I’ve been chatting with the folks at Tierra Innovation and WNET.ORG (Channel Thirteen in New York) on their impressive collaboration utilizing WordPress MU as a CMS for WNET.ORG’s network of high-traffic websites:
Using WordPress MU’s built-in features along with custom themes and plugins such as WPDB Profiling, they made it easier and much cheaper for WNET.ORG to roll out multiple sites that provide a great user experience as well as editorial and creative flexibility. Before the new CMS, WNET.ORG could only launch 1-2 sites per month. Now, they have the capability of rolling out 5-10 sites per month for a fraction of the cost.
What’s very cool is that Tierra and WNET put together a white-paper detailing how this project came about and how they ultimately decided on WordPress as the platform of choice. You can read all about it in the white-paper titled: How a Non-Profit Media Company Profits from Building Open Source Online Publishing Platform (PDF) (embedded below using scribd):
[ Visit WNET.ORG & Tierra Innovation ]
if only they’d release those admin plugins they created….if only.
The multiple sites one is already available. In at least two versions.
I’m already using the MU Multi-Site plugin with really cool results. I was able to launch a website for my city’s upcoming WordCamp within the install for the hyperlocal site that I maintain with almost no hassle, though there was a slight issue with the default theme letting me access the new site when we first started.
They should probably ugprade to WP 2.8.1 or all those sites risk getting hacked.
Andrea, where can we find these plugins – do you have a URL?
Kyle –
Not sure which plugins you’re looking for. One that has been released by Tierra is the WPDB profiling plugin which helps you manage db queries and cache. This works for both WPMU and WP.
More about it here: http://www.tierra-innovation.com/blog/2009/07/01/wpdb-profiling-1-1-released/
Download the plugin here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wpdb-profiling/
Jamie
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they released the plugins. check out their blog: http://tierra-innovation.com/wordpress-cms/
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