Sohodojo’s Omidyar.net Blog

oomph! alot to chew on all i can say right now is, “good thing joomla is php cos down the road you can buy some programmers to build you custom modules!”

We hope things are not so far along that the LiA/WE/I4C web platform is committed to Joombla. It is nice, but it is hardly the only modular, extensible, Open Source content management and eCommerce platform that should be considered as candidate solution frameworks for this project.

Framework choice is, unfortunately, one of the most important implementation decisions that will be made in the course of a development project. Like it or not, this decision which is made relatively early in the project lifecycle will have profound repercussions on what can and cannot be done as the platform design evolves.

The technical capabilites of the platform also have to be measured against human factors such as who the initial development team will be and what frameworks do they know and how well do they know them. Also, will maintenance and extension be eventually handed over to a less skilled and less experienced team? Answers to these questions mitigate “better mousetrap” decisions based solely on technical framework design issues.

Quick edit as Lars has posted a further comment prior to this going on-line: Yes, Drupal should be on the short list for solution frameworks. Sohodojo has identified Drupal as our platform of choice for doing applied R&D to support entrepreneurial community ecosystems. This decision was made primarily on the strength of the architectural vision and implementation by Matt Westgate of his Drupal eCommerce framework.

Another nice thing about this selection is that Sohodojo is located in southeast Iowa and Matt (and fellow Drupalist John ‘Workflow’ VanDyk) live in Ames, Iowa north of here. We recently visited with Matt and John when we were in Ames presenting an entrepreneurial community ecosystem paper at a rural economic development conference.

–Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn–

oomph! alot to chew on all i can say right now is, “good thing joomla is php cos down the road you can buy some programmers to build you custom modules!”

We hope things are not so far along that the LiA/WE/I4C web platform is committed to Joombla. It is nice, but it is hardly the only modular, extensible, Open Source content management and eCommerce platform that should be considered as candidate solution frameworks for this project.

Framework choice is, unfortunately, one of the most important implementation decisions that will be made in the course of a development project. Like it or not, this decision which is made relatively early in the project lifecycle will have profound repercussions on what can and cannot be done as the platform design evolves.

The technical capabilites of the platform also have to be measured against human factors such as who the initial development team will be and what frameworks do they know and how well do they know them. Also, will maintenance and extension be eventually handed over to a less skilled and less experienced team? Answers to these questions mitigate “better mousetrap” decisions based solely on technical framework design issues.

Quick edit as Lars has posted a further comment prior to this going on-line: Yes, Drupal should be on the short list for solution frameworks. Sohodojo has identified Drupal as our platform of choice for doing applied R&D to support entrepreneurial community ecosystems. This decision was made primarily on the strength of the architectural vision and implementation by Matt Westgate of his Drupal eCommerce framework.

Another nice thing about this selection is that Sohodojo is located in southeast Iowa and Matt (and fellow Drupalist John ‘Workflow’ VanDyk) live in Ames, Iowa north of here. We recently visited with Matt and John when we were in Ames presenting an entrepreneurial community ecosystem paper at a rural economic development conference.

–Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn–