Schedule
Arkestra: semantic information publishing for organisations
Description
How should a CMS best publish information for an organisation?
Arkestra's approach is to create a semantic model of the organisation and its activities.
I'll discuss:
* how this thorough-going semantic modelling makes possible the notion of an information-driven - rather than merely a data-driven - web publishing system
* how Arkestra uses data relationships intelligently to inform as much of its output, and to save as much of the user's time, as possible
* how applications like Arkestra's can use django CMS's excellent publishing and site management frameworks
* how not thinking about databases and models is an excellent way to solve the problem of combining rich, useful real-world modelling with flexible, portable information structures
* the amazing Semantic Presentation Editor, that makes it possible for users to create complex page layouts freely, without the constraint of predefined templates or knowledge of HTML/CSS, and without producing abominably-structured HTML
* how Django and Arkestra have worked for us, our team of 40+ web editors and our 10'000 or so pages of information
About Daniele Procida
I know a lot about Immanuel Kant's metaphysics and moral anthropology, but only a little about Python and Django, which I discovered three years ago.
I apply my limited knowledge with great gusto and enthusiasm at Cardiff University School of Medicine, where I have invented Arkestra, the Django system that has managed and published our website for the last two years.
To my excitement, other organisations small and large have begun adopting Arkestra for their own websites.
Thanks to Python and Django, I stopped being a frustrated and resentful user of horrible, badly-designed web CMS software that I could do nothing about. Now I am a fulfilled and happy creator of programs that behave pleasantly and people enjoy using.
