Our effort to deploy a content management system began over two years ago when faculty member Mark Blaine approached me needing an easy to use web publishing environment for some of his courses. For us at the University of Oregon, web publishing is a low bar to reach: the bandwidth is already there, it is plenty and it is effectively free for us. All we needed was to supply the service. With wikis being all the rage at the time, we first tested the waters using Dokuwiki, which is a very respectable open source software package. It met many of our basic needs but it was clear that 1. we couldn't run the entire SOJC website using it and 2. our needs differed from its capabilities (specifically needs for better WYSISYG editing, more powerful access control and more structure within in the site).

After doing more research and a great deal of test-driving, we settled on Plone, an up-and-coming (if not arrived) star of the open source content management world. There was a lot of back-end work to make it fly (as with many software applications that make it easier for end users to do their jobs), but over the months of testing we've found uses for the software and features within the software we didn't anticipate to begin with. Working with a software package that closely for that long is really like having a relationship with a person-- you really get to know its strengths and weaknesses-- and despite the fact that I've been having this "fling" with Plone now for over a year, I'm still enamored with it. Not a week goes by without it reminding me of how powerful and capable it is.

I learned long ago that great ideas are just ideas until they're implemented and then they're not great until they're implemented well. I can't take credit for the implementation here, only the idea. The hard, in the trenches work was done my system administrator Ryan Stasel and webmaster Louie Vidmar. Without them, you wouldn't be reading this here and it wouldn't look anywhere near as good as it does now. Thanks guys.

And here's to many, many more happy months living with Plone.

Fortunately for us, 1. the printer was brought to its knees in the last hours in the term when no one would be using it and 2. our maintenance contract paid for a new fuser, no questions asked.

And yes, we spoke with the student responsible for this and rubbed her nose it it. Figuratively, of course.

And I know it won't–- we've been beta testing the software now since late June and I've been hammering on it for much longer than that and I know much of the weirdness has already been worked out. Much of the "last mile" on this project has been look and feel matters that come with any web design project. Sure, it took a little longer to implement that look because we're new to Plone, but the software has not let us down yet. Every time a student or faculty member has approached me, needing the software to do this or that, I've found a way to make it work without having to write new code or-- in most cases-- install an add-on product to make it happen. This blogging feature is a perfect example of Plone's power: it's just a folder full of pages that I've syndicated so there's an RSS feed, because I know everyone is going to want to read these missives. I'm ready for my close-up....