Cost: Free

Development: Community Driven

Specialization: Blog

Hosting: Own Server, Free hosting

Source: Open Source

License: GNU GPL

Language: PHP

Database: MySQL

Our Impressions:

Wordpress is best for bloggers, but is certainly capable of much more.  The new administration pages really make managing your site a breeze. The ease of installing and upgrading make it a great fit for non developers. It has everything it needs for what most people want and need for blogging: Posts, comments, media, links, simple pages, users,  etc. The new 2.7 admin interface is slick and very customizable.

Wordpress (like a lot of open source applications) is updated often and is in constant change. It becomes easy to add plugins for functionality that may become outdated or stop working when Wordpress updates. It can handle simple websites splendidly, but has limitations for bigger sites and when there are needs for more complicated kinds of content.

• Is Wordpress Killing Web Design? – This wasn’t as much a discussion about Wordpress as much as CMS’s themselves. The discussion revolved around the pros/cons of themes, and how we, as designers, have gotten lazy at creatively laying out content within the “editable area”
• R.I.P. Content Management System – This panel’s speaker was Dries Buytaert who created Drupal. Mostly it was just a presentation on Drupal and how it is being used by developers to create really complex, social websites. Coincidentally, we also were on the same plane as Dries on the way home.
• ExpressionEngine 2.0: Total Domination – This one was our favorite. Hosted by a variety of different EE community members, it started with a simple overview of what EE is and how it works. Then progressed down the line of panelists with helpful tips starting with simple theming tips, and ending with complex plugins and whatnot.

SXSW was a completely new experience for us and certainly CMS’s are a big part of what the “interactive” space is involved with. We visited with some of the vendors who were hawking their new CMS’s, we got to meet people we’d met in CMS forums, and we shared a few laughs with fellow designers/developers about the joys/pains of working with them.

First off, Wordpress MU (or “multi-user” will be merging with Wordpress core. This basically means that you can set up multiple Wordpress sites on one install. Second, custom post types will be easily added, so for example along with Posts, Pages, and Media, you could add another kind of content. This will be big for Wordpress’ CMS capabilities.

Third, WooThemes has agreed to donate their custom navigation building plugin to be included as a part of the core. It will help mix Pages, Categories, Tags, Posts, and external links all into one easily editable menu. Fourth, there will be a new default theme, appropriately titled “2010″. This apparently means that there will be a new default theme every year. To find out more about these new features and others, head over to WP Beginner’s article.

In addition, this version will start to bring about changes that will make Wordpress more of a CMS. Custom post types will soon be available, that will start to open up more possibilities than “post” and “page”. It’s shaping up to be a really nice release that everyone can look forward to. Get the run-down here, and be sure to help test it out.