One of my favorite magazines, The Nation, has totally revamped – re-launched – its web presence, and taken its website code open source. Very cool.
They’ve posted an article explaining the latter change, from which here are a couple of fair use snippets:
The specific platform we’re using for TheNation.com, Drupal, has a progressive lineage as well. Described as "Software to Power the Left" by new media thinker David Cohn, Drupal was the foundation for the groundbreaking "DeanSpace" online community in 2004, and has since been used and improved by dozens of leading progressive advocacy groups. Today Drupal powers the websites of publications like The New Republic, Mother Jones and The Economist, and provides the content management platform for a little site called WhiteHouse.gov. …
What, if anything, does this mean for TheNation.com readers? The great thing about Drupal for a news organization is the flexibility that a public, continuously evolving platform provides. If we wanted to build an interactive package to amplify a groundbreaking investigation, it used to take days. Now there are thousands of programmers who can build it fast – or have already built it. If we want to change the layout of our homepage or special section to reflect the significance of an unanticipated breaking news event, it used to take three weeks. Now it takes three clicks.
The Nation is a great magazine. It’s been around since 1865, with a firm grip and clear view. I started reading it in college in 1985. Highly recommended for all of my progressive friends.
Metaphor 