Technology

Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) partnered with CivicActions in 2010 to augment a powerful online portal connecting video producers, media makers and students to support BAVC's goals of empowering the public to bring their artistry and vision to public access television, and to teach the public video production and computer skills through educational programs.

CMCM tasked CivicActions with setting up a Drupal module called MERCI on their website that would help them manage equipment rentals and inventory for their new facility. The Knight Foundation sponsored Open Media Project had just released the module and it was unclear if it would serve all of CMCM’s needs.

The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) wanted a way to share and promote brief kernels of wisdom with potential subscribers to their ShiftInAction.com website. The idea was that in just a single minute a nugget of higher awareness could be enjoyed, even during a busy day. IONS wanted to open hearts and minds using simple technology and easy to use sharing tools.

Architecture for Humanity came to us with a highly-customized site they had built with an early version of Drupal. However, when the site was launched many features were not functioning properly or working as they desired. Additionally, the lack of on-going maintenance of the contributed modules they used provided little flexibility to move forward with further development.

As Next Agenda matured as an organization they needed to support online collaboration and showcase the video that is central to their approach to solving difficult problems. CivicActions built a Questions & Answer Forum, and when Next Agenda had an opportunity to be an early Google Wave Platform partner, we supported them as they experimented with embedding Waves on the website. During this phase CivicActions also built a custom theme based on designs by Free Range Studios.

Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF) came to CivicActions to upgrade and update their Drupal 4.6 site with a visually appealing, Drupal 6 site showcasing CSF analysis projects, research publications and training programs. The site also incorporates CSF's new geo-economic HydroCalculator tool. By using a site taxonomy that includes both topics and geographic terms, users are able to filter by geographic location or topic.

CivicActions worked with the Conservation Strategy Fund to build an online geo-economic HydroCalculator tool that empowers citizens, conservationists and scientists worldwide to make informed judgments about the effectiveness of proposed and existing hydro-electric power stations and understand and evaluate better and more accurately projects with excessive environmental, social or economic costs or low energy potential.

Next Agenda knew that they wanted online tools that would support collaboration. The challenge was deciding on the exact mix of tools to support collaboration that started at a physical gathering and then continued online. They also knew that with their tight deadlines, deciding on the right tools to build first was critical.

As a new startup, Next Agenda wanted a good-looking site that clearly explained their organization and future plans - and they needed it fast.  CivicActions first walked them through a light-weight Information Architecture process. We helped them identify their key users, mapped out a plan for their site, and quickly provided wireframes for the top level pages.

By altering the colors of the popular Acquia Marina theme and using out-of-the-box Drupal features, CivicActions was able to very quickly lauch a site that represented who they are and where they are going.

Sony Corporation engaged us to help plan and implement their multilingual configuration in a way that would improve Drupal as a whole, with an eye toward contributing all code back to the Drupal community. As they upgraded from Drupal 5 to Drupal 6, they saw a need for a more stable platform with enhanced internationalization support. The client’s strong understanding of, and commitment to, open source software paved the way for a successful collaboration.