See- it was in development, but the person who was working on it could not longer fit in the time to accomplish it and that is when the approached us; knee deep into development.

It wasn’t a difficult project to pick up; they had already started development in WordPress (a content management system we highly recommend for non profit organizations) and they had already picked their theme, so we were already half way to a new site… right?

What they really needed help with was creating a style for the site and school that wasn’t based on images of children- as they have not yet opened yet and not based on traditional school items, as Montessori is anything but traditional.

Working through several hands on sessions ( both the organization and ourselves) we designed a series of images based on the idea of kinetic typography; making bold, clear, and clean statements. Our graphic designer then worked with our web developer to incorporate elements of those designed images into other aspects of the site (navigation, header, footer, buttons) all while working within the confines of the already established theme.

During the hands on work sessions we also showed members of the organizations committee how to create content, pages, menus and sidebars so they are able to maintain the site themselves going forward. Our final step in this launch will be providing them with a manual on how to do all those things and more from the admin- that way if they forget they have something to reference. We’ll still be accessible to them though, to consult and make recommendations as the school goes from preparing to opening doors on the first day of school.

The site launched just today… Check it out: http://millfallscharterschool.org

Ah yes, what the heck is DNS…. You would think, in Manchester, everyone would know the answer to this question- seeing as we are home to one of the most well-known DNS companies, (Dyn DNS). But very few people actually understand what it is and what it does.

First the scientific answer…

“The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities. Most importantly, it translates domain names meaningful to humans into the numerical identifiers associated with networking equipment for the purpose of locating and addressing these devices worldwide.”  (Wikipedia)

Yeah… I remember having to memorize definitions like that is intro to New Media back in the day. I didn’t get it either. It was a few years back though, when I was working at an agency that it clicked, and it was all because of that 24-48 hrs. comment.

Let’s start with an analogy.

Think about your mail… or your phone. You have a name. Now with just your name you can’t get much information, but there are other pieces too… You have an address, you have a phone number. The post office knows your address and how to get to it, so when someone puts a letter in the mail with your name and address they bring it to your house.If you are well known enough, or from a small town, sometimes you don’t even need an address… Just a name.

A website is like that too; your website has a name… It’s the URL (like floatleftlabs.org). Your website has an address too- it’s called the IP address (173.236.203.111 for example). But these two aren’t tied together until you get to DNS. DNS is what says this name goes to this address.  It’s quite effective and very helpful- If we didn’t have DNS then we would be having to type IP  addresses (random strings of numbers) into our browser address bar.

DNS is also something we usually ignore- it’s behind the scenes and it just works. The only time it really comes into play is when you’re launching a new site, or switching servers. That’s when your developer brings up that seemingly random 24-48 hr. time frame and you think why? Its computers, Data… shouldn’t it be instantaneous?

And that’s where we get back to the analogy. What happens when you move? You fill out a change of address form and hand it over to the post office right? You might even log in to some of your contacts and tell them directly about your new address.  The postal service forwards your mail to the new address and all is hunky-dory.

This is what happens when you change your DNS as well, but you have to remember there isn’t just one post office, and this is the internet, the world wide web…So when you change your DNS as your domain registry it notes the change and then tells all the servers it is connected to about the change. When those servers receive the information and then tell all the servers they are connected to about the change… and so on and so on until every server connected to the internet around the world now knows about the change. This generally takes 24-48 hours to complete. During that time frame some people will see the new site and some people will see the old.

So… That’s DNS in a nutshell.

When we first started talking to the committee organizing the event they were having difficulties being able to afford to have a poster designed and website developed every year, and they were finding the posters were not as effective as the website and other marketing.  So we developed a tactic to streamline the development process and provide the creative approach to match their fantastic theme every year.

It actually wasn’t too difficult and this past summer we executed it for the first time.

See- it went like this: the committee informed us of the theme “Fly me to the moon”, a reflection on the golden age of flying. We took that theme and ran with few rounds of poster design. This same poster design could be used for the program, advertisements and social media images. Once the poster was approved we took elements of the poster and created a consistent theme for WordPress. We then created an archive for their past events and pages for their new event and then we were done. After the event we will put a placeholder page up for next year, place the current year’s pages in the archive and wait for the new theme so we can start the design process again.

The result is a spectacularly designed website and poster consistent with the theme, and an approach that means minimal development for future events.

The event is coming up very quickly- but don’t worry you can still get tickets. Just visit http://www.stjoesbigbandbash.org/

Float Left Labs is holding its second annual Rock and Bowl competition on Friday, August 19th at 7 p.m. at Spare Time in Manchester. Teams of up to six people can sign up to either bowl and/or compete in the music video game Rock Band.

“We wanted to create an original, entertaining fundraiser for Float Left Labs, but we couldn’t decide which was better: hold a bowling tournament or a Rock Band competition? So we did both,” said Kelley Muir, president of Float Left Labs. “This is a chance for people in the community help us raise funds for our current community projects while networking and having fun. Winning teams will receive a trophy and, of course, bragging rights. There will also be raffles with donations from local businesses.”

Current projects include Open Chalk, an open source digital whiteboard system currently in it’s second phase of development. Float Left Labs employs college students, and helps them pay for their education. In turn, these students gain valuable real-world experience and a well-stocked portfolio.

Sign up at rockandbowl.floatleftlabs.org

Our brief meeting started amusingly when I was explaining the process of purchasing a domain and setting up a website. I believe the exact wording stated was “Oh, so I’m not going to walk away from this meeting with a website am I?” No, Unfortunately not. But that’s part of what we do here at Float Left Labs; we educate nonprofits about what they can expect and how to build a website.
See, the average computer user doesn’t realize setting up a website consists of 3 separate components. Domain, Hosting, and Code. Some hosting/DNS companies try to make it easier by making it so you can do all 3, right from their application. but even then there still are 3 components. Here’s a quick review on how to set up a website.
1. Domain Name
The first step towards setting up a website is to find and purchase a domain name. This will be the URL, or the address people type in to get to your website. To purchase a domain you may use godaddy.com, or DynDNS, or countless others. (I recommend supporting the local guys at Dyninc)
The process for this is always pretty much the same. You type in the URL you would like to have, it tells you if it is available and/or if other similar names are available and you proceed to answer questions until you purchase. Domains typically run from $10-$20 per a year. You may be able to purchase multiple years at once at a discounted rate. Please note domains expire, so make a note of the expiration date and be sure to renew it before then.
2. Hosting
After Purchasing the Domain for your site you will need to have a place for it to live. Again, there are several companies that will host your website for a low cost. As a basic first website there isn’t too many ways you can go wrong. There are several hosting companies that will provide hosting for free to nonprofit organizations. For example, we at Float Left Labs use dreamhost http://wiki.dreamhost.com/index.php/Non-profit_Discount
As a side note, Dreamhost also allows you to purchase domains…. So if you use them you can save the hassle of purchasing it separately. If purchased separately there will be one added step now where you have to modify the DNS records to point to the correct hosting company. Think of it as telling the post office you’ve moved. I recommend asking a very tech savvy friend to help with that.
3. Building
Okay. Now that you’ve got the domain and the hosting…but you still don’t have a website! The actual pages for your site will need to be built. These will be written in html code, so the best bet is to have someone else set this up for you. Sure, you could just open word and make a website and export it- but would that honestly look good? Would it be an accurate representation of your organization? Online presence is important so I highly recommend investing time and possibly money into this part.
Now that that’s all said and done you’ve got a website. Congratulations!

But… For the case of most small non profits you won’t have the ability to update it. So now I’m going to tell you about a simpler alternative.
WordPress.com
Wordpress is customarily thought of as a blog engine, and rightly so. That is after all, what it is. But with a little configuration it can be set up and easily maintained as a website for organizations. We use custom installed WordPress for websites all the time.

You can also use WordPress. WordPress.com allows you to set up a blog for free. This (covers part 2 and 3 from the previous section) It will also allow you to purchase a domain, listed under its premium services. Now there are some benefits as well as limitations to using wordpress.com, but for a small nonprofit organization just starting out with their first website it is a great fit.

How do you start? Go to wordpress.com click sign up now and the form is pretty self explanatory from there. It will allow you to choose from hundreds of predesigned template, upload logos, images, create pages and posts, widgets and plugins. You can also configure it so your posts go to an internal page (for example: news) instead of your homepage.

Oh yeah, did I mention in only 48 hours?

When Kelley first told us about it, I’m not quite sure what I was envisioning.  But it involved this odd imagery of some dim lit gymnasium with rows of computers and the cast of Revenge of the Nerds hacking away.  I mean…we were going to the NERD Center, right?  Despite my vision, I agreed because it sounded like an opportunity to meet new people and help out some great organizations…and it was.

Friday night we arrived to the place we’d be spending the next two days:  a living space with large orange chairs and sofas, surrounded by windows stretching around the entire room.  The view of the gliding white sails on the Charles River with Boston behind it was just incredible.

We gathered in the conference room lined with blue glass doors and awaited for the event to begin.   We went around sharing who we were, where we were from, and what we do.  “I’m Nick Levesque from Manchester, New Hampshire and I’m a graphic designer.”  After all of our introductions we started meeting with the teams we would be working with the next two days. 

My team of four and I sat down with Eric Lundquist, the coach of the Lawrence Youth Soccer League: an organization that gives inner city kids the opportunity to play soccer without a cost.  The biggest thing they needed was a tool to communicate: a website.  But they also didn’t have a logo…that’s where I came in.  We wrapped up our discussion of what needed to be done and I started sketching ideas for logos.  By 2 am I called it quits and crawled into my sleeping bag.  Sleep is good.

By the time Eric showed up the next morning, I had about 10 logos for him to choose from.  He said he loved them all but was drawn to one in particular.  I made a final logo and my team spent the day creating the website.  I’m more of a print designer, so when it comes to html and websites, I’m pretty clueless.  But after designing the imagery for the website, I worked with Michael Waddell, one of my team members, who walked me through what he was doing with my designs to actually implement them into the site.  I’m no expert, but I do understand it a little more and I’m really thankful for working with him.

But don’t think it was all work and no play.  Between ice cream sundaes, s’mores (in a microwave), and just hilarious conversations, we kept ourselves somewhat sane.  And I’m pretty sure I saw some guys playing Xbox 360…we were at Microsoft after all.

By Sunday morning we finished up what we were working on and around noon we all gathered in the conference room to present our projects.  After listening to Eric and the other non-profits talk of how grateful they were for the time and efforts of all the volunteers, you knew it was a success.  But when shaking Eric’s hand and having him tell me he how much he appreciated my work, there was something I got out it that I never would of performing my usual work…because we weren’t just there to work, but to give back.  When looking at the truly diverse group of people in that room, it was amazing to know that so many talented and hard working people can come together with one common goal: to give their expertise and time to wonderful people that do just that for so many others. 

My grandmother has a few favorite sayings…and one of them being “many hands make light work.”  Now usually when she says that, I know she’s got some project up her sleeve.  But my gosh, the women’s not completely mad.  I never imagined that so much could be done in 48 hours.  Would I have been able to do that on my own in that amount of time?  Hah, yeah right.  There’s just something about getting a group of people together for a single cause that really gets the wheel spinning, ya know?  Anyway, it makes me wonder what else can be accomplished with the help of so many of those who are willing to lend a hand.

What about the tech people?

They are of course the producers of the organization’s product but they are supposed to have unusual personalities and are notoriously hard to work with…right?

Would the techs and I see eye to eye or would this Fellowship just be a battle of perspectives?

(A battle in which I was badly outnumbered)

As it turns out, working with tech and creative producers has become the most beneficial experience of the Fellowship. Working alongside techs and creatives has given me a perspective on the way they operate and the challenges they face. As a result, in the future when working with tech or creative firms my understanding of their challenges and operations will allow for greater project efficiency and less “butting of heads.”

The understanding of tech/creative individuals and firms will serve me well whether I am working with as a firm manager or as a client.

It was exactly one year ago yesterday that this concept went from an idea to a reality when we won the first New Hampshire Start Up Challenge.  The judges of that competition saw the potential in this idea, a way to provide non profits with quality technical and design work while providing experience to local students. Over the past year we have started to show our potential to even more.

The first Board of Directors meeting was held in July of last year and has met every 2 months sense. To me, the Board serves as direction, advice and support and I am thankful for all the time and talent they have put into this organization. Thank you Dave, Justin, Wendy, David, and Jim.

We had 23 fellowship applicants for our inaugural year- from which we started with a staff of 6. These 6, now 5 students range from associates programs to masters, tech and community college to university and the art institute.  Working together on projects- we have been able to identify the strengths of each individual and I hope have helped provide a medium for them to explore their talents. I want to thank Jim, Nick, Adam, Dana, and Marc for the work they have done this year- from the vague questions and brainstorms to the quality design and code.

Our first fundraiser, Rock and Bowl, was held in April and successfully raised over 1200 towards our community project this year: Building Digital Whiteboards for local schools. By the end of the summer we aim to have 10 digital whiteboards installed as a beta program.

This year has been a year of small successes.  

We had our first client, the New Hampshire Start up Challenge, before we even held our launch party.  We’ve had visits from the former Mayor and a current alderman.

 We have been featured in several articles in the Hippo, Union Leader, and even Business NH.

We have worked on establishing ourselves as a name in the young professional community and we are starting to be recognized with the nonprofit community. In fact, 5 of the 6 non profits we have created proposals for in the last 8 months have become our clients.  That tells me we are on the right track. Organizations and people understand what we are trying to do, what we are trying to provide, and they support our mission and so choose to work with us.

Our goals for the next year will be focused further establishing ourselves, with the young professionals, with non profits, and with community initiatives. 

We will be formalizing the mentor program, creating an easily manageable database of contacts and skills which will make it easier for professionals to volunteer and for us to be sure of their skill set.  We are looking to expand the Board of Directors as well, looking for professionals and community leaders who not only support our mission but hope to help us strive to it.

We will focus more attention on the potential community uses of our office space and shared environment; providing space not only for freelancers and small companies but also other organizations and groups.

And finally, we will be moving away from only ‘word of mouth’ as a means to obtain client projects, focusing on networking with non profits and establishing ourselves as a resource for them.

This year was made easier by the support we received from our first mentors and businesses.  I’d like to take a moment to specially thank them: The mentors who have stepped up this year:   Mary St. Germain, David Seah, Ian Muir, Brady Sadler, and Kathy Cook. Our landlord; Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission , and  Companies that support us with services and discounts on services; Microsoft, Gamer Soda, GYK, Sheehan Phinney Bass and Green,  Print Savvy, PC Connection, Manchester Chamber of Commerce, and of course MYPN.

Thank you to everyone for the work you have done and I look forward to a successful second year.

Kelley Muir, President & CEO

Teams are now asked for an open donation, that’s right- no more minimum donation of $150. Please keep in mind though- the event costs us $40 per a team.  We hope this allows more people to participate… but of course we wouldn’t let an opportunity for competition slip us by. The grand prize for the team that raises the most money is a custom-built guitar with your team/company branding. The guitar will be a playable “strat” style guitar painted in your team’s colors and your team’s logo. Logos must be print/camera ready. How cool is that?

We have now added two additional ticket types to the registration page.  Want to play but don’t have a team? Sign up as an individual and we will pair you up with others.  Don’t want to play? Still come! Register under Just Hanging Out so we can have an accurate count for food.

We also have more items which we are adding to the raffle, and you’ll hear about those in the next day or so.

Now- as per the recommendation of the Float Left Labs Chairman of the Board- let the smack talk commence! I hope your team has been practicing because my college students – well, in the words of The Dude… That creep can roll.  You hear me team from Wedu?

 If you’re team kicks enough butt, you can head down to Nashua the next night and show off your shiny new bowling trophy.

MANCHESTER – Whether you prefer rolling a strike or striking a chord, you could help raise project funds for Float Left Labs, a non-profit media house that provides marketing services to other non-profit organizations in the Manchester area. 

Float Left Labs is holding its first Rock and Bowl competition on Wednesday, April 28^th at 7 p.m. at Spare Time in Manchester.  Teams of four to six people can sign up to either bowl and/or compete in the music video game Rock Band.  There is a $150 minimum donation per team. 

“We wanted to create an original, entertaining fundraiser for Float Left Labs, but we couldn’t decide which was better: hold a bowling tournament or a Rock Band competition?  So we did both,” said Kelley Muir, president of Float Left Labs.  “This is a chance for people in the community help us raise funds for our current projects while networking and having fun.  Winning teams will receive a trophy and, of course, bragging rights.  There will also be raffles with donations from local businesses.” 

Current projects include building and donating digital whiteboards for local schools, which provide students access to interactive technology.  Float Left Labs employs college students, and helps them pay for their education.  In turn, these students gain valuable real-world experience and a well-stocked portfolio. 

Interested teams or sponsors can sign up at http://rockandbowl.eventbrite.com/ or by contacting Kelley Muir at 603-722-0478 or e-mal her at director@floatleftlabs.org.  More information about the Rock and Bowl can be found on the Float Left Labs event web site at http://rockandbowl.floatleftlabs.org.