We are in the process of launching a new collaboration center for a confederation of non-profit organizations. The key ingredient to this new collaboration center is that it must be easy to navigate (yet have tons of features and functionality).

So, knowing that site navigation and the site's information architecture are keys to success, we have spent a fair amount of time building wireframes of the site, making sure that we get the site well organized and easy to navigate BEFORE moving to the "pretty pictures" and "rounded corners" design phase.  In the past, we would have used PowerPoint to construct these wireframes.  But while I love PowerPoint for most things, this is a task it is not specifically designed for.  So a month ago, I did a quick search for "wireframe tools" and to my delight, found that there is a whole set of providers of this type of functionality.

Long story short, I began using iPlotz (http://iplotz.com/) and I am here to tell you... it is absolutely worth the $15 a month service fee.  I won't bore you with all the product details (since their demo does a good job of that), but I will tell you that this solution has saved me a ton of aggravation using tools not built for this activity, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who has to design a site and collaborate with others online about the design.

Brett

This is an extremely popular follow-up presentation on Slideshare.net that explains the impact of social media.  Lots of interesting facts and really nice use of high quality photography and good type treatments.  Take a look.

Matt's article today is a nice twist.  Turning the thoughts and advice of someone who is trying to help proprietary software companies compete with open source developers and using them as food for thought for businesses selling open source based solutions.

Definitely worth the read: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10307348-16.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

One of the original developers of Plone, Martin Aspeli, has written great overview of Plone and the competitive marketplace it plays in.  Nice to hear that it can hold its own.  And I feel great that Plone is at the heart of our new OPENAssociations platform.

If you are at all interested in CMSs, go read this article: http://www.martinaspeli.net/articles/plone-and-its-competition

Cheers,

Brett

It is still very rough.  Recorded the following version in one take, so I have a lot of editing to do. That said, thought I would post what I have to see if anyone can spare a little feedback. Be gentle.

These days, everyone is talking about the impact and importance of Cloud Computing.  We've been thinking a lot about it here at TCAG because our OPENAssociations platform takes advantage of a lot of Cloud-supported applications.

I found a few resources that help explain Cloud Computing - and its significance to associations.

Cloud Computing 101 - Garry Polmateer from VanDamme Associates does a good job summarizing the concept in this blog post.

Avectra has also put together a series of Cloud Computing educational efforts. A recent webinar provided a comprehensive overview
 

I also appreciated this mini-commercial from Avectra. Might not win any Oscars, but shows their commitment to the concept.