Planet SoC

Yesterday I had to do some major filter debugging, causing me to learn a lot about Drupal’s filter system. Here are some basic and less basic observations on Drupal’s format and filter system:
Formats vs Filters
The basic relationship between formats and filters is confusing in Drupal, partly because the two words are similar. An input format is made up of one or more filters. For example, the ‘Full HTML’ format includes several filters by default (‘Html corrector’, ‘Line break converter’, and ‘URL filter’). Clicking on Admin: Site Configuration: Input Formats takes you to /admin/settings/filters where you can administer formats and their filters.

Some modules add sections to your ‘My Account’ page. For example, the user module adds content like ‘Member for: 4 days.’ Blog module, profile module as well as many contributed modules add in their own content. Some modules provide a configuration option to decide if such content is shown, but many do not. If you want to change that default My Account page, here are some ideas for both coders and non-coders.
Coders
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I just submitted my application to the Knight News Challenge. My application is for money to bring the Memetracker and Content Recommendation Engine modules to production ready status. Memetracker, is of course, the module I wrote this past summer as part of Google Summer of Code.
Title:
Improve modules for semi-automated news aggregation and content recommendation in Drupal

[This is the proposal I’m making for the creation of a new course at BYU.]
Students have many different needs, one size does not fit all. In our current courses, some are appropriately challenged but many others are bored and dissatisfied. Classes are not customizable by students to meet their needs or to fit their learning styles. In addition there are many subjects students would like to learn (the long-tail of education) that there isn’t enough demand to justify allocating a classroom and teacher. Most students already spend considerable time outside of school learning things not taught in their courses. This course would give them access to resources at school most importantly their peers as they study advanced topics in small groups.

[I wrote this originally on Island, the student learning website I’m building at BYU.]
Clay Shirky writes:
[Credentialed] experts the world over have been shocked to discover that they were consulted not as a direct result of their expertise, but often as a secondary effect — the apparatus of credentialing made finding experts easier than finding [non-credentialed] amateurs, even when the amateurs knew the same things as the experts.
In the web2.0 world, I’m seconds away from a Google search that connects me to resources and online communities that know more collectively than any professor. In this brave new world with near ubiquitous digital knowledge, what then are professors good for?

Zivtech is an Open Source Drupal web development shop with a beautiful office at 15th and South St in Downtown Philadelphia. We build web sites with the powerful content management system Drupal and are passionate about open source, being involved in Drupal’s thriving community, and having a fun work environment. We work with many exciting clients and do not accept projects which our developers do not find challenging and enjoyable. We build political (liberal) sites, music sites, university sites, ecommerce, and much more. We also work extensively integrating Drupal with other technologies such as Flash, DocBook, MediaWiki, YouTube, etc.
We’re seeking smart, motivated people at all levels of experience from those who are fast-learners excited to enter this rewarding field to those who are already Drupal and/or PHP, MySQL, LAMP, or CSS experts.

Zivtech is an Open Source Drupal web development shop with a beautiful office at 15th and South St in Downtown Philadelphia. We build web sites with the powerful content management system Drupal and are passionate about open source, being involved in Drupal’s thriving community, and having a fun work environment. We work with many exciting clients and do not accept projects which our developers do not find challenging and enjoyable. We build political (liberal) sites, music sites, university sites, ecommerce, and much more. We also work extensively integrating Drupal with other technologies such as Flash, DocBook, MediaWiki, YouTube, etc.
We’re seeking smart, motivated people at all levels of experience from those who are fast-learners excited to enter this rewarding field to those who are already Drupal and/or PHP, MySQL, LAMP, or CSS experts.