the flexibility of open source - plone in the public sector

Matt Hamilton

Plone in the Public Sector

The Flexibility of Open Source

Matt HamiltonTechnical Director, Netsight

Friday, 15 January 2010

Matt Hamilton BCS OSSG - Public Funds in the UK

Who are Netsight?

- Independent Web Development Firm

- Founded 1999

- Specialise in Open Source Web Content Management

- Specifically, Plone

2



Introduction

- Open Source allows you the flexibility to start small and invest money as you go along, developing iteratively.

3



Examples

- Warwickshire Police Force

- Large Teaching Portal

4


Matt Hamilton BCS OSSG - Public Funds in the UK 5

What is Plone?

Plone is among the top 2% of all open source projects worldwide, with 200 core developers and more than 300 solution providers in 57 countries.

The project has been actively developed since 2001, is available in more than 40 languages, and has the best security track record of any major CMS.

It is owned by the Plone Foundation, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organisation, and is available for all major operating systems

Plone Conference 2009, Budapest


http://www.ohloh.net/

http://www.ohloh.net/

http://plone.org/team

http://plone.org/team

http://plone.net/providers






http://plone.org/documentation/faq/plone-history

http://plone.org/documentation/faq/plone-history

http://plone.org/documentation/faq/translations

http://plone.org/documentation/faq/translations

http://cve.mitre.org/

http://cve.mitre.org/

http://plone.org/foundation

http://plone.org/foundation

http://plone.org/download




Matt Hamilton



Warwickshire Police Force

7



Warwickshire Police

8

!"#$%&'()$%&*+,$%&

-.#$%/'"0$%1

'"0$%1!"2$%1

-(3$%14+.$%1

4+.$%15,6$%1

'"0$%7'"0$%7

!"#$%7'()$%7

'()$%7-(3$%7

4+.$%75,6$%7

89:$%789:$%7

-.#$%;'(0$%;

4+.$%;5,6$%;

*+,$%;'"0$%<

!"#$%<!"2$%<

89:$%<-.#$%=!"2$%=

!"2$%='()$%=

'()$%=5,6$%=

>%

>1%?%%%

>@%%?%%%

>@1%?%%%

>A%%?%%%

>A1%?%%%

*+:+)9.B+06 C96")

Public Site Launch

Crime Stats Site

Safer Neighbourhoods Site

theZone Kids SiteDomestic Abuse Site

News Media Portal

Police Authority Site Re-Design

Plone 3 Upgrade

Costs March 03 - Dec 09



Warwickshire Police

9



Warwickshire Police

10



Warwickshire Police

11

!"#$%&'()$%&*+,$%&

-.#$%/'"0$%1

'"0$%1!"2$%1

-(3$%14+.$%1

4+.$%15,6$%1

'"0$%7'"0$%7

!"#$%7'()$%7

'()$%7-(3$%7

4+.$%75,6$%7

89:$%789:$%7

-.#$%;'(0$%;

4+.$%;5,6$%;

*+,$%;'"0$%<

!"#$%<!"2$%<

89:$%<-.#$%=!"2$%=

!"2$%='()$%=

'()$%=5,6$%=

>%

>1%?%%%

>@%%?%%%

>@1%?%%%

>A%%?%%%

>A1%?%%%

*+:+)9.B+06 C96")

Public Site Launch

Crime Stats Site



News Media Portal


Plone 3 Upgrade




Warwickshire Police

12



Warwickshire Police

13



Warwickshire Police

14

!"#$%&'()$%&*+,$%&

-.#$%/'"0$%1

'"0$%1!"2$%1

-(3$%14+.$%1

4+.$%15,6$%1

'"0$%7'"0$%7

!"#$%7'()$%7

'()$%7-(3$%7

4+.$%75,6$%7

89:$%789:$%7

-.#$%;'(0$%;

4+.$%;5,6$%;

*+,$%;'"0$%<

!"#$%<!"2$%<

89:$%<-.#$%=!"2$%=

!"2$%='()$%=

'()$%=5,6$%=

>%

>1%?%%%

>@%%?%%%

>@1%?%%%

>A%%?%%%

>A1%?%%%

*+:+)9.B+06 C96")

Public Site Launch

Crime Stats Site



News Media Portal


Plone 3 Upgrade



Matt HamiltonLarge Teaching Portal

can’t name them, sorry :(



Teaching Portal

16

- Portal for teachers in the UK

- Funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families



Teaching Portal

There are nine regional Centres in England and one National Centre to serve the UK.

Each of the Centres has a main base and a number of satellite Centres and online resources which can be accessed by teachers from across the country.

17


https://dev.sciencelearningcentres.org.uk/centres

https://dev.sciencelearningcentres.org.uk/centres

https://dev.sciencelearningcentres.org.uk/centres/national

https://dev.sciencelearningcentres.org.uk/centres/national


Teaching Portal

18



Teaching Portal

19

- Look-and-feel➡ Not very compelling

- Usability➡ Challenging in places

- A poor content management system➡ Can't really edit general content, so use a separate FTP

server and Dreamweaver

- Vendor lock-in➡ Even small changes, very expensive



Teaching Portal

20

Portal 1.0 - Monolithic, tightly coupled, poor separation of skin



Teaching Portal

21

Portal 2.0 - Extensible, loosely coupled, good separation of skin



Teaching Portal

22



Teaching Portal

23

- WSGI allows you to write small modules chained together in a 'pipeline'

- Many small filters combined together as you need

- Lots of existing components out there

- Very easy to write new ones



Teaching Portal

Old URL:

http://www.theclient.org.uk/WebPortal.aspx?page=1&module=DB920A53-01EA-4886-8878-F2CDF5FA8CFD&mode=101&IsNonNewsDB920A53_01EA_4886_8878_F2CDF5FA8CFD=True&newsIdDB920A53_01EA_4886_8878_F2CDF5FA8CFD=11208#10

205 characters!

New URL:

http://www.theclient.org.uk/news/11208#10

41 characters!

24















Teaching Portal

25



Teaching Portal

26



Getting the best from Open Source

27

- Assess your requirements, look at selection process. Is it friendly to Open Source software?

- Try not to “buy a system”. Look to “solve a problem”.

- Prototype! (No licence fees, so you can trial prototypes with many users and gather feedback)

- Seek out the help of expert companies – talk to them

- Iterative Development



Thank you. Questions?

28

Matt Hamilton

[email protected]

@hammertoe@netsight

http://slideshare.net/hammertoe


mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]



the flexibility of open source - plone in the public sector

Technology