Open-Source News CMS being Developed by The Texas Tribune and The Bay Citizen

Here are some Texas Tribune Github projects that appear to be pieces of Armstrong:<p><a href="https://github.com/texastribune/armstrong.base" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/texastribune/armstrong.base</a> (base functionality)<p><a href="https://github.com/texastribune/armstrong.esi" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/texastribune/armstrong.esi</a> (edge side includes)<p><a href="https://github.com/texastribune/armstrong.apps.couchdb" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/texastribune/armstrong.apps.couchdb</a> (couchdb views)

Yet more comical blundering courtesy of an industry I do not miss working for. For the cheap seats over at the Tribune:<p>1. You can't afford the talent required to pull off a bespoke CMS.<p>2. You can't afford the cost of lifecycle maintenance on a bespoke CMS.<p>3. Newspaper editors make horrible PM's on software development projects.<p>Now that we've estabished your efforts are (at best) doomed to mediocrity drop what you're doing immediately and go check out Pressflow. If that isn't sufficiently "geared towards the newsroom" hire a couple of freelance developers to cook up a few custom modules and you're done for 1/100th the cost. Have a nice day.

Wasn't this how Django was born? A news agency needed a CMS and django was built.

It will be interesting to see how much better this will be than a custom installation of Wordpress with the proper plugins to achieve the same functionality.

If working on this or the various news applications we put out at The Texas Tribune appeals to you, note that we're hiring: <a href="http://trib.it/ttdevjob" rel="nofollow">http://trib.it/ttdevjob</a>. Bonus points if you're in town for SXSW and want to talk. Email me (nbabalola@texastribune.org) and/or show up to the Knight Foundation's Media Innovation party on Saturday (<a href="http://www.mediainnovationparty.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.mediainnovationparty.com/</a>).

I just read this article yesterday about news org CMSs: <a href="http://bit.ly/gcrZgN" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/gcrZgN</a><p>Should be interesting to see what they come up with. Are there plans to do new/innovative things, such as automating inclusion of crime data, as the author in that article talks about?<p>Is there any further information about costs? $975,000 seems like a lot to develop a CMS, but perhaps that's not all going to pay for development...?<p>Edit: I see now that although the linked article from the OP says "will develop", the Armstrong site says the first release will be this June and that the 'base of Armstrong' has been powering the contributing organizations' websites since 2009.

It's "open-source" but the source isn't available and there's no way to contribute? Their website (armstrongcms.org) mentions they have a GitHub page, but it's not linked, and I'm not finding anything from searching repositories for "Armstrong."<p>EDIT: Ah, I see my GitHub search-fu is not strong, but jashkenas' is ( <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2313737" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2313737</a> ).

Again? The last time worked so well: <a href="http://www.populousproject.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.populousproject.com</a>

There's another Open Source News CMS with a ton of traction already Open Publish - <a href="http://openpublishapp.com/" rel="nofollow">http://openpublishapp.com/</a><p>"The Nation", "The New Republic", "Japan Week" and a bunch of others use it.

Any ideas yet on what technologies the developers will use?

More information, including a few technical details, is here: <a href="http://armstrongcms.org/" rel="nofollow">http://armstrongcms.org/</a>

I work for The Bay Citizen and we're hiring developers. Email me (sshifflett@baycitizen.org) or check out the post on our site... <a href="http://www.baycitizen.org/about/careers/senior-software-engineer/" rel="nofollow">http://www.baycitizen.org/about/careers/senior-software-engi...</a>

Sounds pretty awesome Travis - good luck with the project!

Congrats Travis! Can't wait to see what comes out of it.