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College Publisher
What it is: College Publisher is a commercial content management system (CMS) designed specifically for college news publications.
How we use it: This is our main web site. We currently use v.4 of the CMS, but will soon switch over to the more powerful and flexible v.5. The new version allows more greater layout/design control and nested subsections. Approximately 1,000 files and special pages on the v.4 site and we have the choice of bringing over archived files with the switchover or “start from scratch” and manually bring over only the files we want. Because there are multiple versions of documents on the old site that show up during searches, which causes a lot of confusion among members, we’ll opt for the latter option. This means sorting through the old files and determining the 100-plus minimum level files that are needed. V.4 files will remain in archive and we’ll slowly bring over the rest of the important ones.
Cost: None
Southland/Keyway
What it is: Southland/Keyway.net is a combined Internet Service Provider (ISP) that serves as host of two JACC web storage sites – jacconline.org and jacconline2.org – and JACC’s three listserves – jaccfac, socal and norcal.
How we use it: We use the service for web storage and listserve services. We filled up the allocated storage space for jacc@jacconline.org and new tools and the merger of the two companies made purchasing a second storage site more economical to buy a second site. Storage includes downloadable PDFs, image files, and archived HTML files from before our CMS days. We have the potential for e-mail forwards (anything@jacconline.org) at no extra cost, too.
Cost: $_______ annually
Eventbright
What it is: Eventbright is a commercial web-based event registration system. The tool provides a professional registration system and essential reporting systems on the back end. Setup for new events takes only minutes. If we choose to use it, it also provides credit card payment services for a small additional fee.
How we use it: We have just started using this system for registration for our SoCal and NorCal conferences and the Skyline Editors’ Roundtable event. We’ll likely use it for the Morro Bay and State conferences, as well.
Cost: The cost will vary based on use. There are no up-front fees. Instead, the site charges a percentage of actual sales of registration tickets. For SoCal the per-ticket commission is about $2.75 and $2 for NorCal. State Convention fees will be just under $5 each. There are no fees for free events.
Wild Apricot
What it is: Wild Apricot is a professional web-based membership management content management tool. It provides multiple tool services, including directory management, membership sign-ups, event registration and online donation services.
How we use it: We’ve established two accounts: a paid directory/membership management account and a free account for a trial alumni membership proposal.
Our primary use for the paid account will be for an online membership directory, but we will take a look at using it for membership invoicing and receipting. A couple of advantages include its widgets that allow us to pull in data from the Wild Apricot site and seamlessly integrate it into the College Publisher site.
As we learn more about the site’s other event registration and donation tools we will compare them to Eventbright and Network for Good and see if we want to use Wild Apricot in place of them.
For the alumni membership site, if we choose to provide that service, we will use both the directory and membership invoicing/registration tools.
Cost: The tool is free (with ads) for up to 50 individual members. Because we list more than 100 community colleges in our directory we immediately needed to upgrade to the $25 per month option. (We paid for a year and received a 15% discount.) We will list all instructors individually –there is a built-in function to group individual instructors from the same school into one membership, but can list up to 250 members before hitting capacity, forcing us to the $50 per month level. If we go to the event registration, tool, though, we may be looking at the $100 per month level. The alumni membership account likely will have to be upgraded to the $25 per month level quickly, and maybe even the $50 per month level. But if we charge for membership levels, it likely will more than pay for itself.
Survey Monkey
What it is: Survey Monkey is a commercial web-based survey and polling service. Simple surveys can be created and deployed within minutes. The tool also creates on-the-fly charts and graphs as results come in.
How we use it: We use the tool for conducting various surveys, including the Snapshot surveys and the recent Budget Watch Survey. Simple surveys, as well as complex ones, are easy to create and analyze.
Cost: The $200 annual fee allows us to create unlimited numbers of surveys with an unlimited number of questions and an unlimited number of responses.
Network for Good
What it is: Network for Good is a web-based donation tool for non-profit organizations. The service provides IRS-accepted donation receipts as it collects donations for us.
How we use it: Our account allows JACC supporters to make tax-deductible donations. We promote it on our web site, but it has been little used.
Cost: Network for Good collects 4% of any donations actually made through the site.
PayPal
What it is: PayPal is a web-based payment collection system.
How we use it: Because JACC receives few payments through credit card, it does not pay for us to have our own credit card collection system through a bank. PayPal is an easy-to-use, ubiquitous credit card payment collection option.
Cost: PayPal charges about 5% percent of any collections.
Facebook
What it is: Facebook is a web-based social communication network connecting millions of Americans.
How we use it: JACC has a Facebook Group page and a Facebook Fan page. The advantage of the fan page is that users do not have to have individual Facebook accounts to view and follow JACC news through the site. The two pages are not well used at this point, even though they ARE collecting friends and fans. Stephanie Frith has volunteered to develop the fan page and coordinate its use as soon as she gets settled in to her new role at Pierce College.
Cost: None
Twitter
What it is: Twitter is a social communication network for 144-character-or-less messages that utilizes both Web and mobile interfaces.
How we use it: About 15-20 tweets are posted each week to the JACC News Twitter feed. The vast majority feature news aggregated from other sources with the main focus on articles or news that talk about college journalism education or introduce concepts or tools that may be useful to the development of student online publications. It also includes news of JACC. About half of the tweets are reposted, sometimes with additional information, to the JACC-FAC listserve. The JACC web site includes a widget that captures and displays all of the tweets.
Cost: None
Google
What it is: Google is best known for its highly popular search engine, but the company also provides an array of other web-based tools.
How we use it: The most visible use of Google tools is the JACC calendar, which includes a scrolling widget, on the JACC web site. Another tool likely to be incorporated into the JACC web site is the Google Analytics tool, which helps measure web site usage. The company also provides non-profit organizations with e-mail management software should we wish to create e-mail forwards with the jacconline.org domain name. For instance, we could create a president@jacconline.org address that forwards directly to the current president’s e-mail address.
Cost: None
WordPress
What it is: Wordpress is a web-based/hosted blog service.
How we use it: We use Wordpress.com to host the JACC blog. Currently I am the only blogger, though others have been asked to participate when they have expressed an interest. Blog entries are infrequent given the amount of effort devoted to Twitter and the listserves. Longer topics usually migrate to the blog site. It is possible to use an RSS widget to link blog entries to the JACC web site, but until frequency increases there are no plans to.
Wordpress.org offers a download version of the product that you host on your own server. Many publications choose to use this versatile content management option in lieu of College Publisher. We have not.
Cost: None
Issuu
What it is: Issue is a web-based document storage site that provides an online viewing interface.
How we use it: We store a number of our publications and documents on this site for viewing and downloading by members. Documents include survey results, policy manuals, survival guides, contest rules and more.
Cost: None
GoDaddy
What it is: GoDaddy is a domain registry site that also provides hosting and other Internet services.
How we use it: The jacconline2.org domain is registered through GoDaddy. The domain is paid through February 2012.
The jaccweb.com domain is registered through GoDaddy. The domain is paid through February 2011 and is redirected to the jaccblog.wordpress.com site.
The jaccweb.com domain is registered through GoDaddy. The domain is paid through February 2010 and is redirected to the jacconline.org web site.
Cost: Domains paid already paid for several years. Renewal for each domain name is approximately $10 per year, less when purchased for multiple years.
Network Solutions
What it is: Network Solutions is a domain registry service.
How we use it: The jacconline.org domain is registered through Network Solutions. The domain is paid through July 2013. The domain has internal splits to direct web traffic to the JACC web site at College
Publisher and mail traffic to Southland.net for the listserves. In addition, two sub-domains of members.jacconline.org and alumni.jacconline.org have been created to direct to the Wild Apricot sites.
Cost: Paid through July 2013.
JACC Awards Database
What it is: Filemaker database combined with Excel spreadsheets
How we use it: Used collate information from mail-in entry spreadsheets, conference registration lists and winners lists to create award certificates and master lists. Also calculates Pacesetter winners on the fly. Am still looking for an elegant way to move this to a Web solution in the future.
