The trailer for Michael Moore’s movie SiCKO is currently a prominent feature on the home page of Los Angeles law firm Quisenberry Law’s website. Quisenberry Law’s attorney, Heather McKeon, and client, Tarsha Harris, appear in this movie which is helping to bring attention to insurance practices against which the firm has been fighting for years.
Marketing Director Jennifer Reynolds approached us with a request to place this video on their website. Urgency was dictated by the movie’s upcoming commercial release. Jennifer wanted to know, “How soon?” Prudent firm managers needed to know, “How much?”
Since the movie trailer was located on YouTube, tools they provide permit simple implementation on a website. This solves the video media content hosting issue. However, the challenge was to empower Jennifer to place and remove videos on demand and at will throughout the website. This would reduce web maintenance costs and permit the firm to manage their own response time in the face of new opportunities.
Duo modified the text editor in the Content Management System. This permits the site administrator to follow a few brief, non-technical steps to place a YouTube video in any text area on the site. Without further cost, it is a simple matter for the site administrator to move the video from its presently featured location on the home page to a more permanent location in the News, Events & Publications section of their site.
Speed? Jennifer green-lighted the project on June 13. Five business days later, on June 20, the day before the first U.S. public viewings of the movie, the website was ready for approval and went live thereafter. Cost? That’s private. But not much. ChEAPO.
“We are outraged at the exemption BP has received from state environmental laws by Indiana state regulators threatening the efforts of the last 30 years to preserve and protect the Great Lakes, our region’s greatest natural resource.”
In a strongly worded letter, Timothy J. Mitchell, General Superintendent & CEO, Chicago Park District (CPD) used the power of email to rapidly and cost effectively galvanize the attention of tens of thousands of Chicagoans who live, work and play on the world’s largest body of fresh water. His urgent initiative on July 19, 2007 calling for a petition drive on July 21, 2007 to “Save our Lake,” came just a few days after Indiana’s actions.The incident is noteworthy not only for the rapid and decisive action in the face of an imminent environmental threat but that a massive public solicitation was enabled by email, permitting instant personal appeals to targeted Chicago citizenry.
Since the launch of its website, CPD has invited site visitors to subscribe to its newsletter. And they do by the scores everyday, resulting in a healthy and growing permission-based email list of residents interested in their city’s parks, recreational activities and environmental quality. It was this list that Tim Mitchell turned to mobilize action quite literally for taxpayer’s fractional pennies per contact.
When decisive government officials use technology effectively, the results can be, well, maybe we can Save Our Lake.
Are you a Chicago area resident? To start getting signatures in your neighborhood, click here to download a copy of the petition.
We’ve recently expanded our content management system (CMS) portfolio to include eZ Publish, a leading enterprise-level, open source CMS. Our new partnership with eZ Systems (http://ez.no) provides our clients new solutions to their content management business initiatives, and allows us to provide a well-supported open source solution – a first for Duo.
We initially selected eZ Publish as a solution for our internal product development. In researching open source content management systems, we outlined the following criteria:
- the solution should have a strong level of community support;
- it should provide sufficiently adequate “out of the box” functionality;
- the vendor should have a long-term strategic vision for the product;
- the solution should have a clear licensing model;
- the vendor should provide support for the solution.
eZ Publish met all of our criteria.
In getting to know the product, we quickly realized that eZ Publish could be a viable open source option for some of our clients. eZ Publish’s model allows users to choose both a support model and a licensing model that meets their needs. Clients have the option to receive technical support directly from the vendor (though we will always provide support for the solutions we provide), and can also benefit from the knowledgebase shared in the active eZ Publish community. The General Public License (GPL) can serve as the licensing model, as is the case with most open source Solutions, though clients can also select the eZ Proprietary Use License (eZPUL).
Open source solutions are not right for everybody. We are agnostic to the technologies and platforms we utilize when solving our clients’ problems, as every client has different needs. We will continue to offer and support our other partners’ content management solutions.
Anyone researching content management systems should start with CMS Watch (http://www.cmswatch.com). Seth Gottlieb’s blog at ContentHere (http://contenthere.blogspot.com) is another resource, providing reviews of the current state of open source content management systems. Seth gave a great presentation at Web Content 2007 regarding the myths of open source. You can view many of the Web Content 2007 presentations on the WC2007 site. eZ Systems joined the event as a sponsor; read the ‘Sponsor Spotlight’ about eZ Systems.
Many of our clients will become familiar with the newest member of the Duo team. Steve Sobel recently joined us as Maintenance Director and Project Manager. As such, he’ll be working closely with Jim Thaxton to take over management of our maintenance process. With over a decade of experience in web development, design and project management, Steve is well suited to the task.
Before joining Duo, Steve managed the branch marketing system at HSBC, where he performed business analysis and managed projects with budgets measured in the hundreds of thousands, and impacts measured in the millions. Fortunately for us and his clients, he has a strong ability to translate technical concepts into terms that anyone can understand.
Steve is the latest addition to our rapidly filling office; we’ve grown to more than 30 staff members! Take a moment to read some of the new bios on our ‘people’ page; you’ll quickly see why we knew these skilled individuals would be a great fit for Duo.
