Intensive Web Day Making something out of nothing: Useful free software for the non-profit organisation Kathy Reid

Background Work full time at Deakin University in technical root cause analysis role (ITIL Problem Management)‏ Involved with PHPWomen.org Involved with Software Freedom Day Involved with creation of not for profit websites

Key principles Every software item presented is FREE - not shareware, not limited use, FREE Not necessarily open source Easy to use, to learn and to teach to others Allows for interoperability Should be well documented, stable and mature as a product

WordPress Personal publishing system – not as full on as something like Joomla or Drupal – but can easily manage the website content for a small (<50 page) website Easy to teach volunteers how to use it – very good WYSIWYG editor Easy to use Dashboard Two types of content – Posts and Pages

WordPress (cont'd)‏ Readily extendable using plugins Limited integration with e-commerce or payment solutions – not easily done 'out of the box' Easy to re-skin (redesign look and feel)‏ Runs best on Linux hosting rather than Windows Can be easily customised using PHP

WordPress – have a play Log in details for Making Links; Look for the 'Site Admin' link Username: MakingLinks Password: MakingLinks

Drupal Full fledged content management system Extendable with modules (similar to the way WordPress is extendable with plugins)‏ Has Pages and Stories – similar to Pages and Posts in WordPress

Drupal – have a play Log in details for Making Links; Username: MakingLinks Password: MakingLinks

Joomla More complex than both WordPress and Drupal Is a content 'portal' based on modules, with customisable layouts Granular permission system Extendable with plugins and modules Suitable for large, complex sites

Joomla – have a play Log in details for Making Links; Username: MakingLinks Password: MakingLinks

CiviCRM “Constituent relationship management” Helps to manage contacts – donors, volunteers and other groups that are associated with your organisation Allows you to send mailings to groups of contacts Allows you to manage memberships Allows you to manage event registrations

CiviCRM (cont'd)‏ Is available as a plugin for either Drupal or Joomla – so you are not bound to one if you wish to use CiviCRM (Not integrated at all with WordPress but the CiviCRM community is talking about it)‏ Steep learning curve, but well worth the effort No more spreadsheets with volunteer and donor details!!

CiviCRM – have a play Log in details for Making Links; Click on 'CiviCRM' link on left hand menu Username: MakingLinks Password: MakingLinks

Moodle Learning management system Is structured around courses and learning content Can do quizzes, links to resources Structures courses into topics – ie for delivery over several weeks or sessions Useful addendum to training sessions – for instance volunteer training

Moodle – have a play Log in details for Making Links; Username: MakingLinks Password: MakingLinks

Filezilla Free FTP program Available for Windows, Mac and Linux Easy to use interface Can save shortcuts Can have 'queues' for downloading or uploading multiple batches of FTP files at the same time Allows setting of file system permissions (on Unix/Linux based file systems)‏

Open Office Alternative to Microsoft Office Available for Windows, Mac and Linux Has around 70% of the functionality of Microsoft Office Interoperability issues with the new.docx,.xlsx etc formats in Office 2007

Freemind Mind mapping program – useful for brainstorming Available for Windows, Mac and Linux Can be exported to JPEG, HTML, text document etc Can add icons to branches of the mind map Limited formatting options