Update on Helpalot

I got a comment about my long tail of charities post from the creator of helpalot.org, which I said was a one person effort. He now has some backing. Worth watching...

tags: non-profit
charity
long tail

Another Raiser's Edge rumour

From the non-profit Tech Blog: "read/write access to SQL Server 2005 in native XML and it will be at no cost".

tags: raisersedge
blackbaud

Search engine optimisation

I had a visit from a search engine optimisation consultant today, as we prepare a new website. Interesting stuff. Of course I can't tell you what he said or I'd be taking work away from him. However watch this space for news of the new site.

tags: SEO

Buying helpdesk software

One of the many pies that I have my fingers in is a project to buy helpdesk software for use around the Wycliffe world, and I mean world, we work in many countries. I haven't got much of a finger in, just the tip really, as I've been consulted on UK needs, but I'm not reviewing the options. I know a man who is though, and he has a very good description of the task.

tags: helpdesk

Job vacancies in the Wycliffe world

I've been working on a project for a couple of years to provide more up to date listings of job vacancies in Wycliffe around the world. It hasn't taken much effort, just a lot of elapsed time. Finally it has gone live so you can see the vacancies at
wycliffe.org.uk/latestvacancies. These are only the ones with adverts written for them. We have over 2000 vacancies all together so there is something for everyone.

A couple of things you need to know before you rush off though:
"Please note that the posts advertised are non-salaried unless otherwise stated. Successful applicants will be required to raise their own financial support from interested friends, family and churches."

tags: jobs
vacancies
nonprofit

Blackbaud getting more open

Hot rumours about Blackbaud getting more open.
"I’m hearing that Blackbaud has a semi-secret project that will blow the lid off the competition in terms of its online and offline accessibility and in its forthright approach in dealing with the above criticisms."

Interesting...

tags: Blackbaud
Raiser's Edge

The Joy of Unicode

I've started work on a project to put samples from the Bible in many languages on our Vision 2025 website. So I've got to get to grips with some Unicode issues. Working out what browsers will display what you want is a bit of a minefield. It's also a question of which fonts your website visitors have installed, which partly depends on which Microsoft products they have installed, which you can't autodetect.

The wisdom seems to also be that people won't install fonts just to read something, though we'll offer them that choice.

Apache Server Side Include (SSI) files only import ASCII. I think someone needs to read Joel on Software The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!).

tags: unicode
Bible