Key Principles

• "The Rails Way" - where possible Refinery embraces conventions used in Rails, allowing any Rails programmer to leverage existing knowledge to get up and running quickly.
• End user focused interface - Refinery's user interface is simple, bright and attractive so end users feel invited and not overwhelmed.
• Awesome developer tools - Refinery makes it easy for developers to add functionality and change the front end look and feel.
• Encourage and Help Others - Refinery has an active community on Google Groups and IRC. If you ever have a question there is usually someone able and willing to assist you.

History

Refinery began as a closed sourced project at Resolve Digital in 2004 and went on to be released as open source software under the MIT License on 28th May, 2009. Since then it has grown in popularity, especially after supporting Rails 3, and is now the most popular Rails 3 CMS with more than 200 contributors (so far).  The project is maintained for free by all of its contributors, including the members of the core team.

On November 8th 2010, the Refinery CMS project was proudly nominated and announced as a finalist at the New Zealand Open Source awards.

On May 27, 2011 version 1.0.0 was released marking a huge milestone for the project.  Shortly we will see the release of version 2.0.0 in February, 2012.

Core Team

Philip Arndt, New Zealand

Phil is the lead developer of the Refinery project. You'll often find him helping out on IRC or the Google Group while contributing to the project on a near daily basis.  Phil's passion for open source software has led to his contribution to many other important projects.
Follow on GitHub, Twitter, or visit his website.

Uģis Ozols, Latvia

Uģis set a goal to be part of the core team in 2011 and with his hard work, here he is! Uģis is a talented Ruby developer who will help shape the future of Refinery and has so far made the second largest contribution to the project.
Follow on GitHub, Twitter, or visit his website.

David Jones, USA

David founded Refinery CMS at Resolve Digital and has been one of the main contributors to the project. While not currently an active contributor, he now helps to spread the word about Refinery and puts it to good use on real world projects.
Follow on GitHub, Twitter, or visit his website.

Steven Heidel, Canada

Steven is a notable Rails developer who has made regular significant contributions to the Refinery project and helps to drive the vision forward.
Follow on GitHub, Twitter, or visit his website.