I have a gut feeling
I have a gut feeling Macromedia's Contribute is going to kick some ** in CMSland. There is limited info on the MM site, so here goes:
Web Graphics: "[...] was excited to find what I was looking for: plenty of lockdown controls. For instance, you can allow only text to be edited, you can permit no styling, you can control how paragraphs and line breaks are renderedso over zelous clients cant inadvertanly ruin your layout design. Another well thought out feature, key file creation: elminates having to send complicated connectivity instructionsjust create a key file (which can be directly emailed, or saved to disk) and they can double-click to gain access according to the rights you set up in the key".
Think Secret: "Using Contribute and an encrypted key, a client can log in and change text and images on pages authorized by the web designer. The client could also be authorized to add new pages and make other modifications, as per the many different levels of access controls, all set by the webmaster."
Aaron Swarz: "To the two-way Web!"
Jeffrey Zeldman: "[...] new $99 desktop application. [...] Users can grab content from non-standards-compliant apps like Microsoft Office; Contribute will clean up the code and can even convert presentational tags to CSS and generate accessibility elements and attributes. Version control is also included. We saw this product twice before it was released and plan to buy copies for selected clients. It is perfect for those who cant afford or dont need a full-blown Content Management System. "
Update: More on the CMS list (archives not online): "Including a group editor, user management, fool-proof code stripping, review-by-email etc. No database, so no real CMS - just a $100 license and off you go. [...] MacroMedia Contribute definitely adds a new flavour to the CMS bouquet. [...] the product must "download" the HTML template from the server and then the end user edits it. [...] It is important to note that Contribute is NOT a CMS. It is a client side tool that you drop into your existing production workflow."
Update: Evolt: gets the technical details down.