Website Platforms (CMS’s) for Nonprofits and Activists

Our next Philly Net Tuesday on April 3 (gathering 6 PM at the Friends Center, 1501 Cherry Street) will be about website platforms (also called CMS’s or Content Management Systems) that you should consider for your nonprofit or social cause. This will be accessible to a non-technical audience.

We’ll focus on several CMS’s, including Drupal, Wordpress, Apostrophe, Omeka and Google Sites, and we’ll pay particular attention to the social tools that these platforms offer. You’ll see how these platforms are used to build websites and add features, and gain insight into which platforms are better for which purposes. And you’ll be able to gather advice on options for addressing YOUR situation – whether you plan to build your own site, or hire someone to build it for you.

Who should attend?

Non-technical folks who are considering creating, or modifying, a website for their nonprofit of social cause Techies who want to better understand the needs and perspectives of the nonprofit community. Anybody who wants to learn and share about the current state of affairs of some major CMS options. Our panel will consist of Nathan Gasser, owner of RockRiverStar (http://rockriverstar.com/) Internet developers, Jim Wurster, veteran creator of numerous nonprofit Wordpress sites, Tom Boutell, of P'unk Ave, local creators of Apostrophe, and Michael Tedeschi, principal of Interactive Mechanics (http://interactivemechanics.com/) design studio.

We WILL be streaming this event live (via http://phillynetsquared.org/live ), as well as watching Twitter for the hashtag #phlnet2 so that people can participate remotely. Lite fare will be served. RSVP’s are appreciated.

If you’re so inclined, you might want to check out some of these resources which may be shown or discussed on the evening itself.

Wordpress. You can see lots of examples of WordPress sites here: http://wordpress.org/showcase , and check out some sites that Jim has built or helps manage:

• Arc of Delaware County for developmental disabilities & mental retardation (http://thearcofdelco.org (http://thearcofdelco.org/))

• Special Olympics of Delaware County (http://sodelco.org (http://sodelco.org/))

• TimeBank Media (http://timebankmedia.org (http://timebankmedia.org/))

• StubbyDog (http://stubbydog.org (http://stubbydog.org/))

• Hair By HP (http://hairbyhp.com (http://hairbyhp.com/))

• Zoe – It’s Our Nature (http://www.zoenature.org (http://www.zoenature.org/))

• Haverford Music Festival[masked] (http://haverfordmusicfestival.org (http://haverfordmusicfestival.org/))

• Delco green consulting food waste pickup (http://delcogreenconsulting.com (http://delcogreenconsulting.com/))

• Patch Adams Free Clinic of Philadelphia (http://patchadamsclinic.org (http://patchadamsclinic.org/))

• Autism Alliance of Chester County (http://autismallianceofchestercounty.org (http://autismallianceofchestercounty.org/))

• CCRN Education & Behavior Supports (http://myccrn.com (http://myccrn.com/))

Drupal. Some fine examples of Drupal nonprofit sites include:

• http://www.mercycorps.org/fundraising

• http://www.350.org/en/map/oct10_action

• https://www.amnesty.org/ and other languages like https://www.amnesty.org/ar

• http://www.hrw.org/ and 8 other languages

• http://sumus.oxfam.org (http://sumus.oxfam.org/) (see screenshots in slides)

• http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/groups

• http://gifts.rescue.org/ • http://actionaidusa.org/

You might also want to check out information (including a video) from last week’s Drupalcon session in Denver on International NGO’s Leveraging Drupal for Social Change: http://denver2012.drupal.org/program/sessions/international-ngos-leveraging-drupal-social-change

Omeka. Here are some links you might want to check out:

• http://omeka.org/showcase/

• http://publications.newberry.org/lincoln/

• http://anthropos-lab.net/

• http://www.upperringwood.org/

Google Sites. Here is some background information:

• http://www.google.com/sites/help/intl/en/overview.html

• http://www.google.com/sites/overview.html

Apostrophe. Check out their website at http://www.apostrophenow.com

And, finally, you may be interested in this 82-page PDF from Idealware on comparing Open Source CMS’s: http://idealware.org/reports/2010-os-cms as well as some of these applications:

http://philly360.visitphilly.com http://completethetrails.org http://ccaha.org http://chibe.upenn.edu http://moore.edu http://fandm.edu http://trinity.duke.edu https://philaymca.org http://cs.uarts.edu http://cgi.unc.edu https://montreal.bixi.com http://worldclassgreaterphila.org

Lots of good stuff – AND the opportunity to discuss what might work best for YOU.

Thanks to the American Friends Service Committee (http://afsc.org/) for sponsorship.