Friday 19th June 2009 by James Skinner

Over at CMS Watch, Tony Byrne asks whether Drupal is overhyped and entering the "peak of inflated expectations". Despite the buzz, he says, it's not the knight in shining armour that everyone is expecting and he is right, but it's not the technology that's at fault.

The technology is useless without a proper plan to implement it, based on the real needs of the audience. This isn't a 5-minute process, mocking up a few wireframes and thinking about the information architecture; it requires a structured approach, starting with considering who the audience is and ending with which modules and widgets are needed to deliver the requirements. Isn't it?

Actually, no, it isn't at all. The real challenge is in working out how to sustain the whole thing. That starts from working out what resources are needed to create and maintain the content, and that's before you start looking at nurturing and developing meaningfull engagement with the users. Clever technology, Drupal or otherwise, won't make a community successful, but a clever approach to the sustainability planning might.