Latest revision as of 21:33, 7 August 2007

This page is the coordination system for a team that is working on improving Information Technology (IT) support within CNVC and throughout the NVC community by providing an integrated computer and web package. This team has adopted the working title of IT Committee (ITC). While details have not yet become clear potential users might include Certified Trainers, Board, Admin. Team, LT, GCC, IIT and Event Planners and Participants, CNVC Staff, Sociocratic Circles, Practice Groups, NVC groups with a particular focus such as Region or Language, Fundraisers, Media, NVC discussion and support groups, and interested individuals. This IT package will likely include database and website tools funded by CNVC to benefit the entire NVC community, with more clarity on guidelines and features emerging as solutions are developed.

To help support the effectiveness of this team's work, please consider the following requests:

For community members who are not on the project team: You are welcome to read this page, but please do not edit the page itself. You are welcome to post your comments on the discussion page, but there is no guarantee that you will receive a response from anyone on the project team. If you wish to contact the project team, or if you wish to discuss how you might contribute time or energy to the project, please send us an email at nvc-it (at) yahoogroups.com. You may also go to our team discussion page to see what we have been discussing recently.

For more information: There is an older ITC section on this wiki with additional background information you might find interesting and helpful, titled CNVC IT Committee.

Thank you for your interest and consideration.

ITC Drupal Release Features

Discussion on Forum and Find for Drupal initial release or post-release implementation.

News

Click here to read about the latest developments of the ITC.

ITC Call Agenda

Click here for the agendas of our ITC meetings.

ITC_Feedback

Click here to read about Feedback Plan.

Membership

This circle co-selects its membership, through dialog with interested others. This circle's decision-making process for adding new members is: by consent of current members. We might ask ourselves and/or discuss the following questions for considerations in the consent process:

1. Will adding another person to the ITC increase our size in a way that adversely impacts our ability to hold brief and effective meetings?
2. Does this person bring skills we have an identified need for?
3. Are we comfortable with the giraffe consciousness and team spirit of this person?
4. Might we prefer to request that this person join our meetings as an observer and support the ITC by offering specific contributions that we request, working in collaboration with one or more designated ITC members?

• If someone expresses an interest in joining the ITC, at least one member of the ITC will be designated to connect with that person and report back to the committee with feedback on: the questions above, their sense of connection with this person, and their integrating with the group.
• Meetings: Members are requested to attend most meetings and may fully participate (speaking at any time). Non-members are invited to be on the circle's email list, observe meetings and give comments when invited, and may occasionally be invited to fully participate in meetings. The circle may occasionally choose to close portions of meetings to non-members.

Project milestones

Recent Milestones

Recent work is documented in our ITC Call Agenda section.

Early Milestones

Sept. 12: Consultant selected - hurrah! We're moving ahead on CivicSpace/Drupal evaluation with expert help.

June 16: Jake set up a first draft of this project coordination page - whew, I'm glad that's done!

June 14: Markus/Kay finished setting up a CivicSpace installation on nexcess - Congratulations!

January 31: Complete Alpha Version 1

February 23: Complete and Post(NVCWIKI) Long Term Goals

February 23: Complete and Post User Feedback Coordinator Plan

March 23: Complete Alpha Version 2

Upcoming milestones

Configure CivicSpace and understand how well it supports our requirements

When we reach this milestone, we will have configured our current CivicSpace installation in such a way that it meets our requirements as best as possible, using any existing modules available (but without doing any extra coding ourselves- yet). Also we will have a written record of what steps are required to set up this configuration. Also we will have filled out most of the CivicSpace entries in the tables below, to serve as a written record of which of our requirements are met by our CivicSpace installation, and how well those requirements are met.

Understand how well BlackBaud supports our requirements

When we reach this milestone, we will have filled out most of the BlackBaud entries in the tables below, and added more notes in the BlackBaud sections below.

Decide whether/how to roll out CivicSpace

Decide whether/how to proceed with rolling out a CNVC-endorsed, production CivicSpace installation for the entire NVC community.

Decide whether/how to integrate CivicSpace with functionality in Kay's existing website.

Decide whether/how to purchase BlackBaud

Decide whether/how to proceed with purchasing BlackBaud.

Decide whether/how to integrate BlackBaud with functionality in Kay's existing website and other existing CNVC systems (like QuickBooks, etc.).

ITC Tasks

Click here for a list and breakdown of ITC tasks.

Solutions we're exploring

Click here for a list and description of IT solutions and packages we're exploring.

Suitability of Solutions

Click here for suitability analysis of selected IT solutions and packages.

NVC IT systems currently running

Systems this team is developing

Our Nexcess CivicSpace Installation

Our Advantage Labs Drupal Installation

Use Cases Implemented

• User visits site anonymously as a “guest member."
• User, as a guest member, emails a certified trainer.
• User creates an account/membership at cnvc.org, signs up for a newsletter.
• User modifies own contact information.
• User finds certified trainer/local nvc supporter/local group or website.
• User member emails a local nvc supporter.
• User visits a local website.
• Certified trainer selects training areas and areas of expertise.
• Staff views complete contact information for a member.

Production systems (endorsed by - or used within - CNVC)

CNVC.org website

CNVC's QuickBooks

IIT spreadsheets

CNVC's mailing list database

Other production systems (not yet endorsed by CNVC)

Requirements we'd like to meet

Urgent requirements

Contact management

A centralized repository for contact information for the CNVC network. We want to minimize data duplication: both within the IT systems used by the CNVC office, and within the broader NVC community. As someone creates an account, the default should be to sign them up for Friends of NVC and the newsletter while offering the ability to opt out if they prefer not.

Ability for the office to add a new user (member); we have people who ask to be on our mailing list and do not provide an email address and may not have internet access.

Have a field that includes areas of experience in applying NVC, such as parenting, prisons, schools, social change, business, restorative justice, indigenous populations, etc.

Enable people with certain permissions (such as Certified Trainers and Sociocratic Circle contacts) to be associated with multiple countries/regions so that they can be “found” by people in multiple countries/regions, by language or by other criteria that may be identified in the future.

Viewers can find people throughout the network, by country (or proximity), by name, by function (trainers, local NVC supporters, GCC members, Sociocratic Circles, etc.) and then view contact information for them. There are two parts to this:

1) we would like the public website (accessible without membership or with guest membership) to display Certified Trainers, Sociocratic Circles, local NVC supporters, Practice Groups, and GCC members with some minimal contact information (to be determined).

2) having certain permissions would allow the viewer to see full contact information (for example trainers or Circle members, and staff could see full contact information on anyone including their email address).

Emailing individual members by members and by the general public (non-members) done safely without giving the email addresses away or sending unsolicited emails.

A report of all people with contact information produced on demand (with correct permissions).

Store travel info for contacts (frequent flyer numbers, etc).

History search, organized correspondence tracking, person history beyond financial.

Foundation data

Database combining online and CNVC office information.
Trainer contact info.
Donor contact info.
Local and Regional NVC group, and Circle contact info.

Fundraising

Donation management, reporting and tracking (as robust as is available)

a system for tracking donor contacts

create donor list reports (various categories)

IT Needs specific to fundraising for CNVC:

Database with most or all of the features found in Blackbaud.
Reporting mechanism so donors can track their money.
Means of tracking who's giving.
Communication w/donors via newsletter.
Ticklers for donor contact reminders (on screen at morning boot, not via email).

Event scheduling

Event scheduling and management: addition, editing, viewing with multiple event types, including scheduling trainings, conferences, meetings, NVC negotiation/mediation, and consulting services for Marshall (our founder) and other trainers or for Circles and other groups.

Keep track of event participants, including things like their room requests, scholarships, payments, etc. Create event participant list reports

Would like to be able to assign multiple trainers to events (as teachers)

Would like to be able to assign multiple contact people to events

One function we would like to have is for trainers, circles or other groups to be able to display their trainings or events (posted in our database) on their own websites. Like one-entry bookkeeping: they only have to enter their trainings once in our system and they can display on their own websites as well as CNVC’s.

Find trainings/events/meetings by date, topic, location/proximity, topic, trainer, difficulty level

Events calendars (different calendars for different types of events, e.g., trainings, donation events, meetings, conferences, etc.)

Individual and group calendars

CNVC-certified trainers can post their trainings; multiple trainers can be assigned to each training, we want multiple contact people to be able to be assigned to a training; Circles or other groups can post events, minutes, agendas and meetings

Online signup for IITs, including even room assignments; similar signup capability for groups and Circles

Affiliation groups

Affiliation groups (public and private data to the group). These groups can be language groups (e.g., Francophiles) or interest groups (e.g., restorative justice, parenting); we will want to be able to add new groups as the need arises

Ability of members to add/edit content within the group based on permissions

Ability to store documents, with access based on permissions

Collaborative workspaces

Wiki or similar for collaborative document generation and editing, with some areas having limited read and/or write access (e.g. GCC, Certified Trainers, Sociocratic Circles, etc.).

Collaborative work spaces, e.g., a place for Trainers, GCC, or Sociocratic Circles to work that only their members can modify

Ability to create documents in a shared environment with moderated documents, revision control, ability to collaboratively work on shared documents

Email Interface

Individual and group listserves (by topic, by person, by permissions) meaning that a trainer, Circle or other affiliation group can have his/her/their own listserve that people can sign up for, and there will also be group listserves, such as Friends of NVC, and the Trainers’ Newsletter.

Note: Friends of NVC and the Trainers’ Newsletter are currently Yahoo Groups; some thought needs to be given to whether or not we want to bring them in-house considering current email issues and the occasional inability to get a cnvc.org email to the recipient

Email publishing option for discussion groups and forums, including Digest function for the convenience of users who prefer that medium

Email interface to blogs for those who prefer that medium.

Emailing segments of users, possibly defined by their permissions and preferences

Email digest daily, by discussion volume or weekly.

User-selected optional automatic trimming of quoted prior emails to a pre-set number of first and last lines.

Online and offline mass mailing tools, with restricted access and first-use click agreement on usage guidelines to prevent spamming our contact lists.

Archive option for email interface?

Forums/chat rooms

want for varied topics. For example, empathy rooms (to give/receive empathy), discussion topics; empathy may have a donation associated with it

Online meeting/conference rooms and scheduling them

creation and moderation of discussion groups and forums

Access control

Ability of users to add themselves with general permission

Ability to assign different levels of access and multiple accesses to the same person (see list of permissions, below)

Users access their own profile information and update their contact information

User access to only that information and processes that they have permissions for. We are visualizing a variety of groups within the website, and each group would have public and private data of its own. In addition, there will be general public information to which everyone has access.

A certain segment of the website will be publicly viewable but only updated by a specific person or authorized people

A certain segment of the website will be available for, say, certified trainers to post information and once posted, only the person who posted it can change it

Many levels of access control, ranging from top system administrator through project manager and down to anonymous user. This enables a diverse community of people to create and access content with the level of security chosen for each type of user and content.

PERMISSIONS: This is a first take on the different kinds of permissions. A person can have multiple permissions. New permissions can be developed along the way as needs arise.

Those who can set themselves up:

• Guest Member: a means of giving a visitor access that requires a login ID and password (which would be displayed as a graphic with an email alternative) without setting up an account (so they can email people in the network and see lists of people in various areas of the world, assuming you have to be logged in to do that)
• General Members: what people get when they sign themselves up; ability to email people listed on the website and see lists of people in various areas of the world
• Local NVC Supporters: a general member would add this permission; would be listed on the website or be able to be found using proximity searching; possibly access to a local supporter forum
• Local NVC Groups & Websites: able to sign themselves up (need to deal with the issue of practice groups--talk to Kay); would be listed on the website or be able to be found using proximity searching; possibly access to a local supporter forum
• Sociocratic Circles: a group of people who form a circle based on language, region or other commonality; self-registration; listed on website and searchable; meeting agenda and minutes areas with optional restriction of write access to circle's secretary and/or facilitator and possibly other individuals; one or two of a circle's representative(s) may be granted GCC or other administrator-assigned permissions.

Permissions that need to be assigned by an administrator:

• Trainer Candidates: access to a trainer candidate forum?
• CNVC-Certified Trainers: access to posting trainings, posting a trainer report; collaborative workspaces (?); ability to post their writings; possibly the ability to set up their own email groups (e.g., to announce their trainings to interested people)
• Project Coordinators: access to posting project reports
• Organizer: currently the term applies to people who organize trainings for Marshall. Do we expand it to those who organizing NVC trainings for certified trainers? They would be able to supply training details after a training is set up and they are assigned to it as "organizer"
• CNVC GCC (staff): access to an area where the GCC can post meeting minutes; access to a private collaborative workspace for the GCC; probably need a GCC forum
• Executive director of the Center (staff):
• Director of educational services (staff):
• International project coordinator (staff):
• IIT administration (staff): ability to set up IIT trainings (only ones who can)
• CNVC Staff: access to all contact information (this applies to any permission group labelled "staff"); private collaborative workspace(s) (?)
• CNVC Office Manager (staff):
• Scheduler (staff): ability to set up trainings for Marshall
• Webmaster/Site Administrator (staff):
• Affiliation groups (language, region, themes/interests—parenting, professions/avocations—nursing); there would be a separate permission for each group; collaborative workspaces for each group; forums
• Trainers of Trainers: (?)

International enough

We have a worldwide audience.

Use 4 languages to start with: English, French, German and Spanish. We want the ability to handle international addresses and phone numbers.

We will also have content in different languages that we will want available to the general public. Sometimes the same document will be translated into several languages. How can people using different languages find documents in their language? Say they don’t speak/read much English.

Secure enough

We want our information protected from data mining, robots, hackers, etc. For example, there is a Drupal module that stops mining efforts or certain kinds of robots.

Variable levels of strong security.

Secure, to prevent hackers from unauthorized access or damage to the system.

Supports enough browsers

A wide variety of browsers are used on cnvc.org. Our statistics average around 61% for IE (20% of that 61% is versions of IE that are so old the version number cannot be determined) with 29 other browser/versions in use, some really old (Netscape 2, for example) and 15% undetermined (those stats are from a recent 7 day period). And we have a significant Mac audience. We want a design that uses CSS, is not dependent on graphics for navigation (which does not mean it can’t use graphics), degrades gracefully to older browsers, and will work on slow speed modems.

Easy enough to use

User friendly

Simple to maintain data.

Important (but not urgent) requirements

Content management

Ability to add/edit content: some content will be “official” documents (not to be modified, like GCC, Circle or other group minutes); some will be from people with permission to post. Is there a document approval process?

In addition to features/capabilities in CS, would there be some advantage to integrating a wiki for some official documents?

Document storage/exchange (including revision control and classification)

Can store press releases, press kits, and marketing materials. Also need to manage multi-media documents. Online newsletters, journals, magazines. Trainer reports.

Audio/video storage and viewing/listening

Audio and Video streaming and file download capability; free, restricted and paid.

Photos of IITs and other events.
Handouts and other documents from IITs and other events.
Maps and directions for IITs and other events.
FTP and/or BitTorrent / peer network capability for sharing other files.

Integrate blog, forum, file-sharing, wiki or other specialty applications so that they could provide advanced features while still using the same database to provide a single point for contact management?

Web feeds

Live "push" technologies like RSS.

Trainer Certification Management

Trainer certification renewal (automated)

E-commerce

Online store fronts that can deliver either services or goods. Easy to add/interface Kagi? Can we develop our own solution(s)?

E-learning

training classes, live or text based

High enough volume

Support a high volume of hits, such as would be experienced after our founder appears on Oprah’s television show or some other major media event.

Good enough support

Reliable and fast long-term support.

Widely available free and paid technical support.

Stable enough vendor

Solid long-term prognosis for commercial developer or open source project. In addition to content, many hours of labor typically go into learning and customizing a system and all that could be lost if the developer or open source project were to be shut down. Note that even very strong corporations are sometimes bought and shut down by larger companies who view them as competition, and open source projects sometimes lose the support and interest of their contributors.

Nice-to-have requirements

Instant messaging

Instant messaging (I’m private, visible to friends, or visible to everyone)

Blogging

Blogging

Polls and surveys

Webcasts

we currently use a service that broadcasts a PowerPoint presentation along with voices from speakers who call in by phone. The PPT presentation is not viewable by people using Macs unless they download a pdf of the presentation. We would like a different way to do web casts that works for Macs and PCs.

Video conferencing

Project management

Project management software/tools

create project financial reports

Online resource integration

Online tools integrating various CNVC and other online resources.
The cnvc.org website.
The NVCwiki website.
The Yahoo Groups and other email lists.

IT support for local NVC groups

Free IT package on CD or DVD data set, for distribution to NVC groups.
Client applications:
Pre-configured Linux installation for low-end computer and net access for low-income use.
Firefox browser and Thuderbird email application for security and compatibility.
OpenOffice for complete MS Office compatible application suite.

Server applications:
CivicSpace or equivalent integrated suite.
Apache server for those wanting to set up and run their own server.

Free computers with pre-installed IT package, for distribution to NVC groups.
Donated computers could be pre-configured by volunteers for shipment to NVC groups.
Using the IT package CD/DVD, local and regional volunteers could do the work.
Locations with access to suitable donated computers could do the work for shipment to groups nearest their location (e.g. North America for shipment to S. America, Europe for Africa).

Payroll

Support for CNVC payroll

Online/offline integration

Integration of online and offline content

Open source

Open source preferred (see description of [Open Source]) because of:

Low cost. Funds invested in the database reduce funds for CNVC training and scholarships.

No extra cost for distribution to NVC individuals and groups. Most commercial software charges more for each user, computer, or site using the package. GCC individuals and groups around the world could benefit from tools used by CNVC, and content generated would more likely be compatible between GCCs and CNVC.

Well documented open document formats ensure the ability to extract data if another system is chosen in the future, few commercial packages use open standards.

Robust multicultural, multinational and multilingual support.

Extremely reliable and robust with rapid bug fixes, updates and security patches.

Additional modules (e.g. Payroll, Donors, online features) at little or no cost.

Skills learned by IT staff and volunteers on one project would be applicable to other projects, rather than needing to learn different commercial packages.

Easy modification of features, functions, reports and screens. Commercial packages often lack the ability to modify some aspects of features, functions, reports and screens.

Easy creation of new features, functions, reports and screens. Commercial packages generally limit the ability to create new features and functions.

Free online support, with fee-based telephone support often available.

Inexpensive and volunteer IT support is sometimes available for open source applications, because many of these applications are developed by altruists and college students actively seeking projects.

Because customization of open source is generally easier than with commercial software, new features and modules are added daily and shared openly.

Any critical needs CNVC may have which are not already built in could be added by professional programmers at our expense and then shared with the NVC and open source community. Commercial vendors must not only identify a needed feature, but evaluate in advance whether the expense of adding it will produce enough added income to pay the programmers plus profit. It is rare for a commercial vendor to allow a customer to dictate or pay for the development of new features.

In general the open source community support model is free online support 24/7. Users with insufficient technical skills or facing urgent problems not quickly solved online can pay for telephone or on-site support from a wide variety of high quality vendors.

In general bugs and security risks are found and addressed more quickly in open source software than in commercial equivalents. This is partly due to the fact that commercial vendors have a vested interest in concealing flaws, and partly because the open source community is comprised of thousands of users and programmers in every time zone. An example of this may be seen in the free open source Firefox web browser which most experts report is more advanced, robust and secure than the latest Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Open source products often incorporate new technologies more quickly than commercial products because the latter must amortize their investments. Even if a package is unable to incorporate needed new technologies, commercial products tend to lock users in with proprietary data formats while open source products use published standards that make it easier to migrate existing work to a new open source or commercial platform.

Many programmers are available who have the skills to modify open source software. Some programmers, consultants and support might be found at no cost or relatively cheaply at technical schools and in the global open source community. Any customization work done can be offered free to other non-profits.

ITC's Feature Requests

This section is a means of communication from the ITC to the developers - for each requirement, it lists the features the ITC would like the developers to consider implementing to support that requirement. When possible, for clarity, these features are described in relation to features that have already been implemented on other existing web sites.

Urgent requirements

Contact management

Fundraising

Event scheduling

Affiliation groups

Feature: Chronological Display of Postings

The ability to view posts/comments/replies in reverse chronological order (most recent posts/comments/replies listed first). (Like the default sort order in yahoo groups - for an example, see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nvc-it/messages?o=1 ) (added by Jake)

Collaborative workspaces

Email Interface

Feature: Include complete post in email notification

In each email notification about a new post/comment/reply, include the complete post/comment/reply (not just the first few lines of the post/comment/reply). (added by Jake)

Feature: Full email interface for group discussion

One thing that makes Google Groups (as well as Yahoo Groups) especially appealing to me, and I'm guessing to others in the NVC community as well, is that it has a full e-mail interface for participating in group discussion - meaning that I can read, post, and reply to messages from the group from my email client by simply sending and replying to emails, without ever having to open a web browser or log in to a web site. For me this is a real time saver, especially considering the amount of group communication I do electronically. I'm hoping this is a feature our web site will have eventually. (added by Jake)

Forums/chat rooms

Access control

International enough

Secure enough

Supports enough browsers

Easy enough to use

Important (but not urgent) requirements

Content management

Web feeds

Trainer Certification Management

E-commerce

E-learning

High enough volume

Good enough support

Stable enough vendor

Picture on Profile

Request from Marshall, Certified Trainers, and GCC members.(add by William)

CNVC News

A "CNVC News" feature could provide a central place for giraffes to share what's going on.
MBR Request:

• The ability for network supporters to post information about NVC in their local area. The articles would be categorized by: Business, Celebrations, Mourning, Request for support.(added by William)
  

Jori Request:

• The articles would be categorized by: Education/Parenting, Personal Liberation, Government, Restorative Justice, Economics/ Business.(added by William)
  

John Comments:

• A "CNVC News" feature could provide a central place for giraffes to find out what's going on.
• Categories:

• Social Change (also included in all other categories).
• Celebration/Mourning.
• Requests/Offerings (for anything, including support - also volunteer moderators).
• Education/Parenting.
• Personal Liberation.
• Government.
• Restorative Justice.
• Economics/Business.
• News/Misc/Other (if trends emerge, more topics could be added).

• CNVC News coupled online collaboration tools like forums and blogs could be extremely powerful in creating and sustaining a truly global NVC community that is vastly larger and more diverse, because the Drupal platform we're developing has extensive support for multiple languages. A moderated CNVC News could be a collected and edited version of all unmoderated forums and blogs, to meet needs for both integrity for CNVC and expression (with a CNVC disclaimer on that public section) for the network. Open forums and blogs could be a great place for CNVC to harvest items for promotional efforts like Giraffes Around the World.

Nice-to-have requirements

Instant messaging

Blogging

Polls and surveys

Webcasts

Video conferencing

Project management

Online resource integration

IT support for local NVC groups

Payroll

Online/offline integration

Open source

Developers' Plans For Upcoming Versions

This section is a means of communication from the developers to the ITC - for each upcoming version, it lists the date the developers expect to complete the version, and the features that will be finished and working in that version. When possible, for clarity, these features are described in relation to features listed in the "ITC's Feature Requests" section above, or in relation to features that have already been implemented on other existing web sites. The features are organized into sections by requirement.

Version to be completed January 31, 2007

January 18, 2007
Bobbi Anderson, William Poehner, Kay Schwarzrock

Addressing ease-of-use/usability needs

We will be working with configuration management to create a look and feel and navigation that addresses the comments that were created in the ITC group regarding an easy-to-use website. It is hoped that we can do this in parallel with the tasks below. From the comments written, we believe this can be done using configuration management. If we see this one becoming a huge amount of work or custom code, we will immediately come back to the group and let you know that. We’ll be working on the design later (i.e., column width, color). We are not attempting to create the perfect theme by 1/31, just improve the ease-of-use and navigation. It’s easy to change colors and the look and right now our focus is on the functions and ease-of-use of the functions.

What is needed to turn off “insidecnvc”

In addition to the current static pages, in order to replace cnvc.org with a Drupal website, we need several pieces of functionality which will replace “insidecnvc”:
1. Public/private data access needs to be set up
2. Contact management with display for certain roles, including the ability to find types of people
3. The ability for trainers to post trainings, including managing topics
4. The ability for trainers to post/view trainer reports (an organic group)
5. An emailable report of the private information for all certified trainers, board members, Leadership Team, GCC, and staff/admin
6. The current data needs to be converted into the new system

Contents of The January Release

We are planning a first release for the end of January. The first release will include the following:

• The public/private information will be defined and functioning
  
• Contact information management will be complete (the profile) for the roles we have currently defined
  
• Intuitive: ability to add self, sign up, go back and edit my profile and user info with some ease
  
• Look and feel, cross browser, stability and ease of changing
  

Here are the details:

Public/private information

To review with this document is an Excel spreadsheet (or a pdf) showing the public/private permissions for each of the roles and data fields that we have so far defined. Please review the spreadsheet and give us your feedback. These are the rules and permissions that form the foundation for the website.

Contact information management

The user profile will be complete for each of the roles we have specified in the matrix. This will create a centralized repository for contact information for the CNVC network.

Ability for the office to add a new user (member); we have people who ask to be on our mailing list and do not provide an email address and may not have internet access.

Have a field that includes areas of experience in applying NVC, such as parenting, prisons, schools, social change, business, restorative justice, indigenous populations, etc.

Enable people with certain permissions (such as Certified Trainers) to be associated with multiple countries/regions so that they can be “found” by people in multiple countries/regions, by language or by other criteria that may be identified in the future.

Viewers can find people throughout the network, by country (or proximity), by name, by function (trainers, local NVC supporters, GCC members, Leadership team and the board, etc.) and then view contact information for them. There are two parts to this:
1) we would like the public website (accessible without membership or with guest membership) to display Certified Trainers, local NVC supporters, board, LT and GCC members with some minimal contact information (to be determined).
2) having certain permissions would allow the viewer to see full contact information (for example trainers and staff could see full contact information on anyone including their email address).

Emailing individual members by members and by the general public (non-members) done safely without giving the email addresses away or sending unsolicited emails.

Use Cases

• User visits site anonymously as a “guest member."
• User, as a guest member, emails a certified trainer.
• User creates an account/membership at cnvc.org, signs up for a newsletter.
• User modifies own contact information.
• User finds certified trainer/local nvc supporter/local group or website.
• User member emails a local nvc supporter.
• User visits a local website.
• Certified trainer selects training areas and areas of expertise.
• Staff views complete contact information for a member.

Developers' post-development review

A comparison of the original plan to what was actually accomplished - for example was there anything that was planned but not finished?

1) The public/private information is defined and functioning--this is the foundation of the website. This means the roles are created and the field access has been defined. While we may change various accesses as we do more testing, and will add more fields to it as we add functions that require additional fields, the task is essentially complete.

2) The profile is set up for all our current roles (note: trainers can select multiple countries, trainers can also specify areas of expertise, both are new abilities).

3) It's intuitive: ability to add self, sign up, go back and edit my profile and user info with some ease. It's hard to measure what is intuitive. I believe this is done, but the answer to this one probably comes from the ITC and the users.

4) Look and feel, cross browser, stability and ease of changing. We simplified the look and feel, dropping many items from the navigation. Again, the answer to this one probably comes from the ITC and the users.

In addition to the items in the plan, we have been updated to 5.1 Drupal which changes how we do events (it eliminates the event module--now we just put dates on the nodes, use views and output in calendar format) Allie did some analysis and determined that it would save us money to convert us now because several things we wanted are easier to do in 5.0. So they moved us.

While the stated objectives were met, we are not able to find local nvc supporters yet and therefore 3 of the anticipated use cases are not completed. What is not complete is being able to find the local nvc supporters. The functionality of the use cases is available for other people types.

A summary of what the developers' learned through developing this version?

We learned that when we lay out a plan for a phase, we need to have intermediate goals with dates, so that we can check our progress intermittantly rather than thinking everything is coming along but we can't really tell because everything is due at the end.

Use cases:

• User visits site anonymously as a “guest member." User goes to: http://cnvc-dev.advantagelabs.com/ User clicks on "New to this site?" in the Quick Links on the left at the top. User then sees a page with information on how to use this website. User clicks on "Learn/Teach NVC" and sees a page of information on learning NVC. 3 links have appeared under "Learn/Teach NVC": "NVC Concepts", "Learn NVC", and "Share/Teach NVC." User click on "NVC Concepts" and sees page titled "Nonviolent Communication is. . .?" In addition, at the top of the right column there is a list of links in the "NVC Concepts" section along with the links to the other major sections of "Learn/Teach NVC." User clicks on "Needs List" link and sees the page for the list of needs.

• User, as a authenticated member, emails a certified trainer. User goes to: http://cnvc-dev.advantagelabs.com/ User logs in as authenticated user. User clicks on Find." User then clicks on "Find a trainer." User sees page titled "Find Trainers." User clicks on "US" in country list and then clicks on the "submit" button. User sees list of trainers whose home country is the USA. User clicks on trainer name "Kay Schwarzrock" and sees profile. User clicks on the tab "Contact" and sees email components. User fills in "Subject" and "Message." User checks "Send yourself a copy." and then clicks "Send e-mail" button. User receives a copy of the email in his/her in box.

• User creates an account/membership at cnvc.org, signs up for a newsletter. User goes to: http://cnvc-dev.advantagelabs.com/ User scrolls down the page and clicks on "Create new account" on the left. User keys in Username and E-mail address. User clicks on "Create new account" button. User is returned to home page. User receives email with password. User scrolls down and enters Username and Password from email into boxes, and clicks on "Log in" button. User clicks on "My account" link in left column below User's name. User clicks on "Edit" tab. User enters a new password, twice, enters signature text, allows check mark for personal contact form to allow others to email user, user chooses time zone, user clicks on the "Submit" button to save changes. User clicks on "Profile Information" tab. User types Last Name, First Name, Your Name for Public View, types a postal address, postal code, selects a language, selects phone type 1, enters an international phone number 1, enters a national phone number 1, user checks box for "Network News", fills in Location information, clicks on "Submit" button, completing account setup.

• User modifies own contact information. User goes to: http://cnvc-dev.advantagelabs.com/ User logs in as authenticated user. User clicks on "My account" link in left column below User's name. User clicks on the "Profile Information" tab. User types new postal address. User clicks on "Submit button, saving changes.

• User finds certified trainer/local nvc supporter/local group or website. User goes to: http://cnvc-dev.advantagelabs.com/ User logs in as authenticated user. User clicks on Find." User then clicks on "Find a trainer." User sees page titled "Find Trainers." User clicks on "US" in country list and then clicks on the "submit" button. User sees list of trainers whose home country is the USA. User clicks on trainer name "Kay Schwarzrock" and sees profile.

• Certified trainer selects training areas and areas of expertise. Certified trainer goes to: http://cnvc-dev.advantagelabs.com/ Certified trainer logs in. Certified trainer clicks on "My account" link in left column below Certified trainer's name. Certified trainer clicks on the "Profile Information" tab. Certified trainer scrolls down to "Training Expertise" list. Certified trainer holds down the control key and clicks on Business, Parenting, and Schools. Certified trainer clicks on "Submit button, saving changes.

• Staff views complete contact information for a member. Staff goes to: http://cnvc-dev.advantagelabs.com/ Staff logs in as authenticated user. Staff clicks on Find." Staff then clicks on "Find a trainer." Staff sees page titled "Find Trainers." Staff clicks on "US" in country list and then clicks on the "submit" button. Staff sees list of trainers whose home country is the USA. Staff clicks on trainer name "Kay Schwarzrock" and sees profile. Staff sees complete listing of profile information, including private fields (postal code, website, postal address, phones 1-3, if used, and newsletter choices.

Version to be completed March 16, 2007

Alpha Version 2 Inside CNVC & IIT Foundation
Completion Date: 03/16/2007
Developers Review Date: 03/06/2007

Developers Goal for Alpha Version 2
The goal in this version is to finalize the reproduce the functionality currently available at cnvc.org/insidecnvc along with the basic foundation layout of the IIT on line registration/management implementation.

Reproduction of “InsideCNVC” Functionality

• The ability for trainers to log into Inside CNVC and see private data (logo information, etc...)
• The ability for trainer to post trainings
• The ability for trainers to view/post annual trainer report
• The ability to View/Print and Email CNVC contact list
• The ability for anonymous/authenticated users to search/find training by location
• The ability for anonymous/authenticated users to search/find training by date
• The ability for anonymous/authenticated users to search/find training based on level, topic, trainer
• The ability for anonymous/authenticated users to view training in calender view*
• The ability for trainers to add picture to their profile page*

(*Currently not available on cnvc.org/insidecnvc)

Reproduction of “IIT Registration/Management” Functionality

• The ability to create and schedule an IIT Training
• The ability to post BIS (basic information sheet) for public view
• The ability select multiple trainers
• The ability for Registrar to post IIT training on front page
• The ability to moderate participants subscription to IIT
• The ability to upload/download/store documents specif to IIT's

Proposed Budget (Hours)

• Advantage Labs (30 hours CAP)
• William (80 hours)
• Kay
• Markus

Use Case

The ability for trainers to login to Inside CNVC and see private data.
Certified Trainer logs in to cnvc.org by entering user name and password into login block at the bottom right hand corner. After user click on login a new menu appear on the right with the heading my groups. The user then click on “InsideCNVC” link. The user then see the front page with all logo and private certified trainer information. New menu option are available on the right hand side.
The ability for trainer to post trainings and attach documents
The user is viewing front page of “InsideCNVC”. On the right there are menu option only visible to member in the group. User clicks on create training and training edit options are displayed. The user then enters in training name, description, location, certified trainers and also attaches any documentation associated with training.(For IIT's the user would have to upload pictures to complete IIT front page) In the same window the user has the ability to choose moderation options. Click submit at the bottom and training is posted and visible depending on subscription options.
Moderating a Training/Group
In the same trainer edit window the moderator has the option to choose different levels of subscription.

• Open- subscription requests are accepted immediately.
• Moderation- subscription requests must be approved.
• Invite only-subscriptions must be created by an administrator.
• Closed-subscriptions are fully administered by an administrator.

The ability for trainers to view/post annual trainer report
User is looking at front page of “InsideCNVC” on the right hand side he/she has the option to create an annual trainer report. After clicking on annual trainer report the browser displays editing view of node. There are two fields available one for the trainer name and the other for the body of the trainer report. Having a simple node like this gives trainers with limited Internet access to quickly input there information, rather than fill out a lengthly form. To view a trainer report there will be section on the “Insidecnvc” front page were all the content will be grouped by type.
The ability to View/Print and Email CNVC contact list.
User is looking at the front page of “InsideCNVC”. On the right hand side there will be a link that you can click that will take you directly to the Private “InsideCNVC Report”. With contact information for all certified trainers, board members etc. There will be a print option and ability to cut and paste into an email. (I'm guessing its possible to have an option to email the article to the group)
The ability for anonymous/authenticated users to search/find training by location
User clicks on the find link, under quick links menu. The front page will change to find page and the menu will expand. User then click on search/find by location. Map of the world will be displayed, along with a list of continents. User click's North America and the page displays search options for country's available in that region. Then the user choose states, provinces available for that region to narrow do the search.
The ability for anonymous/authenticated users to search/find training by date
User clicks on find and is directed to find page main menu, same as previous use case. User then clicks on find training by date. User is able to select date range and click submit to view available trainings. (Use case subject to change, undergoing testing)
The ability for anonymous/authenticated users to view training in calender view
User click on calender icon or picture in find main menu. User is directed to calender page with a list of trainings by calender view. (Use case subject to change, undergoing testing)
The ability for trainer to add pictures to there profile page
User logs in to cnvc.org site and clicks on my accounts. User clicks on profile information and at the bottom has an option to upload picture.

Alpha Version 2 Review

Summery of Alpha Version 2
Function not completed:

• The ability for anonymous/authenticated users to search/find training by date.
  • Reason: I need more time to further evaluate this function on how it will correspond with other training content types (IIT Training).
• The ability for Registrar to post IIT training on front page.
  • Reason: Originally this would be an ease function to add, although currently its not possible to grant this level of access with out giving too much access.
• The ability for trainers to post an annual report.
  • Although this function is functional, I would like to spend more time fine tunning it. For example limiting the amount of reports that could be created in one year.

Additional Function Completed:

• The ability for Users to search training and local supporters by map view.

Developer's Learning (non Technical)

• When a site is been moved make sure to have a weeks worth of time to sort out bugs.
• Document development notes along the way, make sure to include that as part of the development schedule.

Uses Cases

• The ability for trainers to log into Inside CNVC and see private data: User goes to site http://cnvc.advantagelabs.com/ and logs in as a certified trainer. The user see Certified trainer block menu at the bottom right hand corner. User clicks on Certified trainer group and the menu expands. Listed below is Contact List, Logos to go, trainer renewal documents.
• The ability for trainer to post training's: User goes to site http://cnvc.advantagelabs.com/ and logs in as a certified trainer. The user see Certified trainer block menu at the bottom right hand corner. User clicks on Create a training and the system takes the user to the training edit window. The user enters training location and training details. User then clicks on submit to save the training and the training is now posted under find a training under quick links.
• The ability for trainers to view/post annual trainer report: User goes to site http://cnvc.advantagelabs.com/ and logs in as a certified trainer. The user see Certified trainer block menu at the bottom right hand corner. The user clicks on create a trainer report. The system takes the user to the annual trainer report edit screen. The user fills in trainer first and last name along with choosing year from the drop down menu. The user then enter trainer report into the trainer report text box. User click save and the trainer report is posted in Certified Trainer Group home page.
• The ability to View/Print and Email CNVC contact list: User goes to site http://cnvc.advantagelabs.com/ and logs in as a certified trainer. The user see Certified trainer block menu at the bottom right hand corner. The user clicks on Certified trainer group and the list expands. User then click on contact list and the system shows the contact list. User clicks copy's and paste text into an email.
• The ability for anonymous/authenticated users to search/find training by location: User goes to site http://cnvc.advantagelabs.com/ and click on find a under Quick links. The list expands and the user has the option to find a training via map view, calendar and list. User click on list and has the ability to sort from country, topic, language and level. User chooses one or two options from each category and clicks submit to filter the list. The user can now see a filtered list with the course name, topic, date, province/state and country.
• The ability for anonymous/authenticated users to search/find training by date: This function was not configured and will be added into the calendar function on the next release.
• The ability for anonymous/authenticated users to search/find training based on level, topic, trainer:this function has been addressed in option,"The ability for anonymous/authenticated users to search/find training by location:" use case.
• The ability for anonymous/authenticated users to view training in calender view: User goes to site http://cnvc.advantagelabs.com/ and click on find, under Quick links. The list expands and the user has the option to find a training via map view, calendar and list. The user clicks on Training calendar. The user then sees the current month and all training available for the current month. The user can click on the next arrow to see a training available for future months. The user also has options to click on the Year, Week and Day view to see a more filtered view.
• The ability for trainers to add picture to their profile page: User goes to site http://cnvc.advantagelabs.com/ and logs in as a certified trainer. the user clicks under my account under the users name. User then clicks on edit tab and the browser shows the edit window. The user then scrolls down to picture option were the user has the browser button were the user can choose a picture file to upload. User then click submit at the bottom and the picture file is then shown on the profile view page.

IIT Functionality

• The ability to create and schedule an IIT Training, The ability to post BIS (basic information sheet) for public view ,The ability to upload/download/store documents specif to IIT's: Registrar goes to site http://cnvc.advantagelabs.com/ and logs in as staff member. Registrar then clicks on "create content" menu option under there user name. The system the shows the content available to create. The registrar then click on IIT Training and the system navigates to IIT Training edit window. Registrar can now enter all IIT basic location, fill out BIS information, attach pictures to BIS information field. Registrar also has the ability to upload BIS information sheet at the bottom of the edit window. Registrar then click on submit and the IIT is saved.
• The ability to moderate participants subscription to IIT: User goes to site http://cnvc.advantagelabs.com/ and logs in under authenticated user. User sees IIT training listed at the top right hand corner and click on the link. User is able to see IIT Basic information and download basic information sheet. User then has an option to request a subscription. User clicks on subscribe button and the system displays"Subscription request to the IIT group awaits approval by an administrator". The user then waits for email notification for subscription approval. The group administrator is the notified by email and logs in to accept approval.

Version to be complete May 14th

Beta Version 3

Developers Goal
Our goal is to produce a preproduction version of the Drupal site. We will incorporate the information gathered from the feedback team (which is assessed by the IT Committee) into the new site, and port over data and content from the existing site. We will add minor functionality and continue testing current functionality.

Functionality:

• Email notification when a certified trainer updates their email address.
• Email notification when a certified trainer post trainer report. (add date field/ sort by date )
• Ability to accept training request.
• Ability to manage/moderate training request.
• For authenticated user to post Forum topics and entries
• Ability for an authenticated user to create personal blog and post blog entries

Data Porting:

• Port over all Countries, languages, training topics. (4 hours)
• Port over all cnvc.org page content (5 days 1 person)
• Port over user profiles, training and trainer reports. (Advantage Labs)

Misc. Tasks

• Create online book on drupal site and document development decisions
• Resolve bugs and make changes based on Feedback team information

Budget: Advantage Labs
Data import Script from both Event & Contact tables
16 hours
Bug and changes from Feedback team
8 hours
Meetings, Training & Consulting
4 hours
Email notification script
2 hours
Total 30 hours ($3,000.00)

Long Term Development Plans

Alpha Version 3:

• Begin user testing
• Respond to user input with changes
• Port over countries, languages, training topics
• Continue to port over content
• Add email/notification of people of various changes (updating email address for trainers’ newsletter, trainer report adding)
• Test porting “insidecnvc” content (users, trainings, trainer reports)

Alpha Version 4:

• Complete IIT functions
• Port over final content pages from website
• Port over “insidecnvc” content (users, trainings, trainer reports)
• Go live with original login IDs and passwords from “insidecnvc”

GO LIVE WITH PUBLIC

Beta Version 1:

• Affiliation groups
• Collaborative workspaces
• Request a Marshall training
• Review Marshall requests
• Accept a Marshall training

Beta Version 2:

• Ecommerce
• Email Interface
• Downloading changes to Quick Books

Beta Version 3:

• Fundraising (probably with a 3rd party vendor)

Beta Version 4:

• Elearning