NVC IT Status

This page is the coordination system for a team that is working on improving IT support within CNVC and throughout the NVC community by providing an integrated computer and web package. While details have not yet become clear potential users might include Certified Trainers, GCC (formerly the CNVC Board of Directors), Event Planners, 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. As currently envisioned 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 explored.

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 project team members: Please edit this page to keep it up-to-date. Please confirm with Jacob Gotwals before changing the instructions on how to use this page, and before changing the structure of this page (adding, deleting, rearranging, or changing major headings.) Please keep the team informed about significant changes you make to this page, by sending an email to the team at nvc-it (at) yahoogroups.com.

Thank you!

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 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.

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