When I checked out the leading CMS packages on OpensourceCMS a few months ago, I settled on Mambo for my own website because of its active user/developer community, and most importantly, because it’s also incredibly simple to use. Eventually I even recommended Mambo as a CMS for my school, and it now powers my school’s website.

But when I started working on a project to develop my department’s portal, it soon became clear to me that Mambo isn’t the best CMS for everything. Mambo is excellent for powering easy-to-use corporate-style websites, but its features when it comes to a community-driven portal is limited at best. I researched the portal-type CMSes out there and at one point even considered the likes of phpBB, which power some nearby schools’ own portals, but I simply needed more flexibility.

And then I came across the blogs@UPEI and weblogs.ucalgary projects which had one thing in common..Drupal. Now I had tried Drupal before, and dismissed it as being overly complicated. But when I saw it being deployed in such a massive scale, and then saw some really good examples of Drupal-based community sites, I thought “Maybe it’s time I take a second look.”

I was pleasantly surprised by what I found..

(to be continued in Part 2!)