Drupalcon Prague: sessions, missed ops, leaflets and old contacts - renewed

The structure of Drupalcons provide a range of sources for learning, networking and information. The main sessions are the most obvious source, plus there are many vendors providing and marketing various services from development, hosting to specialist services. Less formal there are the Birds of a Feather BoFs, core conversations. I did not get to any BoFs, it is always difficult when these things run concurrently.

I'll list here some things that stood out from leaflets left on the coffee tables to BoFs that clashed (I've revisited the program). First up is a BoF that points to a useful bundled project:

Creating Graphs and Maps with SearchAPI

BoFs, being informal are quite dynamic so the lesson for me is to check the program for additions and things you may have missed. I missed a BoF on e-learning in Drupal, the Quiz and related modules - H5P that I posted about last May. Gutted for sure, as I can envisage how I could use these tools beyond the old HTML multiple choice form.

The above BoF included a demo of Opigno an LMS - learning management system.

As to companies, the Semantic Web Company offers Drupal services. This lead was a flyer I picked up on the last day and another prompt to revisit Neologism a Drupal project I came across in Drupalcon Szeged, Hungary in 2008 and posted about. The introductory text from the DERI Neologism website reads:

Neologism is a vocabulary publishing platform for the Web of Data, with a focus on ease of use and compatibility with Linked Data principles. Neologism is free and Open Source.
With Neologism, you can create RDF classes and properties, which are needed to publish on the Web of Data. Neologism makes creating and publishing vocabularies easy and fast. It supports the RDFS standard, and a part of OWL.

Among a great many people, I met Alan Burke in Szeged back in '08 and he re-introduced himself this week in Prague. He is now full-time dedicated to Drupal and was pleased to learn that as an 'enthusiast' I am still engaged. I qualified this - with a website still to do; but yes, I'm very much still on-board. I really appreciate Alan's coming over during the break and hearing of his progress and that of his colleagues.

Scalability is a common discussion in software. Scale is an issue for new businesses also. One of the sessions in Prague (several probably) drew attention to the complexity of the 'Drupal stack'. Is it possible for an end-user to fully master it? In our quick chat it became apparent that this was partly why Alan was pleased to learn that I am still climbing the curve. Scalability can be a problem for individuals too, as in making sense of the commercial offerings, whether semantic services or hosting.

There was a BoF on data visualization too - but again I was elsewhere. Dataseed sounds an interesting fusion. I also followed sessions on creating multilingual sites, Drupal 8, Symfony, plus Twig the new templating system for Drupal 8. All in all it was a great event with some sight seeing last Monday. The greatest source though is the community!

Surveys, Nursing Education, Drupal and Webform

Just before heading to Drupalcon Prague I learned of a new paper by Gill et al.:

Using a web-based survey tool to undertake a Delphi study: Application for nurse education research

Background: The Internet is increasingly being used as a data collection medium to access research participants. This paper reports on the experience and value of using web-survey software to conduct an eDelphi study to develop Australian critical care course graduate practice standards.
Methods: The eDelphi technique used involved the iterative process of administering three rounds of surveys to a national expert panel. The survey was developed online using SurveyMonkey. Panel members responded to statements using one rating scale for round one and two scales for rounds two and three. Text boxes for panel comments were provided.
Collecting data and providing feedback: For each round, the SurveyMonkey's email tool was used to distribute an individualized email invitation containing the survey web link. The distribution of panel responses, individual responses and a summary of comments were emailed to panel members. Stacked bar charts representing the distribution of responses were generated using the SurveyMonkey software. Panel response rates remained greater than 85% over all rounds.
(in press)

The paper is interesting in combining surveys and an e-variant of the Delphi research method. Conclusions highlight the improved accessibility to experts and how ethics needs to keep pace with technical change and affordances.

Yesterday at Drupalcon there was a presentation on Webform:

Webform 4.0: Surveys in Drupal Improved

I've mocked up a enquiry form using Webform, but this session pointed to how the module can be extended for polls and contact forms. Based on Gill et al. and the eDelphi technique they explain this could be a really powerful combination.


Gill, F.J., et al., Using a web-based survey tool to undertake a Delphi study: Application for nurse education research, Nurse Education Today (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2013.02.016

H2CM new website - A short-form project brief

In Dani Nordin’s Drupal for Designers, chapter 4 is includes a short-form project brief.

As I pack for Prague and another Drupalcon (my 6th!) and with PHPNW conference fast approaching it's time I re-visited my project brief:

1 Identify the Project Goals

According to Nordin a good list of project goals should be no more than about three bullet points.

1. To provide a new archive for Brian Hodges’ lecture notes and make these accessible and multilingual
2. To share / signpost papers to date and invite others to collaborate and share work
3. To highlight why Hodges’ model matters

Then Dani moved to personas and here I'll extend the above goals.

2 Identify the Audience

I am looking for student nurses, that is under graduates and post grad, indeed life-long learners within the field of health and social care. In seeking students the natural progression of this is to connect if possible with lecturers and faculty. Nordin lists several ways to characterise the personas through common aspects:

• Who they are
• What will win them
• What I need them to know
• Content focus

So immediately I can broadly identify and develop two personas:

Learners

Who they are: Student nurses, social work students including medicine and other health and social care disciplines. They will be seeking evidence in theory and practice, with sources and resources to apply to assigned work. They will also be open to ideas and techniques that can help them to structure and recall their learning.
What will win them: Make it easy for them to see what is offered, find what they seek, Brian Hodges' lecture notes, provide feedback on learning if students are willing to register and invest their time. Provide a responsive contact form to answer questions promptly. Link the content to evidence if, or as soon as possible. Make content relevant by allowing users to contribute to website's development and direction.
What I need them to know: I want to convey to them an understanding of Hodges’ model its purposes, structure, content and how the model might be applied in theory and practice.
Content focus: Lecture notes text and video; Quiz; Test; Certificate; h2cm grid; Case study template; Presentations; FAQ; Registration; Contact form; Polls; Bibliography; Biographies; Timeline; Photos.

Lecturers

Who are they: Health and social care related faculty, teaching on nursing, social work, learning disability and other programmes. A diverse range of subjects and disciplines could be included from mental health, acute care, community and across the life course.
What will win them: Illustrate the ways h2cm can facilitate learning the aspects of (for example) nursing, not only reinforcing the key concepts of nursing (care) but why they care.
What I need them to know: Understanding how h2cm fits within their respective curriculum. Gaining awareness of how can the model can potentially stimulate and challenge their students and complement assignments. Why Hodges' model is relevant at this particular time.
Content focus: Brian Hodges' lecture notes; Outstanding questions; Research directions; Blog; Contact form; Registration; h2cm examples.

On the old website I possibly over-egged the pudding in terms of 'audiences'. There is an introductory page for -

• students and lecturer; 
• patients and carers;
• the public (citizens);
• and managers with policy makers.

Nordin has a persona for The Sharer. There are people for whom this is their forte. Here though I would try to include sharing tools that might be utilised by specific audiences. So for lecturers ways sharing might be Academia.edu, ResearchGate and LinkedIn. Likewise there are student (social media oriented) communities.The content of the old was fixed - by me. This needs to change, so polls and discussion may help define what the students / lecturers would like to see, hear ...

3 Focus on Information Architecture and Content Strategy

Nordin is describing a website re-design and so am I with some simplifications. Taking step 3 literally and from reading having an information architecture is very important to me. Its importance is not just in earning a scout badge, but it may need to vary slightly across the site. Nordin's step three seems to emphasize content. I'm wondering about headings, subtitles and other structural and aesthetic points. How might these work and hopefully cohere across the archive and rest of the site? It is also the case of separating (in my head) information architecture and styling.

As to content strategy I've played and doodled with this on several occasions. There's even an A, B, C, ... about it if you check above.

4 Identify New Features or Technologies You Want to Include

Responsive design is as Nordin also indicates a must have for me. In successive Drupalcon keynotes Dries Buytaert has stressed the rise of mobile devices. It would be a major gain to have the archive readable by mobile and tablet users.

Thus far I've not made full use of video, Skype and even audio for delivering content. At Drupalcon Prague there's a session media management and the Scald module. I'm hardly a radio or TV station but as people say DO consider those things that you are not skilled at, or naturally drawn to. Slides and presentations both existing and contributions (or links) would also be a key content feature.

If a community can emerge this might also be that as Nordin suggests users can share internally within the site using (unconsciously) specific structures within Drupal. The latest means of classifying and searching a site will also be essential. Seeking to share h2cm with the world I've scheduled some sessions on leveraging the multilingual capabilities of Drupal 8.

Accessibility is another essential feature.

5 Upgrade, or Start from Scratch

This, thankfully, is not an upgrade. To the list in #4 I could have added database - a dynamic website because this is the primary need, the enabler. With that though comes complexity and responsibility. Website management then demands data be protected, secure, backed up, and this involves migration and upgrades. So, starting from scratch - yes, but with an eye to upgrading.

The NW Drupal meetings in Manchester and Drupalcon Prague program bring the news of the many new tools and changes in Drupal 8:

• Views in core;
• New configurable fields e.g. entity reference, date, e-mail and others;
• Multilingual changes;
• Blocks & Layouts;
• Responsive images and breakpoints.
  
  From Drupalcon Prague "Drupal 8 for Site Builders" session

In addition there is Symfony, the loss of some hooks, Twig a templating engine.

6 Figure Out Theming and CSS Issues

If .Net and Web Designer magazines inform us of two things it's the pace of change in tools and the range of tools. It's helpful then when those choices are reduced. This may be the case with CSS within Drupal and adopting a grid system, a point made by Todd Nienkerk (p.79).

There are some excellent themes and sub-themes within Drupal 7. Drupal 8 extends this potential. I posted previously about Omega.

To conclude:
I think there is an interesting project here, but thinking alone isn't going to get this done!

Drupalcon Portland session: Collaborative Learning Systems in Drupal & tpm

I'm still following Drupal here in NW England and around Europe since version 4.7. The next Drupalcon is in Prague next month and I'm all set. As what seems a lifelong learner of Drupal there are usually many sessions of relevance to me. There's repetition creeping in too (at Munich last year), which is a good sign for me. Perhaps it's a sign of Drupal's maturing but there are sessions of specific interest in health and education. This week the program for Drupalcon Prague starts to really emerge.

Until the 13th when the program appears, there was an educational-learning example from Portland in May 2013 embedded below, by Avram Sand and Fabian Franz. The introduction for which begins...

How can you use Drupal to add value to a Learning Management System? In this case study we will show how Trellon helped Population Services International (PSI), a leading global health organization, build a collaborative learning environment using common Drupal modules.

There are some great pointers in this session, modules to consider and insights into functionality.  Whatever TLA is employed - LMS (learning management system), VLE (virtual learning environment), TEL (technology enhanced learning) ... the lessons are transferable.

In the latest edition of the philosopher's magazine tpm 3rd Quarter there's a paper on TEL by David Mossley and Clare Saunders: A revolution in philosophy teaching? (pp. 40-45). Mossley and Saunders argue the case for tempering our expectations of TEL, framing their article around constructivism:

... TEL, presents entirely new and exciting learning environments which students can engage with in more ways, with greater self-motivation, and with more creative possibilities than ever before. If constructivist pedagogy is right, thr more "engagement" with a perfectly modelled environment of ideas in a virtual space a student can enjoy, the higher the quality of their learning experience will be; for they will be presented with just the "optimal" set of experiences needed to create their won meanings appropriately. However, once we start to analyse what the word "appropriately" might mean in this context, we suggest this starts to point us toward a different way of thinking about epistemology and pedagogy. p.42

More positively, they conclude that - technology enhanced learning:

... can and does furnish new spaces and opportunities for social learning - it opens up new avenues for us both to practise and enhance further our philosophical knowledge and capabilities and (thereby) to co-create the future of philosophy and of knowledge more broadly. p.45.

Mossley and Saunders also refer to Hegel's idea of Bildung:

describing education as the bringing into harmony of all one's thoughts, experiences, activities and practices in existing contexts; that is, education as shared approaches to ways of making meanings, of gaining competence, based on the meanings explored by others before us. p.43.

Here is another avenue to support the role of Hodges' model in education and practice.

H5P framework: rich content and applications in Drupal

If I ever get to create a new site devoted to Hodges' model it will be an enjoyable experience. A couple of weeks ago I learned of a framework H5P (also a file format) that can be integrated into Drupal to create content types for educational purposes.

In addition to the archive material on the model, it is important to offer students a means to test their knowledge. This might involve a trial of several modules, including H5P:

H5P is a framework for creating HTML5 content and applications that can be easily moved between web-sites. H5P facilitates sharing and reuse of code used in rich content and applications. H5P also includes an authoring tool so that H5P content may be created and edited using a web-browser.
Organizations and governments spend millions of dollars creating rich Internet content, games and applications. The code used may be shared here on h5p.org as libraries so that others may fill in their own content and reuse the code.

Drupalcon Portland is now underway and I'm looking forward to tuning in live and following sessions, starting with Dries' keynote. This should begin at 7.30pm here in the UK. Drupalcon Munich seems ages ago now (4.7 even longer ..! ) and suddenly Prague is on the horizon.

Additional link:

Quiz Questions Import for Drupal 7 released

Drupalcon Munich 2012 [ii]

I've greatly enjoyed a talk by Mark Boulton before at Drupalcon and as a contributor to LHC@Home this collision of the Internet's birth, Drupal, web design and high energy physics was not to be missed.

I'd heard of the LHC experiments before, but not the fact of there being four [how could I miss that ;-) ].

Mark explained about his work with CERN, the legacy site, the culture and the creation of a new site he has been tasked with in Creating Wonder. The Facet API for search and resort to personas to identify and appreciate the needs of the sites users proved key tools. There is quite a coincidence here in that CERN's user communities reflect the potential audiences I envisage for h2cm. One allied to each of the knowledge domains on the old site:

Students and Teachers (SCIENCES)

General Public and Carers (SOCIOLOGY)

the Patient, Client (Inter- Intrapersonal)

Policy Makers, Managers and Citizens (POLITICAL)

Mark also explained some of the ways he has differentiated content across the CERN community and its organisation. All very helpful advice.

Maintaining the design angle, Morten Birch Heide-Jørgensen delivered Theme < 3 drupal in his usual irascible style.

I r a s c i b l e  here means - 

insightful, Röyale, accessible, singular, commonsensical, inspiring, besuited, and leading edge.

If there is a nightmare in learning Drupal apart from the learning curve and sound of the rolling rock (ppuuussshhh!!), it is the nature of the markup that Drupal currently produces. Morten explained his frustration with the problem of DIV-itis and his resolve to address this producing a theme - Mothership which seeks to get the markup right. There are other ongoing challenges and how they will be resolved in Drupal 8, accessibility and HTML5.

As we contemplate the various processes set to try us, we become accustomed to the notion of 'lead time'. Morten's highlighting the 'time lag' in the latest and greatest HTML and CSS compared with Drupal releases was a very helpful dose of realism.

Mustn't forget Morten's fun delivery - this helps the medicine go down. In addition to the sessions there were many contacts made, people I really do hope to meet again.

More to follow.

Additional link:
BBC 2 Horizon: How Big is the Universe?

Drupalcon Munich 2012 [i]

Drupalcon Munich 2012 Group Photo

Well another European Drupalcon has been and gone. It was an awesome event in Munich; the venue, sessions, organisation and the community. It all proved a brilliant experience even without the night time thunder and lightening.

I'm not sure if this particular sponge is saturated to its limited capacity, but compared with previous years I took fewer notes and haven't posted as yet. The (glaring) take home lesson for me remains the same. Write less: do!

The notes I do have started after the first keynote by Dries Buytaert on the State and future of Drupal. Personally, I prefer a presentation rather than the interview format. A change in format must be a relief for Dries and for circuit regulars, but despite a visual interlude the social negotiation seemed for me to get in the way of the show and tell. Given that though Drupal is a year aware from the next release, so this reduces the 'news'. Portland 2013 will no doubt be literally more telling.

I did scribble some ..., on Entities and Properties and attending How to Dominate the Theme Layer. Useful to consider that the visual hierarchy may not match the outline of your site in terms of information architecture. The idea of styling now and injecting classes later has much appeal. I am enthralled by the prospect of font selection, colour and other site design aspects.

There were several sessions on Multilingual sites in D7 & D8. The pros and cons of node level translation vs. field level translation were explained, the latter being considered the best model for most use cases and set to be the likely default in D8. Given the cons of translation and the need to keep it simple I would set about limiting translation to Brian Hodges' original course notes and a new introduction to h2cm. Another key question referred to the type of experience you are building - is it totally symmetrical or asymmetric?

More to follow. 
Photo source:
http://blog.erdfisch.de/2012/08/drupalcon-munich-2012-opening-drupal-association-and-international-communities

Update: Drupal 7.14 + 8 and papers

My laptop is four years old next month and a refurb at that. The DVD and webcam no longer work. The Apple store in Manchester helped me update the OS to Snow Leopard and I'll catch up with the rest of the cat pack soon.

It seems I've 'summer cleaned', deleting files and older Drupal installs, the rain making me think it's April. Drupal 7.14 and version 8 are insitu. Drupal 8 would not install, MAMP's version of PHP being too old. I'm sure I checked the site, but must have missed the MAMP update which is now running. Trying to resolve this issue one really useful find c/o PHPNW is the package manager HomeBrew.

This weekend I'll upload my first Drupal test site. It's for a family member not a client, but this does not mean that the passing of time - months, years... has gone unnoticed. It's a pretty basic site, nothing elaborate. Three pages: About me, DJ-ing, and an Enquiry form. The enquiry form has been created using the Webform module.

I want the user form to be clean, without the tab options (view, edit...) being displayed. I removed them using Tab Tamer. There may be an easier way to do this - over riding, for example but it is all learning. The development effort is still not helped by picking Drupal up, putting it down...

The 'client' then wanted comments added to the form. Searching around the content types, module configurations ... was getting frustrating, a search brought me to the Drupal community and voila: success! Comments added to form. User requirements have shifted further ;-) the Sound Engineering page is to be reinstated. At least it's just a case of re-enabling it (I think) and tweaking the menu. This experience reminded me of tips from local Drupal meetings and Drupalcons: keeping a record of changes. If a new h2cm site is to be created then a log will be essential. If there is a new version of the DJ site then I will definitely use a responsive theme.

Drupalcon Munich is fast approaching. I've checked the schedule and created my personal itinerary. With Drupal 8 on the horizon for late 2013 the core conversations should be popular. I'm really looking forward to it. There are no BoFs (birds of a feather) sessions planned as yet on education or mental health. Anyone interested? I'll see if I can submit something.

On the papers front; when the details are known the bibliography entry will be fully completed:

Doyle, M., Jones, P. (2012-13) Hodges’ Health Career Model and its role and potential application in Forensic Mental Health Nursing, Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing.

I am still keen to explore the possibility of a symposium session next May as per previous posts. Likewise if there are any teaching opportunities in Australia to share Hodges' model and help to fund the (ad)venture please let me know.

Update papers, Drupal and future April 2012

You might have noticed a slight hiatus in posts recently, in fact over the past six weeks or so. During that time I was working on a paper following the November's CARDI conference when two others popped up again out of the academic ether.

I've probably whined on before about how I write, but don't benefit from like-minded people to read stuff and bounce ideas off. It's not that my nursing and multidisciplinary colleagues are not academically inclined: far from it. There's people taking time to travel to Lancaster, Preston and Manchester to pursue good stuff. It is about mindset though for the many (and having a cussed question). That means being in the groove, finding your rubric, whatever you want to call it. The other week I was trying to encourage a colleague to do the Master's thing; because if you (we!) don't soon then it ain't going to happen.

One paper a co-written effort has been ongoing for quite sometime (must be years). Another paper highlights my idiosyncratic style when working solo (I bet my two current co-authors might agree to that) quite a few referees have. The latest co-authored effort 6,000+ words has actually come together quite quickly over the past six weeks. There was an abortive start when extending a poster was abandoned for a forthcoming journal special topic issue. Once a target publication was identified  things took shape rapidly. Nothing like a deadline to charge the batteries. No doubt there will be changes to follow, but it's a fitter piece of work on submission than I could have produced alone. I'm sparing you the specifics for obvious reasons, but when there's progress you'll have the details here. In the meantime thanks George and thanks for staying the course Mike! Extending the h2cm bibliography is never easy, but then academic writing is not intended to be.

Of course I need to leave Open Office and pick up Drupal in earnest. With the matrimonial home now a matter of many happy memories - one thing I miss is a key in the door to a place of my own.

Since summer 2008 I would have been lost without family support - thanks mum! I'd also be lost without Sue where I spend most of my time*: thanks to you too Sue!

Space to work in a consistent way though just isn't there presently. Yes, I know what this means. "You're NO genius!" If Drupal was going to happen, you'd make it happen: whatever!

The laser treatment last month worked fine: brilliant ;-) in fact. My poor left eye, is now my best. They didn't do the right, it wasn't as bad as they thought (suddenly though I notice the problem there too).

I'm really looking f/w to Sweden next month and Conceptual Spaces at Work. That trip's not about presenting - going to learn.

I've been watching SVG for many years and notice that the SVG Open series of conferences is changing its name to The Graphical Web.

Now if an investor needed a sign....

In between there's Drupalcon Munich.

 Wondering if I can justify going to Zurich in September?

*Drafted and posted in Tom and Jerry's!

Follow-up: Drupal ScienceCamp Cambridge 20-21st Jan 2012

Stefan van Hooft @_iCompute kindly took these notes for the Mental Health session, 10.45am 22 January 2012 (mentioned previously on W2tQ). Stefan captured the topics that were quickly and briefly raised among the seven attendees (contact details provided but withheld here). I have added some [additional comments] and my response follows:

--- Twitter hash tags ---
Mental Health #mhuk #ukmh [global mental health hash?]

RDF
Solr
Sparkle [SparQL]

• accessibility within website
• openair Open source mental health [OpenEHR]
• mental health record
• care plans
Who has access to information?

•  Set up a system, you can give and revoke others access to your data
• "Flourishing" or "In treatment"

Use Drupal:
     - distribution
     - accessibility
     -
Is there a Group on drupal.org about mental health?

Security is crucial!
Pubsubhubbup [ http://code.google.com/p/pubsubhubbub/ ]
Spartacus report
Burn out
#Nhssm, NHS social media

<->

Dear Stefan and All,

STEFAN'S SELF-ASSESSMENT TOOL

I am interested in the application you showed, it reminds me of the STAR - SPIDER format and approach. I think there's a tool like this in forensic mental health - and no doubt other areas?

http://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2010/06/carers-support-evidence-measures-and.html

At some point Stefan it would be good to feature your image based tool when suitably complete on my blog; do you have a video at all?

HODGES MODEL

If anyone is interested in receiving more details on Hodges model please let me know. This model looks simple but it is really powerful in terms of scope and application.

In addition should anyone have key resource suggestions to add here they would be much appreciated:

http://www.p-jones.demon.co.uk/links.htm

FUTURE MEETING

Matthew mentioned the possibility of a small gathering combining mental health and Drupal. I'd be pleased to help with publicity - twitter, FB, Linkedin and the blog and have links with many other groups.

DRUPAL HEALTH GROUP

Here is the link to the health care Drupal group:

http://groups.drupal.org/healthcare

- note at the top the link to Drupal health care sites.

openEHR

Here is openEHR which I mentioned:

http://www.openehr.org/home.html

RDF and related

http://sciencecollaboration.org/download

http://drupal.org/project/neologism

Lovely to meet everyone and really pleased to have the chance to share an hour (after the meeting) with Beatrice and Matthew. It is *great* in fact that the mental health and disability came up at a Drupal meet. I hope to attend Drupalcon Munich so maybe there is scope for a BoF meeting in the summer?

<->

Shortly I'll post some additional observations by Matthew Taylor another participant. There I'll expand on my requirements and expectations of Drupal.

Drupal ScienceCamp Cambridge 20-21st Jan 2012

Two weeks ago Drupal ScienceCamp was a great success thanks to the organisers and sponsors. There were about 60 attendees with a European flavour too. Being a Science Park we had to circumvent the fence, the alternate access gates closed over the weekend. The three of us who left the hotel soon became six ... as we walked around to the very smart venue - Napp Pharmaceuticals Limited.

On the Saturday I attended sessions on responsive design, Drupal modules, Less CSS (at this point I wish I could have split in two Drupal search and Solr Wizardry had very positive comments), From flipcharts to Drupal Features, and Migration, upgrading and moving house. All very helpful.

Sunday was spontaneously self-organising. People offered to deliver sessions and meetings in a BoF - birds of a feather format, others requested the things they were seeking. Whether a sign of my time in Drupal [v. 4.7], or possibly Drupal's ever increasing diffusion or both; seven of us gathered around mental health and disability.
More on this to follow.  ...

Drupalcon London (revisited) Entities & Omega

I mentioned these two Drupalcon 2011 sessions in summer posts and thought they are well worth  revisiting. The first concerns adaptive, responsive design and the Omega theme with Jake Strawn:

Omega keeps cropping up previous Drupalcons, in May at Drupalcamp in Leeds and Wednesday night at NWDUG in Manchester. What is Omega? Here is the intro to this (Drupal) project:

Omega - Responsive HTML5 Base Theme

The Omega Drupal 7 Base Theme is a highly configurable HTML5/960 grid base theme that is 100% configurable. Each zone (group of regions) can be configured for content first layouts (push/pull classes), hidden at any time and each region can be disabled, resized, and placed easily any way you see fit.

The theme appears fairly complex, but there is a lot of effort in developing the theme and tools to support it. Not unique to Omega but there's a way to have some pages with a different format according to context with alternate layout in terms of columns, zones, regions. ... The thought of working with columns seems constraining and yet reading and other sessions on the history of the printed page show how fundamental grids remain to design including the web.

A site that can respond and adapt the viewport to the device it is being viewed on is a must have. Central to design choices, there are fonts too. I notice this past week BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week has featured Just My Type by Simon Garfield and there are still a couple of days to listen to the episodes.

Another topic that keeps coming up is Entities, presented in August by Ronald Ashri:



The video and my notes from Drupalcon London remind me of being really switched on by this module, both in itself and with my requirements in mind.

In addition to the astronomical reference, Eric Evans's book Domain-Driven Design has an excellent figure that helps explain the scope and use of entities. I'll see if I can capture this at some point.