New Book Series "Coding for Humanists” 1st Vol. "Drupal for Humanists"

The Institute for Digital Humanities, Media and Culture (IDHMC) at Texas A&M University (http://idhmc.tamu.edu) is pleased to announce “Coding for Humanists,” a new book series from Texas A&M Press that addresses the practical skill-development needs of scholars in the humanities. The series is edited by Quinn Drombrowski and Laura Mandell.

The hands-on training offered at an institute or workshop such as DHSI, DHOxSS, and HILT equips scholars to pursue new directions in their research and/or pedagogy. These workshops stand apart from generic technical training sessions through their focus on the specific needs, interests and goals of humanists. The pedagogical approach respects students’ intelligence and expertise without assuming a pre-existing knowledge of other programming languages or technologies.

The “Coding for Humanists” book series follows in the spirit of these workshops (http://coding.forhumanists.org). Each volume focuses on a particular tool, technology, methodology, or programming language, using humanities examples. Without assuming any prerequisite technical knowledge, “Coding for Humanists” books guide scholars through the jargon, concepts, and processes fundamental to the technology under consideration, leaving them ready to use the technology independently, or deepen their knowledge through resources written for a general audience. For scholars who are unable to attend an in-person workshop, or who wish to develop new technical skills as time permits, the “Coding for Humanists” series fills an unmet need for clearly-written, accessible training materials developed specifically for a humanistic audience.

The first volume, Drupal for Humanists by Quinn Dombrowski (http://drupal.forhumanists.org/), will be published this fall. Co-editor of the series, Quinn Dombrowski is the Digital Humanities Coordinator in Research IT at UC Berkeley, and has developed numerous digital humanities sites using Drupal, including the DiRT Directory and DHCommons. She has taught “Drupal for Digital Humanities Projects” at DHSI since 2014, and Drupal for Humanists expands upon the materials that have been used successfully in that course.

This book is a significant expansion of, and improvement on, the open access early drafts that have been posted on this site since 2013, and are still available through the Wayback Machine. Over the next year, excerpts from the book will be posted to the site. In addition, there is a great deal of further information about Drupal modules, configuration, and tips and tricks for building Drupal sites that extends beyond the maximum feasible word count for the book. This information, too, will be posted on an ongoing basis, and contributions will be solicited from the community of humanities Drupal users and developers. (From: http://drupal.forhumanists.org/ )

Upcoming volumes in the “Coding for Humanists” series include _XQuery for Humanists_, by Clifford B. Anderson, Jonathan Robie, and Joseph C. Wicentowski; _XSLT for Humanists: Building Digital Editions_, by co-editor of the book series, Laura Mandell; and _Databases for Humanists_, by Harvey Quamen. The series is accepting proposals for additional volumes; please see submission guidelines here:
http://coding.forhumanists.org/submission-guidelines.

Laura Mandell
Director, Initiative for Digital Humanities, Media, and Culture
Professor, English
Texas A&M University
e: idhmc AT tamu.edu
@mandellc

My source: Laura via humanist AT lists.digitalhumanities.org
List info and archives at at: http://digitalhumanities.org/humanist

Reading: Design of a Community-Engaged Health Informatics Platform with an Architecture of Participation

Abstract

Community-engaged health informatics (CEHI) applies information technology and participatory approaches to improve the health of communities. Our objective was to translate the concept of CEHI into a usable and replicable informatics platform that will facilitate community-engaged practice and research. The setting is a diverse urban neighborhood in New York City. The methods included community asset mapping, stakeholder interviews, logic modeling, analysis of affordances in open-source tools, elicitation of use cases and requirements, and a survey of early adopters. Based on synthesis of data collected, GetHealthyHeigths.org (GHH) was developed using opensource LAMP stack and Drupal content management software. Drupal’s organic groups module was used for novel participatory functionality, along with detailed user roles and permissions. Future work includes evaluation of GHH and its impact on agency and service networks. We plan to expand GHH with additional functionality to further support CEHI by combining informatics solutions with community engagement to improve health.

Get Healthy Heights (misspelt above)

Millery, M., Ramos, W., Lien, C., Aguirre, A. N., & Kukafka, R. (2015). Design of a Community-Engaged Health Informatics Platform with an Architecture of Participation. AMIA Annual Symposium Proceedings, 2015, 905–914.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4765661/

Thanks to Michael Gurstein - ciresearchers AT vancouvercommunity.net

Drupalcon Barcelona: Researching code contributions, Mental health and SVG

Winding the calendar back to 2008 and Szeged, Hungary I doubted I would see it: 'depression', 'anxiety' and other mental health - related concepts writ-large in a Drupalcon presentation. And not just any presentation, but a community keynote.

Drupalcon Barcelona 2015 Mike Bell 24 Sept keynote

Mike Bell has repeatedly shown great courage as he has refined his presentation and delivered in full last Thursday in Barcelona:

Mental Health and Open Source

Mike's a key personality within the NW (UK) Drupal User Group also helping to make local Drupalcamps a reality.

As a sign of several things:

• 2008 is a long time ago;
• Drupalcon has travelled far and wide around Europe;
• I've still no new website;
• Drupal itself has evolved from 4.7 to Dries Buytaert's announcement in his keynote that Drupal 8 release candidate will follow on October 7;

- this conjunction of mental health and the world of code is quite significant at this point in time. If I can pass the remaining assignments I'm due to move from part 1 to part 2 of studies at Lancaster University in February. Sooner in terms of formulating a research question. This is where Drupal, Hodges' model and Technology Enhanced Learning will (must) be fused.

David Rozas (left)

Of course there were many other sessions and another keynote of particular interest as Mike shared the community keynote session with David Rozas:

Talk is silver, code is gold? Contribution beyond source code in Drupal

Computer science is about as academic as you can get, but how refreshing to find research methodologies, methods, data... and mental health sharing a keynote session. It was brilliant to see open source - Drupal embracing research, seeking an evidence base not just for what makes the machines tick but the contributors too.

Drupalcon David Corbacho Román

For quite a few years I've followed the rise, waning and what seems a rebirth for SVG.

Next generation graphics: SVG

David Corbacho Román's session is a great source for tips and resources and also demonstrated just how dynamic the web can be. You can follow the sessions through the links.

I'll post on Drupal and Drupalcon again soon.

Thanks to all the sponsors of Drupalcon Barcelona.

simplicity - complexity and Content Types

Without activating any content related modules Drupal 8 beta 4 is pretty stark. That's not a criticism. There are just two content types listed: article and basic page as per the screen dump below. The fact is Drupal is providing an easel and that's exactly what you need even before we get to the palette and canvas. As for other content types, there is a Book, Comment and Forum in core as additional options a checkbox away. There are many other contributed content types that could be added depending on your purpose.

Drupal 8 add content: Article and Basic Page

That's the challenge; using existing resources, stretching them as far as possible. In a book like Drupal for Education and E-Learning you can see even without dedicated learning resources, even with generic content types it is possible to create complex learning environments. Add this to experience of  distance learning - e-learning in the raw - that includes library access, databases, reading, discussion, peer review ... (and for our cohort another residential) and there's plenty to learn from.

In reality content is brittle, usually you can't just stretch it. Imagination and control in the form of flow and rules can work wonders. What is glued together - can be broken apart. It's educational chemistry: learning.

Reuse when possible. Be, active-reactive: responsive.

Is this a desktop I see before me, or is it a smartphone? 

So the screen image above is quite an invitation. I'm sure I've posted about his before: what else should be listed?

mEDucator 3.0 | Open Linked Education - Melina+ (Drupal)

Checking through links yesterday I came across the mEDucator initiative and Melina+ [no longer available] which is part and noticed it is built using Drupal.

There is a thread on Drupal.org on science applications:

https://groups.drupal.org/science-applications

I posted in 2009 about the Science Collaboration Framework - SCF (for creating biomedical resources).

The link to SCF no longer works; there is an archive of this and other work that was part of Harvard's Initiative in Innovative Computing (IIC).

So it's important to consider these initiatives at least in terms of their longevity, their scale and number of participants, as examples of funded research and as Drupal projects.

DrupalCamp North West November 24-25 Manchester

If your are based in the North West of England, or can travel to Manchester there are plans for a DrupalCamp in November 24-25th at Media City Salford.

You can sign up for news - ...

For the next few months the North West Drupal User Group are having 'back to basics' sessions (Madlab, Manchester 1st Weds in the month). I'm really grateful to Phil who sorted VirtualBox and DrupalPro on my Macbook last Wednesday. I've been struggling with MAMP since Drupalcon in Munich, asking too much of the conference wifi and paying the price with 'MySQL server gone away' and PDO errors. DrupalPro is quite something behold.

Thanks to the NW gang, friends old and new. Before DrupalCamp there is also PHPNW 2012 to enjoy next month.

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.

*It's not so much that I teach, but that students learn.

Drupalcon London - Day 1 Education Open Space #drupalEdu

Today at Drupalcon London there was an Education Open Space organised by Mixel:

http://groups.drupal.org/node/152964

Amongst many discussions and points raised is the state of play of 'learning environments', LMSes, SCORM ..... and where / how Drupal might fit in?

In terms of engaging the wider education community this p.m. I suggested the Digital Humanities community as one who could benefit from Drupal's capabilities with media, extensibility and other positive qualities. This evening I received a message from Digital Humanities developer list about CMSes and Drupal 7. How timely! So this post is based on the flag waving there - already some very helpful replies inc. CMS course or content - and on http://www.digitalhumanities.org/humanist/.

Mention was also made of previous meetings outside of a Drupalcon and within (e.g. 2009). What can we learn from the organizers of other sessions? Of course at Drupalcon 'education' must compete for a slot with the other submissions.

mixel et al. are using #drupalEdu

The table I joined was on LMSes and other points. On one level I don't need an LMS, but on another I do. I need to manage the learning experience of users on a new Drupal driven website. Drupal offers a great many educational modules. Do I need SCORM? What is the latest on such standards? What needs to be in the h2cm learning core?

h2cm is an item on the [cross ;-) ] curriculum, it is not a curriculum. 

Mention was made of current and target knowledge and how we get from the one to the other. I also liked the mention of designing learning experiences. This is where (for me) h2cm comes in: in a care situation what is the current - target knowledge taken across the four* - care - knowledge domains? h2cm isn't vested in managing the administration of learning experience, but I believe it can play a positive role in facilitating reflection and the design of learning experiences.

I hope some momentum can be gained. Education is a massive edifice, but if interested parties can nudge and pass around #drupalEdu that's got to help?

* Five with the spiritual domain.

Drupal musings 20: Keswick and that basic site....

OK hands-up! While up in Keswick (Sun - Weds), yes I wasted time trying to get a parallax effect to work. A layered graphic effect that as was pointed out on Wednesday evening's standards>next: event at MadLab you can only see when you re-size the window.

Anyway on Tuesday I saw sense and adopted the theme - Danland. I looked at Framework as a starter theme. The large banner images included were unnecessary, reading the theme's handbook I noticed there is a subtheme without the pretty pictures. In the end I returned with the required "DJ" content (as in music) accessed via a four option menu that includes an enquiry form created using webform. So the first basic steps have been taken. I've been here before and must carry on. Some users need to be added, styling, test, backup and migrate, test, and to figure out hosting.

The sessions I attended at MadLab were really useful for this and the future h2cm project with talks on CSS3, web fonts, and adaptive layout.

In addition to some walking, on Tuesday I had a run by the river Greta - lovely. That shook out a few cobwebs. I also met the team at M&K Update who are based in Keswick. Over a coffee I was able to confirm in person the travel arrangements for May's event and a further presentation.

Now there are also just 30 pages left of From A to <A> Keywords of Markup, Bradley Dilger and Jeff Rice (editors) University of Minnesota Press so I can complete the book review. There are a couple of posts there too.

Off to London this weekend for the HEA Reflective Practice SIG meeting: Assessment, Evidence, and Critical Reflection : What are the issues? Are portfolios a panacea? 28/03/2011:
which includes Using Hodges Health Domains as a Portfolio Structure.

Drupal musings 11: Git up and go ...

For more than I care to remember I've recognised that version control is an essential facet of software development. During this time though I've not had a need for version control. Renewed awareness of this tool was inevitable as I decided to identify a content management system [CMS], which brought me to Drupal and I simultaneously also discovered Ruby.

Now I'm pleased that over the past three years I did not commit to Concurrent Versions System [CVS] as used by the Drupal community. I listened to talks, downloaded, and tinkered, but now - the (old) news that Drupal 8 development will use GIT.

So, for me it is time to jump on-board with git for version control: a book and presentations next week.

It's not that I'll be contributing to D8, it just makes sense to git up to speed on this (sorry!). I've been through the program and created my schedule for next week in Copenhagen. There is so much to look forward to!

Version control is one thing, having the need and discipline for testing is another ...

Drupal musings 10: Archive & FAQ

There are now three archive pages more or less complete. I'm using HTML 5 and CCS3 (well trying) to mark and style the pages, with the addition of the new semantic tags:

article, aside, figure, footer, header, hgroup, menu, nav, section {display:block;}

(I'm not sure if these disappeared at one point in the editor, so everything is a work in progress.)

Next up - the FAQs. As a live document this will be styled differently. As yet I am not quite sure how, but I still need to sort the way to handle quotes. The method I found includes blockquote: hover: after in the style sheet, then combines blockquote, cite and p on the page. The problem is you can't copy and paste, something that visitors may wish to do. A related issue is how to display when the page was updated and accessed - an essential piece of page furniture. A search reveals many other examples and now is the time to experiment.

I also have to remember that I still don't know what the final theme and look for the site will be. So global settings, columns and such like need to be kept in-check for the moment. There may be Drupal modules to add page access / updated details, so time to check on this and accessibility. And all with just ten days more to work - then Drupalcon! :-)

The questions and answers are being be completely revised; so if you have any you would like to see please get in touch: h2cmng at yahoo.co.uk

Drupal musings 9: Copenhagen next month & the archive

With less than a month to go now until Drupalcon 2010 in Europe - Copenhagen; it's time to look at the program and the tracks available.

Already, the session choice is dizzying. In the mix is -

• Designing UI with Seven, Mark Boulton
• Semantic Taxonomies, Johannes Wehner
• Add a mobile version to your Drupal site, Martin Jørge
• Imaginary users can save your Drupal site, J-P Stace
• Writing Better CSS for Drupal, Maarten Verbaarscho

It will be worthwhile considering previous events and sessions attended and building on the content there. I must also check on the education app related sessions, birds of a feather.

I showed someone the styled archive pages - apparently they look old - good to hear! ;-)

Drupal musings 8: Styling the archive

I've been editing the basic html pages (as mentioned before on W2tQ) these include:

• Brian Hodges' introduction with a content listing and the scope of the model to help bridge theory and practice.
• My introduction to the model based on an interview with Brian conducted 28th May 1998 in Manchester, England.

I've been here before and lost the thread, working within Drupal. This time though editing the pages in Textmate, things are taking shape. Three headings, three fonts (currently) Georgia, Droid Serif, Tangerine; styled lists and striped tables. It might be basic, but there is a style sheet that is almost breathing as it INFLATES : deflates, the result of various experiments. The fonts look good except for the FOUT 'flash of unstyled text'. As the previous link shows there are some fixes for that - which I hope will follow in due course. That would be a distraction at this point though as there is much to focus upon. Although the archive will have a style of its own, other parts of the site must reflect its content. That said, there still needs to be some stylistic coherence. ...

Written in Padstow, Quayside Cottage listening to a children's show on the bandstand.

Drupal musings 7: HTML5, CSS3 ... & Mr Hodges meets Drupal

At Manchester airport in May I noticed Web Design Essentials (WDE). Reasons of cost £14.99 and weight meant it was put back on the news stand. The content was excellent! Back in the UK a week later, no sign of it in the supermarket. I found a copy this week at WH Smiths and made the 'investment' - a belated holiday treat.

This is gold mine of nuggets on HTML5, design - wireframes, user experience (UX), fonts and typography:

http://www.font-face.com/
http://fontdeck.com/

- personas, CSS3, jQuery and much more. Now I think about it UX has been around for quite a while, it's a sure sign of how web design has matured such that practitioners can and must focus on the experience. There's another blog post there contrasting UX in web design with UX in health services. Reading about the use of personas in design and planning for a site might also deserve a specific post. As WDE indicates there are companies dedicated to UX. I do not have that luxury and yet I do have to define my initial target audience and their anticipated experience.

The web design related listing I maintain at LINKS I (Intrapersonal) are being updated as a result of the leads in WDE.

Through the scheduling and poll services of Doodle (thanks Chris) and with the Drupal NW England list I'm checking on which day in the autumn - November - is best for a group of volunteers to help jump start the new site. Everything is sorted now for Drupalcon next month.

Drupal musings 5: Jump start for a new blog / site

Last month I had a great offer from the Drupal North West UK user group members at Manchester's - MadLab.

The proposal is using a central Manchester venue with wifi for a day engage some volunteers and create a new version of this blog in Drupal. This has woken me up! Putting a request out MDDA - Manchester Digital Development Agency have kindly offered to help out in terms of the venue.

At this months meeting I explained where things are up to and it was clear I still had some sorting to do.

As Chris and the others asked: What can Drupal do that Blogger cannot deliver?

Recently Blogger have extended their template design and functionality. So, now I should be able to find a new (and clean) template and re-introduce comments. In 2006 when I started the blog there were problems with spam.

So... it looks best to leave the blog as a going concern and focus on a new site for Hodges' model and the specific content and functionality requirements there.

I have my ticket for Drupalcon Copenhagen, for me this is 3rd time lucky, last chance saloon. This would be great timing and with the darkening nights too. ...

A phantom outline (currently an example of the 'living-dead') has been known for a while:

• Archive
• Case Studies (content types)
• Glossary
• Introduction - beginners guide to the health career model
• ...

If in one day a group of Drupalers can help me jump start this project that would be - awesome! First though I have to get an idea of numbers and a poll to gauge which day is the best for people - looking ahead to October - November. Before then I have some work to do...

Drupal musings 4: Modules and the nursing masquerade

Periodically I go through the list of available modules for Drupal both the current version and that in development - at present that is versions 6 and 7.

Reading the descriptions and reflecting on a module's functionality it is surprising where they can take you. Some of the modules stand out, prompting thoughts of potential applications. This is not just a case of descriptions fulfilling their role. Some of them shout out just by virtue of their name.

'Organic groups' will change to 'Group' in Drupal 7. If there is one thing about groups in nursing they are organic - whether that's disciplinary groups, groups held by nurses. Groups are a basic part of the structure and content of Hodges' model, and so it may be well worth factoring in the Group module from the outset.

As I read about the Masquerade module:

The masquerade module is designed as a tool for site designers and site administrators. It allows a user with the right permissions to switch users. While masquerading, a field is set on the $user object, and a menu item appears allowing the user to switch back. Watchdog entries are made any time a user masquerades or stops masquerading.

I thought of the tribes and camps within nursing and health care in general. Have we moved on? Well OK, let's see how holistic, integrated, multidisciplinary nursing is these days: picture then the nurse in medicine, surgical, operating theatre acting as a mental health nurse, learning disability nurse and vice versa?

Can we spot the imposter? One suspects (surely) that given a technical case study, care scenario then the game would be up very quickly. As to basic nursing care situations, there might be an interesting party there?

Original image source: http://www.mchooksinc.com/catalog/index.php

Drupal musings 3: PHP, Textmate, h2cm and Forms

Happy International Nurses' Day!


For quite a few months I have not connected the MacBook to the external monitor. I did so last night using:

• MAMP (server software)
• Textmate (an editor Mac only)
• prompted by reading - Robin Nixon's, Learning PHP, MySQL & Javascript, O'Reilly.

(Experienced programmers may at this point want to go review some political party broadcasts - coalition news as there's a lot more happening there.)

I typed in a PHP file, purposefully trying Textmate's 'Bundles' > 'HTML' > options to mix some PHP and HTML.

The file does not do a lot, but like creating, reading and writing a file it's a start. All this effort does is display four text box input fields (Chapter 11 Form Handling) with submit buttons. Previously I have mirrored the laptop screen to the external 24" Acer, that appears to be the default. ;-) Tinkering with the display options and turning off mirroring I found that I could pick up the Textmate window and move it to the big screen on my right. Meanwhile on the laptop I could preview the output in the browser. Apple's 'Spaces' is a related facility to master.

Not only that, but suitably editing the PHP file in Textmate resulted in updates on the browser (Refresh after change. Delay 0.40 s.) To me - that's Magic!

On the Drupal front - despite the title of this post - there's not much to report. The news is brief and yet kind of major in that I've bought my ticket for Drupalcon in Copenhagen. I am really gutted that this year I did not get to the Scottish Ruby Conference in March, after '08 and '09. At least getting to grips with Textmate will also help with Ruby (and Rails) too.

OK, back to Textmate to try the other PHP input types: text area, check boxes, hidden fields, select and labels.

Drupal musings 2: Drupalese and Nursese - help or hinder

As I repeatedly wade into the blue Drupal waters and then run out again (the water's hot) I note ongoing conversations at Drupalversity, Drupal dojo, Drupal-kata and similar forums about the challenge of learning Drupal. (I know the cure. That - is so simple, just do it: CREATE A SITE!)

On Drupalversity a comment by Becky Kinney caught my attention as Becky also refers to Drupalese. There's been discussion about how learners can make progress getting to grips with Drupal, but then because they lack prerequisite knowledge and skills the learning materials / instructions lapse into Drupalese.

Coming to Drupal is like nursing in so far as experiential learning is helpful. Any programming experience may help (or hinder), at the very least newbies (do I hate that term?) will be familiar with how websites appear to work, in the same way that would-be nurses are aware of the effects of infection, trauma, basic healing processes and treatments, what it feels like to be 'sick' to some degree, symptoms and signs. There's a point though that with a burgeoning new vocabulary of nursing, medical and care terms this challenge also becomes Nursese.

That reference above to help or hinder is similar to nurses who work as care support workers initially, or part-time. There is a risk (which should not exist these days) that prior to starting formal nurse training they may pick up bad habits. Drupal is no different in the sense that it is complex and there are several ways to achieve the same outcome, but which is the most effective, efficient, future proof, safe and secure. ...?

Hodges' model can help nurse learners, but what about Drupal learners - this one included?

Not a chance.

A conceptual framework is not going to help here. While Hodges' model does have socio-technical credentials, it is no software engineering shoe-horn, life jacket...

It will take (several) new Drupal websites to exercise the beast, my mind, fingers and what I hope is a potential community out there. Time for another paddle and reddened feet ...

Drupal musings 1: To Do List - Not To Do List

I have not written about my tinkerings with Drupal for a long time. Now I've new reading glasses with occupational lenses to boot I can hopefully make some proper headway.

The new PC is going to have to wait a while, so although the PC can and does run WAMP and Drupal I'm using a refurbished 15" Macbook Pro running MAMP to explore the budding functionality of Drupal 7.

As posted under Drupal on W2tQ ages ago I have taken the old html pages:

1. My introduction to Hodges' model (1998)
2. Brian's original course notes (I)
3. Brian's original course notes (II) Bridging theory and Practice

- with the aim of creating an archive within the new site. I'm re-visiting this job and have stripped the pages - naked: right down to the body and p tags. Eventually I will build some styling with CSS. I need a handle on the basic functionality to offer from day 1. The plan now is to push this (personal) envelope ever further without having a repeated scratch start. Drupal really does demand persistence. That's a problem when you can't give a project like this your ongoing attention.

A couple of additions I must organise include the constant companion that will be the Drupal notebook and a whiteboard. These will be useful over the coming weeks and months. The Drupal and PHP communities through a wide variety of sources are full of tips and code that you want to capture, filter and so possibly infuse into your project. I'm fast running out of excuses for the Drupal site no-show. On the positive side I have invested a great deal already attending the European Drupalcons in '08 and '09. Meeting a great group of Drupallers in Manchester and abroad. Reviewing my notes from Szeged + Paris and now with Copenhagen August 2010 in my sites (sorry!) - this means the project To-Do-List can get lengthy and threatens to overwhelm.

So, .... the Not-To-Do-List is even more important!

Many more Drupal musings - to follow ...

Sun Microsystems blog: Pretty good example* of a Strategic (Design) Brief

The Sun Microsystems site includes a blog (Martin Hardee) with an article entitled as above that poses eight questions. These questions can greatly inform the process of creating a strategic brief (which is also provided for download). Although the item is from 2005 and the context differs - contrast a corporate website design and a future website for Hodges' model - there is value for me in answering the questions. So here goes... starting with the opening paragraph from the original blog post then the questions in bold, interspersed with my responses:

As I've mentioned in previous postings, the most important single step you can take in designing anything for the web is to create a strategic brief. This should be done early in the discovery phase of any design project. The reason it's so important is that it will make you focus and it will provide a guide map for whoever is creating and implementing your design. To write a strategic brief, you'll need to know a lot of important but oft-ignored basics such as:

A) Why are you embarking on this design (or new web site, or whatever), anyway?

The existing website was created in 1997 using Hot Metal Pro and written in HTML. The site was built as a personal and spare time project around the original course notes of Brian Hodges. These were in the form of Word files produced with secretarial support as part of a Post Graduate Certificate of Eduction project. As a result the current website has developed in a rather ad-hoc manner, with the addition of pages on informatics and information. The home page was re-designed in 2005 using Fireworks (Adobe) reflecting the model for which it is 'home'. At no point thus far has the website provided a community for users of Hodges' model. The site is currently static, without a database to support dynamic content development and a community of users.

Use of Drupal will provide a (truly) dynamic lever by potentiating the following:

1. sheer unadulterated enthusiasm and fun (lifelong learning - literacy skills);
2. a more professional footing (hosting...);
3. international customisation (multiple languages);
4. ultimately address several audiences (health, education, informatics and public);
5. find out what would-be users of the model want;
6. create some consistent styling;
7. provide an archive;
8. building on the foundation provided by the website and this blog W2tQ;
9. provide a foundation for future research (by producing my 1st Drupal site - a beta);
10. (As already noted I have wondered about linking this project to a research course, but at the moment I ask myself what's the point...?)

B) What are your business objectives and how would you measure success?
There are no 'business objectives' as such, but if this blog and a future site can generate some revenue to support purchase of hardware, (some) software and services then "that's about time". General objectives are to generate critical thinking and decisions on:

• content types to support the use of Hodges' model;
• phased development;
• interface design - use of Ajax, jQuery.

Ultimate (reach for the stars...) objectives:

• to invite users to contribute to the model's development;
• reopen the question of visualization in the social sciences;
• to learn of other conceptual frameworks that might also support 'global health for all';
• to produce a virtual learning environment that conjoins health, informatics and education;
• to influence nursing curricula development;
• to create a self-sustaining global community of users
• to cover some costs and let go. ....

C) Who are your various audiences or customer segments and what are their objectives (often different from your business objectives, btw)

+ students (health and social care); students (generic - PSHE);
+ all qualified care professionals
+ lecturers

The objectives here are diverse, but include completion of learning and course tasks, including essays and case studies, tools to support and demonstrate reflection and holistic / integrated care in theory and practice. Lesson plans and means of assessment are also essential, to what extent can students and professionals - indeed all users of a conceptual framework demonstrate - competency? This has to be through specific assignments and marked assessment which could include:

1. essay;
2. case study;
3. oral presentations, audio, video podcasts;
4. quizzes, e.g., multiple choice;
5. and possibly specific 'roles' through the Drupal site.

The politics of the educational establishment include that tools should be evidenced, safe, fit for purpose. There may also be a requirement to dovetail with use of dedicated learning management systems and standards such as SCORM. As such a new site should seek to incorporate such standards - through Drupal - in so far as they do not affect innovation and projecting the model into the future.

+ patients and carers

Patients and carers would often benefit from a means to facilitate dialogue with their keyworkers and the associated health and social care team. Hodges' model can help provide a schema, portal and media form for such dialogues. This dialogue can potentially act as:

• an aide-mémoire for the patient during a Consultant appointment (maximising the time available for both parties);
• a means for educational engagement (medication concordance, relapse prevention....).

+ policy makers and care commissioners
+ managers

These stakeholders are concerned with metrics, outcomes, quality and evidence.

+ information and communication technology staff

In addition to project management tools ICT staff would benefit from tools that support socio-technical perspectives.

For all the would-be users of Hodges' model the critical question is evidence. The new site should provide a foundation for research in Hodges' model and other conceptual frameworks.


D) What's the scope: How much are you going to tackle at once?

By using a content management system Drupal provides a means to be more productive (once sufficiently skilled!) in terms of addressing the objectives and scope delineated above.

This is the key question!

I need to acknowledge advice already provided from friends at the Drupal NW England group and Ruby community. Basically - do what you need to to get a site out of the door. What I must identify is the baseline functionality and design that will provide the foundation for a site. The baseline must include:

• roles and access rules;
• at least one specific content type (whether existing or new) for Hodges' model;
• RDF;
• accessibility.

E) What sort of constraints do you have in terms of product, business process, technology, or budget?

Hodges' model is nebulous and grand in its potential scope so it is vital that constraints are imposed on the project. A new PC and software will prove a great advantage leaving behind a trusted 7 year old machine. There is a no dedicated budget for the project.

The biggest constraint is time. This is non trivial and has already impacted this blog in that the comments are disabled. Early on the comments facility invited spam.

F) What existing projects and groups does this project need to coordinate with in order to avoid a train wreck?

None. The only legacy commitment are to move the existing pages to an archive that is readily accessible and signposted.

There are however two considerations:

1. Since first identifying Drupal as the platform to adopt, it was at version 4.7. It is now on the brink of version 7.0. This dynamic development environment presents challenges of its own.

2. As already highlighted if the new site is to reach the educational community it will be necessary to take heed of existing Drupal modules and resources, e.g. the DrupalEd distribution, The Scientific Collaboration Framework and assess their suitability - 'off the shelf'.


G) What kind of market and "voice of customer" research (including site metrics) do you already have?

In ten years with the existing site evidence shows that people do not have time to 'get in touch'; more needs to be offered. The existing website is 'failing' in terms of:

• as stated its dated design;
• site metrics - hits;
• publishing standards (academic, relevance, timeliness and currency, referencing, styling, semantic markup);
• and user engagement.

Despite the non-trivial constraint of time and website 'stasis' this blog is an emerging as a potential channel of engagement. The clustermaps and recently added 'flags of the world' demonstrate the global appeal of the content here and hopefully the model. Since there is little time for analysis of Google analytics data, the new site will utilise core statistic functionality and contributed modules as available (and proven).


H) What are the roles on the project? For instance, if you're engaging a design vendor what are they delivering vs. what are you delivering to the final mix?

As per the existing site and given budget constraints (i.e. there is none) there are no 'roles' on the project. All are up for grabs and presently rest with me. Hence the appeal of a content management system (Drupal) to ease the design and development burden.

Additional links:

Sun Microsystems blog post:
http://blogs.sun.com/MartinHardee/entry/pretty_good_example_of_a

Drupal
* The good example here is the title of the Sun Microsystems article and not necessarily my answers to the questions.

Image sources:
Drupal Groups
Chess piece:
http://www.mindful-leadership.com/Strategy%20Facilitation.htm