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This is it: work in progress...

We've decided to update our class website with a modern-day content management system so we don't have to update ever again. You'll notice some radical improvements in the coming months, with final completion, just before our next reunion in 2010. We will also stick on the homepage, some stuff I come across that may be of interest and even, God forbid, some commentary...

The system we are using for our content management system is called Drupal. It's an open source solution meaning that it's free and we like that! We've become experts in this arcane little CMS niche over the past couple years and our advantage over most all other Drupal developers [www.drupal.org] is that we have an alliance with one of the core developers, Allie Micka whose company, Advantage Labs here in the Twin Cities, is one of the main hotspots for Drupal Training, hosting and all things Drupal. There are only a handful of core Drupal developers, world-wide among a pool of developers in the tens of thousands.

Being "open source" you can infer that Drupal is a big hit with the nonprofit crowd and you would be correct. Colleges and Universities nationwide are also going Drupal. So far, it hasn't been a big phone ringer for CORWINwebs, my company, but we're optimistic that will change over time.

One of the gazillion advantages of Drupal is that all of the features of the content management system [CMS] are discrete, self-contained modules. The developer simply uploads the free module to the website, enables it by checking a checkbox and away we go. This makes advanced features easy with little back-end, propeller-head programming. So with Drupal, no more tin-foil hats, no more pocket protectors, no more living in mom's basement.

A great example of an advanced Drupal application is our own alumni's [Kristin Henning & Tom Bartel] online magazine The Rake [www.rakemag.com]. Another one is The Onion [www.theonion.com].

So we encourage you to check back periodically and marvel at all the new content as it goes back up, piece by piece by embarrassing piece.

-Tim Corwin