Well written. I basically agree with all you say. I only wish customers understood it the way you do, because my life would be easier for one.
The biggest motivation for the definitions I provided for "portal" (UI model, or toolkit for building it) grew from one thing: the number of times I have had to explain to customers and prospects why they would want one. Because sadly they don't start from "what are my needs" and figure out how to fulfil them (where your analysis would help them out immediately). Instead, they get suckered by the term -- by the word itself -- and usually ask "tell me why I would need a portal." The trick then is to figure out which definition of portal they mean - portal (lowercase 'p') the UI model, because they've been reading analyst babblings about all enterprises needing one, or Portal (uppercase 'P') because they've been reading a vendor's marketroidea telling them they need one. Answering the question (and then going on to explain it as you do) requires first that you figure out which one they're asking about. -- Stewart Manley VP Product Development, Mediasurface -- http://cms-list.org/ trim your replies for good karma.
