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?