Website Development and Online Community Management
Organization:
National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC) VISTA Name:
Morgan Sully
Program Start:
6/2007
Program End:
12/2008
Project Description:
Our Technology Infrastructure and Content Development project will focus on the next phase of developing our online suite of tools to help our members. We have begun to put the Plan in place by building a new “Mapping the Field” database; preparing for 2007
For the 2007 Technology Infrastructure/Content Development Project we ask the VISTA volunteer to:
1. Manage and contribute to NAMAC’s 2007 technology planning project which will help our membership connect and work with each other more fully across the field.
2. Develop NAMAC’s website, with special attention to building it out with Web 2.0 platforms.
3. Assist program staff in creating a variety of new content and participatory areas of the web site.
4. Contribute to helping the national media arts community to build capacity through online participatory technologies.
5. Work with program staff to upgrade our website with a new “look and feel.”
6. Work with programming staff to build out the online historical “media arts movement” timeline.
Project Outcome:
Morgan’s primary focus has been on the complete redesign of the NAMAC website – from complex technical programming to taxonomization of data and content to social networking and blogging. It launched in the end of August and is becoming the nervous system of the NAMAC offerings. We are very happy with the results and look forward to our next phase of community building online, educating our membership in social networking through the site, and extending its reach to other nonprofits, communities and the public. Morgan has been a kind, reponsive and patient staff member throughout this process, always thinking strategically about how our online offerings can benefit new members, communities and organizations.
Morgan wrote an article about the website-building process for our member newsletter and produced a short video on how to use the site to its maximum capability. Now he is transitioning into the role of online community manager. He is managing our website content, troubleshooting any technical problems, and most importantly creating an online community of dedicated users from the NAMAC membership and other nonprofits, to the public at-large.
It was a hard challenge to solve a lot of the technical problems that the transistion to a Drupal environment posed. But we were very pleased to see that not only was Morgan a problem solver, but he was a solution seeker, reaching out continuously to the technical community and his network of programmers to find ways to deal with the small to large issues that would arise.
Impact Quote:
“The work accomplished by Morgan Sully will have a long lasting effect on the organization, and by extension to the field of media arts and public media. He has transformed our online presence into an interactive Web 2.0 environment. He is becoming an online “community manager” developing networks of users and supporters that will have great impact in the future of the organization and how we offer services and programs to our membership and beyond.”
- Helen DeMichiel, supervisor