Mandala Project Framework

Overall, the Mandala framework aims to allow scholars to create sophisticated content without needing special grants or much programming assistance. It is a Content Management System (CMS) that allows all skill levels, including beginners just introduced to the suite, to publish their scholarly interests in online publication. Scholars can create complex digital collections, creating visualizations, describing intricate networks of human culture, publishing essays, and building websites.

Sites created using the tools offered in the Mandala Framework can either be content-intensive, communication-intensive, or a mixture of the two. 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 – a cultural region, time period, person, and so forth. On the other hand, a communication-intensive site would have shorter essays, such as blogs, which typically have many people contributing on a constant basis, meaning that content is rapidly changing. Either type of site may also have visualizations, such as maps, charts, timelines, network visualizations, 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.

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.