NetSquared, an initiative of TechSoup.org - cms

Rate Your CMS Provider for NTEN

Britt Bravo — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:57:40 -0400

Brett Meyer, NTEN's Communications and Web Manager, asked me to ask all of you to take a moment to fill out their CMS Satisfaction Survey. The survey has 14 questions and will take about 5-10 minutes to complete.

Wondering what CMS is, or if the one you are using is on the survey? Here's what NTEN says:

" CMS Defined
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Making it easier for NGOs to launch Facebook applications

reifman — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:52:19 -0400

Hi all, awhile ago you may remember me griping about the ineffectiveness of Facebook Groups and Pages. They are easy to set up, but they are also quite limited in functionality. These features are not conducive to community-building, engagement or organizing.

Today, I'm releasing the first beta of a new open source Facebook Newsroom CMS application framework.

See the demonstration application site at Facebook:
http://apps.facebook.com/newsdemo

Hindsight Is 20/20: Would You Still Recommend Nonprofits Use Social Networks?

Britt Bravo — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 17:53:30 -0400

In February 2006, members of the Net2 Community were asked, "What emerging tech tool do you think has the most potential to help nonprofits and NGOs create social change?"

Here were the results, ranked in order of preference:

- Content Management Systems, 29.41%
- Social networking, 29.41%
- Podcasting, 11.76%
- RSS (publishing information to an RSS/XML feed), 11.76%
- Blogging, 5.88%
- Cell phones/SMS, 5.88%
- Social bookmarking (e.g. del.icio.us, Furl), 5.88%
- Aggregation (republishing content from RSS feeds), 0.00%
- Tagging, 0.00%
- Wikis, 0.00%
- Other (posted here

A year and 8 months later, do you still think social networking and CMS can create the greatest impact for nonprofits?

Seems like social networking, in particular, is starting to reach its peak.

Chris Messina discussed some possible solutions to social networking fatigue in his post, Stop Building Social Networks.

Grassroots.org Toolbox

kwinterbottom — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 15:28:32 -0400

Collaborative communities

Jeff Mowatt — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 06:58:25 -0400

Sometime last year I did a little reasearch into what some of these packages had to offer. I had several contstraints, wanting something compatible with the ASP & SQLServer platform I used as a business software developer, the appearance of a website rather than a blog and relative ease of construction.

Many of the packages were quite complex in the context of creating content and allocating permissions and in the end DotNetNuke seemed to satisfy most of my needs.

Most of them had a developer community doing interesting things with opensource and value added additions but when it came to collaboration in building content, there is still a little to be desired. I didn't get around to trying Drupal.

Whew - Web Site Launch

Steve Hanson — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 11:50:56 -0400

After quite a lot of work,my consulting company, working with The Cedar Cultural Center, just released a revamped web site. (August 23) The new site features music and video, a searchable calendar, and quite a lot more.

The Cedar is a well-established nonprofit music venue in Minneapolis, and features world music, roots music, and lots of other entertainers who are not supported by the major music industry.

The site is based on Drupal with quite a few stock and custom modules. There was a lot of collaborative work involved between my company and The Cedar.

The Cedar Cultural Center

Steve Hanson — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 11:37:45 -0400

Project Screenshot

Supporting organization

The Cedar Cultural Center

URL

http://www.thecedar.org

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Project Description

The Cedar Cultural Center is a nonprofit music venue in Minneapolis, MN. August 23, 2006 The Cedar launched a new web site. The site was built in collaboration with Cruiskeen Consulting LLC

The new site has many features. It is very rich in audio and video material, and features information about upcoming performances.

One of the most exciting upcoming events at The Cedar is the annual Nordic Roots Festival, which features music from the Nordic countries.

More information about The Cedar:

The Cedar (also known as the Cedar Cultural Center) is a highly eclectic music venue located in the vibrant West Bank district of Minneapolis. Renowned for hosting some of the best acts in folk, blues, jazz, indie rock and world music in an intimate space, the Cedar is a 501(c)3 non-profit, largely volunteer-driven organization and welcomes your support!

Mission

The Cedar's mission is to promote inter-cultural appreciation and understanding through the presentation of global music and dance. The Cedar is committed to artistic excellence and integrity, diversity of programming, support for emerging artists, and community outreach.

History

The Cedar is located in the historic Cedar Theater building, which opened in 1948 and operated as a movie theater until the 1970’s before falling into disuse. The Cedar Cultural Center was established in 1989 when local real estate magnate Keith Heller donated the theater to a non-profit started by Deb Martin and Mary Ann Dotsen, Minnesota STAR (Society for Traditional Arts and Resources). Their mission was “to support the preservation of cultural diversity by promoting and presenting traditional music and dance of many cultures.” Bill Kubeczko has been the artistic and executive director since 1993, and with the help of a small, dedicated staff and a legion of energetic volunteers, the Cedar has been presenting 150 or more high-quality shows every year since.

Choosing a platform for networking: an interview with Deborah Elizabeth Finn

marshallkirkpatrick — Tue, 30 May 2006 10:59:42 -0400

Watch this space for more interviews with conference attendees throughout the next two days!

Deborah Elizabeth Finn is a Massachusetts based independent consultant who helps bridge the gap between "distraught technophic social workers" and technology. One of her current projects is consulting with the Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers on their selection of a CMS/CRM (Content Management System/Customer Relationship Management) system vendor. Deborah is helping the organization make their selection and will then help the chosen vendor and the Council build a solid working relationship.

The Council released a Request for Proposals for the project that was crafted to include key hooks for the Open Source community and descriptions of the module types sought. They are also considering proprietary software if they determine that it best meets their needs.

Deborah hopes that a quality CMS/CRM system for the state's human service providers' association will be a showcase that can help the effort to build a state wide association of all nonprofit organizations generally.

For more information about Deborah's work, you can visit deborah.elizabeth.finn.com.

A Bird's Eye View of the Content Management Landscape

mstein63 — Tue, 02 May 2006 17:39:43 -0400

Do you dream of a Website that you can update with regular content? Jeff Herron and Usha Venkatachallam of Beaconfire Consulting map out the landscape of Content Management Systems that can allow non-technical staff to update Websites. This great article entitled A Bird's Eye View of the Content Managem

NC Conservation Network

michaelatmo — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 12:45:30 -0500

Project Screenshot

Supporting organization

North Carolina Conservation Network

URL

ncconservationnetwork.org

Project Description

Over a hundred and twenty environmental and conservation organizations make up the North Carolina Conservation Network. Heather Yandow, the Network's Director of Development and Communication's says that they see their internet presence as a key component of their ability to advocate publically for their concerns. Because of this, they have been willing to take the risk of employing numerous emerging web-based communication techniques on their site.

The Network's website was designed by Netcorps and built on the open-source Plone Content Management System. On each page, readers of the site are able to sign up for emailed Public Alerts. The site also features a blog, updated every workday. Working with internet strategist Matt Gross, they determined that the blog should in some sense offset the less accessible nature of their more technical publications, such as their legislative alerts. The blog entries often feature photgraphs, are not afraid of a little humor, and frequently focus on "lifestyle" aspects of environmental issues. Despite the fact that they manage to post every day, Heather reports that the blog consumes on the average only 30 minutes of staff time per day. An RSS feed is available for the blog as well. The blog is managed directly in Plone; Heather says that while she misses a lot of features many dedicated blogging tools provide, they appreciate the direct integration of the blog and their CMS.

The site also interfaces online advocacy and donations managed by GetActive. Visitors to the site can send letters to state representitives and other decision makers, and make a donation to the Network.

It's a lot of tools. But the organization has no dedicated IT staff. Several of the staff members are responsible for some specific area of the organization's technology.