NTEN just released their survey results from the 2008 Content Management System Satisfaction Survey. The report is free to NTEN members and it’s available for $50 to non-members. They also provide a sample of the report on their site. Their purpose for publishing the report was to help non profits in their CMS decision making process. “Once you have identified two or three systems that meet your organization's needs, this report can help you to make your final decision as to which system is right for your organization.”
Over 1000 people took their survey. This caught our attention at Green Moon Solutions because we have implemented and recommended Drupal in the past, and we wanted to see how it fared when compared to their competition consisting of other opens source software, such as, Joomla! and Plone.
We’ve analyzed the report, and we agree with how our peers have rated Drupal. We’d also like to add that from our experience as Drupal novices, we found Drupal to be easy to use once you familiarize yourself with their terminology, and of course, nothing beats trial and error. For example, Drupal uses the terms “taxonomy” and “nodes” which mean classification and a unit of content, respectively. We won’t lie, there was so much information on Drupal.org that it did seem overwhelming at first, but if you keep peeling back the layers you’ll be extremely satisfied with your results. Here is a glossary for important Drupal terms.
A tip for Drupal newcomers: buy a book on Drupal. It’s a wonderful resource, and there have been several published since we developed our first Drupal website. Additionally, reread the book about six months after you have your site up and running. You’ll have a greater understanding and more hands-on experience with Drupal, and you will find more nuggets in the book that may not have pertained to your initial set up. Online handbooks are also a great reference tool.
Some of the best features of Drupal are the support and contributions from the Drupal community. Not only does the community contribute updated versions of Drupal, it also adds new themes and updated modules. They even produce several Drupal podcasts on iTunes. The Art Lab produces Drupal School, and for the most up-to-date Drupal information, look into Lullabot’s audio and video podcasts. Whether you are new to Drupal or looking to add more modules to you site, it’s helpful to view all the resources that are available to you. With the active Drupal community, there are always new and exciting updates and modules being generated.
Basically what we’ve learned from our experience is that Drupal is a great piece of software that’s constantly evolving and it is well supported. The best part is that Drupal works well on many levels. NTEN survey results bore out those conclusions.