Rhumba with Joomla! Using a CMS to Build Community
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The document discusses the South Carolina State Library's (SCSL) process of redesigning their website using the content management system (CMS) Joomla. It describes how SCSL conducted user surveys, explored CMS options, and migrated their content to Joomla over several phases of planning, design, development, and deployment. The new site launched in July 2006 and features community building tools enabled by Joomla like blogs, forums, and user-contributed content. Staff and users found the new site intuitive to navigate, update, and use.
Rhumba with Joomla! Using a CMS to Build Community
- 1. Tao Gao – IT Consultant / Web Administrator, SCSL Catherine Buck Morgan – Information Technology Director, SCSL April 16, 2007 Using a CMS to Build Community Rhumba with Joomla!
- 2. Agenda Why Joomla? Case Study – South Carolina State Library Joomla in a Nutshell
- 3. Why Joomla? What are the Benefits? Open Source It’s Easy to Install, Use, Manage and Reliable Joomla vs. Drupal Joomla vs. Blogs Separation of Content and Form Portable Extendable Strong Support Communities Who’s Using it? Government Agencies SC IT Directors Asso . Commercial Businesses Porsche Brazil Non-Profit Organizations United Nations RIC
- 4. CMS Comparison Comparison Metrics A tool to compare up to 10 content management systems at once. http://www.cmsmatrix.org/matrix Google Search Trend
- 6. Library Background South Carolina State Library provides, advances and promotes library services and equal access to information for all South Carolinians through: Services to Libraries Services to State Employees Services to Citizens with Disabilities Services to General Public
- 7. Why a Redesign Before:
- 8. Why a Redesign? Issues Static HTML Table-based Layout Basic Perl Scripts (i.e. Contact forms) Outdated Content Incoherent Navigation Inconsistent Style and Structure Graphically Unappealing Lack of Interactivity Several Hundred Scattered Pages and Growing Rapidly
- 9. Redesign Goals What We Wanted Standards Compliant Design (Section 508) Intuitive Navigation Separation of Content and Form Staff Collaboration Site-Wide Search Online Job Submissions Community Oriented RSS Feeds
- 10. Redesign Process Phase I: Plan Redesign Proposal, Sept. 2004 Conducted Online User and In-House User Surveys Mar. – Apr. 2005. 227 responses Review of Current Content Lessons Learned Used SurveyMonkey to poll our users about the current website. Most useful feedback came from open-ended questions. Decided to have people who were not familiar with the subject areas review key content areas. Worked well. Fresh eyes. Needed a Well-Qualified & Dedicated Team Project Manger, Creative Graphic Designer, Web Developer with CSS and PHP Experience, Content Developer
- 11. Redesign Process Phase II: Design Agency Re-Branding, Feb. 2005 Interface Design and Review Process Stalls… Lessons Learned Graphic designer did not have an understanding of the business case Result: Mock-up still presented a flat website design Who was the Project Manager??
- 12. Redesign Process Phase III: Development Content Audit and Review (Summer 2005) Explore CMS Options Find Outside Host Server for Development (Nov. 2005) Joomla Learning Curve Translate Graphical Interface to Joomla Templates Content Migration Identify and Incorporate Desired Functionality Continued to Maintain and Update Static Site
- 13. Redesign Process Phase V: Deployment and Evolution Staff to review website, June 2006 New website goes live, July 2006 Site moved to new in-house server, Aug. 2006 Evaluate Growth and Refinement Lessons Learned Few staff reviewed the site Day 1: Where? Why? BUT kudos for website from state and beyond CMS makes it easier to evaluate depth of content Send web administrator to China for a month
- 15. Website Stakeholders Before Homepage Committee PR Committee Web Administrator After 2 Web Managers 25 Authors 326 Registered Members; 130 Not Yet Approved Special Invitation to CIL Attendees
- 16. It’s All About the People I'm the IT Manager at SOLINET (a library network in Atlanta). One of my co-workers sent me the link to your new site as we are currently looking at redesigning our site and I'm always looking for ideas. Your site looks great and you've included lots of great features. I was impressed by your blog posting than mentioned you were able to do this in just 9 months. I think that's impressive. - IT Manager, SOLINET I love being able to add my own content to the website, especially parts that update frequently such as the New Resources. - Amanda Stone Reference Librarian The remarks were made earlier today by a blind friend. She uses the Internet heavily but uses a quite old version of JAWS running on a 5-year-old PC with Windows 2000 operating system. I thought you would be pleased to know how easy it was for her to navigate. - Reference Librarian Greenville County The ease of adding news and links has encouraged me to be more proactive in searching for content to add to our website. I am very happy with the new web site, and find it easy to add content. - Kecia Greer TBS Reader’s Advisor Your site was easy to access and explore links!!! - Library Patron
- 17. Joomla in a Nutshell
- 18. Easy Installation Our Server Specs: Software PHP MySQL Joomla 1.02 Apache Server XAMPP Windows Server 2003 Hardware CPU: Dual Xeon ® 2.8 GHz RAM: 2GB 400MHz DDR2 Storage: 36GB x 4 (RAID 5) Tape Backup Download Latest Joomla! Prepare MySQL Database Unzip and Upload Files to Server Browser Install
- 19. Template Design Joomla Template Elements Index.php template_css.css Images templateDetails.xml Joomla Template Flexibilities Movable Boxes Easy to Customize UI (User Interface)
- 20. Working with Content Static Content Assign Ownership Instruct Staff in Adding Content (WYSIWYG) Active Content Sections, Categories and Content Items User Submission Process Review and Approval
- 21. User Contributed Content WYSIWYG editor Users Don’t Need to Know HTML Pre-defined Content Formatting Website Administration Separation of Content and Form Reinforcing Accessibility Guidelines File Handling Image Management
- 22. Joomla Extensions Extensions Templates A templates defines the layout of your Joomla web site Front-end Components Components are core elements of Joomla’s functionality. Modules Modules are small content items that can be displayed anywhere that your template allows them to be displayed. Administrator Control Panel In Joomla Administrator Control Panel, you can install Components, Modules and Templates easily.
- 23. Community Building Tools Joomla and Library 2.0 Member Profiles Discussion Forums Calendar RSS Feeds Tag Clouds Event Registration Management Blogs Groups Photo Galleries Book Reviews More…
- 24. Community Building Identify Targeted Groups and Interests Listen to User Input Offer Valuable Services That Are Easy to Use Train Community Users Have Fun!
- 25. Questions? For discussions, additional information and updated slides, visit Joomla in Libraries . com
Editor's Notes
- #14: Tao goes to China….