Rise of the Static Site Generator

While web publishing originally consisted of static HTML and CSS assets, the database-backed content management system soon took over as the dominant web publishing model. This talk investigates the rise of static site generators and discusses how these new light-weight static tools can often offer significant benefits over the traditional CMS.

Topics will include:

• what is a static site generator
• when are static site generators a good fit
• overview of static site generator options
• static site generator installation
• markup formats (e.g., Markdown, reStructuredText, Asciidoc)
• how to write content
• how to generate the site
• how (and where) to publish the site

Attendees of this talk will walk away fully equipped to install a static site generator, write content in Markdown format, and publish their new sites with a minimum of effort.