Denison University in Ohio added it's name to the list of organizations running Bricolage

On Aug 24, 2007, at 10:14 PM, Matt Rolf wrote:
> On Wednesday, Denison University in Ohio added it's
name to the  
> list of organizations running Bricolage.  Over the
summer, with  
> various planning taking place over the past year, we
migrated our  
> official campus content into the new system.  This was
about 20,000  
> pages and media combined.  Training is ongoing with our
 
> maintainers.  We have a number of kinks to still work
out, but I  
> feel like we will ultimately be successful.  For those
interested,  
> here's what we were able to do with Bricolage.  http://www.denison.edu

Just wanted to say a quick "congrats," and
"lovely!" Any interesting  
tidbits in there to share? E.g., how things were approached,
or where  
Bricolage has been put to an interesting use?


--
Phillip Smith,
Simplifier of Technology
Community Bandwidth

On Aug 27, 2007, at 12:57 PM, Phillip Smith wrote:

> On Aug 24, 2007, at 10:14 PM, Matt Rolf wrote:
>> On Wednesday, Denison University in Ohio added it's
name to the  
>> list of organizations running Bricolage.  Over the
summer, with  
>> various planning taking place over the past year,
we migrated our  
>> official campus content into the new system.  This
was about  
>> 20,000 pages and media combined.  Training is
ongoing with our  
>> maintainers.  We have a number of kinks to still
work out, but I  
>> feel like we will ultimately be successful.  For
those interested,  
>> here's what we were able to do with Bricolage. 
http:// 
>> www.denison.edu
>
> Just wanted to say a quick "congrats," and
"lovely!" Any  
> interesting tidbits in there to share? E.g., how things
were  
> approached, or where Bricolage has been put to an
interesting use?

Yes! However, I've been quite busy and haven't gotten that
e-mail  
finished.  But I will!

In the meantime . . .

On Sep 6, 2007, at 2:01 PM, Cinly Ooi wrote:

> Dear Matt
>
> Any chance of posting your presentation slides? Not
quite possible  
> for me to
> attend since I'm in UK

Yes, I'll try to do that afterward for the people who can't
make it.

> Do you think you should talk about why did you choose
Bricolage  
> instead of
> other CMS that you had evaluated. This is particularly
relevent  
> because you
> started by saying there is no Perl experience among the
core team.  
> That is a
> BIG minus that you have to overcome. It will be
interesting to see  
> what
> actually "sold" Bricolage in your case.

Absolutely.  I'll tell you now, just for fun.

1) The strong basis in XML and creating structured
documents.
2) David's articles for perl.com.  I can't tell you enough
what a  
positive influence they had on me.  What it said was, here's
a CMS  
with a design philosophy.  And yet it's customizable.  The
NetBSD of  
content management, if you will. As opposed to the RHES.
3)  Being able to retain Apache as our main web server, and
not  
having to use something like Zope or Tomcat.  Less
disruption.
4)  The API.
5)  SOAP
6) Active user community.
7) Committed lead developer who has a major stake in
improving  
th . . . er, nevermind ;)
8) Good performance once tuned.
9) The e-week review.  Good for my superiors to see.
10)  The fact that we could implement it in roughly a year.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

On Sep 6, 2007, at 13:32, Matt Rolf wrote:

> 7) Committed lead developer who has a major stake in
improving  
> th . . . er, nevermind ;)

Hey, I'm still around. And new leaders are emerging. 

David

On Sep 6, 2007, at 5:02 PM, David E. Wheeler wrote:

> Hey, I'm still around. And new leaders are emerging.


;)  I kid, I kid. 
  

For those who couldn't make it, the PPW was a great time. 
IMHO, the  
organizers did a great job of providing value to attendees. 
Lunch,  
breakfast, and at least some food and drink for dinner were
provided  
every day.  The speakers were good (particularly the
Bricolage  
guy ,
and we met a lot of cool people.  My office colleagues  
attended the "From 0 to Perl" session.  While they
found it a bit  
dense, they are excited at the prospect of doing more Perl
work.  We  
learned that there's a Columbus, OH Perl Mongers group.
We're going  
to see what's up with them and maybe do some Bric related
stuff.

On the Bricolage front, there were about 20-30 people at the
session  
I did.  It seemed like most people there had just a general
interest  
in the topic.  There were some nods, and a few questions,
but I  
wasn't deluged with feedback.  That being said, there were a
few who  
were excited and thrilled to hear that development work was
being  
done.  One of the event staff asked about the potential for
doing a  
more in-depth look at Bricolage covering more than one
session.  So  
who knows, maybe that can happen in the future.

Slides from my presentation are available here in pdf
format:

http://pghp
w.org/ppw2007/wiki?node=Slides

There is supposed to be a podcast available, so I'll post
the link to  
that when I find out where it is linked.

Also, Ashlee Caul (who many of you know from this list) and
her  
colleague Neal were there from the Rand Corporation.  It was
great to  
chat about all things Bricolage with them.  And, of course,
they were  
very cool people. Thanks for coming, guys!

We also had a Bricolage BoF.  The Denison contingent and
Neal were  
there, along with one other gentleman.  We discussed the
best way to  
template things,  and ways to improve the code base.  Some
of the  
things we talked about improving were the permissions model
and how  
contributors are handled.  We also talked about effective
ways of  
advocating open source projects to senior staff.

Finally, Neal did a Lightning Talk where he talked about
Bricolage  
still being alive and how it's used by Rand Corp.  We didn't
stay  
around for it, though, as it was late in the day and we had
to get  
back to Columbus.

All in all, it was a great experience.  I hope to see more
Bricolage  
people at a future workshop.

-Matt

On Oct 15, 2007, at 07:51, Matt Rolf wrote:

> For those who couldn't make it, the PPW was a great
time.  IMHO,  
> the organizers did a great job of providing value to
attendees.   
> Lunch, breakfast, and at least some food and drink for
dinner were  
> provided every day.  The speakers were good
(particularly the  
> Bricolage guy , and we
met a lot of cool people.  My office  
> colleagues attended the "From 0 to Perl"
session.  While they found  
> it a bit dense, they are excited at the prospect of
doing more Perl  
> work.  We learned that there's a Columbus, OH Perl
Mongers group.  
> We're going to see what's up with them and maybe do
some Bric  
> related stuff.

Sweet.

> On the Bricolage front, there were about 20-30 people
at the  
> session I did.  It seemed like most people there had
just a general  
> interest in the topic.  There were some nods, and a few
questions,  
> but I wasn't deluged with feedback.  That being said,
there were a  
> few who were excited and thrilled to hear that
development work was  
> being done.  One of the event staff asked about the
potential for  
> doing a more in-depth look at Bricolage covering more
than one  
> session.  So who knows, maybe that can happen in the
future.
>
> Slides from my presentation are available here in pdf
format:
>
> http://pghp
w.org/ppw2007/wiki?node=Slides

Very nice job, Matt. I particularly appreciate the case
study  
approach, which is something we haven't done a lot of (I
usually did  
more technical presentations). Case studies can be really
helpful for  
people doing evaluations and what not.

> There is supposed to be a podcast available, so I'll
post the link  
> to that when I find out where it is linked.
>
> Also, Ashlee Caul (who many of you know from this list)
and her  
> colleague Neal were there from the Rand Corporation. 
It was great  
> to chat about all things Bricolage with them.  And, of
course, they  
> were very cool people. Thanks for coming, guys!

I shoulda thought that they'd be there. Marshall didn't make
it?

> We also had a Bricolage BoF.  The Denison contingent
and Neal were  
> there, along with one other gentleman.  We discussed
the best way  
> to template things,  and ways to improve the code base.
 Some of  
> the things we talked about improving were the
permissions model and  
> how contributors are handled.  We also talked about
effective ways  
> of advocating open source projects to senior staff.

Nice!

*sob* My little CMS is growing up and doesn't need me to
nurse it  
along anymore. :-D

> Finally, Neal did a Lightning Talk where he talked
about Bricolage  
> still being alive and how it's used by Rand Corp.  We
didn't stay  
> around for it, though, as it was late in the day and we
had to get  
> back to Columbus.

I'd love to hear a synopsis, Neal!

> All in all, it was a great experience.  I hope to see
more  
> Bricolage people at a future workshop.

Very nice, thanks for the summary, Matt, very much
appreciated.

Best,

David

On Oct 15, 2007, at 1:00 PM, David E. Wheeler wrote:

> Marshall didn't make it?

Nope, nowhere to be seen.  It looks like he thought about
coming, as  
his name is on the wiki, but he's not listed as registered. 
Is he  
still in the area?

> *sob* My little CMS is growing up and doesn't need me
to nurse it  
> along anymore. :-D

Just wait until it comes back from college break and tells
you it's  
thinking about dropping out for a few months to find itself,
and oh  
yeah, can it have it's old room back?  

-Matt