Powering Your Organization`s Web Presence using Open Source

Powering Your Organization’s Web Presence
using Open Source
and International Collaboration
About Us
Andrew Sinkinson
Statistics Canada
(613) 951-6882
Andrew.Sinkinson@statcan.gc.ca
@Sinkinsona
Stephen Russet
Ottawa, Canada
Stephen.Russet@gmail.com
@stephenrusset
Mourad Faid
Statistique Canada
(613) 951-1264
Mourad.Faid@statcan.gc.ca
What is Drupal ?
What is Drupal ?
-
Largest Open Source project in the world !
visit Drupal.org
-
Completely free to download and use
- It’s a development framework
- A platform for online content and user communities
- Can be adapted to virtually any visual design
-
Built around a strong culture of collaboration
Powers some of the busiest sites on the web
Can be adapted to virtually any visual design
What is the Web Experience Toolkit ?
WET
What is the Web Experience Toolkit ?
-
A code library for building innovative web sites that are:
- Accessible, usable, and interoperable
- Mobile friendly (responsive design)
- Multilingual
-
Highly flexible (theme-able templates, reusable components)
- Mega menu, multimedia player
- Auto-generated charts and graphs
- Tabbed interface and lightbox
- HTML5 polyfills (handles browser support gaps)
-
Open source software
- Developed by the community, and free to use
What are Drupal Distributions ?
-
They allow for very quick setup of complex web sites in fewer steps
-
Some examples
An Example: The WET Drupal Distro.
Visit drupal.org/project/wetkit
What makes Drupal stand out ?
-
A very mature Web Content Manageemnt System
- In existance for over 12 years
- Over 2 Million sites in production worldwide
-
Fully accessible and WCAG 2.0 compliant
Enterprise ready
- Scalable, Secure
- Open architecture (easily extensible while preserving the core)
- Modular (over 18,000 modules)
-
Low entry costs
- Free to start
- A very large collaborative community (over 1 Million members)
Some Drupal Features
-
Multilingual
Enable User Accounts and
Privilege management
Support Taxonomies
Automatic Metadata/ HTML data
Integrate Search capabilities
Enable Content Deployment
Include Web Feeds and Workflow
Is responsive
Provide out of the box Analytics and Reports
Some Drupal Features
-
Automated content migration
- Sophisticated means for importing and transforming data into WCMS
- Supports quick migration roll-back and re-run until satisfied
(Essential when dealing with very large amount of content to migrate !)
-
With out-of-the-box sample migration scripts
- Scripts are easy to extend
Along with a commitment to Open Standards
-
Extremely Flexible
-
Expandable (easy to add new functionality)
-
Integrates with a wide variety of systems
Which Canadian organisations use Drupal ?
How did we build the Distro. ?
-
The project was setup on on GitHub
Discussions were handled using Issues Tracker
Encouraged sharing of challenges and ideas
Welcomed external contribution (from all fronts)
Pull requests
Developped using well formed Design Patterns
Fully tested and documented
Code integrity ensured through multi-level reviews
How did we build the Distro. ?
-
We reached out to over a 100 contributors
- Selected GOC departments
- Provinces and Municipalities
- Private sector
- Academia
-
We created 5 working groups
- Access, Quality Assurance, Technical, User Experience and Web
Interoperability Working Groups
The Result
- A number of organisations have adopted the WET Distro. !
Few things we have learned along the way
-
Many are relunctant to post issues, questions, or simply request for
help !
-
@mentions is something many do not know/do not like to use
- Due mainly to email habits, cultural norms (when to cc)
- Usernames/Handles of people is part of the learning curve
-
Managers “cling” to printable issue reports rather than adopting issue
queues
Few things we have learned along the way
-
Government staffing practices (contractor, temporary help) are not
geared towards Open Source projects
- Procurement services / Project managers not familiar with open source
practices
- Biased perception with respect to public viewing of code, code ownership and
intellectual property (IP)
- Community code review and participation is uncommon
-
Some best practices
- Set the project as an Open Source first. Defer to later whether to open source
- Submit patches to upstream libraries to avoid break in upgrade support !
Few things we have learned along the way
-
Allow for a learning curve for use of markdown and GitHub
- Users are familiar with WYSIWYG, email, and desktop tools (MS Suite)
-
Some best practices
- Encourage staff to check issues on a continual basis
(rather then of “post and forget”!)
- Everyone can contribute content back to issues irrespective of job
description/title
- Use GitHub to become an active part of the conversation and the solution !
Some myths we had to demystify
-
Open Source Software
- Not secure
- Not scalable
- Not supported (you are on your own !)
- Unknown quality (not tested)
-
Difficulty to get out of the “organisation” silos
- What’s in it for me in a collborative approach ?
- How do I get my priorities addressed ?
- Am I going to devote too much time to others ?
- What about IP ?
- Is the code I deploy “secure” ?
Looking Ahead
-
Better alignment with GOC guidelines (CLF, etc.)
-
Increased reusability and standardization
- Templates and module ready to be used and deployed
- Streamlined web publishing process
-
Simplified maintenance
- Separation of content from presentation
- Controlled access
- Enforced rules (through template usage)
-
Content back to the experts !
… More Benefits to Come
Looking Ahead
-
Within GOC
-
Within Provinces, Municipalities, Universities
-
Internationally
- US Government (25% of .gov sites run on Drupal)
- UK, Australia, France, India, UN, and 130 countries
More Opportunities to Collaborate
Looking Ahead
-
-
Be passionate and you will attract and be surrounded by passionate
staff !
Be inclusive: Anyone can contribute and help make a difference
Create a vision around “Collaboration” and “Sharing”
Inspire people to be part of greater plans !
Be patient: It takes a lot to grow an Open Source project
Use this opportunity to innovate faster !
“ Oh by the way, it’s not just about code… it’s about building
communities that work together to solve common problems /
challenges faced by all ! “
And last: Aim at the next level of WEM !
-
-
Systems enabling more than just
publish content
Attract users to your web site
Provide dynamic and interactive
experience
Make users want to come back !
Eager to Collaborate ?
-
Over 100+ members from 50 organization contributing to WET Drupal
-
Drupal.org project page
https://drupal.org/project/wetkit
-
Join the project on Github
https://github.com/wet-boew/wet-boew-drupal
-
Try it for yourself at: http://simplytest.me/project/wetkit/7.x-1.x
Documentation at: http://wiki.drupalwxt.org
Thank You !
Andrew Sinkinson
Statistics Canada
(613) 951-6882
Andrew.Sinkinson@statcan.gc.ca
@Sinkinsona
Stephen Russet
Ottawa, Canada
Stephen.Russet@gmail.com
@stephenrusset
Mourad Faid
Statistique Canada
(613) 951-1264
Mourad.Faid@statcan.gc.ca