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We love it when new tools we drop into Soapbox get picked up and put to good use by our clients. We love it so much that we think specific examples are worth a mention every now and then. Take Museum Without Walls, for example. They recently used a few tools that were added to Soapbox in February and March to do a little spring clean up of their site – all in just a few minutes. What did they do, exactly? First off, they added a brand new slide show to highlight the various programs they offer to educate and engage students in the fight against racism and intolerance. Second, they took a moment to add a customized page title to feature their tagline – Living History One Voice at a Time – in the address bar across their site and in search engine results. Third, they upgraded their site statistics by implementing the Google Analytics plugin so they can collect data not just on page views but file downloads and off-site links. And for a little bonus, they followed some advice shared at the latest Soapbox Salon and added a Facebook Fanbox to better integrate their site with their Facebook page. All in less than an afternoon. All following step-by-step instructions. All with Soapbox. Spring cleaning was never so easy. The whole reason for our existence over here at PICnet is to create quality websites our clients can easily and effectively manage to make real their mission. It’s about their cause, their website. So when we hear good news about how an organization is using our tools to rock the world, we’ve just got to shout about it. We couldn’t be prouder to shout today about the American Federation of Teachers. Their Faculty and College Excellence program and its Deputy Director, Craig Smith, are the proud recipients of the International Labor Communications Association’s award for Best Web-Based Journal. Frankly, we’re not surprised. Craig and his team’s diligence and expertise in maintaining regular and top notch content was obvious from the outset when their Non-Profit Soapbox site was launched. They consistently get the most out of the site we built with them and its only right and good that they’ve been duly recognized for it. Congratulations to Craig and AFT FACE! Keep up the great work! We’re proud to be an ongoing partner in your success and the furtherance of your mission! I attended my first Community Technology and Digital Opportunity Meetup in San Francisco on July 20th and left feeling inspired about the potential of using digital media to express the realities, triumphs and work of my clients. The purpose of this meetup is to share the work of various nonprofits around the Bay Area who provide technology access and programming to the local community through either computer labs or innovative digital literacy curricula. The week’s topic “Bayview Hunter’s Point Center for Art and Technology and Digital Storytelling!” was hosted by the titled organization, BAYCAT, and also featured a presentation by Jen Nowicki from Creative Narrations. Jen first defined what digital storytelling is: it’s a vignette told in the first person and made up of personal images and text in a video format. Her organization helps nonprofits and education institutions empower their constituents’ voices by training them to develop their own digital story. From what I saw, their process is focused, impacting and cathartic for many of the individuals they serve. They teach the elements of how to tell a story and move their students through four stages of developing their work: Preparation, Production, Publishing and Promotion. The final stage is important to the recognition and ownership of the work, and helps ensure that the community hears the story. For resources on how to create your own digital story, you can go to Stories for Change. Here is one of the highlighted videos: BAYCAT is an organization that educates the underserved communities of Bayview and Hunter’s Point on various media production techniques, and then employs some of their graduates to fulfill corporate and other nonprofit media needs. This cycle from student to professional creates an incredible incentive for the students and their families to continue supporting their talents. Many of the production pieces serve as public service messages to the student’s community, so they become change agents against drugs and violence. Here is a very creative and funny one done by a teenager: I would love to see some of my clients start to utilize these resources. I know that the web development process is quite an undertaking in itself, but starting to incorporate video to tell stories would be a great 6 month follow up to keep web content fresh. It would also be a great case for strategic partnerships among nonprofits. |
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