PRESERVING LEGACY, EMPOWERING FUTURE: HOW DRUPAL POWERS AMI’S GLOBAL DIGITAL NETWORK
Video Description
Roland Obermair (Roromedia)
How do you manage a diverse ecosystem of digital experiences while ensuring scalability, accessibility and streamlined content sharing? The Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) has found its answer in Drupal.
As the global steward of Maria Montessori’s educational philosophy, AMI operates a network of interconnected websites and digital platforms that support educators, students and institutions in over 100 countries. By leveraging Drupal, AMI has built a scalable, accessible and future-ready digital ecosystem that preserves Montessori’s legacy while delivering modern solutions for education, community engagement and knowledge-sharing.
This session will showcase how AMI’s Drupal-powered infrastructure enables the organisation to efficiently manage multiple websites, integrate key enterprise tools, and provide an optimal experience across its global network.
Prerequisite
- Basic Drupal Knowledge: Understanding of CMS capabilities.
- Education/Nonprofit Sector Experience: Not needed but might be especially useful for those in this digital strategy context.
- Multi-Site & Multi-Language: Interest in managing interconnected platforms
Outline
Key Highlights
Multiple Sites, One Shared Vision: Instead of a traditional multisite setup, AMI’s Drupal framework allows multiple independent sites to share core features, integrations and a unified theme—ensuring efficiency, consistency and flexibility.
A Flexible Digital Archive: AMI utilises Archipelago, a Drupal-based archiving system for the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) sector, developed by METRO (metro.org), to safeguard historical records while making Montessori’s educational legacy digitally accessible. It features metadata management, OCR capabilities and integrated digital asset viewers, all within a flexible data structure.
Commerce and Membership Integration: A Drupal-powered commerce system facilitates seamless transactions for membership fees and benefits, while an advanced membership platform supports a thriving global educator network.
Credit-Based Asset Platform: AMI has built a Drupal-powered digital materials platform where students and members can view and download educational resources using a credit-based system—enabling quality Montessori resources to be more readily available and translated into multiple languages.
Enterprise Integrations: Drupal’s flexibility allows powerful integration with critical third-party systems, including:
o FileMaker-based databases, ensuring smooth data flow between AMI’s in-house databases and Drupal websites.
o Mailchimp, enabling targeted and automated communication to its global community.
o GIT-based versioning and CI/CD Pipelines, enabling efficient development workflows, and streamlined deployment for AMI’s digital ecosystem across different staging environments.
o OpenID authentication with Keycloak, providing a seamless Single Sign-On (SSO) experience across all AMI platforms for students, educators, and administrators.
o Auditable, GDPR-Compliant, and Transparent: The Drupal ecosystem allows AMI to maintain a highly auditable system, ensuring data integrity, compliance, and transparency across all digital platforms. Built with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliance in mind, Drupal provides robust data protection, user privacy controls and security measures essential for managing sensitive information in alignment with European regulations. Furthermore, Drupal’s adherence to the EU Accessibility Act ensures that AMI’s digital presence is fully inclusive and accessible to users of all abilities.
Accessibility and Inclusivity by Design: A Tailwind CSS-based base theme, including RTL support for Sephardic languages, ensures all sites are built for inclusivity, accessibility and an optimal user experience—centrally managed and deployed across the ecosystem.
Future-Ready, Scalable and Open: Drupal’s extensible architecture provides AMI with a sustainable and cost-effective foundation—future-proofing their digital strategy while allowing continuous evolution to meet the growing demands of a global educational movement. Additionally, Drupal’s AI-driven ecosystem will enhance automation, personalisation and intelligent content recommendations, allowing AMI to create more engaging and efficient digital experiences for educators and students worldwide.
A Vision for the Future
All of this is made possible by AMI’s commitment to open-source technology and digital transformation. With its headquarters in Amsterdam, AMI operates as a truly global organisation, serving educators and students across continents, time zones and languages.
Experience level
Beginner
How do you manage a diverse ecosystem of digital experiences while ensuring scalability, accessibility and streamlined content sharing? The Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) has found its answer in Drupal.
As the global steward of Maria Montessori’s educational philosophy, AMI operates a network of interconnected websites and digital platforms that support educators, students and institutions in over 100 countries. By leveraging Drupal, AMI has built a scalable, accessible and future-ready digital ecosystem that preserves Montessori’s legacy while delivering modern solutions for education, community engagement and knowledge-sharing.
This session will showcase how AMI’s Drupal-powered infrastructure enables the organisation to efficiently manage multiple websites, integrate key enterprise tools, and provide an optimal experience across its global network.
Prerequisite
- Basic Drupal Knowledge: Understanding of CMS capabilities.
- Education/Nonprofit Sector Experience: Not needed but might be especially useful for those in this digital strategy context.
- Multi-Site & Multi-Language: Interest in managing interconnected platforms
Outline
Key Highlights
Multiple Sites, One Shared Vision: Instead of a traditional multisite setup, AMI’s Drupal framework allows multiple independent sites to share core features, integrations and a unified theme—ensuring efficiency, consistency and flexibility.
A Flexible Digital Archive: AMI utilises Archipelago, a Drupal-based archiving system for the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) sector, developed by METRO (metro.org), to safeguard historical records while making Montessori’s educational legacy digitally accessible. It features metadata management, OCR capabilities and integrated digital asset viewers, all within a flexible data structure.
Commerce and Membership Integration: A Drupal-powered commerce system facilitates seamless transactions for membership fees and benefits, while an advanced membership platform supports a thriving global educator network.
Credit-Based Asset Platform: AMI has built a Drupal-powered digital materials platform where students and members can view and download educational resources using a credit-based system—enabling quality Montessori resources to be more readily available and translated into multiple languages.
Enterprise Integrations: Drupal’s flexibility allows powerful integration with critical third-party systems, including:
o FileMaker-based databases, ensuring smooth data flow between AMI’s in-house databases and Drupal websites.
o Mailchimp, enabling targeted and automated communication to its global community.
o GIT-based versioning and CI/CD Pipelines, enabling efficient development workflows, and streamlined deployment for AMI’s digital ecosystem across different staging environments.
o OpenID authentication with Keycloak, providing a seamless Single Sign-On (SSO) experience across all AMI platforms for students, educators, and administrators.
o Auditable, GDPR-Compliant, and Transparent: The Drupal ecosystem allows AMI to maintain a highly auditable system, ensuring data integrity, compliance, and transparency across all digital platforms. Built with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliance in mind, Drupal provides robust data protection, user privacy controls and security measures essential for managing sensitive information in alignment with European regulations. Furthermore, Drupal’s adherence to the EU Accessibility Act ensures that AMI’s digital presence is fully inclusive and accessible to users of all abilities.
Accessibility and Inclusivity by Design: A Tailwind CSS-based base theme, including RTL support for Sephardic languages, ensures all sites are built for inclusivity, accessibility and an optimal user experience—centrally managed and deployed across the ecosystem.
Future-Ready, Scalable and Open: Drupal’s extensible architecture provides AMI with a sustainable and cost-effective foundation—future-proofing their digital strategy while allowing continuous evolution to meet the growing demands of a global educational movement. Additionally, Drupal’s AI-driven ecosystem will enhance automation, personalisation and intelligent content recommendations, allowing AMI to create more engaging and efficient digital experiences for educators and students worldwide.
A Vision for the Future
All of this is made possible by AMI’s commitment to open-source technology and digital transformation. With its headquarters in Amsterdam, AMI operates as a truly global organisation, serving educators and students across continents, time zones and languages.
Experience level
Beginner