Is that Linux? Yep.

So, as we exit one of the most intense R&D cycles in the 18 years I’ve been at Blackbaud, I took some time to reflect back on our initial goals for the platform and do a little internal report card of sorts around how I think we did. I won’t bore you with the details, or maybe I will in another post, but for now I’d like to look at one place where I give the team an A+.

You didn’t think I was going to blog about the “B” grade did you?

Goal: Embrace web standards to maximize interoperability

I know, it’s a mouthful, but I can’t figure out how to put it any more succinctly. Two years ago it was obvious to the team here that we needed to be web delivered and if we were going to be web delivered we should use as many standards-based technologies as possible.

Larry’s Linux App

This was important to us particularly in the area of how we exposed our API stack. We decided on using SOAP-based web services to support our API and extensibility models. Interestingly, we have also sprinkled in REST-based access to the services as well, but in general we are a SOAP shop. It wasn’t as if we were making some visionary choice. Our core applications are built on Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and ASP.NET 2.0 using Microsoft Visual Studio — we are a Microsoft shop — and Microsoft plays real nice with SOAP. Seriously, Microsoft did a great job with their development tools plumbing SOAP into the deepest levels of the platform, safely abstracting the developer away (well only if you want to be) from the gory details of the actual XML messages, wire format, WSDL etc. Our real visionary architectural decisions were made around how Infinity exposes all of it’s data and functionality via web services, with zero compromises.

“Let’s see just how platform agnostic the API is. Let’s build something on Linux”

That’s what I said to the team. So, as is always the case with the folks on my team, a developer jumped at the challenge. I have the luxury of having a brilliant team of developers here, so it was no surprise when two days later, Larry showed up at my door with a working application. The Apache/PHP based application provides basic search an record management capabilities by using the web services APIs exposed by our Infinity platform. It really was a proud moment, one that made all the rigor and discipline that has gone into building the Infinity platform *totally* worth it. I love when a plan comes together like that.

Two worlds, two totally different flavors of Kool-Aid, one application. It was borderline heresy in the Microsoft worshiping halls of Blackbaud — and it worked great.

Grandma to the rescue

Grandma’s LAMP

Initially, we were all so clueless about Linux it was comical. Picture three nerds poking and prodding at a computer with quizzical looks, not knowing where to start. It was a true “showing fire to the natives” type of moment. So, we did what anybody would do, and typed “Linux for my grandma” into Google. Bingo! Within minutes we had a Linux VM even the Blackbaud team could use! OK, so maybe I took some creative license on how it went down, but that’s pretty much what happened. Really.

Grandma’s LAMP was the perfect tool for the job — a pre-built VMWare image with the LAMP stack, samba, Firefox etc. All there and ready to use. The fact that Larry was then able to build a super-clean PHP wrapper that made it trivial to exercise our API from PHP and then build what he did in two days was proof enough for me that the mission was accomplished.

PHP Meets Infinity

2007 is going to be a fun year. If you see me at a conference some time please ask me to boot up ole Granny and show you what I am talking about here. We’ll include it in the Infinity SDK as well. Sure, this
was an exercise and proof of concept, but maybe someday Larry’s code will help somebody solve a thorny integration problem with our systems and some other application out there in the cloud.

Thanks Grandma!

I also uploaded a sample that demonstrates how to write a simple plugin using the Raiser’s Edge 7.81 and Visual Basic .NET 2005.
You can view the project page here.
(Note this sample will only work with RE 7.81 or later, since 7.81 ships with the required .NET 2.0 support files)

Did you know that Plugins do not require an API license to create? That’s right, grab this sample, play with it, make your own plugins and contribute them to the project/community! The only restriction I am making is I am putting all code under a Creative Commons License.

I’ll be up front with you, I probably won’t have much time to field direct questions on any code I post. Also, this isn’t officially suported Blackbaud product. That said, if you are looking for a place to learn more about using our extensive APIs and plugins, I hope this community will serve as a launch pad. I’ll upload more stuff when I get free time and inspiration. What I’d most like to see is what you come up with.

Now go buy that .NET book and start coding! Be sure to let me know if you’d like to contribute code or projects, I’ll add you to the open source team. Make something really cool and we may ask you to join the Blackbaud Product Development team

Shaun

But a huge part of facilitating processes involves communication among people and departments. I’m wondering what we can do to better allow users to communicate with each other through our products? And where would this type of functionality be most useful? We’ve already taken steps in this direction in specific areas - Major Giving cultivation, for example, where we’re looking to improve the ability of fundraisers and their managers to communicate progress and status on their prospects. But I think this is an area we can explore further and really take advantage of some of the newer tools available to us.

It seems like there are some key characteristics of situations where in-product collaboration would be most useful:

• The specific context lends itself to questions, clarification, and a general discourse on the value, interpretation or significance of what is being shown. Obviously, part of this characteristic includes the need for multiple people to be interested in the context.
• There is some value in being able to capture this conversation in a centralized place and in close proximity to the subject of discussion.
• The relationship and proximity of the people involved encourages online communication. People who share a cube are less likely to use something like this than are people who are spread across departments and separated by some distance. Probably more value to larger organizations than in smaller ones.

Examples where in-app collaboration might be useful include:

• KPI dashboards and other reports - this type of data display can immediately provoke questions, clarification and discussion around its meaning and implications. Why is this trend happening? Can we expect to make this goal? What events may effect the future of this data? An ongoing discourse of this kind if very healthy for an organization, and could further enrich the usefulness of this type of display.
• Major giving cultivation - all of the intricacies involved in cultivating a prospect are often difficult to capture in a set of pre-defined fields. Ongoing conversations about the propensity and inclination of prospects could potentially be managed through in-product collaboration features.
• Event management - planning large events takes a huge amount of communication, and decisions are made quickly constantly throughout the lead-up to the event. Centralized management and documentation of the decision-making process could help ensure that decisions are communicated clearly and people don’t spend time repeating past discussions.

Relative to other more prescriptive features, in-product collaboration solves an “ill structured” business problem. In some ways, we may not know how (or if) users would employ it until it is in actual operation. How might this type of feature fit into your organization? Do you see opportunities for improving communication through in-product collaboration?

• quantitative (lose 20 pounds!) or qualitative (eat healthier!)
• subjective (be a better person!) or objective (spend 10 hours a month helping out my favorite charity!)
• personal (appreciate the little things more!) or altruistic (make the world a better place!)

…but they are things that challenge us because they challenge our ability to overcome our limitations, our conditioning and our environment.

Of course, I’ve got my list of personal resolutions…..drop 20 pounds, finish the Cooper River Bridge Run in under 50 minutes, and complete a lengthy list of home improvement projects….just to name a few. However, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to try and come up with a New Year’s Resolution that has an impact on our Products team at Blackbaud and, by extension, the products we deliver. While surfing the web looking for some ideas, most of what I found centered on resolutions like “write more reusable code”, “comply with web standards” or “do more usability testing”; all worthwhile goals, but they didn’t capture my imagination or feel like what I was looking for.

Eventually, I came across an article discussing New Year’s Resolutions and “Deficit Thinking”. The article defines Deficit Thinking as “an ingrained habit of focusing on gaps and weaknesses instead of what’s working” and goes on to talk about the value in avoiding it and provides some strategies to help avoid it. The article itself may be a little too Stuart Smalley and doesn’t specifically apply the concept of Deficit Thinking to software development. However, the basic definition of the comment did strike a chord with me. Much of what we do in developing software necessarily involves Deficit Thinking;

• Product Managers and Business Analysts study gaps between what our products do and what our clients need them to do (or what our competitor’s products do!).
• Developers work to ensure that all of the product requirements are satisfied in the code they write and try and figure out why their code won’t compile or pass unit tests.
• Quality Assurance Engineers demonstrate the creativity of Van Gogh (for the QA people out there, that was a compliment, not a comment on your mental stability!) in devising test plans designed to identify gaps between what the product does and what the Business Analysts said it should do.
• Usability Engineers exhaustively test our products for ease of use and collect reams of data that point out where they are substandard.

It’s not a stretch to say that a software development team simply can not function without a culture deeply rooted in Deficit Thinking. That said, I think that providing truly compelling products and solutions to our clients requires an ability and willingness to balance this mindset with one that keenly recognizes how and where our product features provide value to our clients and seeks opportunities to build on that value or apply that value to new challenges. This type of “Opportunity Thinking” (for lack of a better term) provides a valuable complement to skills we all bring to the process of building products by focusing that process on maximizing the value we provide to our clients rather than towards satisfying a list of requirements.

So, there you have it, my New Year’s Resolution for Blackbaud products:

To balance “Deficit Thinking” with “Opportunity Thinking” by recognizing the value that our products provide and thinking of new ways to enhance that value and apply it to the challenges our clients face.

But will nonprofits flock to DoGooderTV instead of free alternatives like YouTube or Google Video? DoGooderTV will always have a captive audience looking for nonprofit content, but whether or not organizations will be willing to pay for that placement remains to be seen. Tracking…

Update: Michael says:

The site is 100% FREE! A new version is online now that allows nonprofits to create basic home pages and upload video.

That’s great news from the DoGooderTV camp - not only because the the service will be free, but social elements like creating pages are coming sooner rather than later.

Social sites are built to encourage sharing, and few things are more effective and inexpensive than viral marketing. While maintaining your own Web site will always be a priority, there are other ways to spread your organization’s story via the Internet.

Here are ten social web resolutions that can give your nonprofit an edge in 2007:

• Create a page at MySpace.com
  Your donors are getting younger, or at least they are acting younger…so should you. Reach out to them via MySpace.com this year. Setup a page for your organization, gather friends, post bulletins, and point people back to your online donation page.
• Go in-world with Second Life
  Get an account started at Second Life, and take your nonprofit into the virtual world. This is cutting edge internet marketing, so getting started now may get you closer to tech-savvy donors who are looking for something different. Have a meet-up in Second Life to discuss your annual campaign or just chat about issues. If you do it right, Reuters might show up and cover the event in the real world.

• Share videos at YouTube.com
  Engage your donors with real life moving pictures! YouTube.com has put the whole world in the director’s chair, and that includes you. Get your promo videos out there, start a video blog, and begin to integrate new videos into your campaigns. People like people, and your donors will appreciate seeing you.
• Share your photos at Flickr.com
  A picture is worth a thousand words, so even a few can help show your mission to the world. Setup an account at Flickr.com and start tagging! Add desktop wallpaper and posters that your supporters can download.
• Archive your organization at Wikipedia.com
  Do a search at Wikipedia.com - is your organization there? Get it added as soon as you can. Not only are Wikipedia entries becoming the go-to reference source, but they are showing up very high in organic search engine results at Google and Yahoo!.
• Start your own blog
  It’s 2007, which means it’s time to start a blog. Your donors are doing it, the organization down the street is doing it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if your kids are doing it. You can get one setup and running in a matter of minutes with the free tool Blogger.
• Start Podcasting
  The spoken word is a powerful way to convey a message, and this is even more pronounced in the nonprofit world. The written word is a powerful force, but is easily trumped by speech. A downloadable interview with your board, DOD, or donors is be a great way to share your mission with Web visitors.
• Share your links with Del.icio.us
  Social bookmarking may be new, but I bet your browser’s favorite list is jam packed with useful links. If they relate to your mission, create an account at del.icio.us. By adding and tagging bookmarklets, you can share information with coworkers, board members, and donors.
• Join LinkedIn.com
  It’s simple…sign up at linkedin.com, network with others that do what you do, and learn from them.
• Bring the Social Web to your site
  This one is easier said than done…believe me, I know. Even if it’s just a discussion forum or blog, get something on your site that will allow visitors to participate. Go further and implement team fundraising or giving circles - these provide your supporters a vehicle to engage one another and further your organization’s mission.

These resolutions are really just ideas - hopefully a few of them will make sense for your organization. The key here is that the Web is changing rapidly, and social concepts are becoming an expectation of your donors. Use these tools now to get ahead, before you get behind.

Happy New Year everyone!