After nearly four decades advocating for biking, walking and public transportation in New York City, Transportation Alternatives had accumulated quite a mass of content online. In 2006, all of that content was on static web pages – there were close to 40,000 files in total to contend with. The organization needed more flexibility. They also regularly launched micro-sites for particular campaigns and events.
The organization needed the flexibility to quickly create new micro-sites for rides or coalition work and they needed to hand off page updates to program staff.
They knew they needed a real content management system, but were not quite sure how to begin. IT Director Mike Infranco knew they needed to take the plunge, so he sized up his options. Plone seemed too complicated, WordPress wasn't complex enough. Drupal turned out to be just right.
Plone, WordPress and Drupal are all free and open source – Infranco knew he needed that much. The idea of rationing site licenses or letting the software licensing scheme dictate how many sites they could set up or which staff would be able to make updates just didn't make sense.
As he puts it, the organization has a soft commitment to free and open source software. "It gets us access to new technology earlier. Philosophically, it feels right for us." That said, the organization incorporates plenty of proprietary tools into their work.
Once they determined that Drupal seemed like a good fit, they decided to start small – they built two mini sites with the content management system first. Once they'd seen that they could use Drupal to handle bikemonthnyc.org and nyccentury.org, sites that start fresh with new content every year, they tackled the project of migrating more than a decade's worth of site archives into Drupal. They launched their new site in February 2008.
Once they were settled into Drupal, re-designing their site to accommodate the organization's new logo and branding in 2010 was much easier than it would have been on the old site – Drupal, like any good content management system, separates the look of the pages from the content. Most of the site has been built in-house though they have used consultants for special products and themes.
One advantage of a content management system is that the software allows non-technical staff to take on text editing. At Transportation Alternatives, that means that staff post press releases and update events pages without having to go through the web team. It means staff can react quickly to changing situations, too: in the wake of superstorm Sandy, program staff and the web team were able to work together to add group commutes and resource hubs to their website, helping connect stranded New Yorkers – the city's transit system was out for days – with bike maps, patch kits and experienced cyclists who could show them the best way to ride to midtown from neighborhoods all across the city.
Infranco says that Transportation Alternatives gets the most benefit from the Drupal community. Between Drupal Camp, which brings the local community of users and developers together for two days of sharing stories and solving problems, and the case studies on Drupal.org, his team is constantly getting new ideas about ways to get the most out of their web presence.
Infranco cautions against imagining that a Drupal website won't need care and feeding: Drupal sites need maintenance. Someone has to implement security updates and configure advanced features. If you don't have the wherewithal to do that in-house, you need to make sure that someone is on the case. Fortunately, because Drupal is free and open source software, you have a wide array of vendors to turn to, from white label services that promise your site will stay up to community ISPs that make more modest guarantees and charge more modest rates.
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