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The Persistence of Email

Steve Backman — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:29:06 -0400

Email is in the news these days, at least here in Boston and Massachusetts. Twitter, Facebook, and political blogs have elbowed their way in as organizing tools, yet incidents in the lowly world of email have had a huge public impact.

If you don’t live in Massachusetts, our local politics may not interest you and who can blame you. Bear with me a minute.

How long do email posts persist?

Manage Projects With Open Atrium for Drupal

Steve Backman — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 09:50:38 -0400

I’m trying out Open Atrium. http://openatrium.com/ Now in first beta, Open Atrium from Development Seed consolidates powerful project management features to Drupal in a modern, polished format.

When we first started bearing down on Drupal two years ago, about the first thing we wanted to do manage independent projects on our own www.dbdes.com site. We got reasonably far, with the ability to define clients, projects, tasks and organize blog-like discussion and documents for each.

Internet Privacy, Social Networking and "Digital Natives"

Steve Backman — Sun, 10 May 2009 08:30:41 -0400

John Palfrey would probably call himself a “digital settler,” someone comfortable enough with technology to help open up the new realms of pervasive digital media and online social networking. I just heard him speak about the emerging population of “digital natives,” those among the 1 to 3 Billion people born after 1980 with access to the new web and/or mobile technology and who have been exposed to the ways and means of its merger with daily life. ("Digital immigrants" make up Palfrey's third and largest clump of the human population--those of us slowly struggling to make their way in the post-email new world.)

For anyone working with youth in schools or youth-serving community organizations, Palfrey’s Born Digital, Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives, is essential reading. Since reading it last winter, I have found myself referring to it repeatedly in planning meetings about on-line privacy and security on our sites, the constructions of line identities, how advocacy and services can mesh with everyday social networking as experienced by young people today.

To see what it’s all about, before mentioning any websites, I’ll start by just passing on this youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79IYZVYIVLA&feature=related.

Synchronizing home and office computers

Steve Backman — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 15:58:02 -0400

I’m back to using two computers regularly. My trusty laptop now frequently just sits on my desk. While traveling around, my shiny new, lightweight Ubuntu netbook (a Dell mini 12) connects to the Internet, has Open Office, Remote Desktop, and enough other stuff that I am fine. I’m not here to sing the virtues of Ubuntu; I want to talk about the challenges of having data on more than one computer.

New from Idealware.org: Comparing Open Source Content Management Systems

Steve Backman — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 15:39:35 -0400

On March 31, Idealware.org released its long-awaited in-depth comparison of Open Source content management systems. Database Designs’ Steve Backman contributed to the evaluation of Drupal and reviewed the overall report and we helped sponsor its publication.

Download it free from idealware: http://www.idealware.org/blog/2009/03/new-report-comparing-wordpress-joo...

Lively "Be the Media" conference in Boston

Steve Backman — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 06:50:21 -0500

This year's "Be The Media" mini-conference gathered both experienced social networking activists and those just getting started with the new media. Sponsored by Project Think Different, Boston Women's Fund, Resist, Press Pass TV and Third Sector New England, this day long conference targeted communications staff and organizers from smaller, under-resourced organizations.A series of lively workshops explored "Challenges and Opportunities in the Age of New Meda for Grassroots Organizations."

10 things I like about Balsamiq for creating design mockups

Steve Backman — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 13:36:10 -0500

I am not by nature a tech tools junkie. I tend to stick with what works for longer than my peers and database designs colleagues. That said, I am always on the lookout for something new that really works. Balsamiq Mockups fits that category for creating screen mockups as part of a design process.

Don't take GMail or other blessings for granted

Steve Backman — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 13:30:19 -0500

At Thanksgiving time of year, we are supposed to reflect on things we take for granted. I want to acknowledge that I tend to take some of my desktop tools for granted. Case in point this morning: don’t take your browser or you web mail for granted.

Basecamp and Project Management

Steve Backman — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 08:30:30 -0500

Back in September, Peter Campbell kicked off a discussion about project management in the idealware.org blog. I wanted to pick up the thread by focusing in on Basecamp. Among project management-related tools, Basecamp has the buzz. It is quite common when we start a new project, that someone from the team involved will have used it and know their way around it.

Mass Nonprofit Network: Strengthening Nonprofits in an Age of Precious Resources

Steve Backman — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 05:40:07 -0400

The Massachusetts Nonprofit Network will hold its first annual conference Friday October 24 at Bentley College in Waltham.

Building Intranet and community network sites

Steve Backman — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 05:33:08 -0400

These days, having an “Intranet” comes up a lot as a requirement for website projects. I’m using the term advisedly to refer to a range of needs for private space for organizing campaigns and collaboratively developing ideas.

Content Management Systems and other website redesign dilemmas

Steve Backman — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:42:20 -0400

Note: previously posted on http://www.idealware.org/blog/, where Steve is now a regular contributor

Is it just me, or is everyone redoing their web site all of a sudden? This summer, we had a rash of requests to talk about web site options. I am writing this after a neighbor who has never previously talked tech with me literally stopped me in the street about her organization’s site.

Computing in the Clouds

Steve Backman — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 10:17:59 -0400

Moving our office this summer, we ended up having a gap between moving out and moving in. I got many questions about what we did with all our servers while bridging the gap. Fact is, though we use many such things, most of it is out there in the “cloud.”

Passwords and personal data security

Steve Backman — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 09:36:10 -0400

Data security has been in the news again lately with new stories about stolen laptops (Anheuser Busch) and credit card break-ins. Its easy to slip into the mindset that nothing is safe so why bother. One point of vulnerability that has been on my mind lately is passwords.

Take the Firefox 3 Pledge

Steve Backman — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 08:20:12 -0400

I’ll be celebrating Download Day Tuesday June 17. That’s when Mozilla will release Firefox 3, the new generation of the Open Source browser.

I have used test versions of Firefox 3 for months and love it. I love the performance and speed even when I have multiple tabs open, which I almost always do. Right now, I have Firefox 22 tabs open, and the browser remains perky and stable. Yes, it’s using up a huge amount of my computer’s free memory, but I’d rather give it to that then most anything else on my desktop.

BlueAnt: Great Product, Great Service

Steve Backman — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 07:40:47 -0400

Being in the customer service line of fire myself, I'm always impressed when a small company manages both good products and good service.

Memorial Day

Steve Backman — Tue, 27 May 2008 09:39:38 -0400

I visited the Forest Hills Cemetery today, on Memorial Day. I rode my bike over for a quiet afternoon visit. Fresh flags had gone up along the winding roadway in, and commemorative flags marked some of the graves.

Backing Up is Not Hard to Do

Steve Backman — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:17:19 -0400

Recently my Carbonite back-up stopped working. Carbonite is one of the new breed of low-cost, on-line, continuous data back-up services. I have tried Mozy and Jungle Disk as well, and stick with Carbonite because I started with it, it works quietly and reliably, the control panel is simple, and its costs just $50 a year for unlimited storage.

Heathrow's T5 and technology project management

Steve Backman — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:31:25 -0400

I have been trying to follow the problems in the new T5 terminal at Heathrow Airport. There are small project management problems and there are big ones. Ours are modest. On the scale of big, you have T5 which apparently included 400,000 hours of software development (that’s a lot of lines of code!), a full year of testing and a full year of training. Yet its open was a technology disaster.

Where will you get your news?

Steve Backman — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 07:02:09 -0400

From the opening scene of Blade Runner, you know you are in for a more personally challenging vision of the future. Harrison Ford’s monologue interposed with messages from oversized personal billboards (“a new life awaits you…”) still come to memory first for me even after all these years. Visually alluring ads clash with the degraded city.