Tools & Software

Those of us familiar with front-end user interface development such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, understand the pains and complexities of Cross-Browser Compatibility. For most others, the main thing that matters is how a web site or application displays and functions in their browser(s) of choice. Because of the challenges browsers present, front-end interface development has become a critical part of web development.

We have described previously on this blog how Forum One approaches social media in general, as well as our experience with SlideShare and Scribd. In this post, we'll discuss the current glamour child of social media, Twitter.

Many of our clients at Forum One produce large numbers of PDF documents (reports, studies, policy briefs) which then are placed in a "documents" section on their web sites. The challenge these organizations face is then making these documents as widely accessed as possible.

One way to increase attention to documents is to use Scribd, a third-party document sharing site (or in shorthand, "YouTube for documents"). We have had good luck at Forum One using Scribd for our clients.

It's election day in the Commonwealth of Virginia -- the state in which most Forum One staff call home. Today we'll elect a governor, a lieutenant governor, attorney general, and 100 house delegates. Thousands of people woke up this morning seeking answers to these three questions:

We recently described how we use social media at Forum One. Today we'll talk about the category leader for posting and sharing PowerPoint presentations, SlideShare.

Over the past month, I had the privilege of being the Forum One Project Manager for a fun, open-source web application development contest: the Apps for America 2: Data.gov Challenge.

Five years ago, CNN and 24-hour news channels and personal blogs captured US citizen dissent at the 2004 Presidential election results (or lack thereof). In 2008 TwitterVoteReport attempted to provide real-time election monitoring as US citizens posted voting experiences to their Twitter feeds. Concurrently the Obama campaign leveraged every social media tool in the book to engage US citizens, empower them with ways they could help, and ultimately contributed to winning the next presidency.

I had the great fortune last week to get to Mobile Tech 4 Social Change barcamp here in DC. The event was organized by Katrin Verclas of MobileActive.org, hosted by Google DC and sponsored by Forum One and Mobile Commons. The small-but-high-value crowd included a nice mix of mobile techies and non-profit professionals (mostly in international development or global health).