Since internal projects are usually treated as some kind of experiment, we go through few iterations of some cool technology thats out there.

Then we answer the next question: "Do we build it ourselves, or pick up something that works ?" Hmmm. Ever heard about the cobblers' children that go bare feet. Somehow any internal build would have gotten re-prioritized to the point that would take it to the bottom of the pile. Paid work first.

Also, there are a number of really great open source projects that do an amazing job, with great plugin support and a plethora of users making them quite robust.  Then it boils down to selection.

Hey wait, some guiding requirements first:

• Simple, intuitive and as little code changes as possible.
• Manage static content
• A blogging solution, with some social linking
• A mechanism to publish structured content like customer case studies and job postings.

And we have no problems with picking up some commercial modules to expedite delivery.

Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla or dotCMS & Liferay with Alfresco stack.

The last option is something that we like and use often. But would have been overkill.  Hands down, Wordpress is the best blogging platform out there.  But we needed a dynamic content management system too, with with custom fields and types. Drupal is great, but would require a steeper learning curve to get it to bend to our needs. And we are not in the market for another product. So Joomla it was. We also opted for the gantry framework to handle layout and K2 content plugins to tweak the CMS.  A little bit of a compromise all around, but a better rounded solution in the end.

If we did it again, we would probably take the same route. Good results and pretty flexible given the limited resources.