Peace

Just Vision is an organization that, through award-winning media, community outreach and an array of educational tools, informs, connects and engages people in Palestinian-Israeli civilian efforts to resolve the conflict nonviolently.  

OpenConcept was lucky enough to work with this passionate organization to help them develop a truly unique Drupal-based website. Just Vision had previously implemented another CMS solution and as such, had an existent, complex database that linked interviews from a diverse selection of 'peacebuilders' on a variety of themes. Developing the appropriate taxonomies and linking interviews with themes, footnotes, glossary terms and profiles was challenging but something that Drupal was able to handle well using content types and taxonomies.

You can visit the Just Vision website at http://www.justvision.org

We recently upgraded the OctopusBooks.ca website from Drupal 4 to 5. In the process, we decided to upgrade the eCommerce module to the new Ubercart 1.0 shopping cart.  There are many flexible product and shipping options available in Ubercart and the whole shopping process is more slick and simple.

New blocks were added to take showcase the in-house and aggregated content that had been added to the website but was not being highlighted.  The blocks ranging from 'News' to 'Reviews' were randomized to give the site a fresh look each visit.

There is an aspect of the new year which is always exciting. As I sit writing this there is a new layer of snow making helping to make today seem fresh and full of potential. It's a time to reflect on old patterns and try to start new ones. These photos were taken from my cell phone just after midnight (sorry about the graininess) and I hope that it is a tradition I can keep going with my daughters through the years. Bringing in the New Year with an ice cream sundae seems pretty festive!

Back in 1990-1991 I was very active in the Canadian Student Pugwash and participated in a number of fascinating conferences, largely on environmental issues. I was fortunate to participate in a number of conferences leading up to the United Nations Conference for Environment and Development (UNCED). In that time there wasn't much contact with senior Pugwash members (Although Digby Mclaren may have been a member).

OpenConcept is pleased to announce the re-launch of Octopus Books' new website. We migrated most of the functionality that we had built for this bookstore back when they launched their first site in 2001.