Cloud computing for arts organizations
I’m an arts administration MBA student who is putting together a whitepaper on cloud computing for arts and culture organizations. My final product will make recommendations on how to run a small office primarily on web-based software. I’m looking for feedback on which tools are most effective and easy to use. Please add your thoughts to the comments section. Also feel free to suggest other criteria and other types of tools to include. Thank you for your input!
The software should meet the following criteria:
- Service should be free or low-cost
- Data should be secure and easy to export
- Documents should be compatible with other platforms
- Tool must be easy to learn to use
- Ideally, tools will integrate with each other
I’m looking for feedback on the following types of tools:
- Word processing
- Spreadsheet
- Email client
- Website/ content management
- Accounting
- Payroll
- Social media
- Calendar sharing
- Document sharing
- Presentation
- Graphic design
- Photo sharing
- Contact management
hey girl hey! check out http://www.openoffice.org/
dropbox.com
docs.google.com
flickr.com
Hope the following list helps you a bit
Word processing
Google Docs/Apps
Spreadsheet
Google Docs/Apps
Email client
Gmail, Google Apps, or Apple Mail (with IMAP)
Website/ content management
WordPress
Accounting
Can’t help here
Payroll
Can’t help here
Social media
HootSuite
Calendar sharing
Google Calendar/Apps
Document sharing
Google Docs/Apps
Presentation
Google Docs/Apps
Graphic design
Graphic design in a cloud? I can’t think of anything
Photo sharing
Flickr/Picasa
Contact management
Gmail
I second the Google docs suggestion–as well as all of the other google tools (talk, desktop search, calendar, wave, etc). Also WordPress (but I’m guessing you know that one) If free/open is more important than the cloud concept, there are lots of good open source software options. I did a Squidoo lens about it a couple of years ago http://www.squidoo.com/tryopensource (some links might be broken–sorry)
Good luck!!
I second all of the above.
Word Processing/Excel – As far as cloud systems go, I might go with Google Doc’s over Open Office, because it’s the easiest way to share items between people or locations (doesn’t require installation on each machine). To be fair, I’ve never tried Open Office, the combination of Google Docs and MS Office has always gotten the job done.
Email/Calendar – Call me a homer but as far as free and powerful, I know many orgs that use Gmail, and Google Calendar is one of my favorites.
I’d add that for task management, i love remeberthemilk.com, and heard other people laud it as well. Though google tasks could be a new kid on the block (plays nicer with the calendar).
Social Media – if your looking to reach to constituents, engaging facebook content is a must. For knowing what’s going on in the industry, connecting with like minded people, and communicating with media, Twitter wins out. Other micro-blogs like Buzz and Tumblr could have some intra-office utility if your staff is spread out – almost like your own wiki/discussion board.
Document Sharing – gotta love Dropbox! Google doc’s has some utility, but its not nearly as slick, particularly with multiple people involved.
Presentation – Open Office might win out here as a power point substitute.
Graphic Design – I’ve always used Gimp. It’s confusing, but it is an open-source alternative to Adobe. And technically they tell you how to do everything with a decently comprehensive online user guide.
Photo Sharing – Flikr seems to hold the majority of the market share, for a reason. Don’t discount what you can do with Facebook though, depends on who you’re trying to reach and if you need to have external links to the photo’s hosted location.
The rest I don’t have much if any experience with. Quickbooks isn’t very cloud or open source, but I don’t recall it being prohibitively expensive either.
I think cheap constituency software (donors, ticket buyers) is one of the trickiest problems out there that doesn’t yet have a good answer. The closest/best advice I’ve found comes from techsoup (http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/databases/archives/page10169.cfm being one of many links containing info), but it’s far from conclusive or comprehensive.
Hope that helps, I’m by no means an expert, just saying what I’ve seen work.
I’m curious to know why the focus on “web-based” software. While there has been a huge growth in “software-as-service” over the past few years, at the end of the day, unless you roll your own solution, ultimately you’ll be trusting your data to someone else.
Obviously the most well known of this is the G-services/products that Google has in place. These would include Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, GChat, etc. Google also owns Picasa, the photo sharing site, and YouTube. If this is the route that you’re looking at, I think the easiest way to access all of this is to install gOS (http://www.thinkgos.com/index.html) which provides access to the above mentioned, plus OpenOffice, Firefox, Google Gadgets, and WINE (Windows application compatibility).
Personally, I don’t use Google for much in the way of service. GChat and Gmail (which I rarely use). While I like their “Don’t Be Evil” slogan, I figure that the way to avoid “evil” in this case is to not allow them the chance. Kinda like locking my doors when I leave the house… it reduces the temptation for evil.
ALL OF THAT SAID, the first thing I would do is sit down with the organization as a whole and determine what the needs and wants are, and what is totally un-needed.
With an organization larger than 3 people, I would then make sure that there’s some money for an IT professional (either full-time or someone with whom you can have a contract) and have them help develop and support the systems and software you’ll need.
I would ask them to develop a client/server system in-house, and here’s what I would include:
SERVER:
2 servers, one a mirror of the other, each attached to a RAID 5 for backup (and backup for your backup)
Ubuntu Server – Operating System
RSync – synchronization between the servers and with the clients
Apache Web Server
SQL – database server
PHP – web programming language that works well w/SQL
a CMS (Drupal or Joomla would be my choices)
WebDav (web based file sharing)
CalDav (web based calendar sharing)
NFS (network file sharing – UNIX/Linux style)
SMB (network file sharing – Windows style)
CUPS (print server)
Jabber – Instant Messaging
CLIENT:
Probably Ubuntu Desktop, which includes Firefox, OpenOffice, Evolution (mail/calendar client), GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program – like Photoshop), Scribus (desktop publishing) and a whole host of others. You’ll be able to access social networking sites like FaceBook, MySpace, etc. (or you could set up a Ning community). I would ask the IT professional to set up RSync on each client to backup the users’ home directories to the server, which then gets backed up to the RAID, etc.
I don’t know much about accounting and payroll, but I would have that user/system have its own set of redundant backups where one backup gets sent off-site either daily or weekly.
For serious graphic design I’d go with a non-free system (probably a Mac with the full CS4 suite). It should talk seamlessly to the server for backups, calendaring, mail, etc.
SO, those are my thoughts.
Thanks for your thoughts Milo (and everyone else!) The reason I’m focusing on web-based software is that it requires less investment in hardware and seems to be easier for non-techies to learn and use. However I’m really interested in looking into your solution too. I wonder how much IT investment would be required – both in setting up the system and in keeping it running smoothly over time. Any thoughts on this from your experience?
Apparently NTEN is on my wavelength today. Here are 5 posts about cloud computing. (I haven’t read them yet).
Charities in the Cloud: Why the Hype Might Not Be Quite Hypey Enough
http://nten.org/blog/2010/03/18/charities-cloud-why-hype-might-not-be-quite-hypey-enough
Constructive Disruption: Advancing Social Change Through the Cloud
http://nten.org/blog/2010/03/18/constructive-disruption-advancing-social-change-through-cloud
The Social Sector Cloud
http://nten.org/blog/2010/03/18/social-sector-cloud
How to: Getting Your Head (and Org) into the Clouds
http://nten.org/blog/2010/03/18/how-getting-your-head-and-org-clouds
Cloud Computing for Small Nonprofits: Lessons Learned from 5 Years in the Cloud
http://nten.org/blog/2010/03/18/cloud-computing-small-nonprofits-lessons-learned-5-years-cloud
I just thought of one more lead–I’m not sure I recommend them (we stopped using them when they stopped being a calendaring software) but it might work for your purposes: http://www.airset.com/AirSet.jsp#app.Home
Are you still looking for leads on this? The Wild Apricot blog has a post about 100 online tools for nonprofits. They may not all apply, but you may find some new ones: http://www.wildapricot.com/blogs/newsblog/archive/2009/08/05/100-online-tools-for-non-profits.aspx