Join us for a free webinar on Thursday, October 21, 2010, 11:00 a.m. Pacific (Noon Mountain / 1pm Central / 2pm Eastern). This webinar will cover specific open source tools (some of which you may not have heard of before!) that work well for libraries and the benefits and challenges associated with their use. Meadville Public Library uses open source software on 90% of their public access computers.

Cindy Murdock Ames, IT Services Director and Kyle Hall, the library's on-staff developer, will share recommendations for libraries considering open source software and how to get started successfully. Cindy has been using open source software for over 10 years, which has allowed the library to save licensing costs and have more control over its computing environment. The library uses open source tools for their websites, e-mail, Internet firewall, wireless router, proxying, filtering, and productivity software. They use thin clients for Internet access and Koha for the circulation and public catalogs.

Register online. You can discuss this webinar on Twitter with the hashtag #techsoup or join us for a live-stream of the event in Second Life.

Wondering what the total licensing cost will be to do this project.   SharePoint Foundation 2010 on Server 2008 (virtual).  I have CALs for Server 2008 for the staff.  We want to create a Sharepoint login for each employee and each member (thousands).  Reality probably is that only a few hundred members a year would use it, and maybe only 5 or 10 at any one time.  

SharePoint Foundation 2010 is free, so no licenses or CALs needed for that?

SQL CALs not needed because we will run SQL Express?  

External Connector license needed or is IIS bundled with Sharepoint and IIS licenses not needed? 

Could the Server 2008 web edition be used to get around the need for the External Connector license?

What is the most cost effective way to license this situation?

Thanks for your advice!

Hello there,

We are a membership and certification organization looking to move to a new AMS. Of particular importance to us is an automated means of pulling in certification data (via API or service) from an outside testing vendor and applying it to applicants. We are also interested in an LMS and applying CE requirements to membership. Of course the usual applications (billing, events, etc) also apply.

We've narrowed our choices down to iMIS, TMA Personify and Euclid ClearVantage. If you have experiences with these vendors, especially in situations similar to ours, I would love to hear them.

Thanks!

Title: Web Programmer, Communications, Marketing & Education Division

Reports to: Web Coordinator, Communications, Marketing & Education Division

Location: New York, NY

The Rainforest Alliance (RA) is an international nonoprofit organization hat works to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior. based in New York City, with offices throughout the United States and worldwide, the Rainforest Alliance works with people whose livelihoods depend on the land, helping them transform the way they grow food, harvest wood and host travelers.

Position Summary:

The Web Programmer will be responsible for participating inthe maintenance and expansion of the Rainforest Alliance's Web site including Drupal module upgrades, Drupal theming, server maintenance, database maintenance and daily Web updates.

Please see the following link for full job description and qualifications.

The Rainforest Alliance is an Equal Opportunity Employer

http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/about.cfm?id=web_programmer

Microsoft Security Essentials is a free antivirus, antimalware security software provided by Microsoft.  It has been vetted by security professionals I trust (namely, Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte of Security Now!)

As of the time of this posting, according to the license terms on the website (MSSE License Terms), you can now run the software on up to 10 devices in any small business, and not just up to 3 devices in a home-based small business.  Great news for small non profits!

Other restrictions to note:

• The software may not be used on a device running an enterprise version of a Microsoft Windows operating system.
  
  I interpret this to mean "Windows 7 Enterprise" and "Server XXXX Enterprise" editions.  I do not interpret this to mean "Windows 7 Professional" or "Windows 7 Ultimate" (nor its Vista counterparts).  Nor do I think it applies to Small Business Server or Server XXXX Standard.  So as long as you are 10 devices or under and not using the adore mentioned, specifically "Enterprise" editions of software, you should be able to use this legally.
   
• The software may not be used on devices owned by government or academic institutions.
  
  Sorry guys.  If you are a government or school it looks to me that you must pursue other alternatives (though I cannot imagine many areas where 10 devices or less would apply to a school or government).  If you are funded by the government, I think you are still able to use this.

Is there an instruction manual for how to proceed with downloading?  I am totally lost.  I am trying to download one of my licenses to a netbook (no cd-rom) and the files only show the download available in ISO format, not EXE.  I'm not really sure if I'm doing any of this right to begin with and so I'm wondering if there is a walk-through of download instructions available.  Thanks!

While attempting to order Adobe CS5 Designer, the process was halted because our organization is supposedly ineligible.  We are a United Way chapter, and this line copied from the eligibility section makes it clear that the order should have proceeded.  How can I make this order go through?

United Way chapters and Goodwill organizations are eligible for Adobe donations.  

We recently had a used laptop donated to our organization.  The operating system is Windows XP but it will not load properly.  All of our gurus have tried different things.  what we would like to know is:  Does techsoup have a single computer license for Windows XP so we can reinstall on this computer?  We were not given any of the software that was on this computer, and are not sure what else to try.

We installed Backup Exec 2010 on a Windows 2003 server and are backing up two other servers through it. The throughput on one of the two remote servers (Windows 2003 server) is just fine. The remote throughput from the other, a brand new Dell server with SBS 2008 installed, is so slow that we cannot run the backup. We're only getting 6-16MB per minute, so backups would take a very, very long time to finish.

Network performance is fine otherwise, all servers are on the same switch and have plenty of resources. The backup device has plenty of capacity. We tested data throughput from the media server to the SBS server and it is 1000 Mbps!

I tried to download the Backup Exec Support Tool from http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH126539 and could not. I also tried to create a case on line for support with them, and ran into an error on their website. WOW!

Any ideas?

On Oct 28 2010 11 am Pacific Time we'll be hosting a free webinar on computer security and protecting yourself online.

Spyware, malware, viruses, phishing, hacking. What does it all mean and how do you prepare and protect your organization? Presenting at the webinar is Marian Merritt, Symantec's Internet Safety Advocate, along with Kami Griffiths to talk about what you should watch out for amongst the many online risks today. We will also talk about simple best practices as well as tools to mitigate these risks.

This webinar is one of the many security related content we offer at TechSoup. Check out our Security Corner for more tips and tools.

You can discuss this webinar on this forum, on Twitter with the hashtag #techsoup or join us then for a live-stream of the event in Second Life.

I have a love-hate relationship with Gmail.

As many of you are aware, Gmail by default organizes all of your email messages into conversations.  Your messages are displayed as threaded conversations between you and other people.  Some Gmail users love this threaded-conversations feature.  But for many people like me this conversation view in Gmail has turned out to be a nightmare when trying to manage the barrage of messages sent back and forth between people on a mailing list.

Because of this threaded conversation format inherent in Gmail, sometimes new unread messages would end up getting buried within a long string of earlier messages.

In a recent PCWorld blog article Why I Hate Gmail's Conversation View, Liane Cassavoy put nicely into words what I've experienced until now as my major frustration with Gmail (partial quote below):

Another problem with Conversation View: I consistently find myself missing messages because they get pushed back in a conversation thread.

This problem happens a lot with group e-mails: if two people reply in close succession, one of those messages gets pushed out of top-level view of my Inbox, and I don't always know it's there. I can see that the most recent message has arrived, but if I decide that I don't want to open that message right away, I don't open the entire conversation thread. Then I've completely missed the message that arrived just minutes before -- and that message may have been the one I wanted to read.

Simply put, group emails absolutely KILLED my love of Gmail.

But not anymore, because the feature I've been wanting to see for a long time has finally arrived: the ability to turn off conversations in Gmail.

This feature has just been rolled out within your Gmail accounts.  If you go to "Settings" and look under the General tab, you will now see a setting called "Conversation View".  All you need to do is turn off the default "on" state by selecting "Conversation view off".  That's it!  No more confusing threaded conversations!  Now any new message delivered to my Inbox stands as a single message -- good ol'-fashioned unconversational individual messages I can respond to, without going nuts.  This makes it much easier for me to track and manage all emails.

I'm just surprised it took Google this long to offer the feature to disable conversations.

But I'm happy it's finally here -- it means I can now finally stop hating my Gmail and focus instead on loving it. :)

We are looking to change some of our processes and work flow to reduce the amount of paper we print.  One of our current issues is a payroll report that uses about a 1/2 ream of paper every two weeks that our COO and CEO sign off on.  (yes they really review and ask questions about the detail lines on the report)

This report becomes part of our 7 year archive for payroll records, and is usually not accessed again except that our auditors may review a couple of pay cycles during audit season.  The CEO and COO signatures proves the authorization to pay and release the funds, which is also an audit item.

Is there a inexpensive / easy to use  signature add in to adobe reader or one of the clones for multiple reviewers to digitally sign off on the document.  We are not looking to have the signatures validated by a third party for contract law uses, but more of an internal system.  (Or should we go with a public hosted out side key service anyway?)

Any suggestions

Dave

My organization has 21 computers. We are moving from a peer-to-peer network to a server. Advice we have received has varied so much, as to make me not trust anyone! Finally we got a grant and have a server on the way. I need to buy more "tickets to the party."  I figured out that these are CALs. But what is the difference between User CALs and Device CALs? The description in Tech soup was probably great - but I am barely PC literate and the difference was not clear to me. Do I need both? The server software is 2008 SP2 Standard x 64. I have 14 emloyee workstations, 4 roving laptops (presentations, fieldwork) and 3 client-access computers (used by about 20 different people right now).

Our organization purchased two copies of ACT! 2010 because we were told that it would work with Windows 7.  There are many problems. Now Sage tells us they will refund the two other copies we had to buy from them and replace them with ACT! 2011. How can we get the two copies we purchased from Techsoup replaced with ACT! 2011?

Hello.  I work at a Foundation in Boston.  We considering different products to manage the grant making process.  We've been using Gifts for decades and are looking to possibly replace it.  We've looked at a bunch, some of them very brand new.  Has anyone heard of a group called "Good Done Great"?  They have something based on QuickBase.  And we're looking into another very new product called Fluxx.  

Any advice would be great.

Thank you,

Mark Paley

Join us for a free webinar on Cloud Cloud computing.

The term cloud computing is being used more and more, but what is it and why should you understand it? In this free webinar we will explain what cloud computing means, define the different types, discuss how it is impacting nonprofits and libraries, and outline some criteria for use. The challenges of using the “cloud” will be discussed, as well as whether cloud computing will simplify your life and reduce software and IT staffing costs.

Hear from Peter Campbell, Nonprofit Technologist at Earthjustice and me, who will help you understand this topic in order to better communicate with your consultants, staff and board. This webinar is applicable for any size organization and ideal for decision makers who need to communicate about cloud computing with tech consultants, and who are interested in making more informed technology decisions.

If you are wondering if this is right for you, here is a blog post that will help you get a sense of what we will be discussing, Why Should Nonprofits Care About Cloud Computing? and a short introductory video Cloud Computing in Plain English, by Common Craft.

You can discuss this webinar on Twitter with the hashtag #techsoup or join us for a live-stream of the event in Second Life.

I hear a lot of buzz about video content on websites, so I was surprised to see this statistic: 20% of online video viewers give up after 10 seconds.

Bear in mind that this stat has to do with the general web and is not specific to nonprofit websites. However, I think it's an interesting point to keep in mind for orgs. relying heavily on video to get their message out. Similar to abandonment on a website, abandonment on video viewing is a very strong indicator on how helpful or entertaining users are finding the video.

So are you one of the video viewers who usually finishes watching what you start or do you find yourself bailing before the end of the video? What keeps you watching? What has you leaving the video?

Best,

Megan

Hi All;

I'm in charge of distributing and maintaining the O/S and applications for our non-profit. I've installed Windows 7 Pro (finally), had it activated, and it seems to be running as it should. I tried to move to the next level which would be to install and activate MS-Office Pro 2010. This is where I've run into difficulties. The full Office suite installs quite happily, yet when I go the Help screen to do the activation I get my paw slapped.

The volume license I enter seems to be acceptable to the application (I used the MAK number I received from Microsoft), however, after it's digested, the system coughs up a new screen asking how I want MS-Office installed ("install now" or "custom"). Without further instructions, I'm certainly not going to follow Microsoft down their rabbit hole on this. After all, I did just install the application, which is how I found the place to activate the suite, so why should I re-install it...especially as I can see an endless Do Loop in my near future.

So, what is the secret to activate the MS-Office suite?

Thanks!

John --

Ordered and recevied the install discs for Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium but did not receive a Serial Number yet.

What can I do?

AccessU West (web accessibility institute, previously CalWAC) will be January 10-12, 2011 in San Jose, California. It's being organized by Knowbility.org, a nonprofit I have long supported and that's mentioned frequently here on TechSoup, that's focused on helping people with disabilities get access to technology and tech-related education, as well as making education accessible through technology.

AccessU West offers classes on how to make electronic information technology accessible to everyone – including people with disabilities. This event is for web developers, web designers, IT Managers, IT policy developers, IT administrators, programmers, anyone with IT responsibilities, or IT students.

This is a tremendous professional development opportunity for individuals, as well as a way for companies to demonstrate their commitment to usability and accessibility to customers!

• Does your organization believe its web site should be accessible to ALL people?


• Is your company ready to comply with the pending expansion of the Americans with Disabilities Act that will ensure people with disabilities have full access to the Internet and television?


• Are you a developer or designer who wants to understand emerging best design practices for the web? Are you a web developer, web designer, IT manager, IT policy developer, IT administrator or  programmer that wants to be even more attractive to potential employers?


• Do you want to build innovative AND accessible websites using cutting-edge CSS techniques?


• Do you want to learn how accessibility ties into your usability goals?

PLEASE REBLOG THIS INFORMATION TO YOUR OWN NETWORKS!