The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), makers of Apache HTTPD, Apache Solr, and more than fifty other open source products, will today post its one millionth update to the Subversion software repository shared by all its products. Apache Subversion is a leading open source SCM repository, available for both Windows and Linux platforms.

Software projects use repositories to provide for version control and group communications. Whenever a developer makes a change to a local copy of the software source code, he or she “commits” the change to the repository when its is ready to be shared with the group. Developers can also “roll back” a change if a problem is found later.

The ASF provides technical and legal infrastructure for Subversion, Apache HTTPD, and other open source products who have adopted the ASF’s meritocratic development model.

Apache HTTPD has been the number one web server on the Internet since April 1996. Apache is also the “A” in the popular LAMP stack that powers other products, like the Drupal content management system.

The annual ASF convention, ApacheCon, is being held Nov 1-5 in Atlanta GA. Join me there for my talk on The Open Source Secret Sauce.

Long before Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter hit the scene, membership organizations hosted mailing lists, where members could reach out for help and help each other. Today, many nonprofits and associations are recasting their venerable “listservs” as social networking sites.

While public sites like LinkedIn provide free forums, larger organizations with broader constituencies often need more capabilities than a free public site can provide out of the box.

Happily, there are some great options available, both hosted (“in the cloud”) and on-premises (“on your network”).

Hosted Solutions

Four great alternatives for non-profits, especially organizations already using iMIS or Salesforce, are GoLightly, Higher Logic, The Port, and Socious.

• GoLightly [www.golightly.com] is a solid “one stop shop” solution that works standalone or with iMIS and other membership management systems. My professional organization, the IIBA, uses GoLightly. It lacks the “pizzaz” of some other solutions, but GoLightly gets the job done, without getting in the way.

• Higher Logic [www.higherlogic.com] is a forward-looking offering, that stirs the social networking pot with add-ons like Member Ad, an advertising service for community sites. Many features, like microsites and calendars, can be delivered “stand alone”, so you don’t have to buy the whole gorilla if all you want is a banana.

• ThePort [www.theport.com] is a comprehensive solution that rivals systems like Facebook in the look-and-feel department. Not just a pretty face, ThePort offers deep extensibility through its App Portal and Data Exchange platforms. If you’re ready to take the deep dive, check out ThePort.

• Socious [www.socious.com] offers a broad and deep set of social management tools that revolve around four spokes: Social Networking, Online Communities, Knowledge Repositories and Event Management. Socious released a mobile community app in August 2010, optmized for iPhone, Blackberry Storm, Palm Pre/Pixi, and Android 1.5+.

Each of the hosted solutions have their own “flavor” (and price point). The best fit can depend more on your organization’s culture than on a simple feature matrix.

While hosted solutions offer great capabilities with low startup costs, many organizations still look to on premises solutons for tighter integration with an existing site.

On Premises Solutions

Both Ektron and Drupal provide flexible social networking capabilities that can be woven into an existing site, or setup as an independent site. Key advantages of an on premise solution include a consistent approach to administration and a full-site search that can include all resources.

• Ekron CMS400.NET [www.ektron.com] is a general purpose content management system (CMS) with strong social networking capabilities. An Ektron website can be extended to include community groups, where each group has its own set of collaboration tools, including a Calendar, Forum, and Document Library. Using our Ektron/iMIS provider, we can automatically create Ektron groups based on a user’s iMIS profile.

• Drupal Organic Groups [drupal.org/handbook/modules/og] is a popular extension to a leading free open source CMS. Drupal OG is an elegant, flexible solution that is often used as part of a larger enterprise site, such as www.imiscommunities.com and . There are also Drupal offerings that provide full workgroup capabilities, like Drupal Commons and Open Atrium.

The hardest part of today’s social media landscape is that it’s become an “embarrassment of riches”. A good starting point is to study the Social Media Technology Guide by Idealware, and follow its advice to be sure you are getting the most from public offerings. Then, fill any gaps with one the solutions outlined here. Before long, your perfect solution can be “out there”, helping members help themselves.

In June 2010, Microsoft revamped its Microsoft Live offerings to make better use of its SkyDrive online file storage system and Microsoft Web Apps platform, and to align Web Apps with the docs.com website, targeted squarely at Facebook users.

Windows Live Office Groups is a free service for the personal use of groups of up to a thousand of your closest peeps. The only catch is that everyone needs a (free) Windows Live ID. Although Groups is free for personal use, every page on the site does includes a sidebar advertisement (annoying, animated advertisements). One other current restriction is that there is a limit on the number of groups one Windows Live account can create or join. You can create up to 20 groups (using one account), and join up to a total of 40.

Meanwhile, the browser list is longer than you might expect. (A clear signal that MS is ready to complete with Google in the online office space.)

• Linux: Firefox 3.5 or later versions, Chrome 3 or later versions
• Mac: Safari 4 or later versions, Firefox 3.5 or later versions, Chrome 3 or later versions

• Windows: Internet Explorer versions 7 and 8, Firefox 3.5 or later versions, and Chrome 3 or later versions.
  Each group has its own set of areas for Discussions, Documents, Photos, Calendar, Membership, and SkyDrive. The navigation is clean and simple. Anyone who understands breadcrumbs should have no trouble bouncing between area. There is also a modest selection of alternative styles dress up the navigation bar.

• Discussions - A simple but effective online forum, making it easy for members to post messages without CC’ing the world. Administrative features including editing and deleting posts, and deleting entire discussions.

• Documents - Any type of file can be uploaded, and you can edit the permission to restrict usage. Office documents can be viewed or edited online, or downloaded and edited locally (if you have the corresponding Office application installed). Editing or uploading a document creates a new version automatically. It’s even easy to flip between versions and restore an older one, if need be.

• Photos - Create albums and upload images to share with the group.

• Calendar - Track key dates on the group’s calendar and integrate with your own calendar and with calendars for other groups. There is also an option for a daily email alert of upcoming events.

• Membership - Each participant can be in one of three security roles: Owner, Co-Owner, and Member. The Owner can be changed, and only the owner can delete a group.

• Group Landing Page - The main page for the group summarizes activity from the other areas, making it easy to see what’s happening.

The group may also have an “Email group” feature which works like a mailing list. The confusing bit is that some messages will end up in the Discussion area and some will end up in email, diluting the effectiveness of both. A third endpoint for discussions is group chat. If enabled, up to forty people in your group members can pile on via Windows Messenger.

The group email feature can be turned off, and individual members can opt out of group email. The missing option is email alerts for discussions. Also missing is a RSS feed of the group’s activities.

For extra credit, you can also create a free website for your group (or other purpose) – but that would be yet another series.

Like Google Apps and Google Sites, Windows Live and Office Live Groups offer a broad platform that can be targeted for specific projects. Next week, we will close up the Workgroup Site series with a look at Open Atrium, another example of narrowing a broad platform.

-Ted.

Another great technology resource for non-profits is Idealware (www.idealware.org). The site provides “thoroughly researched, impartial and accessible resources about software to help nonprofits make smart software decisions.”

There are a number of Idealware reports available, including the Field guide to Software for Nonprofits, and most recently, the Nonprofit Social Media Decision Guide.

The Decision Guide is an exquisite 70-page whitepaper crammed with practical advice that any nonprofit can put to work today. The guide covers Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Photo Sharing, Video Sharing, and additional social media channels.

The material is based directly on original research conducted by Idealware. For each media, Idealware provides solid guidelines on getting the most for your time and effort.

The guide also highlights interesting and entertaining comments taken from the survey. And Idealware is not shy about providing their own analysis, such as “As a rule of thumb, set aside at least two hours each week for each social media channel.”

If you’re wondering whether to focus on Twitter or Blogs, or Facebook versus Flickr, this whitepaper is for you.

My only raised eyebrow is that the guide marginalized LinkedIn. My viewpoint may be skewed from involvement in professional organizations, but LinkedIn and LinkedIn forums are my preferred social networks.

According to the guide, for most nonprofits, a Facebook page will yield the best bang for the buck, if you have the time to maintain it, but the key is to integrate your communication strategy into a “cohesive whole”. For details, see the guide :)

I do have to say that the writing is simply excellent. Everything about the guide screams quality and attention to detail. If you only read one Social Media resource this year, let it be Idealware’s Decision Guide.

-Ted.

NTEN (the Nonprofit Technology Network) is the membership organization of nonprofit technology professionals.

The Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) 2011 is scheduled for March 17, 2011, to be held in Washington DC. The organization has received over 400 proposals this year – a 75% increase over 2010!

NTC is looking for your help in narrowing the proposals down to the top 100 or so. Please visit the website and vote for your favorite proposals.

Voting is open through September 30th, so be sure to click through and help shape the NTC 2011 agenda!