Web technologies for the good guys.

Dave Chakrabarti's blog

Project management and the art of context switching

To describe the problem, briefly: context switching is what happens when multiple projects and responsibilities get handed to one individual. If you work in the nonprofit sector, you're thinking "Multiple projects and responsibilities being handed to one individual? Never!" ...because if you're been there, you know you're so overworked that it's now beyond a sad joke.

Drupal at the Flourish Conference

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the fourth annual Flourish Open Source conferenc at UIC. At prior Flourish events, I've helped organize a coding sprint and led a project to develop a Drupal-based website for a local nonprofit organization, using drop-in volunteers at the event. I got on board with this year's event a little late in the process, but I was still hoping for a significant Drupal-interested turnout.

Beginnings

Over the past ten years, I've seen the nonprofit tech sector grow by leaps and bounds. We attend conferences, increasingly savvy clients come in already asking for Drupal or CiviCRM, and nonprofit-focused consulting is proving a viable business model for a rapidly growing number of organizations (including ours!). The technology, too, has evolved tremendously; the Drupal-based sites we consider "standard" today would have been impossibly expensive even three years ago.

CommuniCamp Chicago

A couple of weeks ago, I volunteered at Community Media Workshop's first CommuniCamp, an open space conference for nonprofit communications staff. For me, this was an experiment to see how the open space format would work for CMW (I hope this will be the first of many open space events there!). It was also a chance to reconnect with old friends working in the nonprofit technology space in Chicago, while meeting some new ones.

Should we host your site?

Web design and development professionals will usually be asked to host a client's website or database at some point in their careers. I've been asked to host client sites since I started building websites ten years ago, and most of my colleagues have had similar requests. It's not surprising; it's hard to find a reliable hosting company, and a top-notch hosting company with 24/7/365 professional support suitable for a non-techie nonprofit is usually out of that nonprofit's price range.

From the blog

"I tried to do it at work but work got in the way of work." -Faith Swords

Reflections on a digital divide.

How can we connect Flourish to more of the Chicagoland Drupal community?

Community Media Workshop's open space conference for Chicago's nonprofit communicators.

A web developer's dilemma.

Overheard

From the Flourish Conference.

Ashok, small business owner, west Chicagoland suburbs.