[infrastructure] What platform is OSfA built on?

[Jay Batson]

(Sorry I'm running behind on this thread; work has kept me off the  
list.)

On Sep 15, 2009, at 6:38 PM, Greg DeKoenigsberg wrote:

> On Tue, 15 Sep 2009, Ean Schuessler wrote:
>
>> A clearer statement would be that we are running OFBiz under Apache  
>> Tomcat. Drupal is a fine content management system but I think its  
>> CRM capabilities are weaker than OFBiz. Managing member  
>> relationships is a critical function.

I guess I'd raise the question "What CRM capabilities are important?"   
Are we doing fundraising and actual cash transactions, and are we  
doing marketing campaigns where we want to track click-backs to  
individual sales?  If so, then that dictates a set of CRM  
capabilities.  There _are_ Drupal-based CRM features of this type,  
though if you really want a CRM, don't you want something like SugarCRM?

If what you _really_ want is social-networking style capabilities to  
encourage member relationships -- enabling people to be able to  
create / associate with / join groups, be able to communicate with the  
membership (and them with each other), etc., then this isn't really  
CRM-ish - it's "Web 2.0"-ish.  This is where a good Web app platform  
(Drupal) will help.  Drupal excels in social-style websites.

CRM orientation is for "Customers".  Drupal is for "users."

> Fair enough.  But that means it's a function that you are going to  
> have to own -- until you can bring up someone else to implement new  
> features, that is.  :)

Which is where Drupal shines.... It's community is huge - much bigger  
than OFBiz - and there is already a plug-in module for virtually  
anything you want.  Currently, there's over 4,500 plug-in functional  
add-ons to Drupal.  In the Drupal world, we have a saying:  "You want  
XX??  There's a Module for that."  Which cuts development time and  
accelerates progress.

>> If you would like to run Drupal in the same context we could  
>> accomodate you with Caucho Resin. I don't think managing content  
>> with the current system has been problematic, so If I'm going to  
>> take time to set that up I would like commitments on what will be  
>> built with it. Terri or Melanie, have you found editing content to  
>> be a problem?

We've seen some experience with Resin / Drupal.  It works "ok" - but  
Resin is a full PHP interpreter written in (and executing as) Java;  
thus, it's always some releases behind the core PHP release.  Which  
isn't usually important until, say, you want things like security  
patches.....

While don't really hate it, we don't actively encourage this.  There's  
just too many rough edges still.

> It's not the front end that matters; it's the backend.  A web  
> content UI is a web content UI.

This is where most people's understanding of Drupal falls short.  I  
don't know what Greg's familiarity is, but Drupal has grown WAY beyond  
a web content UI / system.  The current release - Drupal 6 - is _both_  
a back-end platform as well as a fully-functional front-end system.   
Drupal should be viewed as a web application system - not a web page  
front end.

(BTW - Drupal 7 - which just hit code freeze - is even more so,  
cleaning up a variety of things that were left in D6 that weren't  
fully abstracted.  Not to say Drupal 6 couldn't handle it; it's just  
evidence of it's continuing evolution as a platform.)

Which leads to...:

> What matters is the ease with which a newbie developer can show up  
> on the mailing list, see a thread entitled "need help with X," and  
> be able to step up and say "I know your technology well enough to  
> help with X."

Which is why the project lead for Drupal - a guy with a PhD in Java VM  
systems - chose to write Drupal in PHP, not Java.  Php is  
approachable, and you can grow a bigger community and bigger  
participation by using it.

Evidence:  The Drupal community pretty much doubles every year.   
Drupalcon DC - in March this year - had 1,600 people, up from 850 the  
year before in Boston.  Drupalcon Paris (just finished) had 1,200  
people, up from 700 the year before.

And it turns out that tons of Drupal community participants are  
passionate about government and politics.  It's biggest boost came  
when it got used by the Dean campaign.  If the Drupal community learns  
that OSfA is based on Drupal, we'll have GOBS of people volunteering  
to add feature X.  All I need to do is to use our company Twitter  
account and Tweet that we need Drupalers to get involved in this  
infrastructure group, and you'll have 50 people volunteering within  
the hour to write code.

Which is more scaleable than Ean.  ;-)

I strongly suggest we consider re-opening the CMS discussion, and  
discuss (a) the extent of CRM needs that are actually required, vs.  
(b) the need to get visitor - driven content / participation, and  
human network effects, as well as wide-scale participation in site  
development - most of which Drupal can overwhelmingly dominate.

-jb

------
Jay Batson
batsonjay at gmail.com
978-758-1599 (m)
978-296-5217 (w)


PPhil on the Iban Mayo's Tour win, Stage 8, 2003:

This is the wonderful moment
when you come alone to the summit of Alpe d'Huez.
Time, at this minute, is not important
when you're winning the stage at Alpe d'Huez,
it's all about success.