Watering Social Change
Published August 15, 2011 | 
Everything alive needs watering to grow. People and ideas, too. I feel that my work has been watered today in a conversation wiht Trudy Beaulne, Executive Director of the Social Planing Council of Kitchener-Waterloo. Herself, she is proud to be using the EarthWorm approach to social change (@TrudyBeaulne).
ConnectKW
The Council has been dedicated to cultivating community knowledge to advance social justice rooted in local context since 1950′s through volunteers, and since 1967 as a non-profit organization. Preparing, distributing and building information in meaningful and accessible ways with the help of new technologies has been a part of its mission since the 90′.
Working in Community Web Development
Published August 9, 2011 | We have said that community web development is a particular bland of technology capacity building and community building, and that what DAG Nova tries to achieve would differ from the web development services you might be used to. We have as well pointed out that the everyday dynamics of community groups and organizations is specific and that it demands a specific approach. But how does the work of DAG Nova differ from socially responsible pro-bono or volunteer support to organizations?
- Our services are not entirely free, they are adapted to restricted budgets that most of organizations have; initial consultations and project assessment usually are free, as well as the end-of-the-project coaching
- Our services are not bound to initial time-limited projects or training. We are more interested to where those start-up projects might lead. We would usually support those new developments and we would work with organizations on project proposals to find additional funding.
- We are committed to the ongoing support even before your project starts. This initial period where the needs and expectations align among staff, coordination, board and volunteers is crucial for everybody.
- We provide more than a short-term support after the completion of the project and it is particularly true when it comes to training and coaching of team members.
- We are eager to learn about your work and about your challenges to be able to support you and other organizations like yours, and we are committed to building and sharing that knowledge across communities
Changing Services, Changing Email
Published August 3, 2011 | There are many reasons why you might decide to make a change – new Internet provider, another hosting service, different email address. You do not want to lose you Internet connection, important messages or access to the website as those are moments that can add stress to your work. Even though, you might not do all the steps yourself, one thing that can help lower the anxiety is knowing what to expect and some useful tips on how to go about it.
NetSquared Local
Published July 28, 2011 | 
If you haven’t heard so far of NetSquared Local, now is the right time. I myself have heard about it recently. I heard that there is a Montreal NetSquared Meetup Group only when I have already physically moved from there!!!
NetSquared Local is an initiative of the TechSoup Global and it has grown to be a strong community of support for all interested in technologies and social change. I found out they were just an email and a skype-call away and I will grab the opportunity to get in touch with like-minded people locally and around the world to learn, support and get support for the community web development initiatives and projects.
How does it work?
Posted in Community Web Development, NetSquared | 
community web development, linkedin, NetSquared | 
1 CommentWorking with CMS
Published July 26, 2011 | This is just a general overview of how you can easily work with Content Management Systems such as Joomla or WordPress. I have already said that the most important feature of the CMS is the division of control over the template of your website and the control of the content itself. Once your website template and components are set up, you can safely update and modify the content (text, images, calenders, events, etc.).
CMS Choices
Published July 21, 2011 | As promised, we will talk more bout the free and open source content management systems that might be right for you. As for the actual choice, it is important to consult your web developer but knowing more about the most popular ones could make it easier asking the right questions. Bear with me for a short presentation of the three most popular CMS such as Joomla, Drupal and WordPress, from our humble experience.
by michael.heiss via Flickr
As well, we have enriched our blog with a new software Zemanta, so you can find some resources on the web, related to the topics, either as links in the text itself, or at the end of each blog post. Great reads, so indulge whenever you get some time.
Let’s look through complexity together and come out with somewhat clearer ideas about what CMS can do for you.
Why Use Content Management Systems
Published July 11, 2011 | There are numerous commercial and free software that are made to make users more autonomous in managing their websites. In the times where web design software was your only option, such as DreamWeaver or Microsoft Expressions Web, you would probably give up before starting.
Without Content Management Systems
This expensive software was the last thing a small or medium organization would think of putting in its budget. As well, learning how to design or later on update a web site would seem far too complicated. Organizations would employ professionals, and would easily never acquire the login information to access the controls of their website. Those professionals were as well too expensive to continuously update content, and organizations would end up with a nice window to the world that they themselves never opened.
If you did decide to venture the steep learning curve of {codes} and {divs} and you did install a web design software on one of the computers in your organization, you would have to be very thorough in making sure that every update would actually end up on the remote server. You would be working on a local computer and then you would have to transfer one or many files each time you make changes to the file directory on the server. You would as well probably be alone in doing it, since two or more people working with the software could soon get confusing . Even worse, a slight 
change in text formatting, in position of an image or a margin and the whole website construction could lose its consistent appearance.
You may wonder, what could possibly be a solution to all the drawbacks I just named. No surprise, Content Management Systems are.
Costs You Cannot Escape
Published July 5, 2011 | You already know how much you pay you monthly Internet bill, and we have spoken about the cost of the domain name, but what are the other costs that you cannot escape if you are to have your website. Surely website hosting and if working with the content management systems, the basic website maintenance.
RSS Feed Subscriptions
Published June 26, 2011 | Today, it is easy to get overwhelmed with the information that comes your way – invitations, campaigns, newsletters, mailing lists, news. The question is, how to find your way toward the information that you value the most? How to remember where to go on the Internet and as often as you would like?
You found our blog, and you would like to know what’s next. Hopefully, DAG Nova Blog is only one among many others that harbor information you look for. Remembering to check what is new will soon become painstaking and you may stop dong it.
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is there to turn the search around. It is based on the XML code and makes possible information delivery on the Internet from publishers to readers. The new posts will find you if you subscribe with the RSS Feeds.
There is more than one way to subscribe to blogs and other web content.
This is the icon by which you can usually recognize the RSS Feed on your favorite websites.
Having a Website?!
Published June 23, 2011 | It is quite possible that you are feeling pressured to have one in this day and age. Or, you do have one that a volunteer offered for free, but the volunteer has moved on to other projects.