Overall, the Mandala framework aims to allow scholars to create sophisticated content without needing special grants or much programming assistance. It comprises The Mandala framework lets scholars make sophisticated content, such as online archives, without large grants or programming knowledge. The project is a suite of websites, each focusing on one type of content:
- Audio-Video for audiovisual files – audio-video.shanti.virginia.edu
- Visuals for data visualizations – visuals.shanti.virginia.edu
- Images for pictures – images.shanti.virginia.edu
- Texts for books and essays – texts.shanti.virginia.edu
- Sources for citations – sources.shanti.virginia.edu
- Subjects and Places to group content together with special labels, called Knowledge Maps – mandala.shanti.virginia.edu and subjects.shanti.virginia.edu
You can use these tools to create complex digital collections and visualizations of which has a special focus. It is a Content Management System (CMS) that allows scholars of all skill levels, including beginners just introduced to it, to publish their work online. Scholars can create complex digital collections, create visualizations, describe intricate networks of human culture, publish essays, and build websites.
Sites created using the tools offered in made with the Mandala Framework can either can be content-intensive, communication-intensive, or a mixture of the twoboth. A content-intensive site can have large collections of interrelated media resources (texts, photographs, audio-video, etc.) and structured data (bibliographies, place descriptions, dictionary entries, biographical studies, etc.) organized around a specific thematic subject theme – a cultural region, time period, person, and so forth. On the other hand, a communication-intensive site would have shorter essays, such as blogs, meaning that content is rapidly-changing content (like blogposts). Either type of site may also have data visualizations, such as maps, charts, timelines, network graphs, slideshows, and more. A blended site that has both complex collections of media resources and structured data, as well as a constantly updated array of essays, is also possible to create.
While we can't work with you SHANTI cannot work with projects on an individual basis to customize the framework for their needs, though it will address bugs and listen to user feedback to factor into ongoing development priorities.tailor Mandala to your needs, we're always happy to get your feedback and bug reports at shanti@virginia.edu