First website launched on Cocoon platform at my new company

So, the first cocoon website is launched in 'beta' mode at my new company. njwfm.com is powered by the Hippo CMS, and uses the dojotoolkit.org for javascript tricks. While the site is tagged as 'beta' right now, it is more or less functional, and my colleagues are able to power their company website.

Once again, just as when I was at VNU, Cocoon has enabled me to create a website building platform, and while the entry point is still geared to developers, I aim to simplify over time to enable designers to build sites.

Using best of breed open source projects has enabled me to tackle the problem of building powerful, customisable websites, rather than fighting with jumping through needless hoops, and being forced to contend with rewrites for improving functionality available within the platform.

Not only that, but despite its 'bloat' and age, Cocoon is still after all my dabbling in frameworks, my favourite... roll on Cocoon 2.2 I can't wait for the lean mean version.

Leveraging powerful frameworks

I really feel that I need to give more back to the open source world.. after all I am benefiting so massively from a number of open source frameworks. In my new role, (6 working days in), I am required to set up a web platform which is extensible, efficient, reliable and usable, and using Apache, Cocoon, Dojo and the Hippo CMS I am able to do just that. The job is not over yet, but I am confident that my new company will be very happy with the end product. Thanks to the guys at Apache, Cocoon.Apache, Dojo and Hippo.

So how to give back, I suppose I just need to get more involved in the communities! Provide feedback, ensure any problems are reported, and help to get more exposure for the different projects.

I will be sure to post more on the results of working with these frameworks in the coming weeks.