Social Networking & Content Management Systems

Open source and collaborative content management systems (CMS) have become powerful social networking and community networking tools. The user interactivity can include forums, blogs, multimedia, photo galleries and many other functions. Wikipedia provides a Comparison of many Content Management Systems.

Two of the most popular CMS applications are Drupal and Joomla. From my research today, it appears that Drupal has recently been updated to version 5.0, a major revision that appears to make it more usable for many purposes at this time. CMS Matrix provides high ratings for Drupal. The Joomla Developer Network Roadmap page has announced that they are working on a new 1.5 version that will contain advanced usability features. In the near future we may experiment with Drupal. Note that creating open source Wiki modules for Drupal is also under development

As noted earlier in the blog, the interactive web sites we are developing contain "Network Centers" inviting web users to become involved in many aspects of the web site project. Three example web site projects are provided here:
River Menders - Native Riparian Habitat Restoration for Salmon Recovery
Jamaica Protected Areas Trust - Jamaica Conservation and Protected Area Movement
Idaho Weed Awareness Campaign - Pulling Together Against Invasive Weeds

Topics in which users can participate include discussions, events, volunteer opportunities, educational activities, monitoring, public input, and reference materials.

I will write more about CMS developments as time permits.