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