One of my first assignments as an intern at Framework is to examine the advantages and d Kaufen viagra isadvantages of five mapping software applications, then choose one as the most effective software for creating open interactive maps. Viagra levitra Viagra sale Viagra bestellung I’ve compared Google Maps, Fusion Tables, Map Quest, ArcGIS Explorer and Map Maker, and accessed them based on the following categories:

– ease of use;
– visualization capabilities;
– total cost of ownership; and
– exporting/sharing options.

I have come to the conclusion that Google Maps is the best option for creating mobile and interactive maps. Levitra contraindicaciones Although mapping software like Fusion Tables and ArcGIS Explorer are more efficient when merging multiple data points into a map, Google Maps, in my opinion, provide users a better mapping experience. Viagra sin receta Cheap viagra online Indeed, Google Maps is extremely straightforward and user-friendly. Levitra pill I remember the first day of my internship; I’ve learned how to use Google Maps from a five minute tutorial that can be found on Youtube. Levitra prix pharmacie

Furthermore, the advantages of Google Maps outweigh its dis Online levitra advantages. Purchase viagra online For instance, maps can be personalized to show different layers of boundaries and neighbourhoods within the city. Levitra pas cher Kauf von viagra Levitra achat Most importantly, Google Maps has the option allowing multiple users to collaborate with each other on one map, which can then be shared with other people through a link or by email. Viagra for women Brand viagra Prospecto levitra I think these benefits are appealing for individuals to use this ‘free’ software to create their own simple, yet sophisticated maps. Over the counter viagra Viagra alternatives

It is amazing how receptive most people are once we start to give the Timeraiser elevator pitch. Viagra for women We call these events our Timeraiser Neighbourhood Days. Viagra levitra Viagra alternatives And they are quite effective. Our team has always known the po wer of a quality conversation, and Levitra prix pharmacie we are betting quite Purchase viagra online a few people will show up to the Timeraiser because of this effort. Brand viagra Kauf von viagra

Whether it is the agencies, art or the fact the Amy Van Keeken’s Rock and Roll Sing along will be playing on Saturday October 16th, a lot of people we spoke to today are thrilled something like the Timeraiser is happening in Edmonton again this year. Cheap viagra online

We even spoke to a woman today who said her friend that had attended a Timeraiser in Toronto, and really enjoyed the evening. Levitra achat Kaufen viagra It really is amazing once you get out there and talk to people. Viagra sin receta Levitra contraindicaciones I am always amazing about who has heard of the Timeraiser and where they’ ve heard it from. Online levitra Viagra sale Over the counter viagra

We found SmartSheet.  Smartsheet is an easy-to-use program that offers essential features of a spreadsheet plus project management software. Kauf von viagra We like it because it offers us the ability to streamline our communication, boost our efficiency and all Viagra bestellung the while become even more transparent to the public. Purchase viagra online Smartsheet will help us remain flexible and cut down on the amount of time we spend on back-and-forth decision making and information sharing. Levitra pas cher Viagra for women Levitra contraindicaciones   Check out out the product comparison we posted on it.timeraiser.ca, here.

Bonus: it’s integrated with Google Docs! Over the counter viagra Levitra achat Here is a great video that overviews the integration. Viagra sin receta Viagra levitra Viagra sale
So how is it working for us now Viagra alternatives ?  I woke up this morning, fired up my email and saw a series of notifications that our dedicated and amazing social media volunteer, Jessica Evans, had been up late organizing and activating the social media campaign for the upcoming Vancouver Timeraiser.  She had updated rows to add details around her strategy for engaging Twitter users, she had updated the status of certain tasks, had added comments, etc.

This tool gave her seamless access to the information she needed, when she needed it.  It allowed her to engage with her role as the Vancouver Media Volunteer when it w Brand viagra as convenient for her and, ultimately, it gave us a huge head start on the overall awareness campaign for the upcoming program. Kaufen viagra

We love cloud tools that make life easy. Levitra pill Prospecto levitra  Though, truthfully, not as much as we love dedicated volunteers that are game changers! Online levitra Pastillas levitra Levitra prix pharmacie

For our portion of the evening, I chatted Google Apps, Salesforce.com and our “Create Information Once, Distribute it Widely, Access it Anywhere” motto. After a brief overview of the Timeraiser program, I dove into our Cloud Computing strategy Levitra pill and open-architecture goals, something we’ve documented in detail on our blog. Purchase viagra online Brand viagra Prospecto levitra Viagra bestellung Viagra alternatives Levitra prix pharmacie I’m so thrilled with the level of interest in Salesforce.com for non-profits, and happy to recieve praise for the open approach we’ve taken in our IT strategy. Levitra contraindicaciones Levitra achat Pastillas levitra

Thanks to Andrew Sinclair from Architech Solutions for hosting the event, and for inviting Timeraiser to demo our use of some very cool cloud tools. Levitra pas cher Online levitra Viagra sin receta Viagra levitra Viagra sale Over the counter viagra  My presentation is below, and you can find out a lot more about our use of the cloud in these two videos.

The premise: a strong core is the root of overall healthy functioning.

We like this philosophy at Framework. Prospecto levitra  We like it so much we practice it all the time in the form of “Organizational Pilates”.  For a bit more detail about Organizational Pilates as our core management practice, take a quick read of Anil’s September 2009 guest post in Volunteer Vancouver’s blog.

For now, I’d like to share an example of how the exercises and ‘training’ we’ve been doing for the past year or so (our organizational pilates regime) are translating into agility, flexibility and overall effectiveness.

I’ll work backwards, starting with the end result and finishing Levitra pas cher with the exercises that got us here. Levitra prix pharmacie

The Success

The GenNext volunteers in London are motiv Pastillas levitra ated and passionate to make the 1st London Timeraiser a huge success.  They are currently out connecting with local businesses like WCS Financial and Libro Financial Group who will sign on as spon sors Online levitra so we can buy artwork at fair market value from local artists.

When a volunteer confirms a new corporate sponsor, we are able to alleviate the burdensome administration around partnership agreements, invoices, etc. Levitra achat Cheap viagra online  After one quick email containing contact information, we can produce all the necessary documents, email Purchase viagra online them over, and often have everyth ing signed Levitra pill in 20 minutes. Viagra levitra

We transformed an administrative process that used to be circuitous, redundant and cum Brand viagra bersome into one that is fast, easy and efficient for everyone.  Moreover, volunteers can focus their skills where they’re most important: connecting with local businesses and building relationships. Purchase viagra Kauf von viagra Kaufen viagra

On our end, what used to take us, on average 3 days, can now take 20 minutes start to finish with the end result being more organized and more transparent. Viagra alternatives

The Process: Before & After

We have completely removed printers, faxes, paper and pens from this workflow and instead rely on a wicked integration of Salesforce.com and EchoSign.

I won’t go into it here, because it’s much for fun to have Amanda take you through the process in this concise and colourful video (shown above). Really, it’s a good video, even the folks at the EchoSign blog said so!

How we got here: Organizational Pilates regime

Our success can be attributed to our strong organizational core. Viagra sin receta  Our daily pilates regime builds:

1. Strength to evaluate and implement technology that works best for us
2. Agility to practice processes that can engage new ideas and evaluate them against our existing programming
3. Focus to always use programming that engages and supports the best staff and volunteers
4. Resiliency to learn from the work that we, and other like-minded initiatives, are doing
5. Motivation to share everything we know, data we have and insight we generate

We’re going to keep on this exercise regime; we’ re feeling fit as ever! Levitra contraindicaciones Over the counter viagra Viagra bestellung  And one thing I learned from my back injury is that maintenance is everything: I re-injured my back last year having neglected my transverse abdominus exercises.  Luckily I enjoy our organizational pilates more than actual exercise!

Let us know how you exercise your organization’s core!

For a geek like me, this video is really, really exciting because it highlights exactly the type of integration we at Framework admire – when one tool talks to the other, and data moves smoothly and openly between each.

What does it all mean Online levitra ?

Well, we use Google Applications for all our Office Productivity Needs, and use Box.net to share files, embed an upload widget Cheap viagra online and manage non-Google Application files with ease. Levitra pas cher Viagra alternatives Now that we can send files from within Gmail and create Google Docs from within Box, it means our data is truly accessible from anywhere – reducing duplication of data. Purchase viagra online Pastillas levitra It makes information sharing that much easier.

Seeing technology companies collaborate and share across platforms is exactly why we know “the cloud” is the future and why an open-architecture system Viagra sale is so important for the non-profit sector. Purchase viagra Kaufen viagra

Details of the new integration:

“Box users will now be able to create Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets as file types within Box, Over the counter viagra benefiting from the real-time collaboration capabilities of Google Docs. Viagra for women Prospecto levitra You’ll also be able to access the Google Apps suite with the OpenBox action drop-down menu: you c an select Kauf von viagra a file or folder to send with Gmail, schedule a meeting and link to a specific file or folder with Google Calendar, or publish content to Google sites. Viagra sin receta Viagra levitra Brand viagra Levitra prix pharmacie And as a Google Apps and Box.net customer, you can access, work with, and share Box content with others directly inside of Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Sites.”

I can trace my love of the social web to before Facebook, MSN Messenger or ICQ. I’m sure it was Apple’s eWorld that sold me on the idea of using computers to communicate and connect with others. Even in my first experiences with a social computing environment, it was email (of all things) that sparked my interest. Levitra pas cher Levitra prix pharmacie Oh, that little red mail truck, a new message, how marvelous. Pastillas levitra eWorld was a new, virtual world that connected bulletin boards and email before the “web” was really anything. Viagra levitra Viagra sale It was a portal environment that looked and felt like a small city - a community-. Yea, I was very hooked. Purchase viagra

Flashing forward to today, there are endless opportunities to participate in the social web. Brand viagra Viagra bestellung But, as Qasim points out, these profiles – YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, can be “Closed-door or otherwise inaccessible conversations”. It’s interesting that the more we think that we are “present” by producing content for all these social networks, the more we have to recognize and look for the connections between the tools – ensuring that messages reach all our audiences, that some profiles or tools don’t get left behind. Cheap viagra online It can be a real challenge for Social Media, particularly in a professional setting.

A fascinating element of Qasim’s blog post is Levitra achat h is i Levitra pill dentification of email and blogging as the future. Email, in particular, is a tool some say are becoming archaic (though others argue the contrary). Yet here is this new tool, Posterous, that allows you to post to your blog by emailing Posterous.com. Even more so, you can auto and & cross post across your other profiles, keeping information consistent. Purchase viagra online Prospecto levitra Qasim writes, “The implications of using email to feed a Posterous blog and, by-extension, one’s other online accounts, are tremendous”. It is easier than ever to create and distribute content to your social networks, and open the conversation cross-platform. Over the counter viagra Kaufen viagra Using email.

Interestingly, he points out that with the rise of the mobile smart phones and the inevitable mobile OS wars, “the vast majority of mobile devices [...] all offer email”. Email. The “aging” communication tool. Or is it? Maybe email is a good example of an evolving, agile technology that moves us forward. Certainly Posterous is offering a new way to connect/blog cross-platform.

Qasim clearly outlines why Posterous is helping the web to be more open, and I am on board. Viagra for women A tool that encourages ease of connecting, cross-platform publishing, and an open-architecture model aligns very closely with the movement we are building here at Framework. Viagra sin receta

In the very least, this is a tool we’ll keep our eye on here. We are always interested in new tools that can improve information-sharing and transparency for the sector. Levitra contraindicaciones Posterous may be one new way to do it. Online levitra Kauf von viagra

“Think globally, act locally.”

When I read about what they are doing, I thought to myself, “we’re on the right track!”  Looking back at Anil’s thoughts on Open Architecture, Amanda’s writing on information sharing and transparency, I can’t help but come to that conclusion. Over the counter viagra Pastillas levitra  This isn’t meant as a pat on our own backs but rather to continue the dialogue on how we deliver programming and how we could do it better. Purchase viagra

Thinking Globally

Take NetHope [www.nethope.org], for example.  Among other projects, they have an Innovation for Development (I4D) program which seeks to extend existing best practices and scale solutions for broader impact in developing countries. Viagra levitra  If we distill this approach down to a local level, the theory is the same: how do we aggregate existing best practices within the non-profit sector to better serve our community Kaufen viagra ?   And how do we then share theselearnings with the thousands of other charitable organizations Viagra alternatives ? For us (Framework), one way is our use of  smart technology (primarily web-based) to share how we operate with the world. Viagra sin receta That is, adapting existing technology to our needs and then letting everyone else know why and how we did it.

Another element of NetHope’s work is building telecommunications infrastructure where they either don’t exist or have been destroyed as a result of natural disasters. Levitra prix pharmacie Cheap viagra online  The idea being that in both cases the infrastructure will enableNGOs to collaborate, share information and better aid people and communities in need. Purchase viagra online  This idea that we can better deliver services if we can collaborate and communicate is fundamental to our work. Levitra pas cher  You can read about our collaboration strategy in an earlier post so I won’t get into it here, but essentially where NetHope’s connectivity initiatives help build a technical workforce in remote areas of Africa, for example, our infrastructure allows us to efficiently collaborate with partners and stakeholders across Canada.

Finally, The Rockefeller Foundation, a huge granting body in the United States, has identified the need for open and user-driven innovation models to solve big issues like poverty and global warming through their “Advancing Innovation Processes to Solve Social Problems” stream of funding.  There are a lot of great questions that came to mind from reading their Key Outcomes:

• How do we foster partnerships with our many stakeholders in order to better deliver Timeraiser programming? 
• What new technology will help us enable our users contribute to our processes Levitra contraindicaciones ?
• How can we quickly capitalize on a creative idea from a volunteer in Calgary Levitra achat ?
• And finally, when we think we have a great piece of knowledge, how do we share it with other like-minded NGOs Viagra for women ?

Acting Locally

There are a lot of interesting ideas and models out there about how to collaborate, use technology and share best practices.  Some have big outcomes like saving humanity and Prospecto levitra saving our planet. Levitra pill Online levitra  But how they are applied is certainly relevant and transferable to organizations working on local issues like housing in Vancouver’s East End, the development of green spaces in Toronto, securing healthy food for poor families in Hamilton, or planning a Timeraiser in Calgary! 

I am a big fan of Box.net. Their response to Google’ s announcement remind Viagra bestellung s me why. Viagra sin receta Kauf von viagra In a timely blog post, Aaron Levie (Co-Founder and CEO) wrote about Box.net’s excitement over Google’s announcement as an overall win for Cloud Computing, and that the increased Google support  utlimately enhances Box.net’s services. He also acknowledged that additional services from popular providers like Google drives wider adoption of web-based services as a whole. Levitra pill  The willingness to work together in a collaborative, positive nature and to support integration between applications is a quality I admire about technology companies such as Box.net. Sharing data openly and collaboratively is an important quality of the non-profit sector, and it is complimented by service providers who uphold similar values.

Exciting things are in store for the “cloud” in 2010, and we’re glad to be a non-profit organization using the best resources Levitra achat to allow us to focus on mission-related activities.

There is a lot of debate in the technology space about what the best solutions are for nonprofit and charitable organizations. Viagra for women Viagra sale Purchase viagra The power of volunteers contributing to the Linux, SugarCRM or Mozilla open-source community are clear examples of great, low cost tools available to broad public, providing high value to its user base. Levitra prix pharmacie In many ways, the values in the open-source community are 100% aligned with ours.

However, in our office we make technology decisions based on how well technologies can talk to one another. This is our first and foremost consideration. Viagra bestellung We consider integration across all  office productivity needs and relationship/program management requirements.

The second consideration made when adopting a new tool is how easy is it for our team to make changes as we fine tune our programming. Levitra pas cher We don’t want to code ourselves into a box.

Other considerations include cost (comparing off-the-shelf products versus web-based services), and how much external consulting resources are needed for specific or custom configurations.

These consideration points are critical because want to support hundreds more local artists. Thousands more Charities. Kauf von viagra Tens of thousands new citizens who want to be engaged. Purchase viagra online Levitra contraindicaciones

To accomplish this, our small team must select technology tools that best enable our people to connect with our content. Levitra achat We are calling it an Open Architecture approach. Viagra alternatives If our email isn’t connected to our CRM – it’s no good. Online levitra Pastillas levitra If our CRM isn’t connected to our FTP file sharing system, no good. If our FTP doesn’t allow easy access to new users, no good. We need these tools to be deeply integrated and accessible. Viagra sin receta

As I described in a recent post, we use Box.net for our FTP File sharing needs and EchoSign for our e-signature services. Levitra pill These two services plug into Salesforce. com very nicely. Viagra levitra Over the counter viagra Most of Salesforce.com’s third party apps can be installed within h ours by Prospecto levitra our team of non-technical people. Our modest integration got us into the Power of Us Appy Awards at Dreamforce 2009. Brand viagra It was a great honour. Kaufen viagra Cheap viagra online

There is much more to come in the discussion of Open Architecture, and exciting new projects ahead.