Thatcamp2011 intro to-cm_ses

SHANTI THE SCIENCES, ARTS, AND HUMANITIES NETWORK OF TECHNOLOGICAL INITIATIVES

Introduction to CMSesWordPress, Omeka, and Drupal

Patrick Murray-John & Raf AlvaradoTHATCamp / CHNM

June 3-5 2011

In general, if you can use WordPress, then you should use

WordPress

What is a Content Model?

Mediates between the data model of the database and the emergent information architecture of the site.

Allows site builders to represent and organize content -- e.g. source material in the form of images, text, and metadata.

Content is complex -- media objects (e.g. image and detail, book and page), technical metadata, semantic metadata ...

Each CMS has a set of content modeling affordances based on . . .

Elementary units e.g. pages, nodesConnective devices e.g. tagss, categoriesDisplay methods e.g. widgets, feeds

Combined, these produce emergent patterns

Simple Hypertext

PAGES. . . have LINKS

No displaydevices per se

Examples:HTML andWikis …

From Nelson’s Computer Lib/Dream Machines

WordPress

PAGESSubpages Fly-out menus, menu

widgets POSTS

Tags Tag widgets, list pagesCategories Category widget, list pages

Content is accessed by browsing, menus, and widgets

Results in “Dendritic Hypertext”

Image taken from Shirky’s “Ontology is Overrated”

Content Modeling in WP

WordPress – map pages, pages, categories, and tags onto content domain

E.g. CoursesPages = Syllabus itemsPosts = Lesson resourcesCategories = Course ScheduleTags = Resource subject and format

Omeka has Items

ITEMS COLLECTIONsDC metadataKeywordsTags Browsable list pages

Content is accessed by Browsing and EXHIBITS

Results in “Axial Hypertext”

Image taken from Landow’s Hypertext

Drupal

NODESMenu paths Menus, blocksArbitrary fields ViewsNode references Linked Views, backrefsTaxonomies List pages, ViewsOutlines Books

Content is accessed by Browsing, Views, Books, Panels, and other devices

Drupal Content Models are like Relational Models

Each link represents a “node reference”

Results in “Rhizomic Hypertext”

Detail view of a node and associated node references

Content Model for Lived Theology Project

Content Model for Nursing History Project

Content Access WordPress Omeka Drupal

Browse / Feed River of NewsCategory and

Tag Lists

Browse item lists or by tags

River of news, taxonomy lists,

views

Table of Contents

Categories Taxonomy

Index Tags Taxonomy views

Search Basic search Basic search Filtered search in views,

Faceted search with Solr

Sequences Not really EXHIBITS Books, Panels

Some Salient Differences

Specific vs. General content modelingWordPress is general

Manual vs. Automatic site organizationOmeka is manual

Paradigmatic vs. Syntagmatic affordancesDrupal is highly paradigmatic

Use Cases

WordPressCourse sites, personal portfolios, blogs (of course)

OmekaExhibits, simple thematic research collections

DrupalCollaborative projects, complex thematic research

collections, data meshing

Example Drupal Sites

House DividedLived TheologyNursing HistoryCultural LandscapesMediaBase