non-profit

For some time, Sean Larkin of ThinkShout and I have been collaborating on projects, none bigger than Watershed Now, a Drupal distribution targeted at conservation groups. I am not being modest when I say that I have played a bit role and Sean has been the main force behind the concept and implementation. As with any project that is not directly billable, though, it needs some dedicated funding to help move it forward and that's why we are applying for a Knight News Challenge grant. 

Watershed Now

Watershed Now is a Drupal distribution developed to support the common content management, social media, online advocacy, fundraising, and mapping needs of conservation organizations.

Among other features, Watershed Now provides easy-to-use content management tools, email-to-blog features, online event registration, donation pages and reports, online mapping tools, e-petition tools with legislative lookups, and advanced multimedia and social network integration. The distribution also ships with three stock Drupal themes in a variety of color options. Watershed Now websites are highly-customizable. For example, there are more than 60 available variations on the homepage layout.

Watershed Now is free and open source. The project is hosted on Drupal.org at: http://drupal.org/project/watershednow. The code is maintained on GitHub at: https://github.com/thinkshout/watershednow.

Portland is basically as close to an urban bike utopia as one can get, and one of the many reasons I love living here. But it didn't start out that way, it happened because of the tireless efforts of groups like the Northwest Trail Alliance,

... an alliance of mountain bikers and off-road cyclists dedicated to creating, enhancing and protecting riding opportunities in NW Oregon and SW Washington.

• We advocate for trail access.
• We promote responsible mountain biking.
• We build and maintain sustainable trails.
• We love riding them.

I am honored to suport them in their efforts. Their new site, which launched this past summer, was an upgrade from Drupal 5 and features:

• Active forums
• Ride and events calendar, with paid signups supported by Ubercart and Signup.
• Ride reports
• Online donations

But this is really the foundation for the exciting features to come, including trail guides and a volunteer system.

Save Our Gulf is an initiative of Waterkeeper Alliance to support the Gulf Waterkeepers directly impacted by the BP oil disaster. One of the main reasons I started Level OS was to leverage my professional skills to help organizations who were doing work I wanted to support. Rarely has there been a group more deserving of help, or a disaster more devastating to a region, than the recent Gulf oil spill. The Waterkeeper Alliance needed a tool to report on the damage being caused by the pill, and tell the true story of what was, and still is, happening in the Gulf. With the reporting tool we developed, volunteers can easily submit geo-tagged pollution reports complete with photo and video uploads. Hopefully these reports will ensure that those responsible will pay for the damage that has been caused. Some notes about the site.

• Reports near each other are clustered together on a "nearby" view, available from every report page.
• Map icons are customized based on the status of a site, E.g., impacted by oil.
• The site uses a new version of the Drupal Mapstraction module, which I maintain.
• Videos are uploaded to YouTube directly via the video upload module.

Big thanks to ThinkShout, my partner on the project, for brining it my way and the incredible hard work and devotion he demonstrated.

Level OS recently partnered with ThinkShout to develop an online mapping tool for the Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership (LCREP).

Maps.lcrep.org enables users to track site locations where activities have occurred, and to download information related to those sites. Filtering options are available, allowing users to identify groups of sites that share common attributes. All sites can be accessed from this main page, but for finer detail and/or filtering options for each Program Area, users can navigate to the respective Program Area pages.

The primary technical challenge was developing a simple and flexible mapping tool allowing users to filter restoration sites based on their categories, without reloading the page. We turned to the Mapstraction map scripting framework, which allows users to interact with any of the leading mapping providers using a single code base. In the process, I took over the development and maintenance of the Mapstraction Drupal module. The module makes it very simple to create views of geo tagged data, and we were able to leverage the filtering capabilities of the Mapstraction library.

The Portland Parks Foundation

... engages the community in support of Portland's parks, recognizing that government agencies alone are not able to guarantee us the vibrant network of parks and park programs that are our rich heritage.

They are an amazing group of dedicated people who are working hard to ensure Portland's parks continue to serve as living rooms for our communities, playgrounds, sports fields, gardens, and lungs for our city. It's my pleasure to do a small part in helping them achieve their mission with this new website. It features another stellar design by Annette Brooks, and Views and CCK are put to use in showcasing the foundation's projects. Sprinkle in some custom image rotators and galleries, and you have a great new website.