Community IT Innovators. Established 1993. Serving social mission organizations with integrated technology services you can trust.

If you are an artist interested in learning more about leveraging web technologies such as RSS feeds, Twitter, and traditional web channels, join Senior Developer Phil Jones and the Hamiltonian Artists for an interactive discussion on web and tech challenges relevant to you.

Phil will be speaking Thursday, October 1^st, as part of the Hamiltonian Artist Speaker Series presented by the Hamiltonian Gallery.

The series is “a succession of lectures given by established artists and art professionals to aid in the artistic and entrepreneurial development of our So-Hamiltonian Fellows and other emerging artists… Hamiltonian Artists is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing professional development opportunities for creative artists in their early careers.”

Phil has a passion for the arts and is excited to be sharing his experience in web technology to support the local artists’ community.  The lecture is at 7 PM, at the Hamiltonian Gallery at 1353 U St. NW, Ste. 101 (across the street from the CITI office!). Free and open to the general artist community.  Local blog DCist mentioned the lecture briefly in their weekly round-up of talks around town.

Who: You!
What: CITI Website Focus Group
When: Wednesday, September 16, 2009, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM (New Date & Time)
Where: Community IT Innovators, 1330 U Street, Suite 200, Washington, DC
Why: To create a website that focuses on clients, the nonprofit community, and your work

**Bonus** One attendee will be randomly selected for a free one hour review of your organization’s website and online presence with suggestions from our Development and Online Strategies team.

We are passionate techies who love technology. And all of us at CITI also want to improve the world around us. To do that, we apply our love of technology to clients who are directly involved with improving the lives of others.  In short: we help you help others.

Much of our success comes through working with our community in numerous ways. A major component of our outreach is through our website. Whether it’s hosting events about nonprofits and technology, sharing research about backup solutions, volunteering in our community, or sharing stories about our client’s work, our website is a resource for our clients and the nonprofit community in general.

Now you can help us by helping to improve our website. We’re embarking on a process to transform our website into something new: a website that focuses on our clients and the nonprofit community, from start to finish. We want to highlight the fantastic work our community does and show how technology helps them do it. The first step is to get feedback from you – our current clients and website visitors – to discover how well the current website fulfills your need for information, for encouragement, and for community.

We’re inviting you to participate in a short (1 ½ hour) focus group where we’ll take a look at the current site and see where it succeeds and where it could be better. Then, we’ll gather feedback and ideas from our most important resource – you – to discover what we can do to make our website better serve your needs.

We hope you can join us next week for this event!  Please RSVP to gcunningham@citidc.com.

Update, 9/22/09: We want to give a big thank you to our friends from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing & Economic Development, and NeighborWorks America who participated. A good discussion was had around what you want and need to see on the site, and cupcakes were enjoyed by all! If you couldn’t attend but have feedback or ideas you’d like to share, email me!

Let a butterfly fly in remembrance of someone you loved.

Memorial event on May 30.

Hat tip to our design partner Organic Design Works.

I’ve been understandably obsessed the last two weeks with the final push to go live with the new site, which for me has meant not letting the perfect get in the way of the good – over and over again.  And even though this is my third go round after YouthVote.org (now defunct – not because of my website redesign!) and Ashoka, the process doesn’t get easier, although I do keep learning a lot.

I wonder if it is the same or worse in the for-profit web world – a commonality in the nonprofit side is how there is the process you know you should be doing – building consensus, driving the process with thoughtful goals, building an online strategy that is integral to the site, not getting distracted by geewhiz new cool stuff but really keeping your readers and users’ needs in mind.  But then what really happens is very different from what you know you should take the time to do.  And the results are very … public.  Which is probably what leads to the obsession over getting the little things right, when I probably should have been paying a lot closer attention to the big things back in the kick off meetings.

One thing that has evolved since this project started, however, is the incorporation of the theme “home” into our work at CITI, as we look for new office.  Yes, we finally have to admit we are too big for our space, and in characteristically CITI fashion we are learning all about ourselves as we make choices on the new one.  Natural light being high on the list of must haves, along with commutable location, things to do locally (especially lunch), and above all, a place that reflects our values.  A home.

recycled birdhouse, emily montgomery, used with permission

CITI is proud to be a sponsor of of the upcoming DrupalCon Conference in Washington DC, March 4-7th. DrupalCon is the official Drupal unconference that attracts the most talented open source developers and innovative web shops in the world.

CITI is pleased to support this fantastic event and we look forward to collaborating with Drupal colleagues from all around the world. CITI is a contributing member of the Drupal community. We try to give back our code to the community whenever possible.

About Drupal

Drupal is a popular, open source content management system that powers websites for everyone from presidential candidates to pop stars to newspapers to neighborhood community groups. It’s used by thousands of individuals and organizations around the world.