Hey, there! Log in / Register
Boston turns to Drupal for Web-site overhaul
By adamg on Wed, 09/23/2015 - 9:55am
The mayor's office announced today it's chosen software company Acquia, headquartered on State Street, and design firm IDEO of Cambridge to rebuild cityofboston.gov.
Acquia builds Web platforms atop Drupal software, originally written by its CTO, Dries Buytaert.
The user-centered redesign will involve input from members of the Boston community to make information and services more accessible for the City's diverse range of users, and will employ an iterative development methodology to incorporate user feedback throughout the process.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Let me guess. After some
Let me guess. After some prodding, the city will admit that the contract will cost $500,000. There will be outcry over spending that much over a website, and the city council will promise to keep a close eye on the project. When the website is finally done in six years, it will have cost $4.3 million and not work.
Which raises a question
Do we REALLY need an updated web site? Just another example of how "transparency" is actually nothing but a waste of resources.
yes we do
Have you used the site? It's terrible and pretty much useless for gathering any kind of relevant information.
The good news is that they picked a cutting-edge framework to build it on.
Except for you know... seeing
Except for you know... seeing your assessed property value and tax information, voter registration information, trash pick-up schedules, holiday schedules, current events, etc. My guess is your being facetious.
Drupal? Cutting edge?
Drupal? Cutting edge? Framework? Lol.
Beats ASP
Besides, Drupal 8 is fully buzzword compliant.
Drupal??
I am impressed that America's most famous drag queen is also a web developer. Wow!!
Yes, we sure do
Yes, we absolutely need a new website. Have you tried using it lately? The search function is awful, it's extremely outdated in how staff can update it, difficult to find specific departments/commissions/etc. Sorry, but this is something that the city absolutely needs to do. I agree, that it should be done in a cost efficient way, but the city's website is indeed terrible!
Yeah search is terrible now
I can't count the number of times that I have read something that said, "More info at cityofboston.gov" and then when I go there it's nearly impossible to find that item.
I would think that a tweak could solve it, rather than a rebuild from square one, but I'm no programmer.
I think it's pretty good.
I've found everything I was looking for on the current website. I'm sure it could use some tweaking but a complete overhaul would use resources better spent on schools. (I know that's not how it works.)
Its not like we don't already
Its not like we don't already spend one of the highest amounts in the country per pupil at the BPS. Maybe improving them isn't a money issue ?
How much money do you think this project will cost?
You really think it's large enough to help fix anything at BPS?
Agreed, it will be over
Agreed, it will be over budget, overly complicated, in a year no one will know how to run / fix / update it. It will get hacked because Drupal is a complicated CMS that will not get updated once the contract is complete. And... the city will spend millions in 6 years to overhaul the whole thing to "get it right."
If the city were a one-person IT shop
I might agree. But they have a bunch of people there, some of whom actually work on the Web site. And if I can learn Drupal, so can they - even given the fact that they're dealing with issues an order of magnitude larger than I am. Also, unless the city is being cheaper and stupider than I would think, they're going to sign a service contract for maintenance.
Big Assumption
Ha!
It's likely Acquia will host
It's likely Acquia will host and manage the servers.
I think
I think adam got a little excited when he wrote this.. ;)
Oh?
Whatever would make you think that? :-).
OK, I suspect I'm the only reporter in this city who promptly replied to the press release by asking if we're talking Drupal 7 or Drupal 8 here.
And can you keep us posted on the rest of the upgrades
Walsh had to have a V-8 moment when he landed in city hall and saw what Menino (didn't) do for IT in this city. Bos311 and mobile parking enforcement aside - some of the crap our city workers are expected to hold the city together with is unbelievable (and they do a pretty good job of working with what they have). This is what happens when 75% plus of your money goes to 3-4 functions to the detriment of everything else. This is small potatoes - the city probably needs tens of millions in IT upgrades.
That's because Menino was a
That's because Menino was a megalomaniac and luddite who was in office way too long. He may have truly loved Boston but after a few terms that wasn't good enough.
Enjoying the discussion here!
Enjoying the discussion here! Solid user feedback, things we're hearing from lots of folks (eg difficulty using the search function). Also appreciate the skepticism -- a hugely important part of any procurement and dev process. I'm quite a skeptic myself.
We're focused on building a site that's easier for all Bostonians to navigate and use to engage with and transact with the City. That's a tall order, which is why we've brought innovative, highly qualified partners on board alongside the talented team at the City of Boston. The redesign will involve a relentless focus on your needs and preferences to build (and grow) a site that is adaptable, delightful, and highly useful.
Also, to answer your question, we'll be developing Boston.gov on Drupal 7 -- we didn't feel Drupal 8 was ready for us quite yet.
At what point does this
At what point does this become a conflict of interest for you?
Um, never?
It's not like I'm doing Drupal consulting for the city (even if I wanted to, the complexity of what they need done, in particular, the integration with various back-end data sources, is way, way above my pay grade). Obviously, I think it'll be kind of cool to watch, though.
y'all have never seen the old way government built "web apps"
overall this is actually a good sign. In the old days they would have hired a politically connected firm that would custom design a bespoke one-off application which would then have to be hosted by a fleet of dedicated servers with a $1M SAN for storage/database in a specific colocation facility or datacenter. The "application" would have no API and could not be used/reused/customized without involving the original builders -- all of which would cause 10000x markups over what people in the real world can do with off the shelf / COTS style products.
Drupal is a solid CMS and open source framework with a lot of brains and developers working on it. It's a good choice and I'm happy someone in Boston IT procurement decided to build on top of Drupal rather than do something silly, silo'ed and custom.
whitehouse.gov has been on Drupal framework since '09 I think and overall Drupal has been fairly well stress tested in a lot of real world projects
Huzzah!
I was excited to see that they're hosting with Aquia. I work in IT for a non-profit that has a HUGE website relative to our size. Aquia is a great partner and unless they've negotiated themselves into something weird it's a bargin.
Good--These tech systems should be updated every few years.
I'm happy to see the City/Marty being ahead of the curve. The type of tech systems need to overhauled every few years or they turn into a joke. The productivity of the City workforce increases immensely due to these items. Thank You DOIT