joomla
Website and Social Media Development
Organization:
Center for Multicultural Cooperation VISTA Name:
Colleen Beach
Program Start:
9/2009
Program End:
9/2011
Project Description:
Colleen has been extremely important to our organization and has spent the past year on a variety of projects that help us to better communicate and collaborate internally and externally. She made upgrades to our CaliforniaVoices.org website and she also upgraded CMCWEB.org to a newer version of Joomla. She designed and implemented a new contact database, created a social media strategy (includes facebook, twitter, and more), and researched a number of open source software solutions for our organization.
She will continue to work out of our Sacramento office to increase the capacity of our organization to communicate, collaborate, and share best practices between our two regional offices.
The VISTA will research and develop the following internal systems:
- build the capacity of the CMC Sacramento office to communicate/collaborate with the CMC Fresno office and implement CMC programs in Sacramento community.
- Create hiring and training materials for new staff
- Create standardized premiere planning materials
- Create standardized systems for management training and staff supervision at the regional office level
- Create standardized instructor training workshops
- Create standardized electronic communication systems between offices
- Create standardized staff trainings and guidelines for working with youth
- Create material supplementing the California Voices training manual, focusing on higher-level filmmaking techniques
- Create standardized film distribution resource lists, including social media avenues, film festivals, and community radio/TV avenues
Project Outcome:
Colleen Beach was responsible for a variety of Web2.0 efforts including work on CMC web efforts including cmcweb.org, californiavoices.org, and CMC Facebook and Twitter pages. Colleen also organized efforts to create an online contact database and e-newsletter for CMC. Our VISTA member came to the project with extensive knowledge of Web2.0, and did considerable research and self-training in areas where she needed additional expertise.
Website Developer
Organization:
KDHX Community Media VISTA Name:
Robyn Haas
Program Start:
7/2009
Program End:
7/2010
Project Description:
Participating in the CTC Vista Project enables KDHX to begin its Interactive Web Media Project, which centers around re-building the foundation of KDHX.org. The project will create a new online platform that leverages Joomla and integrates Salesforce.com. The Interactive Web Media Project also allows us to re-design our website to enhance the user experience, not just for the sake of presenting information. We are able to use this opportunity to address other issues such as our visual layout, ways to better integrate social media, and to better incorporate video and audio clips throughout. This project needs a dedicated person to coordinate with all the different departments of KDHX so that we can build a structure to support a meaningful and useful online presence– one that is entertaining, user-friendly, and consistently maintains the integrity of KDHX Community Media while growing an audience.
Goal 1: Evaluate KDHX.org and analyze the content and user-interface from the point of view of all stakeholders.
Goal 2: With IT Director, make recommendations for an interactive web media plan based on research, analysis, and direct feedback.
Goal 3: Create and implement a plan for KDHX.org’s new interactive media website.
Goal 4: Evaluate and analyze results of Vista member contribution and project implementation.
Project Outcome:
With the help of two staff members, two interns, and one volunteer Robyn was able to investigate needs, develop a structure, select software to satisfy needs, test, and receive approval to launch a new website for KDHX.org. Robyn’s work was completed methodically and with a great deal of care. The site is currently in a late beta testing stage, and is expected to replace KDHX.org within two months of the termination of Robyn’s service period.
The scope of our project was quite large and it was intended to allow for discovery at the beginning to determine what work would need to be completed. The discovery revealed a large amount of work to replace all of the existing website functionality with the new system. Robyn discovered an innovative way of using a software called JomSocial to build a social network within KDHX.org. This unique tool enables audience members to connect to and interact with radio and television show hosts in a way that was never before possible. Additionally, Robyn was able to investigate the use of a magazine management component for Joomla! called K2 that simplifies and expands upon our capabilities to present complex data and metadata. Her investigation and skillful testing of this component has completely changed our management of content and multimedia on KDHX.org