A Web CMS(Content Management System) is a platform that allows users to create, read, edit, and delete content(images, text, etc). This allows all levels of users to deal with content with ease and flexibility usually through a software interface.
2. What are several reasons people/organizations would want to use a WCMS over a static website?
The main reason people/organizations would want to use a WCMS over a static site is that enables them to create, edit, and delete content without the need to know HTML/CSS. This free up times for developers and designers on their end of the website, while content writers/creators can upload and change content as need be. Another reasons someone would want to use a CMS over a static site is that the platform they are using for the CMS might have a community that helps support and extend the CMS's capabilities(I.E. plugins for WordPress themes). Another reason is simple security. When making a CMS most likely PHP and mySQL are used to create it. These two backend languages can have large security flaws if not implemented correctly. A CMS like WordPress strive for their core to be as secure as possible.
3. List at least four of the most common web CMS's available today,
WordPress is the first CMS that comes to my mind regarding CMS's in general. It has the distinct advantage of being the most popular CMS's today. With over 22% of registered domains on WordPress it is a popular platform to use, which also means it has a thriving community due to it's open source nature and free price tag. Also it's user interface is a very straight forward and has a great content editor for blogging.
Joomla is another CMS that is very popular with developers. It is another open-source and free CMS platform, not nearly as popular as WordPress but offers a greater degree of flexibility and customizability out of the box. However to get there as a developer it has a steeper learning curve.
Drupal is another CMS that is very popular for web developers and can handle sites that comprise of large amounts of data. It's one of the older CMS's that I've listed here. It's free and open source, but also has a somewhat of a steep learning curve. However it is well documented and if someone is not afraid of reading documentation, they can pick it up.
Squarespace is the newest CMS on this list. I'm including it because a fair amount of people are hopping on this site. It has a stick template system and you cannot customize much of it, but people love the look of the templates, and it offers an easy way to do eCommerce. It is not a free service, but it is a good way for someone to get a site up and running at little cost.
4. List at least three research references at the bottom of your post that you used to help you formulate your thoughts on this topic.