Sometimes there are projects that are daunting and would ordinarily seem a little too big, or too difficult to tackle. Sometimes it feels like that pile of dirt in front of you is a mountain, and the shovel you’re to shift it with is a teaspoon. Nevertheless, it’s a testament to the flexibility and the community behind Drupal, that these tasks are not merely within the realm of possibility, but can be pulled off consistently.

The University of New South Wales is one of the top 100 higher education institutions in the world. As it’s grown, it’s found itself to be the home to hundreds, if not thousands of websites, that cover everything from corporate communication to homes for individual subjects. As all these disparate sites have grown over the years, it became necessary to begin reevaluating how web technologies were used within the university, and unify them to make it possible to manage multiple sites in the same way.

UNSW is not only one of many higher education institutions to choose Drupal, it is one of the increasing number of large organisations that have chosen to use Drupal as a key piece of their entire online presence rather that just one or two sites. They decided to begin the transition with various lower level and department sites, eventually launching the main website on Drupal earlier this year. This also was done while allowing room for new features to be added once the initial builds were complete.

This presentation will discuss

• the rationale of choosing Drupal,
• the transition process in depth,
• including how the university’s many stakeholders (board, academics, general staff, and even students) were involved,
• their approach to using contractors and their internal teams
• the challenges that were faced and overcome,
• and their future long-term plans for Drupal.