You are reading this MsBehaviour File on The Big Idea's new website, made with a lot of love and the Drupal Content Management System or CMS. Drupal is one of a number of tools from the Open Source Software community that allows companies, educators or not for profits to build websites without having to pay for a software license.

You are reading this MsBehaviour File on The Big Idea's new website, made with a lot of love and the Drupal Content Management System or CMS. Drupal is one of a number of tools from the Open Source Software community that allows companies, educators or not for profits to build websites without having to pay for a software license. Traditionally software has been created by private companies, but the growing Open Source movement is made up of networks of programmers working together openly, and sharing the results.

Proabably the easiest publishing platform to start with is Blogger, which you can set up in minutes with your blog hosted for free by Google. Wordpress is another platform that comes with free hosting and runs local sites like Radio Wammo. You can use your own address on both Blogger and Wordpress if you own your own domain name. The Blogger vs. Wordpress.com Comparison Chart - 2009 provides a side by side comparison of these popular platforms, though for community functionality you will need to look at more sophisticated systems and paid for hosting.

Silverstripe is an Open Source CMS developed in Wellington, New Zealand which was used by the US Democratic Convention last year, and by other local & international sites featured in the Silverstripe community showcase. Mambo & Joomla! started out as a single coding team, but some Mambo developers 'forked' from the project in 2005 over an argument about levels of coporate control. They continued developing as Joomla! and you can now find plenty of resources for both online.

I personally love Drupal which was picked by IBM as the number one content management system, as it is powerful, flexible, scaleable and robust under a heavy load of traffic. Drupal was created in 2000 by student Dries Buytaert at the University of Antwerp in Holland as a way of communicating with his research team. It comes with all you need to start building a community, then you can add a huge number of features using extendable modules as virtual building blocks. There is a thriving development community behind Drupal worldwide and if there isn't already a module for your needs, then ask for it in the forums and you may find a nice geek to code it for you.

The new Big Idea site shows how you can set up different types of content using Drupal such as columns or a network of blogs. Members can add audio files, video files, subscribe to news bulletins, add details to a directory of services, or an image gallery, list events, or add forums, upload content and manage their own profiles. Every piece of content on Drupal is called a 'node', which can have an associated 'tag' and Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feed attached. The Big Idea has a site map page with a comprehensive list of RSS tags, such as Creative Disciplines, Regions, Hapu or Iwi, with an RSS feed for each of the Big Idea forums.

Members can follow the conversations taking place through an RSS feed reader, and having a powerful tagging system means that Drupal sites rank highly in Google searches so that you don't need Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). On the outside Drupal has fully customiseable themes for the graphical interface using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), which means that you can change your design without having to change your content. The CSS Zen Garden is an excellent site to see CSS in action, as with one click the same site can look competely different.

Other Drupal sites in New Zealand include Sorted.co.nz, Sugarlicks Records, the g33k show and the official site of the New Zealand government at The Beehive. Even President Obama is using Drupal which shows that Open Source Software has the offical seal of approval. If you aren't already a member then read these tips to get started at the Big Idea and join in the conversation at New Zealand's creative community!

     Listen here to MsBehaviour talk about Drupal and the new Big Idea site on the Radio Wammo breakfast show on Kiwi FM and Virtual World, Afternoons with Jim Mora on Radio New Zealand, National.