Europython 2006

Managing a multilingual decentralised network with OpenSource

Not scheduled

30m

CERN, Geneva

Business and Applications

Speakers

Mr Alexander Pilz (Syslab.com)Mr Gorka Moral (European Agency for Safety and Health at Work)

Description

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work has developed, in cooperation with Syslab.com, an open source based Content Management System to manage its international network of websites, composed of more than 50 websites. This CMS, based on Zope, Plone and ElevateIT, was awarded last year in the category of "Innovation in Content Management" in the International Information Industry Awards. The proposed presentation will be a case study, demonstrating the advantages of using open source to manage multilingual content and a decentralised network.

Summary

1. Workflow management of large decentralised organisations
2. Managing multilingual content – Translations with XLIFF and content syndication

3. Automated publishing of PDF publications

4. Workflow management
   The Agency can now delegate content management tasks from system administrators to
   content creators throughout its network, as technical skills are no longer required
   to add and edit content. The system facilitates complete web browser based creation
   and administration of information and allows the Agency to manage the workflow of
   hundreds of editors, who add and edit information on different topics, by assigning
   specific roles and permissions to each part of the sites.

5. Multilingual issues
   One of the key features of the CMS is multilingualism. The front end and the content
   of any web page can be presented in different languages. The Agency has developed a
   hierarchical thesaurus, containing over 2400 terms in 20 languages, which is used as
   a basis to categorise current and future information.The translation of the site into
   the 20 languages is further facilitated by the use of with the XLIFF tool. Sections
   of the site can be exported by separating the text from the format, and adding
   specific tags to identify its original location on the site. The HTML files are sent
   to translation and then imported into the site.

To facilitate search and syndication all the contents of the website are metataged.
Syndication of contents by topic, or by a collection of keywords, permitting the end
user to tailor the information based on his preferences. Syndication facilitates
better presentation of information – not only on one website but throughout the whole
Network of websites. Ensuring that important content news item or statistics is
available on the Agency website with the minimum effort from the editors, and where
possible simply syndicated from the partner websites.

1. Publications
   The Agency posts many of its publications in PDF format every year. A specific
   product splits the publications by chapter, and generates all indexes, cover images
   automatically.