The project
noze begins building the integrated member management system for SIRM (Italian Society of Medical Radiology). The project extends an existing collaboration: noze manages SIRM’s email infrastructure through Hermes, the Open Source mailserver already in production at the noze server farm.
The objective is to unify in a single web platform the management of the member registry, accounting, training events, the national congress and the sirm.org portal — replacing a fragmented system with a modular solution based on Open Source software.
The architecture
The system is built on two Linux servers in a master-slave configuration:
- A local server at SIRM’s Milan headquarters, running the application and the authoritative database (MySQL and LDAP)
- An online server hosted at the noze server farm, for public web services: credit card payments, online elections, congress
Synchronisation between the two servers occurs via SSL in real time or deferred, depending on connectivity availability. The same replication paradigm extends to the Hermes mailserver already in production, whose authentication data is shared with the new system via LDAP.
The stack is entirely Open Source: Trustix Linux, Apache, Python, Zope/ZServer, ZODB, Postfix, MySQL, LDAP. Content management is based on InFlow, the CMS developed by noze.
The modules
The system is designed as independent modules with a common architecture:
- Member management: complete registry, statistics, reporting, label printing, activity history, management of institutional groups (committees, regional sections, study groups). ODBC access for custom queries
- Accounting and online payments: enrolment, renewal, payment and expiry workflow. Integration with the banking circuit for credit card payments
- Insurance management: policy management, expiry notifications, group purchasing
- Hermes integration: LDAP synchronisation with the existing mailserver — mailboxes, aliases, quotas, vacation — integrated into member management
- Training events: event management with CME (Continuing Medical Education) credits, online registration, linked to the member registry and participation history
- National congress: complete workflow for congress creation, management, execution and archiving. Registrations, bookings, payments, abstract and paper submissions entirely online
- sirm.org portal: portal redesign as a dynamic platform with InFlow. Download area, mailing lists and newsletters (integrated with Hermes), forums, localisation and internationalisation
- Online elections: module for society voting via the web
- Radiologia Medica journal: management of the society’s scientific journal
The context
The project is part of the digitalisation of Italian scientific societies. SIRM manages thousands of radiologist members across the national territory, with requirements for accessibility (compliance with AIPA and WAI guidelines), security and interoperability with existing systems. The choice of a modular, Open Source architecture allows the system to be developed in successive phases — starting with member management, training events and the congress — while maintaining overall coherence.