A New Beginning

Hey SWACKers! We have begun the process of creating an exciting new resource for all SWACKS members and our Southwest Florida Community at large.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Brent Billman, our ernstwhile webmaster for his guidance and collaboration as we begin to experiment with our new web platform. And, to invite any interested members to join a new SWACKS Special Interest Group dedicated to this effort. This SIG may meet independently of our larger group meeting at times and places to be determined by events, but I also hope to establish iChat conferences focused upon our development.

Interested members should contact me at tim@intramedia.net or 866-775-9033x25.

While we're "Under Construction", the site will be available at this address, swacks.org/drupal.

What the heck is a drupal? Drupal is a Content Management System or CMS supported by the international open source software community. In fact it's founder and lead developer is from Belgium. Drupal's open source roots make it extremely popular and well supported by a large and innovative community of developers all over the world. It's also supported by many commercial IT support companies including IBM.

Using a CMS as the "platform" for our site makes many features possible without the time consuming and arduous task of developing each feature from scratch. And provides features to streamline updating site content and maintenance.

We hope you check back often to act as our sidewalk supervisors. For now we'll permit "open enrollment". Just click the "Create New Account" link in the left sidebar and set up your own account. Many features will be restricted to registered users, so you all invited to participate.

Come join the fun for 2008 as we build the new SWACKS website!

Tim Sadler