[MCN-L] Tiny URLs
Dear Nancy, FYI, here's an article on the limitations of free URL shorteners: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-you-shouldnt-rely-on-url-shorteners-2009- 8 Here's a comparison of services, but it doesn't address the longevity of the links: http://royal.pingdom.com/2009/08/18/url-shortener-speed-and-reliability-shoo tout/ The answer may be to create your own service on your own server. Google the phrase: create your own link shortener and you'll find lots of articles. Here's one: http://lifehacker.com/5335216/make-your-own-url-shortening-service Robert __ Robert L. Weiner Consulting 415/643-8955 robert at rlweiner.com www.rlweiner.com Strategic Technology Advisors to Nonprofit and Educational Institutions -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Proctor, Nancy Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 7:19 PM To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Subject: [MCN-L] Tiny URLs Does anyone know or have experience of the life span of compressed URLs from the various services? (tiny, bit.ly, is.gd, etc.) I know what they promise, but... I may need to use them in txt message replies that visitors can get as a sort of bookmark or aide memoire when taking our new cellphone tour. Links to related info for objects in the collection would be useful and space is short, but I don't want to txt out URLs that will expire too quickly. Nor do I know how quickly is too quickly. Some earlier research with 'bookmark' emails in Tate Modern's multimedia tour by Silvia Filippini Fantoni showed that people will keep the info they've emailed themselves for months in their in-boxes. What's the half-life of a txt message? I started a blog thread on the topic on the Museum Mobile wiki: http://wiki.museummobile.info/archives/645 Thanks for any insights you have! Nancy ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] Question to Post, Re: Electronic Meeting Options
Dear Hannah, Here's a blog post from Earthjustice's IT director about their videoconferencing project: http://unearthed.earthjustice.org/2009/05/flying-in-place-videoconferencing. html I'm sure he'd be happy to answer questions. Here's his personal blog site with contact info: http://www.techcafeteria.com/ Robert __ Robert L. Weiner Consulting Strategic Technology Advisors to Nonprofit and Educational Institutions San Francisco, CA robert at rlweiner.com 415/643-8955 www.rlweiner.com -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Hannah_Blake at nps.gov Sent: Friday, June 05, 2009 8:41 AM To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Subject: [MCN-L] Question to Post, Re: Electronic Meeting Options Hello, I work for a geographically large National Heritage Area within which are many organizations including museums. While face-to-face meetings are always valuable, it's been difficult to attract participation from throughout our 500 mile-long Corridor for some of the shorter workshops and meetings. Therefore, I'm exploring conference-calling and on-line meeting options. I'd be extremely grateful if I could benefit from existing research especially explorations that have been done by more tech-savvy people than me! Here are some of the features that I'd like to have: Access by 50+ people at a time Low cost Simple for everyone with a computer or phone to participate (not requiring downloads if possible, etc.) mechanism for facilitation by us to prevent everyone from talking over each other Thanks for any assistance the group can provide! Hannah Hannah Blake Director of Planning and Heritage Development Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor P.O. Box 219 Waterford, NY 12188 (518) 237-7000, ext. 202 (518) 237-7640 (fax) www.eriecanalway.org ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] Confidence in Online services?
Dear Kathy, FYI, I wrote a short blog post about this last year discussing best practices for hosted data. It's at http://www.rlweiner.com/best-practices-for-hosted-data Robert __ Robert L. Weiner Consulting Strategic Technology Advisors to Nonprofit and Educational Institutions San Francisco, CA robert at rlweiner.com 415/643-8955 www.rlweiner.com -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Kathy Amoroso Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2009 10:18 AM To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Subject: [MCN-L] Confidence in Online services? Hi All, I have been reading about so many people moving things to Google Docs or Flickr. Aren't you afraid that they could just fold someday? I am nervous to rely on third-party solutions since there is no guarantee. We tell contributors to the Maine Memory Network NOT to use our servers as their only storage system since the future is not guaranteed. Kathy Kathy Bolduc Amoroso Director of Digital Projects kamoroso at mainehistory.org or kathy at mainememory.net Maine Historical Society, 489 Congress Street, Portland, ME 04101 (207)774-1822 x227 | www.mainehistory.org | www.mainememory.net ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] Favorite e-commerce system
Dear Simon, The answer isn't simple. Merchandise sales (including the ability to manage an inventory or calculate tax and shipping charges based on zip code and quantity) are pretty different from online donations and memberships, or ticket sales, or subscriptions. And then there's the question of integration with your web site and back-end database. But here are some resources: Idealware and TechSoup published a roundup of online payment multitaskers in 2007: http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/webbuilding/page6123.cfm but it's not specific to shopping carts. They reviewed credit card processing options last year: http://techsoup.org/learningcenter/funding/page10327.cfm They also reviewed online donation processing systems, although that report is 4 years old; http://www.idealware.org/donations/ And Affinity Resources maintains a list of online donation processors: http://affinityresources.com/pgs/awz55Online2.shtml Page 2 of that chart lists other services from each vendor, including shopping carts: http://affinityresources.com/pgs/awz55Online3.shtml As to Google Checkout, I'm not wild about it. The price is hard to beat (at least for U.S. charities), but it's limited. Although it can be used for memberships and donations, I think the user experience is too much like buying goods, and the receipts can't be customized sufficiently. PayPal Standard is also limited, but the Pro version is pretty robust. One option might be to use a shopping cart for goods and a donation processor for donations and memberships. Robert __ Robert L. Weiner Consulting Strategic Technology Advisors to Nonprofit and Educational Institutions San Francisco, CA robert at rlweiner.com 415/643-8955 www.rlweiner.com -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Kaia Landon Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 11:24 AM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Favorite e-commerce system I'm surprised this hasn't drawn any responses to the list yet, so I'll bite. For most of our e-commerce needs, we simply use Paypal Payments Standard. We have also used Google Checkout. Between the two, I actually prefer Google Checkout, but it does not have the option to allow people to pay without creating an account, while Paypal does. As far as I am concerned, this is a major drawback. (I also get the feeling that convincing someone to use Paypal right now is easier than Google Checkout, but I have no statistics on that.) For transactions without an account, however, Paypal requires the visitor to click through a TON of screens to actually complete the transaction. This is obnoxious in its own right, and I am quite certain we have lost sales due to this (why it needs to be more than 2 screens I don't know). We have investigated our options for running online card transactions through our regular credit card processor, but the monthly fees on this are prohibitive for the volume of sales we usually do. If we consistently did $2,000 in sales through the website, per month, we would almost certainly use them. We have experimented with CiviCRM for events, but I'm currently waiting for at least 2.2 for it to have more of the features we really need. For simple event ticketing, CiviCRM (in tandem with a payment processor of your choice) can be a good choice, but if you need more complexity (multiple registrations without requiring multiple email addresses, for instance), it's just not quite there yet. We will probably transition our online store to Ubercart later this year. Again, this works with your payment processor, so it isn't perfect, but it is certainly easy to get running, and is also easy to make changes. Ubercart has a lot of nice features, especially compared with hand-coding the store pages with tables and Paypal. (Ubercart and CiviCRM both work with Drupal, although CiviCRM at least can be standalone.) Kaia Landon Curator of Education Mesa Historical Museum On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 4:20 AM, Amalyah Keshet [akeshet at imj.org.il] akeshet at imj.org.il wrote: Looking for the same information. Thanks in advance to all. Amalyah Keshet Head of Image Resources Copyright Management The Israel Museum, Jerusalem -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Tanner, Simon Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 5:26 PM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: [MCN-L] Favorite e-commerce system Hi everyone, I am wondering if people would be willing to share their favoirte e-commerce systems and providers? This could be the shopping cart software, or the electronic funds transfer system or a bespoke provider of a turn key solution. But what is your favorite (and why would be nice)? Any answers not posted to the list I will provide as a digest. Many thanks for your help. Happy New Year! Simon -- Simon Tanner Director, King's Digital
[MCN-L] NTEN - Non-Profit Technology Network?
Dear John, I'm a member of NTEN. There's certainly overlap, but the organizations have different missions and serve different needs. NTEN has a broader mission than MCN and focuses on a wide range of technologies that support nonprofits. As an example, here's the agenda for their upcoming Nonprofit Technology Conference: https://www.ntenonline.org/EWEB/DynamicPage.aspx?webcode=EventSessions They're also conducting research on a variety of IT issues, like staffing levels and salaries, and vendor satisfaction: http://nten.org/research Robert __ Robert L. Weiner Consulting Strategic Technology Advisors to Nonprofit and Educational Institutions San Francisco, CA robert at rlweiner.com 415/643-8955 www.rlweiner.com __ Robert L. Weiner Consulting Strategic Technology Advisors to Nonprofit and Educational Institutions San Francisco, CA robert at rlweiner.com 415/643-8955 www.rlweiner.com -Original Message- From: John Bedard [mailto:jbed...@artsmia.org] Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 11:45 AM To: mcn LISTSERV Subject: [MCN-L] NTEN - Non-Profit Technology Network? Does anybody have experience with NTEN, Non-Profit Technology Network? If so, is there anything it offers that MCN does not? Or any recommendations about joining or not joining? John R. Bedard Director of Information Projects and Services The Minneapolis Institute of Arts 2400 Third Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55404 Phone: 612-870-3268 Fax: 612-870-3004 Email: JBedard at artsmia.org www.artsmia.org www.artsconnected.org ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] website evaluations
Dear Perian, Here are some articles about how to conduct a usability survey: http://www.usabilitynet.org/tools/surveys.htm http://www.archimuse.com/mw2001/papers/schweibenz/schweibenz.html And here is a sample survey: http://www.nih.gov/icd/od/ocpl/resources/OMBClearance/ODOERGrantsSurvey.pdf Run a search for web usability survey (without the quotes) and you'll find lots. I didn't see many that are specific to museums, but many of the issues are common - how easy is it to use the site, what image does it project, and can you find what you are looking for? That said, here's an article on why it's more important to watch users than to ask them for their opinions: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010805.html Robert __ Robert L. Weiner Consulting Strategic Technology Advisors to Nonprofit and Educational Institutions San Francisco, CA robert at rlweiner.com 415/643-8955 www.rlweiner.com -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Perian Sully Sent: Monday, July 07, 2008 9:09 AM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: [MCN-L] website evaluations Hi all: We're redesigning our website and wanted to get a survey out for our members, to help us determine the content and the structure of the new site. Does anyone have a needs assessment survey or something like who would be willing to share? Thanks! Perian Sully Collection Information and New Media Coordinator Judah L. Magnes Museum 2911 Russell St. Berkeley, CA 94705 Work: 510-549-6950 x 357 Fax: 510-849-3673 http://www.magnes.org http://www.musematic.org http://www.mediaandtechnology.org ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l
[MCN-L] mass email query
Janice, I've posted links to lots of articles on this topic on my Resources page at http://www.rlweiner.com/resources.html#email In particular, check out the articles from Alder Consulting, Idealware, and ONE/Northwest. Robert __ Robert L. Weiner Consulting Strategic Technology Advisors to Nonprofit and Educational Institutions San Francisco, CA robert at rlweiner.com 415/643-8955 www.rlweiner.com -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Janice Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2007 12:51 PM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: [MCN-L] mass email query Has anyone researched the various services for sending out mass emails? We have been using Drupal to send out Enews to members/teachers or other mailing lists and thinking of switching to a service. What works and what doesn't? And what volume are you sending on a monthly basis? Janice Craddock IT Manager Amon Carter Museum ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l
Re: Donor Information Maintenance
Renee, My clients have used three options: The least technical one is to institute a set of rules stating that one database is the "corporate" database. It's the one that will be used for all mailings. All address changes must be entered there, and when there's a conflict, that database is presumed to be the accurate one. The next option is to maintain separate databases but build bridges between them. Changes made in one database (which might still be the corporate database) are synchronized with the others. Again, you'll need a good set of rules to keep the sync process from deleting good data. The third option is to replace your various databases with one system that does it all. In addition to selecting and converting to the system, you'll need to develop policies about how departments share data. In a shared system, one department can change contact info that another believes is correct. These are the mirror images of the policies you need for the first option. Robert __ Robert L. Weiner Consulting Providing Strategic Technology Consulting to Nonprofits and Education San Francisco, CA rob...@rlweiner.com 415/643-8955 www.rlweiner.com -Original Message-From: Rossi, Lindsey [mailto:lro...@lacma.org]On Behalf Of Montgomery, ReneeSent: Thursday, September 29, 2005 4:29 PMTo: mcn-l@mcn.eduSubject: Donor Information Maintenance I'm wondering how other museums keep donor information up-to-date between your various internal databases. For instance we have separate databases for our collection, and membership and development records - which don't speak to each other. Often the same donor's name will appear in both databases as an art donor as well as a cash donor or member. Sometimes our Membership and Development office has the most up-to-date address, sometimes the Registrar's office does. Do you have any special protocol between Registration and Membership Development, so that you don't have to re-check an address each time you send? Renee Montgomery Asst. Director, Collections Management and Information ren...@lacma.org --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rob...@rlweiner.com To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rlancefi...@mail.wesleyan.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com
Re: Web Promotion [faked-from]
Title: Message Will and Renee, Several of my clients have worked with Stephanie Imbalzano on e-solicitation campaigns. She used to be with erroyo.com but started her own firm, Mainspring Media Communications,last year (www.mainspringmc.com). I've always been impressed by her work. I don't think she's worked with any museums -- most of her clients have been universities. Her email address is simbalz...@mainspringmc.com Another firm whose work I really like is DonorDigital: www.donordigital.com. Again, I'm not sure that they've worked with any museums -- most of their clients are national nonprofits. You can contact Madeline Stanionis: madel...@donordigital.com Robert __ Robert L. Weiner Consulting Providing Strategic Technology Consulting to Nonprofits and Education San Francisco, CA rob...@rlweiner.com 415/643-8955 www.rlweiner.com -Original Message-From: Montgomery, Renee [mailto:ren...@lacma.org]Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 1:37 PMTo: mcn-l@mcn.eduSubject: RE: Web Promotion [faked-from] I'm interested in this question too. Please respond online. Thanks! Renee Montgomery Asst. Director, Collections Management and Information Los Angeles County Museum of Art Phone (323) 857-6059 -Original Message-From: Will Scott [mailto:william_sc...@fitnyc.edu] Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 11:14 AMTo: mcn-l@mcn.eduSubject: Web Promotion [faked-from] I am proposing to The Museum at FIT the possibility of hiring a web promotion company to promote our site. Can any of you recommend a company with whom your institution has had an excellent experience? Can any vendorswho have significant experience working with museums or in the fashion industry, contact me to discuss a quote? Best regards, Will Will Scott Assistant Museum Registrar The Museum at FIT --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: ren...@lacma.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rob...@rlweiner.com To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rlancefi...@mail.wesleyan.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com
Re: IT Sig: Where do you go for ...
Bill, The two conferences that I attend that deal with IT infrastructure, planning, and support issues are EDUCAUSE (http://www.educause.edu), which is geared toward higher education IT professionals, and NTEN (http://www.nten.org/), which is for general nonprofit IT managers. EDUCAUSE offers a host of discussion forums, publications, and a huge resource library. NTEN started out as a meeting place for grassroots nonprofits and circuit riders (a cadre of grant-funded IT consultants who supported nonprofits regionally). But they seem to be broadening their focus to become a meeting place for the entire community of nonprofit CIOs, IT support staff, consultants, and vendors serving the sector. They offer regional and national conferences, and help convene the 501 Tech Clubs, which are informal happy hour gatherings for nonprofit techies: http://www.nten.org/501techclub Techsoup (http://www.techsoup.org) is also a great online resource for general IT management issues. They provide discussion forums, software discounts, and a variety of resources, including sample IT plans. There's also a listserve called the Information Systems Forum (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Information_Systems_Forum/) that's for nonprofit techies. Robert __ Robert L. Weiner Consulting Providing Strategic Technology Consulting to Nonprofits and Education San Francisco, CA email: robert AT rlweiner DOT com 415/643-8955 www.rlweiner.com -Original Message- From: Weinstein, William [mailto:wweinst...@philamuseum.org] Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 10:02 AM To: mcn-l@mcn.edu Subject: IT Sig: Where do you go for ... I am hoping to start a discussion. Over the last several weeks I have had interactions with colleagues attending various conferences. In all cases the discussions where about where IT professionals can go to share information and learn about the issues of technology management or as some have put it, how to keep the computers running and the data safe. MCN and other conferences are great (see MCN prelim program) at looking at the application of technology and the management of information. I have learned much over the years about data standards, intellectual property and how to repurpose my collections management data. But where do I go for information on network infrastructure decisions, help in developing a technology plan, help in designing and managing the installation of a new technology infrastructure in a new building, business software selection (yes we also use retail store and accounting software, a much different collections management issue)? Where do developers go to share code and discuss how that new interactive was created? Where do we go to talk about remote control of desktops, end user training, software deployment, etc. You get the point. The discussion I want to start is about this. Is MCN the place for museum technology professionals to meet and share information on these issues? Are these issues best left to other places or other specialized professional forums? I would hope MCN is the place for these discussions. Since IT is core to realizing an institution's goals discussing the management of technology along with those goals would seem more valuable that in a generic technology conference. I do see at many conference presentations though, the IT staff referenced in less than a collaborative role in many technology projects. It seems that in many places the staff responsible for keeping things working does not get involved in the process of developing these projects. I would also like to discuss whether this is something we should/can work to change. If MCN is not the place for these discussions where are my fellow IT professionals going to get this information? Is there a role for MCN to coordinate access to these other resources? So these are my questions. Please respond and expand as you all see fit. Bill --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rob...@rlweiner.com To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rlancefi...@mail.wesleyan.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com
