Aliens Have Finally Returned Me to Earth

Really, it’s the only halfway decent reason I could think of for the length of time since I last posted. Of course, aliens didn’t actually snatch me (or invite me, for that matter). Life just got, well, like life gets, I guess. But we’re back, and stuff is happenin’!

First up, while I was off-planet, 325 people have already signed on as users on disciplemen.com. In the words of one of the apostles, “Wow!” (It’s in the original greek.)

Second, if you’ve been to disciplemen.com lately, you’ve seen the “How to’s.” These are cool mini-trainings delivered via e-mail right to your desktop. Already, 212 of you have signed up for a course, and the feedback has been awesome.

But wait, there’s more! We have contracted with an awesome company called Modomo Technologies, run by our new best friend, Lyndon Modomo, and his merry band of techno-gurus. They are working feverishly (seriously, they’re burnin’ up) on the next two phases of disciplemen.com, a Leadership Directory and Best Practices & Resource Center. First phases of those will be up in April, if all goes according to plan.

So that’s the techno-update for now. I’ll be posting more frequently now. Really, I will. But as Dale Carnegie said and Pat Morley likes to quote. “The older I get, the less I listen to what people say and the more I just watch what they do.”

Watch the blog. Let’s see what happens.

In Dutch, drupal means “drop” (or was it “drip”?)

Whatever it means, it is the totally cool Open Source Content Management System - or, as we call it, the TCOSCMS - we have chosen for disciplemen.com. Drupal gives us a ready-made way to handle things like User Login, adding stuff to the site, navigation, etc.

Michael Maine, Internet Services Director, and Kevin Fittro (M&M and K-Fit to their friends) prepared the attached document to give you a better idea of what drupal is.

Wanna really see what drupal can do? Here are some other sites built using this TCOSCMS!

• http://www.destinationbride.com/

• http://www.scrippsnews.com/ 

• http://www.sudden-thoughts.com/ 

IBM even wrote an article about why they used drupal for a big project they did. Pretty cool! (I mean, “totally cool.”) Click here for more drupal-based sites, a link to the IBM article and more of M&M and K-Fit’s Technical Mumbo Jumbo… Drupal Technical Info 

Content Management System - Who Needs It?

So I asked MIM Dir. of Operations (and disciplemen.com project manager) Kevin Fittro, “How are we getting this thing started?”

And he replied, “A significant piece of the underlying infrastructure for the disciplemen.com website is made up of the Content Management System (CMS).  The implementation of the CMS provides immediate functionality in a couple of areas.  These functions can be tailored to a set of requirements through configuration changes made available through graphical user interfaces (GUIs).  This capability allows the administrator to affect the behavior of the CMS without the need to make programming changes to the underlying system.”

And I just stood there, smiling and nodding.  Check out the attached document to read the technical benefits of having a CMS…if you’re into that kind of stuff. CMS Technical Document