Difference between revisions of "IT/CiviCRM Development"
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'''CAVEAT''': CiviCRM was too complex in 2011 and 2012, and may be too complex in most of 2013 for the "new ITWG" to master sufficiently to merely design ways CiviCRM could and should be used to best help the GPCA, county parties, candidates and campaigns. | '''CAVEAT''': CiviCRM was too complex in 2011 and 2012, and may be too complex in most of 2013 for the "new ITWG" to master sufficiently to merely design ways CiviCRM could and should be used to best help the GPCA, county parties, candidates and campaigns. | ||
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'''Work-Around''': ITWG volunteers with the special interest Reverse Engineer how a NationBuilder.com "political" web-site (currently such as CAGreens.NationBuilder.com) handles volunteers, donors, supporters, etc. Start accumulating and revising technical documentation describing how to do the same with the CiviCRM system! | '''Work-Around''': ITWG volunteers with the special interest Reverse Engineer how a NationBuilder.com "political" web-site (currently such as CAGreens.NationBuilder.com) handles volunteers, donors, supporters, etc. Start accumulating and revising technical documentation describing how to do the same with the CiviCRM system! | ||
Revision as of 07:21, 5 February 2013
Since the March 2011 GA Meeting in Berkeley there has been a small interest group which is exploring the use of the web software system, CiviCRM. Added to a web site (Joomla!, Drupal 6 or 7, Wordpress 3), CiviCRM may be a very powerful way to provide the GPCA -- and county parties, local and state-wide campaigns -- with semi-automated fund raising services and with volunteer registration, tasks registration (for GPCA and/or for individual campaigns in CA), and a semi-automated way to assign volunteers to tasks that need to be done.
CAVEAT: CiviCRM was too complex in 2011 and 2012, and may be too complex in most of 2013 for the "new ITWG" to master sufficiently to merely design ways CiviCRM could and should be used to best help the GPCA, county parties, candidates and campaigns.
Work-Around: ITWG volunteers with the special interest Reverse Engineer how a NationBuilder.com "political" web-site (currently such as CAGreens.NationBuilder.com) handles volunteers, donors, supporters, etc. Start accumulating and revising technical documentation describing how to do the same with the CiviCRM system!
GPCA members who are principals in the exploration and preparation of CiviCRM are: Marnie Glickman, Marin, and Masada Disenhouse, Ventura. GPCA IT person Bert Huer, SF, may (was to) be the Project Manager. Informal IT person, Jennifer Woodward, SF, may be the project managing "secretary." JGW 11.09.15
Marnie Glickman decided either later in Sept. 2011 or in October 2011 to give up on the CiviCRM development activities and rent the voter and campaign web application services provided by NationBuilder.com. Those services will remain very cheap (low monthly rent) until the number of NB users exceed 500. Without further investigation and documentation, those services should be "adequate" for the GPCA going into the Nov. 2012 election. JGW 11.12.31
However in my opinion, an opinion likely endorsed by many experienced IT people, the Nation Builder (NB) services ought to be "reverse engineered" as soon as possible. In so doing the NB services to the GPCA ideally would be well-documented, similar and improved services explored, their design requirements developed, and a prototype work-alike site developed. The prototype site would continue to use CiviCRM on either or both a Drupal test web site and/or a Joomla! test web site. The part-time, no-deadline effort would "protect" or be available as a potential backup to GPCA NB-based automated political efforts in 2012 in case the NB services somehow prove to be "in-adequate" to our needs. JGW 11.12.31
