For several years I have intended to get my old website back online, and it's finally done. The look and feel needs some work, and much additional functionality will be added, but the framework is in place.

My career involved designing and implementing purpose built electronic systems, as custom solutions usually allow much more flexibility and functionality than using a pre-packaged system. So, naturally I took that approach with this project, despite the time and learning curve required...

Technical Details

This site

The dark background, font, size and color, and simple navigation menu are intended to allow for distraction free reading that is easy on the eyes, regardless of screen size. Also, the small breadcrumb trail above each page title are functional links, in addition to providing a navigational reference point. And, all photos are categorized and searchable by location.

I put entirely too much time into all of those little details...but then again, I used to create touchscreen user interfaces for a living, so it's an old habit. 

So, now what?

The main purpose for taking on this project, was so that the work done on my own site, could use used for the book project website. There don't appear to be any reasonably scalable open source CMS systems that are both multi-lingual and offer access control functionality, and Zotonic does both quite well out of the box.

While I had a very basic understanding of web development going into this project, there was much learned during the process which will also translate into many valuable learning experiences for other projects. Going forward I do intend to work with others in this area, as there is much that can be done to improve the process of publishing both personal and business websites.

For now, it is good to finally have my own site back online...