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Web 2.0Nine Newsletters in, Free Language is Going StrongWith the ninth newsletter (below) out, Free Language is moving into language-learning directory status! -->
Welcome to the Ninth Edition of The Free Language Letter. 30 new free resources for 14 languages (4 new!) have been added to the site. There are now 343 resources available for 34 languages. Quick View of What's Inside
New! English Overview Page
The latest language to get a shiny new overview page is English. An overview page is basically a single spot where all the resources for a given language are brought together for users to quickly navigate. English is an Indo-European, West Germanic language originating in England, and is the first language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the Anglophone Caribbean. It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language throughout the world, especially in Commonwealth countries and in many international organizations. Visit the English Overview Page and continue reading. New Languages! Hebrew, Irish, Luxembourgish and NorwegianSince the last newsletter, four new languages have been added to the site: Hebrew, Irish Gaelic, Luxembourgish and Norwegian. ArabicOmniglot.com Abjad Consonant Alphabet about Arabic Script with Images, Example Text and Audio EnglishYolango.com Yolango Learn English Watching Web Videos w/Tags, Categories, Scenarios, Play Activites, Transcripts, Tools FrenchFrenchPod.com FrenchPod Praxis French Lessons Podcast with Free Educational Resources and MP3 Audio GermanBBC Languages German HebrewHebrewPocasts.com Learn to Speak Hebrew at your Leisure with Free MP3 Audio Podcast Downloads HindiNamaste Dosti: The Learn Hindi Podcast for Grammar and Vocabulary for Beginners ItalianItalianLingQ.com Italian LingQ Podcast with iTunes MP3 Audio using Linguist Method by Steve Kaufmann IrishLuxembourgishMandarin ChineseBBCChinese.com BBC News in Mandarin Chinese NorwegianPolishRussianSpanishOnline TranslationFreeLanguage.com.ua List of Free Online Translators/Translation Websites for Multiple Languages Mozilla Firefox Web Browser Addonsaddons.mozilla.org Experimental and Stable Mozilla Firefox Addons Extensions for Language Support Commercial Productsearworms MBT Rapid Language line of learn to music audio courses have become a hit! Recent News and Podcast Feeds
Below are the most recently added web feeds that Free Language syndicates. BBC News in Chinese Featured Resource
The BBC has recently updated its BBC Languages resources! The new look and features are a considerable upgrade, making it easier to see all the resources available and get learning the languages you want to learn. BBC Languages has always been a great place to access self-contained beginner courses in Chinese, German, Greek, French, Italian and Portuguese. There are also tidbits and goodies in other languages. Recently, the BBC has revamped it's entire website for more flexibility, personalization and ease of use. In the languages section, this means it's easier than ever to find online courses, grammar info, learning games, dictionaries, self-assessment tests, resources for tutors, info about going abroad, photos, tips, stories, audio, video, related links, local class finder, cool/slang words and phrases, etc. It's all there and packed with good content! Continue reading about the new BBC Languages. Language FactoidApproximately 375 million people speak English as their first language. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world. Factoid thanks to Wikipedia. Slán agat!Chapman By cman at 2008-06-07 19:05 | Arabic | English | Free Information | Free Language | Free Movies | Free Video | French | German | Hebrew | Hindi | Information | Italian | Japanese | Language Learning | Mandarin Chinese | Online Projects | Podcasting | Podcasts | Polish | Portuguese | Russian | Site Changes | Spanish | Swedish | Technology | Video Podcasting | Video Podcasts | Web 2.0 | add new comment | 229 reads
Number Eight of Newsletter for Free Language Learning Materials is Out
Welcome to the Eighth Edition of The Free Language Letter. 25 new free resources for 12 languages have been added to the site. There are not as many updates as usual because I have been working behind the scenes on the new overview pages for each language. Quick View of What's Inside
New! Afrikaans, Arabic, Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese Overview Pages
As I did for the Spanish language before the last newsletter, I have now completed four more language overview sections. Now you will find new homes on Free Language for Afrikaans, Arabic, Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese. These overview pages are basically a single spot where all the resources for a given language are brought together for users to quickly view and navigate. I like to think they are quite packed with excellent resources for learning the respective languages. :) Some are more filled than others, and the overview pages do include an overview of the language, a list of resources for learning the language, podcasts, news resources, a tag cloud, InternetTV stations, recommended software, an aggregator link and feed and other such useful info. Now Available: 34 Languages :)
With some of the major changes I have been working on, I have also slipped in a large number of new languages. Since the last newsletter, this includes Bengali, Catalan, Czech, Dutch, Filipino, Greek, Hausa, Hebrew, Hungarian, Latin, Polish, Swahili, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese. Before you get too excited, know that I cheated a bit on most of these and they list mainly resources for learning languages socially, and do not yet list specific resources for those languages. Catalan, Polish and Swedish are the exceptions with one specific resource for each plus the social resources. Specific resources for the rest will come as soon as I can manage! OK, onto the latest resources added for specific languages and other such goodness. CatalanEnglishBlabbinit.com Blabbinit Learn English with Podcasts, Comics, Karaoke, Blogs, Videos and Chat FrenchFrenchLingQ.com French LingQ Podcast with Free iTunes iPod MP3 Audio using Linguist Method by Steve Kaufmann GermanGermanLingQ.com German LingQ Podcast with Free iTunes iPod MP3 Audio using Linguist Method by Steve Kaufmann ItalianCaféBabel.com Café Babel Local European Political, Economic and Cultural News Magazine in Italian and 6 Other Languages JapaneseMandarin ChineseEnterZon.com Zon MSU Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) for Learning Mandarin Chinese Interactively PolishPortuguesePortugueseLingQ.com Portuguese LingQ Podcast with iTunes MP3 Audio using Linguist Method by Steve Kaufmann RussianSpanishSpanishLingQ.com Spanish LingQ Podcast with Free iTunes MP3 Audio using Linguist Method by Steve Kaufmann SwedishSocial Language LearningBelow are the latest additions to the social language learning section. Babbel.com Virtual FlashCard Language Share Site w/English, French, German, Italian, Spanish Tools and Video Game-Like Interface News Feeds
Below are the most recently added news feeds that Free Language syndicates. CaféBabel.com Café Babel Local European Political, Economic and Cultural News Magazine in Catalan and 6 Other Languages Featured Resource
Lingro is a truly useful site with a decidedly free and open approach to multi-lingual dictionaries and online web translation. It provides users with quick and powerful online translation dictionaries and study tools, vocabulary lists and games. The site is "committed to building the Web's largest collection of open dictionaries." I was struck by the straight-forward, no nonsense approach to open content. The site content is empowered and protected by the Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 License. In short, this means the multilingual dictionaries can be copied, adapted and distributed with proper attribution. Equally, content editors must allow their additions to continue to be worked with under the same license. Thus, in an open and free way, lingro appeals to the users for help in creating "relevant translations and definitions" for the these language translation dictionaries. Since I published the original article, several new changes have been in the works at the Lingro headquarters. Here's a list on their blog of some of the major improvements. There is also a great sections for webmasters that explains how to integrate Lingro into your website. Also added is a new feature for showing each user's personalized reading/vocabulary profile. They are really cranking it out over there and I send lots of good vibes to this crew that is working to improve Public Domain tools for language learning. :) Continue reading about Lingro. Language FactoidMandarin Chinese is a category of related Chinese dialects spoken across most of northern and south-western China. When taken as a separate language, as is often done in academic literature, the Mandarin dialects have more speakers than any other language. Factoid thanks to Wikipedia. 看你下一次!Chapman By cman at 2008-04-01 22:38 | Afrikaans | Arabic | Brazilian Portuguese | Cantonese | China | Czech | Dutch | English | European Portuguese | Free Information | Free Language | French | German | Hebrew | Hindi | Hungarian | Information | Italian | Japanese | Korean | Language Learning | Mandarin Chinese | Online Projects | Podcasting | Podcasts | Polish | Portuguese | Russian | Site Changes | Spanish | Swahili | Swedish | Video Podcasting | Video Podcasts | Vietnamese | Web 2.0 | add new comment | 836 reads
Free Language Letter Version Seven for Foreign Language Learners
Welcome to the Seventh Edition of The Free Language Letter. Lots has happened since the Sixth Edition. 45 new free resources for 19 languages have been added to the site. See below for language-learning videos, multilingual podcasting, free software downloads, tools, browser extensions, OpenCourseWare, online communities and more. New! Social Language-Learning Resource Section
Social language learning has become incredibly popular on the web as it has transcended language barriers in previously impossible ways. For example, right now someone in Russia could be waiting to teach you Russian in exchange for your English skills. Or maybe your native language is Spanish and you want to learn Mandarin Chinese - there's someone out there for that as well! In fact, chances are there are hundreds or even thousands of potential language partners with whom you can achieve your collective language learning goals in a symbiotic fashion... Visit the Social Foreign Language Learning Resource Section. Below you will find the most recent additions to the social learning section. LiveMocha.com Live Mocha Social Language Learning Course and Networking Website Spanish Leads the Way
As a new phase of information architecture unfolds at Free Language, Spanish is the first language to have an overview homepage. This is where you'll find a taste of the different Spanish language learning resources on the site in a nutshell. Visit the Spanish homepage on Free Language. The other 15 languages currently available on the site will follow shortly. New Free ResourcesAfrikaansDigitalDialects.com Afrikaans Language-Learning Games and Activities ArabicArabic Language Course for Arabic Learners Familiar with Arabic Script CantoneseFSI-Language-Courses.com US Foreign Service Institute Cantonese Free Audio Lessons Downloads EnglishEnglish Language Learning and Teaching Article on Wikipedia FrenchDigitalDialects.com French Language-Learning Games and Activities GermanOneMinuteLanguages.com One Minute Language Lessons for Polish, Irish, German and Russian HindiISpeakHindi.com I Speak Hindi Website, Podcasts, Dictionary and Resources IndonesianLearningIndonesian.com Podcast is a Fun and Easy Way to Learn Indonesian Online IrishOneMinuteLanguages.com One Minute Language Lessons for Polish, Irish, German and Russian ItalianJapaneseJaplishPodcast.com Japlish Podcast of Funny Phrases in English and Japanese Languages KoreanMandarin ChineseA Torrent File for 500 Free Mandarin Chinese Audio Podcast Lessons from ChinesePod.com PolishOneMinuteLanguages.com One Minute Language Lessons for Polish, Irish, German and Russian PortugueseRussianDigitalDialects.com Russian Language-Learning Games and Activities SpanishBitesizedLanguages.com Bitesized Languages Improve Your French, Spanish or Portuguese Skills with Daily Emails SwedishVietnameseTeach EnglishOur Teach English Section is growing with two new resources added recently. English Language Learning and Teaching Article on Wikipedia Cool Free Tools and Multilingual Resources
We added some cool tools and multilingual resource links, including Firefox browser extensions for improving your productivity in foreign languages online! Quick Translation Firefox Extension to Translate Single Words in 17+ Languages Instructional Foreign Language VideosExpertVillage.com Instructional Videos on Learning Foreign Languages Multilingual Podcasting ResourcesSurvivalPhrases.com Survival Phrases in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, Swedish, Arabic, Spanish and Vietnamese Language NewsUnited Nations Declares 2008 the International Year of Languages To see the news in many different languages, check out our syndicated multilingual news section. OpenCourseWare, Open University and Distance Language LearningDownload Free Open University Courses from MIT OpenCourseWare Foreign Languages and Literatures Department Free Language Education SoftwareBYKI.com Download Free Language Software for Learning 42 Languages! Featured Resource
Mango Languages is fantastic! Truly one of the top language-learning resources available online. Indeed, it may well be the most user-friendly, feature-rich, well-organized and free resource for learning languages online. Mango Languages offers an amazing amount of totally free lessons and courses for learning a growing number of languages. At the time this article is going to press, these include Brazilian Portuguese, English for Polish speakers, English for Spanish speakers, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Pig Latin!, Russian and Spanish. Current ResearchI am researching and drafting articles regarding foreign language study in Second Life. This metaverse approach to teaching and learning has amazing potential. Subscribe to Free Language's RSS feed to be sure you get new articles as they're hot off the press. Language FactoidRussian (русский) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages. Factoid thanks to Wikipedia. Пока!Chapman By cman at 2008-02-22 18:03 | Afrikaans | Arabic | Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian) | Brazilian Portuguese | Cantonese | Dutch | English | European Portuguese | Free Information | Free Language | Free Movies | Free Software | Free Video | French | German | Hindi | Information | Internet Telephony (VoIP) | Italian | Japanese | Korean | Language Learning | Mandarin Chinese | Podcasting | Podcasts | Polish | Portuguese | Russian | Spanish | Technology | Video Podcasting | Video Podcasts | Web 2.0 | add new comment | 824 reads
Free Language Updates for August 18, 2007Below are the latest front page updates (since the last ones). Of special note is the new section for learning Persian (Farsi). SpanishRomance.com: A Variety of Spanish Language Content By cman at 2007-08-18 14:54 | Afrikaans | Arabic | Brazilian Portuguese | English | Free Information | Free Language | Freedom | French | German | Information | Italian | Language Learning | Mandarin Chinese | Online Projects | Podcasting | Podcasts | Portuguese | Site Changes | Spanish | Technology | Web 2.0 | add new comment | 873 reads
Huge List of Language-Learning ResourcesLearnAfrikaansLearnAfrikaans.us Learn Afrikaans Free Online Language Courses ArabicThe Arabic PodClass CantoneseCantonesePod Podcast EnglishThe Linguist on Language Podcast FrenchFrenchPod Podclass GermanDeutsche Welle Slowly Spoken News in German Podcast HindiLearn Hindi from Bollywood Movies Podcast IndonesianBeginning Indonesian Learn Bahasa Indonesia Course ItalianLearnItalianPod Podcast JapaneseJapanesePod101 Podcast KoreanStudy and Learn About the Korean Alphabet or Writing System at Omniglot.com Mandarin ChineseSinosplice PortugueseBrazilian Portuguese Podcast RussianA Spoonful of Russian Podcast SpanishStudySpanish.com Website Multi-Lingualitalki.com Free Skype VoIP and IM Language Partner Community TeachEnglishTEFL.net Free Resources for English Teachers/Educators with TEFL, ESL, TESOL Help Language-Learning SpecificCommercial ResourcesArabicRosetta Stone Learn Arabic Language Software Level 1 (Commercial) EnglishRosetta Stone Learn US American English Language Software Level 1 (Commercial) JapaneseRosetta Stone Learn Japanese Software Level 1 (Commercial) Mandarin ChineseRosetta Stone Learn Mandarin Chinese Language Software Level 1 (Commercial) SpanishRosetta Stone Learn Latin American Spanish Language Software Level 1 (Commercial) By cman at 2007-08-01 21:19 | Afrikaans | Arabic | Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian) | Brazilian Portuguese | Cantonese | English | European Portuguese | Free Information | Free Language | French | German | Hebrew | Hindi | Information | Italian | Japanese | Korean | Language Learning | Mandarin Chinese | Online Projects | Podcasting | Podcasts | Portuguese | Russian | Site Changes | Spanish | Video Podcasting | Video Podcasts | Web 2.0 | add new comment | 2105 reads
Free Language Blogs are RollingFree Language has now got six people blogging on the Free Language Blogs. There are quite a lots of varied resources there pertaining to many languages. Have a look. It might be interesting to you. By cman at 2007-06-02 14:05 | Afrikaans | Akkadian | Albanian | Arabic | Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian) | Brazilian Portuguese | Cantonese | Czech | Dutch | English | Esperanto | European Portuguese | Free Information | Free Language | French | German | Hebrew | Hindi | Hungarian | Information | Italian | Japanese | Korean | Language Learning | Mandarin Chinese | Online Projects | Podcasting | Podcasts | Polish | Portuguese | Russian | Site Changes | Slovakian | Spanish | Swahili | Swedish | Technology | Video Podcasting | Video Podcasts | Vietnamese | Web 2.0 | add new comment | 1371 reads
Podcasts and Video Podcasts for Language LearningHere is a list of the podcasts: Learn Arabic Podcasts Here is a list of the video podcasts, though not all languages have them yet: Learn Arabic Video Podcasts By cman at 2007-02-03 23:05 | Arabic | Brazilian Portuguese | Cantonese | English | European Portuguese | Free Information | Free Language | French | German | Information | Italian | Japanese | Language Learning | Mandarin Chinese | Online Projects | Podcasting | Podcasts | Portuguese | Russian | Site Changes | Spanish | Technology | Video Podcasting | Video Podcasts | Web 2.0 | add new comment | 938 reads
Creating a Foreign Language News Section at Free LanguageI have been steadily adding news feeds to Free Language today. A total of 10 feeds have already been added: Radio Free Asia News in Cantonese The idea is that people will be exposed to the idea that they can read news to help learn a language once at a given level of comprehension. By cman at 2007-02-03 05:14 | Arabic | Brazilian Portuguese | Cantonese | English | European Portuguese | Free Information | Free Language | French | German | Information | Italian | Japanese | Language Learning | Mandarin Chinese | Online Projects | Portuguese | Russian | Site Changes | Spanish | Web 2.0 | add new comment | 765 reads
Free Language v2 ReleasedI am happy to announce the release of Free Language v2. Read the release announcement on Free Language. This site is a major upgrade from v1, which was mostly just me putting language-learning resources together. The idea behind v2 is that a community will start to form that is interested in learning languages and letting people know about the best places online, methods and resources for this. Soon I will be integrating a voting aspect to the site. For now it is possible to comment on the listing there, as well as find podcasts, blogs, links, websites and more resources for learning the following 12 languages:
For all the Drupalers out there, the site is running Drupal 4.7 and I used the following contributed modules:
I am going to upgrade to Drupal 5 as soon as I can get some funds together to commission the upgrade of aggregator2 to Drupal 5. Or perhaps someone will decide to just do it! Here is a screenshot of the Mandarin Chinese Tags Page:  By cman at 2007-02-02 20:58 | Arabic | Brazilian Portuguese | Cantonese | Drupal | Drupal Custom Design | Drupal Custom Development | Drupal Search Engine Optimization | Drupal Web Deployment | Drupal Web Publishing | Drupal Website Creation | English | European Portuguese | Free Information | Free Language | Free Software | French | German | Information | Italian | Japanese | Language Learning | Mandarin Chinese | Online Projects | Podcasting | Podcasts | Portfolio | Portuguese | Russian | Spanish | Technology | Video Podcasting | Video Podcasts | Web 2.0 | add new comment | 1411 reads
Drupal 5 RC1 Released!Drupal 4 RC1 was announced today! Shouldn't be long until the stable release is out... By cman at 2006-12-15 19:55 | Drupal | Drupal Web Publishing | Free Software | Information | Web 2.0 | add new comment | 389 reads
IBM DeveloperWorks Article on Using Open Source Software to Design, Develop, and Deploy a Collaborative Web SiteIBM DeveloperWorks published a nice article in which they explain why they would choose Drupal to "design, develop, and deploy a collaborative Web site" when compared to may other options such as Ruby on Rails, Mambo, Textpattern, Moveable Type, WordPress and others. By cman at 2006-07-14 15:36 | Drupal | Drupal Web Deployment | Drupal Web Publishing | Drupal Website Creation | Free Information | Free Software | Information | Technology | Web 2.0 | 282 reads
ServerWatch Tip of the Trade on DrupalA "Tip of the Trade" was released today on ServerWatch.com regarding Drupal. I thought I would share it here: "Deploying and using it may not be completely painless, but Drupal is a great content management system (CMS) framework that is lightweight, modular, and not too difficult to navigate. There is nothing exotic or excessively "creative" in its construction — it's just a nice sensible implementation of PHP and either PostgreSQL or MySQL on the back end. What can you do with Drupal? For starters, see it in action at such large and demanding sites as, Kerneltrap.org, CafePress, and The Onion. The Top Drupal Sites page demonstrates what people are doing with Drupal. In a nutshell, anything that can delivered over the Web can be managed with Drupal: standard HTML pages, RSS feeds, blogs, threaded discussion forums, polls, software distribution, image galleries, multimedia, documentation ... you name it. Although Drupal works just fine for a lone control-freak administrator, it is designed to allow many people to contribute and manage content. Its appearance is customizable. Don't be one of the lazy ones who doesn't bother to change the logo when setting up a Drupal site. Presumably, you want visitors to see your identity, not Drupal's. Drupal even comes with tools to help the site survive a Slashdotting, should you be so "fortunate" as to be discovered by the Slashdot crowd. It makes clever use of caching and throttling to keep the site alive until the tidal wave retreats. Because of Drupal's modular design, you can start small with just the core features, then add or create more as you need them. Visit Drupal.org to find downloads, excellent documentation, and a busy, helpful user community." View the original article here. By cman at 2006-06-28 05:39 | Drupal | Drupal Help | Drupal Web Deployment | Drupal Web Publishing | Drupal Website Creation | Free Information | Free Software | Information | Technology | Web 2.0 | add new comment | 472 reads
Why Use Drupal for My Website?Intended AudienceThis article is intended for people interested in having a powerful and flexible web presence, but with little knowledge of how to do so. Many of the people that will benefit from this article won't even know what Drupal is... yet. The intended audience may be interested in creating or updating a website, or in having one deployed by a qualified Drupal developer. Both will benefit from the information and concepts that follow. I have chosen not to put links throughout the whole article in order to avoid distraction. Instead, I have put links at the end of the article that will help readers find more information regarding the content. I have added clarifications for potentially new terms throughout the article. Simply hover over the words with a dotted line underneath (like these words) to reveal the additional information. Preliminaries: Covering General ConceptsIn order for the reader to understand why Drupal is a wonderful solution for creating "powerful and flexible" websites that will excel in today's web world, some general concepts must first be addressed. Without a basic understanding of the concepts that follow (which might be as basic as knowing that they exist), it is impossible to grasp how Drupal can be of service when creating a web presence. We are in the Era of Web 2.0: The Interactive WebWeb 2.0. There are lots of explanations of what this means, but the (very) basic concept is that the web is transforming into something driven by the users themselves. This means anyone surfing the web. You. Your aunt. Your neighbor. A kid in China. And so on... Times are changing and it is no longer simply the "webmasters" or website owners themselves that are controlling the web. The web is an interactive world. Web 2.0 is the world of web syndication, podcasting, tagging, social networking, photo sharing, social bookmarking, blogs and wikis galore... and, yes, much more. Web 2.0 Is An AllyIt is advisable for you to be familiar with (and hopefully even care about) these concepts because as you prepare to release a website into this world, you want to be releasing something that will not only fit in, but also stand out. Websites that stand out keep the interest of their users. Websites that keep the interest of their users stand the test of time. Not only that, but word about and links to these sites circulate more quickly and effectively. For example, if a user likes a page on your site and wants to share it with others, your site will provide tools for them to not only share that article (through social bookmarking or social networking services), but also to syndicate the entire contents of your site with only a few clicks. Once syndicated, your site will start to receive hits from places you never imagined, your traffic will increase and your smile will widen. Drupal Is Your FriendDrupal is your friend for many reasons. Drupal and Web 2.0The wonderful world of interactive Web 2.0 can be harnessed with a flexible web software such as Drupal. Drupal does things out of the box that allow you to quickly and easily accomplish such feats as managing a blog or online journal (or several), dishing out a podcast, using keywords to tag your information, syndicating and being syndicated and (you guessed it) much more. Of course, all of these options might not be interesting to you. You don't have to use them all! Drupal lets you pick and choose what you want to use, and what you don't. That's part of the beauty. Drupal Adds Loads of Goodness to your WebsiteDrupal makes lots of things a lot easier.
This is only a (very) partial list of the out-of-the-box functionality that Drupal has. This doesn't even take into consideration the loads of contributed modules that enhance this core functionality. Below is a small partial list of what these can allow you to do.
Drupal is DynamicContent in Drupal is powered by a database. Look-and-feel, or design, is stored separately as files. This in an important separation because it s flexible, fast and "dynamic". Your content can be updated without worrying about design. Your design can be changed without touching the content. This differs from the "old way" of doing things (which is still used quite a bit) which stored both of these in the same place: on a file. This mean that if you wanted to update the design of the whole site, you had to change every page! Or if you wanted to restructure some of the navigation bars or content, you had to restructure every single page! Drupal's separation of content and design allows for a level of power and flexibility that puts websites in a category of their own. Drupal Does Not Lock You InSince Drupal is so widely used and so many individuals and firms are familiar with it, you are not locked in by a custom website that nobody but the person who designed it knows how to run. This means that if your web developer decides to retire to an isolated island in the South Pacific, your website can easily be taken over by anyone else familiar with Drupal. With thousands and thousands of websites using Drupal (and more being released all the time) and a substantial development and user community behind it, you have plenty of available resources to find others capable of handling upgrades, customizations and other web development tasks for you. Drupal is Your Webmaster's FriendIf you you are not interested in managing your site yourself once it is launched, Drupal will make the life of your webmaster much easier. All of the features above add up to a site that is easily-manageable by people who wouldn't even consider themselves "webmasters". Updating your site can be as easy as logging in, clicking, writing and clicking again. Drupal is Your Web Developer's FriendYou might want to set up and configure Drupal yourself. Then again, you might not! Drupal is used by web developers around the world to implement world class websites that manage loads of content and serve a multitude of users. Drupal is friendly to your web developer (and to you!) because it is truly Free Software. Drupal is Free SoftwareDrupal is released under a license call the GNU General Public License. Very simply, this license protects and empowers a software because it is owned by the general public and free to be examined and altered at all levels. Drupal can be truly understood and implemented by web developers because they not only have access to the code at its source, but are also free to modify and enhance it. Basically, this means that you can do anything you want to the program itself to make it what you need it to be. This is good for your web developer because s/he can truly customize Drupal for your specific needs. Not only does Drupal have all of the core and contributed functionality listed above (and much more) but - because of its license - it also allows for customization at all levels. Drupal has been developed from the start with the idea of flexibility in mind. This means from the inherent flexibility of its very license to flexibility in function and design. Drupal Knows What You Want/Need Your Website to DoMost people have an idea of what they would like their website to do. That is why they are looking for a website or a website upgrade in the first place. Many of my clients come to me with lots of ideas. They usually walk away with a lot more! All I do is take them through a few of the things that Drupal can do for them... their eyes widen, their synapses fire and they walk away with a new idea of what their website can be. The community that is constantly working on Drupal knows what people need their websites to do. They are not employees designing an abstract system. They are people who have websites themselves. They are people who needed an extra feature that Drupal didn't have, so they wrote it and contributed it to the community. Then others came along, liked it, used it and improved it. This approach means that Drupal does more than what people thought they needed and wanted their website to do. Its very design opens up new doors, sparks new ideas and leaves people with a versatile website with a long shelf-life. Speaking of this... Let Drupal Do Future Planning For YouYou most likely have a general idea about what you want your website to do now, but there are certainly things you'll want or need in a year or two that you don't want or need now. Planning for something you don't know you want or need is quite nearly impossible. Then again... Drupal can help with this! I don't mean the web software alone, I mean the greater Drupal community that is constantly and consistently upgrading, patching, searching for new concepts and ideas to integrate, implementing new modules for the latest and most desirable features on the web, updating tired themes to incorporate the developing web standards, and so on. This is more than any single person or web developer can possible hope to achieve. Yet this is what a living, breathing, free software web application community is doing right now. In fact, Drupal has most likely been improved since you started reading this article! It sounds amazing because it is amazing. You want Drupal because Drupal constantly works on and improves itself. Links for Further InformationDrupal LinksThe Official Drupal Website Web 2.0 LinksInfo about Web 2.0 |
