Land Trusts &

Land Trusts &


Web Technology

Damon Hearne

Connecticut Forest & Park Association

Overview

•
Basic website tools

•
Photo hosting

•
Membership Data

•
Sales

•
Social Networking

•
Mapping and
locations


Some basic terms

•
Domain

(ie
ctwoodlands.org
)

–
Routes traffic to the Host

–
Managed by domin registrar
-

$15 per year

•
ISP

–

Internet Service Provider

–
Provides your connection to the Web

–
IE
–

AT&T, Comcast, Localhost

•
Host (website host)

–
Hosts your website files on a server


Software

•
Is all on line
–

NO software installed on your
hard drive.

•
Can be updated and maintained you or by the
host.

•
Flexible and scalable

•
Open source, free or at least very cheap.

•
“Web 2.0”
-
a perceived second generation of web development
and design, that aims to facilitate communication, secure information
sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web.

Basic Website Management

•
Look for a
C
ontent
M
anagement
S
ystem
(CMS)

•
Such as Drupal, Wordpress, TypePad

•
Easy to manage content.

•
Free to install software (you only pay for
hosting

•
High search engine profile

•
Multiple users

•
Customizable by you or designer

C
ontent
M
anagement
S
ystems

•
Three examples


1.
TypePad
-

http://www.typepad.com/


1.
WordPress
-

http://wordpress.org/


2.
Drupal
-

http://drupal.org/


CMS terms

•
Theme
–

is the “skin” of your website
–

this is the design.

•
Module

–

an additional ‘plug and play’
applet that can be added to your site.

•
PHP/mySQL

–

terms for the behind the
scenes code that make things work but
you don’t need to know.

C
ontent
M
anagement
S
ystems

TypePad

•
Easy to set up
–

zero technical skills
needed.

•
$5
-
15 per month

•
Many ‘themes’

•
Customize options good but not unlimited

•
You have no hosting, maintenance,
security or “bug” responsibility


C
ontent
M
anagement
S
ystems

WordPress

•
Easy install if host has ‘cpanel’/‘Fantasico’

•
Easy to configure/customize

•
Basic FTP skills to upload themes

•
Can be very basic or highly customized.

•
Runs on common coding

•
Good for multiple users.

•
Responsible for own host.


C
ontent
M
anagement
S
ystems

Drupal

•
Fantasico can make easy to install

•
Great for community building and
additional functions/’modules’

•
Many many modules available.

•
OK out of box themes
–

probably need
designer to help set up.

•
Great w/ multiple users

Photo Hosting

•
Zenfolio
-

http://www.zenfolio.com/

–
More professional/artistic options

•
Picasa/Web Album
http://picasa.google.com

–
Great for easy sharing without the social
connection

•
Flickr
-

http://www.flickr.com/

–
Great for tagging pictures as part of a larger
community.



Membership Data/Join on Line

civiCRM
-

http://civicrm.org/

•
Open source
-

FREE

•
Highly customizable

•
Does membership/groups, contacts,
relationships, events, online joining, etc.

•
Can be module to drupal or other CMS.

•
While not overly technical, is complicated
to set up.


Membership Data/Join on Line

SalesForce
-

http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/product

Huge company
–

FREE account, pay to
convert data etc.

•
Customizable
–

is a serious setup process

•
Does membership/groups, contacts,
relationships, events, etc etc.

•
Stands alone, can interface with
accounting software etc.

•
Seems like a very good high end option at
a good price


Membership Data/Join on Line

Network For Good/Groundspring
-

http://www.groundspring.org/

•
$30 per month

•
Limited customization

•
Highly secure, recognized and accepted.

•
Somewhat inflexible

•
You don’t have to worry about upgrading,
bugs, security issues etc.


Membership Data/Join on Line


Google Checkout for Non
-
profits
-

http://checkout.google.com/seller/npo/

•
Takes a cut

•
Very basic

•
Creates Google account in process

Membership Data/Join on Line


PayPal
–


https://www.paypal
-
portal.com/charity/

•
Takes a cut

•
Very basic

•
No account needed but sneaky

Sales

Google Checkout & PayPal buttons

•
Make custom button code that you insert
into your website.

•
Not overly technical but can be clunky and
inflexible.

•
Good solution for selling only a few items.



Sales

Ubercart
-

http://www.ubercart.org/

•
Fairly complicated to set up

•
Open source
–

FREE

•
Can stand along or be module of CMS

•
See
www.ctwoodlands.org/bookstore

•
Highly customizable. Tracks stock and
many details

•
There are other open source options.

Social Netoworking

Facebook

–

http://www.facebook.com

•
The place to be. TNC has 20,000 fans and
raises money there

•
Requires someone to have a FB account
–

but does NOT require/promote sharing of
personal FB pages or info.

•
Easy to set up and administer. Nice way
to track “fans” and get messages out.


Socail Networking

Twitter

-

http://twitter.com/

•
The even newer thing than Facebook

•
140 character updates.

•
This is how younger genrations inteface
with each other and organizations.

•
Twitter and Facebook are making email
obsolete, not to mention text messages.

•
Al Gore Twitters (what more do you
need?!)

Maps

•
Google Earth

and
Google Maps

–
EightmileRiver.org example of mashup

–
Request my 2007 presentation for details

•
maps.live.com

•
ArcView is now available from TechSoup
for less than $200


Damon Hearne

Connecticut Forest &
Park Association

dhearne@ctwoodlands.org

860
-
346
-
2372