03-08, 13:00–14:00 (Europe/Zurich), Pischa
The evolution of content management systems (CMS) has seen a shift from monolithic and hybrid-headless architectures to a new approach known as the universal CMS. In this talk, we'll look at the recent history of the headless CMS as a concept, how the headless CMS is no longer truly as "headless" as it seems, and why we need a new name for the emerging category of CMS that treats all presentation layers as first-class citizens, at the expense of no single persona.
While the headless CMS and decoupled architectures have continued to dominate the conversation in our industry, we can't overstate the remarkable staying power of monolithic and hybrid-headless architectures that remain popular. For many years now, advocates of so-called "composable architectures" have espoused the advantages of a more microservices-like and API-driven approach to CMS implementations. While this is essential for modern front-end development techniques and forward-looking conversational and immersive experiences, they still haven't achieved the new grand compromise I've argued our industry still needs. But there are signs that we're moving toward a more cohesive kind of CMS that honors its full-stack orientation, its newfound API capabilities, and its need to serve authors, marketers, and content creators in addition to developers: the universal content management system.
In the mid-2010s, we saw the advent of universal (or isomorphic) JavaScript architectures, which for the first time allowed JavaScript to be leveraged in novel ways across the stack. Today, we're seeing the same evolution in approaches in content management systems. Increasingly, key elements of CMSs that were formerly limited to traditionally monolithic implementations are now emerging up the stack in areas like routing, preview, layout management, and other CMS concerns. We're seeing the new grand compromise begin to take shape: a world in which there is absolutely no discernible difference between the headless front ends developers love to create and the monolithic front ends content teams love to control. The universal CMS portends a world where "publish everywhere" leaches into every aspect of content management—where the CMS is everything, everywhere, all at once: deployable anywhere, editable anywhere, renderable anywhere, and, as AI continues to gain steam, generable anywhere.
In this talk, we'll look at the recent history of the headless CMS as a concept, how the headless CMS is no longer truly as "headless" as it seems, and why we need a new name for the emerging category of CMS that treats all presentation layers as first-class citizens, at the expense of no single persona. Here's what we'll cover:
- A new grand compromise in CMS is finally emerging
- The problem of headless visual building and editing
- What makes a CMS truly universal?
- Deployable anywhere: The tech-agnostic, SDK-enabled CMS
- Editable anywhere: From editorial microinterfaces to headless page builders
- Renderable anywhere: Presenting content how its destination wants
- Generable anywhere: The AI-enabled universal CMS
- Epilogue: Open source, ethical AI, and the software field
Preston So (he/they) is a senior product, developer relations, and engineering leader with 20 years in software and 8 years of experience leading product, design, developer relations, and engineering functions at organizations like Oracle, Acquia, Time Inc., and Gatsby. He is the author of Immersive Content and Usability (A Book Apart, 2023), Gatsby: The Definitive Guide (O'Reilly, 2021), Voice Content and Usability (A Book Apart, 2021), and Decoupled Drupal in Practice (Apress, 2018).