Indians are No. 2 online searchers for education

MUMBAI: A recent study by Google has found that Indians are second in the world, behind only the Americans, when it comes to searching online about educational institutions and courses. According to the survey, the details of which were released by the online search giant on Wednesday, over 60% Indian students use the internet to research on education.

The study, covering the period from January 2011 to June 2012 and titled Students on the Web, revealed that education-related queries from India were growing at over 46% year-on-year and of the total questions asked online, 40% were for higher education courses. The use of mobiles to send queries has grown by 135% year on year, accounting for 22% of the total education-related searches.

Rajan Anandan, VP and managing director of Google India, said, "With over 60 million internet users in India being in the 18-35 age group, education-related search queries are exploding on Google. Our core objective behind compiling the study was to understand the impact internet is having on this young population with regard to education-related decision-making."

Despite an array of courses available, Indian students seem to stick to the tried and tested ones, with IT/vocational (44%) courses inviting the maximum hits, followed by engineering (40%) and management (16%).

"Students opt for whatever assures them a good job. Engineering and IT are still the favourites as students start opting for bifocal subjects like computer science in junior college itself," said Suhas Pednekar, principal of Ramnarain Ruia College in Matunga. According to him, most students now go for a management course after graduation. "Since our graduation courses are majorly theoretical with very little of skill-based subjects, students prefer doing an MBA after graduation," Pednekar explained.

The study was compiled by combining Google search query patterns and an offline research by TNS Australia. According to the offline survey which was conducted in seven cities, including Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Ahmedabad, 56% students said job placement was the most important criteria while researching/selecting institutes/courses. Faculty (49%), course content (48%), reputation of the institute (43%) and fees (41%) followed behind. The study also found that students research for 5-6 months on an average before zeroing in on a course and an institute.

Source: The Times of India, 9 Aug. 2012.

12 Ways To Help Your Child Love the Library

Have you and your child been to your local library lately? In addition to wonderful books, today’s libraries offer multimedia options, community events, fun activities, and more—and all for free.

by Patti Ghezzi

Whether you’re a kid or an adult, local libraries have always been an ideal place to savor a quiet moment with a good book. And today’s public libraries offer so much more. Increasingly, the stereotype of the library as a place where librarians frown and insist that patrons “shush!” is being replaced with images of libraries as places for fun and family-friendly programs.

Libraries have not wavered in their devotion to books. But librarians live in the real world and say they know that modern families also crave technology, music, and physical activity. Some libraries have introduced Lego centers—places where kids can build and design with the iconic plastic toys—while others stage puppet shows and musical performances. Many libraries today celebrate literary figures such as Curious George with crafts and storytelling, and pay homage to the likes of Beatrix Potter with gardening activities.

At your local branch, you might also find cooking classes, game nights, or book clubs devoted to a singular genre or theme such as science fiction or Harry Potter. A paleontologist might give a lesson on dinosaurs, and a children’s book author might give a special reading.

One aspect of the library that hasn’t changed? It’s still free. For families seeking bargains in entertainment and educational enrichment, the library is the best deal around.

“These are exciting times, with so many choices of materials and programs,” says Carolyn Brodie, president-elect of the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association. “You’ll find a welcoming, creative, and exciting place, comprised of free and open access to a variety of materials and programs, with appeal to all ages.”

Kathleen Fox, a former school librarian who has made it her mission to make libraries fun and accessible, says there is one key ingredient to a wonderful library experience: “Finding that magical children’s librarian.”

“They’re still around, and they can still hand you a great book. They can also help you get the most out of all the resources your library has to offer,” says Fox, author of Fun-brarian, a collection of library activities to engage even the most reluctant reader, and owner of the websiteLibraryGames.com.

“Children’s librarians help children develop a zest for learning and a lifelong love of reading. They also assist in finding answers to questions, and bring children and resources together,” Brodie adds.

Here are 12 tips on making the most of your public library:

1. Get your child a library card. Show your child the joy of checking out books from his local library. At some libraries, kids can also check out videos, educational games, and puzzles. Teach your child to take care of the books and other items he checks out and to make sure the items get returned on time.

2. Visit often. Make the library a routine place that you visit with your kids, like the park or a favorite pizza place. Become regulars—get to know your way around your library, and get to know the librarians.

3. Teach your child how to find books and media at the library. Though most libraries have moved to all-digital systems, some still use card catalogs. Others that have shifted away from the Dewey decimal classification system—a method of assigning numbers and letters for organizing books—now arrange books similar to bookstores, with certain subgenres organized and shelved together. Since most libraries generally evolve to meet the needs of their patrons, in many places kids can also learn to use the interlibrary lending system for libraries within a network and other book-finding procedures, giving them more options for how they use their local library.

4. Visit different branches. Every library branch has its own personality. “Try several branches and see which one you like,” Fox says. “It might be worth traveling a little farther to get to the branch that has the most to offer.”

5. Get a calendar of activities. Make it a habit to check your library’s event calendar each month. Some libraries host events off-site, such as a composting or gardening workshop at a local park.

6. Consider your child’s interests. It’s important to help your child choose the right books, especially if she is a reluctant reader. Start with a favorite movie and see what books and media would complement it, Fox says. For example, Dolphin Tale is a great family movie, and kids who like it might also enjoy reading about dolphins.

7. Like the movie? Love the book. If there’s a film your child loved, suggest that she might also enjoy the related DVD or audio book about the film, Brodie says. For example, if your middle schooler loved the film Tuck Everlasting so much that she was sorry to see the story end, check the library for the film’s audiobook or DVD. Then, check for other books by the same author.

8. Explore magazines. Kids who struggle with reading may be reluctant to pick up a chapter book. But they may love magazines, especially those about their favorite topics, such as sports or animals. Libraries often have a fantastic selection of magazines, Fox says.

9. Be a role model. Show your child how much you enjoy the library. Check out books for yourself and read them at home, in the car, and while waiting for your child at soccer practice. “Children follow the example of their parents and caregivers,” Brodie says. “Supporting and using public libraries as a source for lifelong learning can be one of the greatest gifts that parents give their children.”

10. Make suggestions for improvement. Suggest adding a few beanbag chairs in the children’s department to encourage young readers to settle in with a good book. If your library does not carry books by your child’s favorite author or in her preferred genre, let the librarian know of your interest. Finally, suggest local authors who might come for a visit or programs you think families would enjoy.

11. Be an advocate. Libraries must compete with other government services for increasingly shrinking resources. Let your elected officials know how much the library means to you, your children, and your community.

12. Make the library a family priority. Between sports, the arts, community groups, church, and other commitments, families have many activities tugging on their free time. Though it may be difficult to squeeze in visits to the library, by doing so you’re letting your child know that reading is important—and that libraries are, too.

Journalist Patti Ghezzi covered education and schools for 10 years for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, winning several awards, including a public service citation from the Associated Press for her exposure of grade inflation. Since she became a freelancer in 2007, her work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Miami Herald, and Adoptive Families magazine. Ghezzi lives in Avondale Estates, Ga., with her family, which includes husband Jason, daughter Celia, and geriatric mutt Albany.

Courtesy: http://www.schoolfamily.com/school-family-articles/article/10853-12-ways-to-help-your-child-love-the-library-

‘Knowledge revolution’, keyboard by keyboard

From providing Indian scientists access to data from the search
for the Higgs boson, or the “God particle”, at the Large Hadron Collider in
Europe, to developing a prediction model for early detection of Alzheimer’s
disease, a two-year-old project to pool computing resources from around the
country is opening new avenues. 

The ‘National Knowledge Network (NKN)’, as it is known, started as
a small programme in the Planning Commission in 2009 without Cabinet approval.
Now, it is enabling Indian scientists to take on big data challenges that
earlier required weeks and months of high-power computing. Sifting through gene
mutations for diseases or analysing the 30 million per second pictures from the
Large Hadron Collider, say, is now par for the course. 

Sanctioned Rs 5,990 crore in the March 2010 budget, the NKN in its
current form aims to have 1,500 institutions on board to “usher in a knowledge
revolution”. The impact was evident at a recent meeting of scientists in
Bangalore where experts who had experienced the high-power computing now
available to them — from bio informatics researchers and medical experts to
climate scientists and particle physicists — held forth on it. 

The NKN, its resources and computing powers have so far proved
useful in areas of brain research, nuclear reactor safety, search for drug
targets and biodiversity research. 

The network and its computing grid, Garuda, are linked to
international networks such as the European Organisation for Nuclear Research
(CERN), so that 50 Indian scientists from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre,
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre at
Kolkata and other small physics units have access to its data. 

These Indian physicists are among the 10,000 from 34 countries who
are using 10,000 computers to analyse the 300 pictures per second data —-
enough to fill three million DVDs — thrown up by a processor farm of 50,000
computing cores at CERN. 
“The Garuda system and the NKN are helping Indian scientists find
answers to the big questions,” said Subrata Chattopadhyay, an Associate
Director at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). 

In the dementia study, the NKN has been tapped into for examining
brain MRIs of people with cognitive dysfunction. Scientists at the National
Brain Research Centre (NBRC) at Gurgaon have created an Indian Brain Imaging
Network Grid or I-Brain and are using the computing powers of the knowledge
network, along with the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences
at Bangalore, the Sree Chitra Research Centre at Thiruvananthapuram, the King
Edward Medical College, Mumbai, and the Institute of Post-Graduate Medical
Education and Research in Kolkata. The I-Brain is connected to international
networks in Canada and the US through the NKN. 

“We have analysed about 200 brain scans sent from different
centres and have... developed a method to determine patients who can develop
Alzheimer’s,” professor at NBRC P K Ray said. “India is beginning to see the
beauty of collaboration and integration of multiple institutes, multiple
countries and multiple companies.” 

While there are several success stories, there is also criticism
that too few people are using the resources and computing power, and that the
network bandwidth available is nothing compared to in the US, Europe, China and
even Brazil. 

“We have a knowledge highway but I don’t see enough people using
the highway. The big research centres like the IITs and IISc (Indian Institute
of Science) are already equipped with high-performance computing facilities and
networks. We need to have students from universities around the country on the
network. Private industry is also needed,” said Prof Shevare from IIT-Bombay. 

With the NKN in place, the government will not be sanctioning
requests for funds to create smaller computing facilities at institutes and
people will be directed to be a part of the network, said Muralikrishna Kumar,
an advisor in the Planning Commission. 

India is, however, attempting to push up its super-computing
resources and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh alluded at this year’s science congress
to a proposal from the scientific community for a Rs 5,000-crore strategy under
the 12th Plan to enhance super-computing facilities in the country. 

The super-computing proposal is aimed at taking India’s
capabilities from its current levels to exa flops (exa is one quintillion or 10
and 18 zeroes) levels.

Source | Indian Express | 26 July 2012

9 Tips to Help You Impress Your Interviewer

Once you master the small talk, here are some tips that will help you impress your interviewer.

• Work on your handshake: Don‘t offer up a flimsy or sweaty hand. Instead, when you meet with prospective employers or interviews, offer a firm handshake, with one or two pumps from the elbow to the hand. It‘s a good way to illustrate your confidence and start the interview off on the right note.
• Get serious: If you take a casual approach to the initial interview with a company, especially with a screening interviewer from the human resources department, you may be sealing your fate. Job seekers should treat every interview as if it‘s their one and only chance to sell themselves to the recruiter.
• Get the practice: If you find yourself being offered an interview for a job you are not really interested in, go on the interview anyway; you can make contacts for future job opportunities and get valuable interview practice.
• Be enthusiastic: Bring a positive attitude to your interview. Most interviewers won‘t even give a second thought to someone who has a negative presence or seems like they almost need to be talked into the job. “You‘re selling yourself, and part of you is the positive approach you‘ll bring to the office every morning,” says Alison Richardson, a recruiter for several New York financial firms. “That smile and friendly demeanor go a long way.”
• Ask questions: When interviewing for a new position, it‘s essential to have a handful of questions to ask your potential employer. Some questions could include: What do you consider to be the ideal background for the position? What are some of the significant challenges? What‘s the most important thing I can do to help within the first 90 days of my employment? Do you have any concerns that I need to clear up in order to be the top candidate?
• Tell a story: Your interviewer wants to know about your skills and experiences, but he or she also wants to know about you. Don‘t fire off routine answers to questions. Instead, work your answers into stories or anecdotes about yourself. People remember the people who are interesting. Prove your value by tailoring stories that address the main concern an interviewer may have: What can you do for us?
• Show restraint: During an interview, what you don‘t say may be as important as what you do say. As a rule, don‘t talk about money or benefits, especially during the first interview. You should already know if you fit the parameters. Don‘t badmouth about any of your past employers. Organizations don‘t hire complainers. Don‘t mention outside career aspirations or part-time jobs. Employers are looking for people who want to be part of their organization for the next decade and beyond.

Whatever you do, don‘t mention the need for an immediate vacation. First of all, you‘re making an assumption that the recruiter wants to hire you. Second, you‘re essentially removing yourself from the list of potential candidates. A job candidate we once interviewed was quick to announce that she needed time off immediately for a two-week honeymoon. We hadn‘t even offered her the job. Needless to say, we didn‘t. Certainly, there are scenarios in which you‘ll need to discuss pending scheduling conflicts, but the interview isn‘t one of them.

• Be memorable: Considering the number of job seekers interviewing for positions today, it‘s fair to suggest that many HR workers can hardly keep track of the differences. That‘s why it‘s important to do or say something that will allow you to stand out in the mind of your interviewer. It will strike a personal note and also provide a point of reference when it‘s time to recall the top candidates. Sure, the job candidate with “American Idol” experience we mentioned in the introduction had no real usable background for the job we were looking for, but he was memorable.

When 24-year-old Noreen Hennessy was looking for a job in marketing in a tough San Francisco job market, she mentioned to one interviewer that she recently ran in a Tough Mudder competition, a hardcore obstacle course that pushes one‘s physical and mental skills to the limits.

“She had a picture of her and some friends covered in mud on her desk,” Hennessy says. “I casually brought up the Tough Mudder, and she had a million questions. Our interview was pretty much over by then, but our conversation went on for another 10 minutes.”

Hennessy says she didn‘t get that job, but because of her interviewer‘s interest in the event, she put it on her resume as one of her interests and activities. “Every recruiter I spoke with after that would bring it up,” she says. “It became a major talking point and I think it said a lot about my grit and determination.”

Hennessy says she took some time off from the job search to assist a friend in setting up an event-planning business, which she says may or may not turn into a long-term job. “I‘m getting paid, working with people I like, learning a lot,” she says. “There are a million shades, but marketing is marketing. What I practice at the startup level will be something I can bring to the corporate level and it‘s certainly something else I can talk about during interviews.”

• Ask for the job: “Tell your interviewer you want the job — period,” says Dana Fulbright, an IT recruiter for Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla. “So many people leave without ever saying they want to be hired. It sounds so simple, but it‘s true. Let your employer know that you want to work there.”

This article was excerpted from the new eBook “Calling All Grads! Turn a Degree into a Job,” edited by careers writer and editor Marco Buscaglia and published by Tribune Media Services, Inc. For more information or to purchase the book, click here.

5 Things You Must Do Before Applying for a Librarian Position

5 Things You Must Do Before Applying for a Librarian Position

So you have just entered the job market and are looking for the perfect job.  This can be a scary and confusing time for those just entering the profession as well as those who have been laid-off or are returning to work for the first time after a long absence.   Due to the worldwide economic depression as well as the competitiveness of the profession, landing the perfect position can be very difficult.  Applicants must find a way to stand out from the crowd and show that they are the best person for the position. Competing with people with more experience is a difficult thing to do, however, if you follow the 5 golden rules then you will be able to stand out in the crowd.

1.  Determine your ideal organization and position

Determining your ideal organization and position is probably one of the most important steps you must complete before thinking of applying for a position.  Many new graduates, recently laid off librarians, and librarians reentering the job market may be feeling desperate to find a new job, especially considering the long application periods for some positions and the fierce competition for positions.  These applicants often make the mistake of applying for anything and everything in order to just get their foot in the door; this however, may be counter productive.  Casting the widest net may not be the best strategy because it may make a candidate seem desperate to search committees, especially if they apply for several positions within an institution.  Employers remember people who apply for every open position and not for good reasons. It is because these applicants seem desperate for a paycheck.  In this situation, the candidate is not focused on the particular position rather on getting any position and it is noticeable to the potential employer.

                                                         

The best course of action is to determine first the position you want and then the type of organization.  Do you want to be a reference librarian?  If so what kind of reference?  Are you interested in government documents or history? Do you want to be a systems librarian or work with digital repositories? It can be difficult to narrow down which type of position you want and if you are not sure than you can do some research or contact someone who is in your ideal position and see if they would be willing to give you a tour of their library and provide you with the pros and cons of the position.  I have done this on more then one occasion and the librarians that I have met with have always been a great source of information and always seemed excited to share their ideas about the position and librarianship.

Once you have identified your ideal organization and position then you can evaluate your skills and weaknesses and determine how you can make yourself a more competitive candidate for a position.

2.  Evaluate your skills and weaknesses

Before you apply for any job you need to know what your skills and weaknesses are.  At this point in the game you probably have a pretty good idea of your skill sets, however, you really need to evaluate them to determine what you excel at and where you need more experience or what skills you need.  Most people over look this step in the job search because they feel it’s not important or they think that they can come up with a list at the drop of the dime.  It is important to realize that you will be competing with dozens if not hundreds of other applicants who bring their own unique skills and experiences. Some of them have far more experience or education than you do and you need to provide a convincing argument for why you are the most qualified for the position in question.

Create a list of your skills and how you obtained these skills. For example, if you know how to create databases with access then add that to the list and write down all the databases that you have created.  Other items on your list could include reference, information literacy courses, social media, or website design.  Some people have difficulties in identifying their skills or they do not feel they have many skills.  If you find yourself having a hard time creating this list then ask your coworkers and colleagues what skills they think you have.  Sometimes it is difficult to identify these skills and another person’s opinion can be very helpful. This list will be helpful in preparing for your interviews and writing cover letters.

Next create a list of your weaknesses or the skills that you need.  To create this list you must have done step one.  Once you know what type of position you want then you can identify the skills that you need to be a competitive candidate.  If you are not sure what skills you need then you could ask someone who is in your ideal position or you can examine job announcements.  For example, if you want to be a reference librarian and you notice that many positions require teaching experience and you don’t have any then that would be a weakness that you can work on.  Once you have identified your weakness then you can examine ways to acquire the skills that you need to be a more competitive candidate.

3. Update your resume

This seems pretty self-evident.  If you’re going to be starting a job search then you need to have your resume updated.  However, there is more to it than just adding your current title or adding a graduation date.  In the past year, I have attended several panels that provided tips to job seekers.  During these sessions, the panelists who were in charge of hiring at different types of library institutions described their ideal resumes and cover letters.  There was a general consensus that your resume should be formatted specifically for the type of institution your applying for.  For example, academic libraries wanted graduation dates on resumes to verify years of professional experience, whereas public and special libraries did not want graduation dates on resumes because it could lead to assumptions of the candidates age and therefore opened up the possibility of age discrimination or other assumptions. In other words, you will have to format your resume according to the type of organization that you want to work in.

4. Select your references

Before you start on your job search you want to find 3 or 4 references.  References should be people who are working in libraries and can attest to your work skill.  Your references can be professors if you’re a student or work colleagues/supervisors if you’re already in the profession. The person you choose should have a good understanding of your current position and your skills.  Don’t pick someone you worked with on a committee for one week and never saw again. They will not be able to provide enough information when potential employers contact them.  If you have been in the profession for a while try to choose people who have similar positions or work in the type of organization you’re interested in.  This ensures that your references can talk about the challenges of working in a particular position or organization and how you will succeed.

Once you select potential references make sure that you ask them if they feel they can provide a positive review of your skills to potential employers.  This is not an attempt to coach your references, rather it is just ensuring that they will enhance your job application and not be a negative in your application.

It is important to keep your references informed of your search.  Explain to them what type of institution you want to work in and your ideal position.  Your references will keep an out for your ideal position as well as to provide you feedback on your search and interview techniques. Just remember they are doing you a favor, so try to respect their time and do as much as you can to make their experience easier.  You can do this by informing them of interviews you have been on, providing your cover letter, resume, and job announcement for the position, and explain to them any concerns the search committee had with your application.  Your references should never be surprised by a call for a reference. Overall, they will be a great source for information and opinions.

5. Create and manage your personal brand

Your uniqueness, your skills, your experiences, are arguably the most important part of your professional reputation, in other words your brand. A simple Google search of your name will bring up your online presence.   Your online presence is made up of all the websites, social media sites, blogs, forums etc. that you use.  It is important that you determine what your online presence is and that you monitor it. By creating a professional website, blog, Facebook/twitter/LinkedIn pages you can ensure that if a potential employer googles your name that they will find information on you.  You could even put your website in your resume or cover letters to ensure that hiring committees see your online presence. Using the same photo across all your sites makes your profiles easy to identify and your professional presence can be used to enhance your resume.  For example, you can talk about your pathfinders in a resume, but you can show it to them through your website.  In other words, your personal brand becomes another way to sell your talents and skills.

At this point you also want to create a professional email address that you can use on applications.  Foxyroxy@yahoo.com might not send the right message to possible employers.  Consider getting an email address that contains your first and last names which will make identifying your emails easier for employers.

First edition of Nat Geo magazine to have India’s most-haunt​ed places

First edition of Nat Geo magazine to have India’s most-haunted places If you are an ardent traveller and wish to do paranormal investigations on your own, here’s a guide. India’s most haunted places will feature in the first edition of National Geographic Traveller (NGT) India.

NGT India is the Indian edition of  National Geographic Traveller (USA), the travel magazine of the National Geographic Society. It is being brought out by Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) Media through its tie-up with National Geographic Society. The inaugural edition will hit the stands next week.
Priced at Rs 120, the Indian edition of the travel magazine will feature a series of unusual Indian and
global destinations.
NGT India is the Indian edition of National Geographic Traveller (USA), the travel magazine of the National Geographic Society.  “Around 85 per cent of the content will be for Indian travellers, specifically catering to the family travellers in India,” said Mr Manas Mohan, Publisher, National Geographic Traveller India and Chief Operating Officer, ACK Media. Around 60,000 copies will be out in the first month and the publishers are hopeful of tapping the emerging market on the back of a buoyant growth in the travel segment in India. “We are seriously activating the trade and in the next few days we will be meeting more than 1,000 vendors across different cities in India,” he added.
NGT India aims to be inclusive and is all about travel experiences, family travel and unusual elements in travel, as well as new ways of covering older destinations and eco-tourism insights.
Without revealing much about the content of the first edition of NGT India, Mr Mohan said that there will be plenty of “unusual and unexplored” travel destinations that will be featured. Amar Chitra Katha acquired India Book House Pvt. Ltd (IBH), one of the oldest and largest distribution networks
for books and published material, last year. IBH has been distributing Nat Geotitles in India for the last three years. It has a distribution network of more than 15,000 vendors and stores across India and for NGT India, it will tie-up with around 800 vendors, retail outlets and stores. ACK also has plans to bring the merchandised products of National Geographic Society to India like travel kits. “We also have aggressive plans for e-commerce. In fact, 80 per cent of our subscribers are from this segment,” Mr Mohan said.


Source
| Business Line | 29 July 2012

op 10 Most Usable Content Management Systems

op 10 Most Usable Content Management Systems

There are plenty of options when it comes to picking a content management system for a development project. Depending on how advanced you need the CMS to be, what language it’s built in, and who is going to be using it, it can be a nightmare trying to find the “perfect” CMS for a project.

However, some CMSs have a slight edge over the rest of the competition because of the usability of the software. Some are just easier to install, use and extend, thanks to some thoughtful planning by the lead developers. Here are 10 of the most usable CMSs on the web to use in your next project.

1. WordPress

What is there left to say about WordPress that hasn’t already been said? The PHP blogging platform is far and away the most popular CMS for blogging, and probably the most popular CMS overall. It’s a great platform for beginners, thanks to their excellent documentationand super-quick installation wizard. Five minutes to a running CMS is pretty good. Not to mention the fact that the newest versions auto-update the core and plugins from within the backend, without having to download a single file.

For those users not familiar with HTML or other markup language, a WYSIWYG editor is provided straight out of the box. The backend layout is streamlined and intuitive, and a new user should be able to easily find their way around the administration section. Wordpres also comes with built-in image and multimedia uploading support.

For developers, the theming language is fairly simple and straightforward, as well the Plugin API.

The WordPress Community is a faithful and zealous bunch. WordPress probably has the widest base ofplugins and themes to choose from. A great part about the WordPress community is the amount of help and documentation online you can find on nearly every aspect of customizing WordPress. If you can dream it, chances are it’s already been done with WordPress and documented somewhere.

2. Drupal

Drupal is another CMS that has a very large, active community. Instead of focusing on blogging as a platform, Drupal is more of a pure CMS. A plain installation comes with a ton of optional modules that can add lots of interesting features like forums, user blogs, OpenID, profiles and more. It’s trivial to create a site with social features with a simple install of Drupal. In fact, with a few 3rd party modules you can create some interesting site clones with little effort.

One of Drupal’s most popular features is the Taxonomy module, a feature that allows for multiple levels and types of categories for content types.

Drupal also has a very active community powering it, and has excellent support for plugins and other general questions.

3. Joomla!

Joomla is a very advanced CMS in terms of functionality. That said, getting started with Joomla is fairly easy, thanks to Joomla’s installer. Joomla’s installer is meant to work on common shared hosting packages, and is a very straightforward considering how configurable the software is.

Joomla is very similar to Drupal in that it’s a complete CMS, and might be a bit much for a simple portfolio site. It comes with an attractive administration interface, complete with intuitive drop-down menus and other features. The CMS also has great support for access control protocols like LDAP, OpenID and even Gmail.com.

The Joomla site hosts more than 3,200 extensions, so you know the developer community behind the popular CMS is alive and kicking. Like WordPress, you can add just about any needed functionality with an extension. However, the Joomla theme and extension community relies more on paid plugins and themes, so if you’re looking for customizations, be ready to pay.

4. ExpressionEngine

ExpressionEngine (EE) is an elegant, flexible CMS solution for any type of project. Designed to be extensible and easy to modify, EE sets itself apart in how clean and intuitive their user administration area is. It takes only a matter of minutes to understand the layout of the backend and to start creating content or modify the look. It’s fantastic for creating websites for less-than-savvy clients that need to use the backend without getting confused.

ExpressionEngine is packed with helpful features like the ability to have multiple sites with one installation of software. For designers, EE has a powerful templating engine that has custom global variables, custom SQL queries and a built in versioning system. Template caching, query caching and tag caching keep the site running quickly too.

One of my favorite features of EE that is the global search and replace functionality. Anyone who’s ever managed a site or blog knows how useful it is to change lots of data without having to manually search and open each page or post to modify it.

ExpresssionEngine is quite different than other previously-mentioned CMS in that it’s paid software. The personal license costs $99.95, and the commercial license costs $249.99.

5. TextPattern

Textpattern is a popular choice for designers because of its simple elegance. Textpattern isn’t a CMS that throws in every feature it can think of. The code base is svelte and minimal. The main goal of Textpattern is to provide an excellent CMS that creates well-structured, standards-compliant pages. Instead of providing a WYSIWYG editor, Textpattern uses textile markup in the textareas to create HTML elements within the pages. The pages that are generated are extremely lightweight and fast-loading.

Even though Textpattern is deliberately simple in design, the backend is surprisingly easy to use and intuitive. New users should be able to find their way around the administration section easily.

While Textpattern may be very minimal at the core level, you can always extend the functionality by 3rd party extensions, mods or plugins. Textpattern has an active developer community with lots of help and resources at their Textpattern.org site.

6. Radiant CMS

The content management systems that we’ve listed so far are all PHP programs. PHP is the most popular language for web development, but that doesn’t mean we should overlook other popular web languages like Ruby. Radiant CMS is a fast, minimal CMS that might be compared to Textpattern. Radiant is built on the popular Ruby framework Rails, and the developers behind Radiant have done their best to make the software as simple and elegant as possible, with just the right amount of functionality. Like Textpattern, Radiant doesn’t come with a WYSIWYG editor and relies on Textile markup to create rich HTML. Radiant also has it’s own templating language Radius which is very similar to HTML for intuitive template creation.

7. Cushy CMS

Cushy CMS is a different type of CMS altogether. Sure, it has all the basic functionality of a regular content management system, but it doesn’t rely on a specific language. In fact, the CMS is a hosted solution. There are no downloads or future upgrades to worry about.

How Cushy works is it takes FTP info and uploads content on to the server, which in turn the developer or the designer can modify the layout, as well as the posting fields in the backend, just by changing the style classes of the styles. Very, very simple.

Cushy CMS is free for anyone, even for professional use. There is an option to upgrade to a pro account to use your own logo and color scheme, as well as other fine-grain customizations in the way Cushy CMS functions.

8. SilverStripe

SilverStripe is another PHP CMS that behaves much like WordPress, except has many more configurable options and is tailored towards content management, and not blogging. SilverStripe is unique because it was built upon its very own PHP framework Saphire. It also provides its own templating language to help with the design process.

SilverStripe also has some interesting features built in to the base, like content version control and native SEO support. What’s really unique with SilverStripe is that developers and designers can customize the administration area for their clients, if need be. While the development community isn’t as large as other projects there are some modules, themes and widgets to add functionality. Also, you’ll want to modify the theme for each site, as SilverStripe doesn’t provide much in terms of style, to give the designer more freedom.

9. Alfresco

Alfresco is a JSP is a beefy enterprise content management solution that is surprisingly easy to install. A really useful feature of Alfresco is the ability to drop files into folders and turn them into web documents. Alfresco might be a little bit more work than some of the other CMS and isn’t as beginner-friendly, it certainly is quite usable given the massive power of the system. The administration backend is clean and well-designed.

While Alfresco might not be a great choice for most simple sites, it’s an excellent choice for enterprise needs.

10. TYPOlight

TYPOlight seems to have the perfect balance of features built into the CMS. In terms of functionality, TYPOlight ranks with Drupal and ExpressionEngine, and even offers some unique bundled modules like newsletters and calendars. Developers can save time with the built-in CSS generator, and there are plenty of resources for learning more about the CMS.

If there is a downside to TYPOlight, it’s that it has so many features and configurable options. Even though the backend is thoughtfully organized, there are still a lot of options to consider. But if you’re wanting to build a site with advanced functionality and little extra programming, TYPOlight could be a great fit.