More than a Blog

Markup Factory is a Web Publishing Platform designed to help people use their talents and abilities to build and manage websites more effectively. Within our platform, we've specifically addressed several key audiences including:

1. The Web Designer / Developer
2. The Content Contributor
3. The Website User
   

We believe that there is a place for each of these in the process of building and maintaining a relevant web presence.

Design

Canned website templates are a nice thought and do have a place, but there is no substitute for a talented web designer in the process of building a great website. A designer brings personality and appeal to the web presence and matches this with the brand of the organization or individual. An effective web publishing platform should enable a designer to have total creative freedom over the look and feel of the website and in today's day and age, that means total control over the CSS and XHTML output generated by the system.

Development

Beyond the look and feel, an effective web publishing platform should enable a website developer to create rich functionality on the website without having to reinvent the wheel. A Calendar, Blog, Newsletter, Online Store, Podcast, and Small Database Application should not have to be hacked to fit into your content management system. There will always be a place for custom developed applications, but we've reached a level now where only the most unique requirements will demand from-scratch development.

Content

All too often, the web designer or developer gets roped into the process of publishing content to the website. We all know the process. The individual who wants to publish the content sends a detailed email to the web designer. The web designer attempts to interpret these instructions and make the update for the impatient requester. An effective web publishing platform should give direct access to the content contributor and let the designer do what he / she does best: design. In present times, this also means enforcing valid XHTML output on the website even though the content contributor may not be aware this is happening.

User Experience

Users should not need to maintain multiple accounts to interact with the rich functionality on your website. Users should not need to visit one website to view your blog, another to get your podcast, another to purchase from your online store, and yet another to register for your conference. Your are one - your website should be too.

With all of the collective development that Internet professionals have put into the World Wide Web, does it still need to take hundreds of hours to develop a website that can accomplish all of these purposes?

We are looking forward to seeing what our users will create with this new platform. Our aspiration is to work together with you to produce the next generation of websites and to set a new standard for website functionality that will penetrate into every corner of the web.