And It is Drupal Too!

It's starting.  The HASTAC Scholars are coming on board, some new, some returning from last year.  The Digital Media and Learning Competition winners for 2009 are joining up.   It's not even Labor Day and our still very, very beta website is getting a workout.   We thank you for your feedback--we need it to fix what's broken and improve what we've begun.  And we thank you for yor patience, too.   Getting all the functionality of this site evident in its interface, getting this very robust site working well, has been a summer-long project.   Big shout out here to Mandy Dailey and Mark Olson who designed the site and worked on its development all year and then to Mandy and our new Director of New Media Strategies, Ruby Sinreich, who inherited the site and who have had the thankless job, all summer, of trying to make it fully functional.

We're not there yet.   Keep sending us suggestions but be warned that implementing them takes longer than you would think.  Our developer didn't use usual CMS (Content Management System) modules so, even one change can mean hundreds of other changes, and very mind-numbing hand loading of many, many pages.  Don't like the yellow lettering that disappears on some screens?  We don't either . . . but that's a tough fix so it's on the To Do list but not yet at the top of the list. 

Most people, looking at the site, have no idea it is Drupal, the free and open content-management system written in PHP.  Drupal is fantastic and part of HASTAC's open source commitment but it can sometimes look a bit dowdy and its functions aren't always elegant.   So customize, customize, customize . . . and now we're working out the bugs!

We hope everyone enjoys the new site, uses its various functions --if you can find them  (Hint:  go to "My HASTAC" after you register and you'll find a pull-down menu and you can explore from there).  We'll be working on improving the interfaces over the course of the next months and, of course, improving the speed and ease of use.   Mainly, though, we need you to use the online feedback form that Ruby has created to alert us to any problems or make any suggestions.  Drupal is open source precisely so others can help, can contribute.  We need your eyes, your ideas . . . and, again, your patience.    HASTAC assesses no dues to its members.  You are part of the HASTAC network simply by signing up and, so long as you don't violate any of our community rules, you are "one of us" as long as you want to be.  We invite you to contribute, including to making www.hastac.org as fabulous as Drupal (and our very small HASTAC staff) will allow.  

We anticipate a fabulous year, of online events, of high level conversation, and of many virtual meetings and gatherings and reporting and opinion.   Happy Labor Day weekend, everyone!  And welcome to HASTAC!