This trumpeted commitment to simplicity isn’t just an interface issue. We do like to remove the clutter there, but we also like standards, reusable open source solutions, an open-handed view of intellectual property and a constant effort to pick and combine the best available work. At the moment that usually means rails, but sometimes commercial packages like confluence are a better fit. We always look for an extendable architecture, respect project boundaries and feed our extensions back to the collective. We do occasionally build from scratch – usually in rails – but only where we know that it’s going to a good home and will get the continuing support and maintenance it needs.
Recent work includes a wiki-based toolkit to support joined up foresight at Defra, a navigable oral history database for the Islamic Development Bank, our own beloved materiali.st, the online systems that are used to organise the Lord Mayor’s Show and a set of radiant extensions that provide the forum, map, gallery and blogging functions we needed for local helping-out work.