Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology
Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology
From the category archives:
Monday (the day before the election) I’m hosting the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants. My focus: is the economy changing the way you work, or the way you think about your work? In what ways?
If you’d like to submit a post, do so by Saturday midnight. Go to BlogCarnival.com to submit your post using the form there or send an email to npc.carnival AT yahoo DOT com with your name, your blog’s name and the URL of the post (not your blog homepage).
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I think that if I had to pick only one thing that would help people understand the character of Drupal, it would be the WYSIWYG editor that comes standard with an out-of-the-box Drupal installation. That would be NONE. There is no standard WYSIWYG editor that comes with Drupal. You have to figure out how to find one, and install and configure it yourself.
So if you want to start adding content to your new site, and you need a little formatting, or a picture, etc., well, unless you know a bit of HTML, you are S.O.L.
On the other hand, this is actually, from my perspective, a really good thing (can you tell I’m becoming a Drupalista?) There are several to choose from, and they differ both in difficulty to get installed and working, as well as features. Want something barebones? There’s one for you. Want something with all of the bells and whistles? There’s one for you, too.
There is a great review of five of the major ones.
I’ve been getting to know a few of them (and, yes, they can be a pain to install, and they depend, generally, on other libraries that you have to install as well.) I don’t have a favorite yet, but I’m thinking I don’t need to have one – just to know which ones are well-maintained, and what the differences are in feature set. Then I can choose the one that makes the most sense.
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I’ve been working with Drupal a fair bit over the last few weeks, with the ultimate goal to basically be able to really work with it to create sites. I converted my (very simple) consulting site to Drupal, without any bells and whistles. I’m working now on a site that needs some bells and whistles, like translated pages and a WYSIWYG editor (ah, the WYSIWYG editor thing in Drupal is going to get its own blog entry, I’m sure).
My next step is to try and create a simple theme (so I understand how theming works,) and write a module (so I understand how modules work.) There are still lots of things that are mysteries to me, but perhaps I’ll learn more at Bay Area Drupal camp this weekend.
I’ve also been digging a lot into the new(ish) social network software Elgg, and beginning to develop a members-only site with it for a client. In my estimation, it’s amazingly promising, as a platform for interesting private sites. And, since it has OpenID (which seems to have bugs, though), OpenDD, and OpenSocial, it’s not such a bad idea for public sites either (although I’d still not suggest that nonprofits spend the time to do this.) Maybe someone will use it to create the Facebook killer (I kind of doubt it, but I can hope, can’t I?)
As well, I’m still honing my WordPress skills, mostly in the realm of dealing with themes and moving the darn things around and upgrading from ancient versions. I’ve done some theme hacking, but haven’t yet written a plugin (I can’t think of one to write that hasn’t been written yet.)
And, on top of all of that, I’m re-writing in PHP some core functions of a web-database/CMS framework I wrote in Perl a gazillion years ago (and still is in use for an application called EASE.) That’s been fun. What’s also fun in retrospect is that the framework (the erstwhile Xina) was written basically using the MVC architectural pattern before I knew it existed!
It feels like I’m beginning to focus on a core set of tools and technologies (PHP, Drupal, WP, Elgg,) and that in a few months, I’ll be up to speaking PHP fluently, like I spoke Perl a while back. And I’m looking forward to getting to work on the kinds of projects that I’ve been watching as a spectator in the last year.
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I used to spend most of most days hacking (mostly Perl) code. It had its ups and downs, although in retrospect, the downs weren’t really about coding. I haven’t done daily coding now for about 3 years, and I’m missing it, terribly. So … I’m going back to it, slowly but surely.
I also have to admit that my gut tells me that in the coming economic landscape, going back to using my coding skills will likely increase my chance of keeping myself in iPhones, BeagleBoards, and microbrews, as well as the more necessary, but boring things like keeping a roof over my head. Strategic planning is already something that’s somewhat of a hard sell for organizations. Methinks its only going to get harder as grants and donations start to dry up.
In my last post, I was talking about platform choice, and although to some extent, I can appreciate the argument that Python is a better language than PHP (just like in 1999, Perl was a better language than PHP was at the time.) However, PHP is the basis for Drupal, which is inarguably the most popular open source CMS system, and WordPress, inarguably the most popular Blogging platform. It’s also the basis for Joomla, a CMS I appreciate. There are also some very cool PHP development frameworks, like Cake and Symfony, that I’m excited to explore. It’s also the basis for CiviCRM, a project I’d love to be able to contribute code to. I’m psyched to learn jQuery (OK, that’s not PHP, but I figured I’d stick it in there.) And I don’t have to learn a new language (I’ve done a fair bit of PHP some time ago, and it’s not so unlike Perl.) So PHP it is, starting with Drupal.
So my first steps are to find some projects to help out with, volunteer for, etc. and take it from there. Maybe start doing some work with CiviCRM. It’s such a different landscape than it was even 3 years ago. But it’s a landscape that presents itself with all kinds of amazing possibilities for creating totally amazing applications that we couldn’t even dream about a few years ago.
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I have been thinking for the last few days about what it means to “keep up” with the technology field, particularly ‘net technology. I’ve been helping a client hire a temporary project manager, and so in the interview process one of the questions I ask is how people keep up with change in the field.
In some ways, I have been blessed with the gift of osmosis. I’m a fantastic book learner, which means I’m a great blog/twitter learner, too. Also, one of the things I do is blog – so I regularly have to process and digest information to write decent blog posts. One of the prompts for this post was also that I’m preparing a post on “cloud computing”, just reviewing what it means, and what it is, and why it’s important – and that will undoubtedly help me to keep up with that whole set of things.
How do you keep up? And, in a bigger picture way, how important do you think it is for people who work with nonprofit organizations on technology issues to keep up? How bleeding edge do we need to be?
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I finally had the reason to begin to more completely articulate my theory of practice. My theory of practice is different than my consulting philosophy. They certainly are consistent with each other, but they are distinct. A theory of practice, in my mind, outlines the methods and ideals behind how I get work done with clients. This theory includes the following elements that I think are key to my work:
More specifically, what methods do I use to help clients make their way through the entire process of a technology project:
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I like hosting the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants. Mostly, because I get to read blogs by people that aren’t on my list of feeds I read regularly. And I get to highlight the work of some of my favorite bloggers, too.
Joanne Fritz asks the question that is probably on the minds of lots of folks in the nonprofit sector: what are we going to do in facing the current problematic economic climate? She suggests not to panic, and not to change course – keep steady, and keep communicating.
SOX First, which is a new blog to me, and focuses on Sarbanes-Oxely compliance, asks whether nonprofits hold the ethical high ground. Their answer: they may well be losing ground.
James Young, writing on Convio’s newish blog, Connection Cafe, talks about how to find, and create, influencers. What are “influencers?” Read the blog entry. It’s pretty interesting.
Marketing and Fundraising Ideas tells us about how not to ask for a major gift.
There is an interesting case study of the marketing of Tampax and Africa on the Cause Related Marketing Blog.
And Katya tells us why Seth Godin is right about people being lazy and in a hurry, and gives us some tips on how to use that.
And lastly, since I’m hosting, I get to mention my recent post on Twitter and nonprofits.
Next week, the Carnival is being hosted at A Small Change – Fundraising Blog.
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(Photo by frankienose)
I’m hosting the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants here, next week. So send in your best of the week!
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Someone mentioned to me that from what I write on my blog, she wouldn’t know what it is that I actually do in my consulting work. I kinda thought that was surprising, but in thinking about what I write, I realize that people could get the wrong idea (or, more accurately, fail to get the right idea.) And, I guess truthfully, the blurb on my consulting site is kinda dry. Gotta work on that.
So, what do I do? I think of myself in these terms: I educate, facilitate, mediate, and problem-solve.
For one client, I am their technology go-to person, since they are really small, and have no tech staff. I don’t implement much for them (although in a pinch, I’ll set something up, or fix a specific problem.) But I help them plan their technology initiatives (a new database, a new website, etc.,) help them find the vendors that will do the work by helping them craft good RFPs. I answer all of their tech questions, and solve pretty much all of their tech problems (mostly by helping them figure out who they should call.) I’ll be the project manager on their big new client database project, and help them think about how far to dip their toes into Web 2.0.
For another client, I helped them vet vendors for their new website, taught them the difference between Joomla, Drupal and Plone, and I helped free them from a vendor who was particularly egregious in their hosting charges, among other things. ($1200/month for an old and therefore crappy custom CMS and not much support. I. Kid. You. Not. I myself wrote a custom CMS a long time ago that would be considered crap now, so I don’t blame them for that, but the charges???)
For a third client, I helped them translate their ideas about what they wanted their website to do, to things that could actually be implemented in a CMS. I helped them vet CMS vendors, make sure the CMS that was chosen could do the complex job they were asking it to do (some were not up to the task) and am the intermediary between the current web vendor and the client, lending my expertise as needed, and helping to move the project forward.
I think my clients benefit from one particular thing that I think is pretty unique. Although I am deeply experienced and knowledgeable in implementation of technology, from networks to web applications and databases (I really know how DNS works, can write a left outer join in SQL, and know the difference between REST and SOAP) since I don’t do implementation or coding anymore, I’m not wedded to one set of technologies. I can bridge the gap between technology vendors and clients in a way that is pretty unusual, and, honestly, that I’m proud of. I know when a vendor knows their technology, and when they are blowing sales language at me, and might not be up to the technical task. I can evaluate previous projects based on what I see is the underlying complexity, and figure out how much experience a vendor has had with a particular set of problems. I know when a technology is really appropriate, and when it’s not.
I have other kinds of projects as well – those that use my talents somewhat differently. I do a ton of technical writing, and I have become the “documentation facilitator” of the OpenMRS project – it is an open source medical records system, designed to serve clinics in low-resource areas (such as sub-sarahan Africa) that treat patients with HIV/AIDS. Since we’re starting with the developer documentation, one of the coolest things about this project is that it’s making me learn Java and Eclipse, plus get my hands dirty with Tomcat. Yum! I love learning new stuff.
I like the range of projects I do. I’d like to do more of all of it. I’d also love to consult with for-profit vendors who are thinking about dipping their toes into offering support for open source projects, or open sourcing their software.
OK, enough of that. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. :-)
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Michele Martin, one of my fave bloggers, has a great post today on Reflective Practice. Both reflective practice – that is the process of reflecting on what you do, and how you do it, as well as conscious, deliberate evaluation of projects, are things that are not very common in our field, nor things that are valued or encouraged.
In many ways, we are focused on solving technology problems, or completing projects. But I have really come to believe that the way that we work with people is as important as the “final” outcome. We might be able to build the most wizz-bang amazing website ever (in a technological sense) but if we haven’t really thought about how we moved through the project, never evaluated how the project really went, and didn’t learn from the process, in the end, the project wasn’t the success it seemed to be. In fact, it’s amazing how much we can learn from projects that might be considered failures by technological criteria.
In the last few months, I was involved in helping three organizations choose vendors for varied technology projects, and in the course of that time, I talked with almost a dozen technology vendors of one type or another. One question I asked all of them was about whether they had a process of reflection and evaluation of their work, as it was going on, and when the project was coming to a close. Unfortunately, none of them had an answer to that question. That is something I would love to see change.
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