This website was designed by Kevin Paulisse (kpbadger) using an open-source content management system called Drupal.
Paulisse is a professional IT system administrator and software developer who specializes in web application and UNIX and Linux system administration. He explains how the concept of the Middleton Green Home website presented a unique challenge.
"A major goal for the website was to have not only my pages, but also to enable contributions from others working on the project. For this, a simple website with static pages would not do," explained Paulisse. "The system had to be easy-to-use for all contributors without compromising the security of the website."
By installing and customizing the Drupal software, Paulisse was able to minimize the dependency on external services to create an integrated platform. A key design consideration was content tagging. "I wanted to be able to create a tag for geothermal, for example, and have that return blog posts, static pages, images, videos, and so on. The most straightforward way to accomplish that was with a centrally managed database, rather than using various web services for the different site components."
Construction on the house is complete and as such, no new articles are being posted to this site. However, the site does feature a real-time readout of the energy produced by the solar panels, and an overview of the construction techniques that may be of interest to others considering green technology.