Projects and Launches, Launches and Projects

We’re busy as bees here at Trinity Applied Internet.  It’s all we can do to login and give you an update now and then. Here’s the short version:

Recent Launches

www.tmcworkingsolutions.org — A hardworking, non-profit microlender in the Bay Area, TMC Working Solutions needed a more professional look and a much more robust content management system.  Content Gadget and a simple CSS template did the trick.

www.kps3.com — Our long time agency partners, KPS|3 Marketing, have completely revamped their website, incorporating some whimsical Flash (created by 9MM Media), tons of great content, multimedia elements, and our very own Content Gadget.  Their blog is really outstanding, too.

Coming Soon

Trinity Applied Internet — It isn’t just a rumor, we have a new site on the way.  Our problem is, we keep focusing on our clients’ work while our own is relegated to the back burner.   We suppose that’s certainly not a problem from our clients’ perspective (in fact we call that “by design”) — so we don’t apologize.

Reynolds National Center for Courts and Media — On the heels of the UNR Reynolds School of Journalism, its sister organization will be unveiling their new site this month. We loved the name of their last conference, by the way: “FYI, LOL or OMG? – Technology’s Impact on the Courts and Media”

Server Technology — This locally based company is a global leader in manufacturing power distribution management equipment, and their home page redesign is going to reflect their success, stature and service.

Exciting New Starts

We are proud to announce that Trinity Applied Internet has been contracted by Gnomon, Inc. to fulfill the graphic design and custom Joomla/Google Maps components for a new State Historic Preservation Office site.  Watch this space for more information on a really fun project that promotes historical tourism here in our Silver State.

Estipona Group has selected Trinity Applied Internet to build the new Arts 4 Nevada website, incorporating their vibrant and expansive new design with Content Gadget and custom calendar management, e-mail push, and other database-driven applications.

Buzz you later –

Keith and Erin

Announcing the Redesigned Reynolds School of Journalism Website

Today marks the public launch of the Reynolds School of Journalism’s newly redesigned website.  Trinity Applied Internet has been working with RSJ over the course of almost a year — to define goals and requirements, to imagine and design online applications to make department operations easier, and to incorporate multimedia and cutting-edge publishing technology to feature student and faculty work.  Suffice to say, we are proud of this work.

The graphic design was provided by the Estipona Group, and numerous members of the faculty provided strategy, review, and feedback along the way.  This project also owes a special thank-you to Professor Donica Mensing, who managed the complete refresh of all their content and populated data into all the new applications.

The website features our Content Gadget content management system, and five substantial custom database applications that manage everything from News and Events, to Faculty Pages, Scholarship Applications and the semester Course Schedule.  Prospective Students, Undergraduates, Graduate Students, Alumni and Parents each have sections of content organized and tailored directly to them.  Perhaps most importantly, the School has ample area on the site to publish student work.  The development was crafted to allow for fluid expansion and to be completely supported by staff members.

Projects like these don’t happen without a great committee. Trinity Applied Internet would like to express our sincere appreciation to everyone at the Reynolds School, including Dean Jerry Ceppos, Director of Alumni Relations Kristin Ghiggeri-Burgarello, and Professors Rosemary McCarthy, Bob Felten, Larry Dailey, Donica Mensing and Howard Goldbaum.   The committee was a pleasure to work with, and we wish them the best as they roll into 2009 with a new online presence.

Nevada Humanities Adopts Content Gadget to Manage Their Website

Trinity Applied Internet recently had the honor of working with an organization that qualifies as a state treasure.  Nevada Humanities is the non-profit organization that has been bringing Chautauqua to the Truckee Meadows, and now southern Nevada as well, for more than 15 years. With seven core  programs and a substantial annual grant-making commitment, Nevada Humanities has been a part of hundreds of state events and initiatives in the humanities, arts, culture and history disciplines.  In fact, they are also the sponsoring organization and editorial body for the Online Nevada Encyclopedia, which features some of the most interesting Nevada lore and images on the web today. (Check out the “Vegas Then and Now” interactive feature.  We hear there may be some Reno/Sparks images up there soon!)

The organization makes very good use of a small number of staff, so manually updating their comprehensive website content in HTML was at best time-prohibitive, and at worst, a real pain.  Board member Edward Estipona had already provided them with a solid visual design, but keeping up with the large volume of information, applications, forms and documents, events, and new video and other media, was becoming very difficult.  Trinity Applied Internet took the existing site design and wrapped it around our Content Gadget content management system, installing tools that would allow their staff to manage documents, publish events, and even load photography into their jQuery banner, all from a secure online administrative interface.

We hope Nevada Humanities is as happy with their new website engine as we were to be working with such an esteemed organization.  Thank you, Nevada Humanities!

Trinity Applied Internet Launches Nevada Immunization Coalitions Website

Ta Da!  This past September, Trinity Applied Internet completed the redesign for the Nevada Immunization Coalitions website — www.immunizenevada.org.  The launch happened to coincide with a very busy time of year for NIC, the start of the traditional school term and beginning of flu shot season.

ImmunizeNevada.org features the new version of our Content Gadget content management system. (2.0), as well as a suite of custom tools that operate News, Events, Newsletters and Publications, among other items. The organization, which provides education, resources and advocacy about immunzations for patients and medical professionals, has been working with Trinity Applied Internet since 2005.

Extra kudos are due to NIC for establishing their own Facebook page and joining the social networking community. To join their Facebook group and help provide awareness and consistent immunizations for Nevada children and adults, visit the www.immunizenevada.org website and click through the Facebook link on the right hand side.

Trinity Applied Internet’s New Website is Coming Soon

Fact: when you are a small business, there never seems to be enough time to get to everything.

Well, that’s probably true no matter how big you are.

Suffice to say, we are going to be sporting a new look to the www.trinity-ai.com very soon.  The redesign will shine us up, feature some of our new Content Gadget tools, and better reflect the philosophy and quality of our work.

We’ll keep you posted.

Google Analytics is upgrading

Today Google announced that it will be rolling out a new version of its analytics package to all current analytics accounts over the next couple weeks. I couldn’t be more excited. Google Analytics is an awesome (free) package that allows you to easily gather serious data about your website traffic. If you haven’t tried it – you should – and what do you have to lose? It’s free.

Two new features have been included that I have been wanting since I started using Google analytics.

1) Email and export reports: Schedule or send ad-hoc personalized report emails and export reports in PDF format. Exporting data from Google Analytics in a presentable format has always been an issue. Being able to schedule emails of PDF format reports? Now that is extra exciting.

and

2) Custom Dashboard: No more digging through reports. Put all the information you need on a custom dashboard that you can email to others. Finally. Now you can tailor the report view to the items that you, your company, or you clients need the most. Awesome.

Check out the full post – they even have a tour.

Thank you Google. Can I have my upgrade tomorrow?

What is web 2.0?

I’ve done several posts on this website that mention or reference the idea of web 2.0. I have realized that I need to define what I mean by web 2.0.

Web 2.0 was first coined by Tim O’Reilly as a way to talk about emerging web technologies (post dot-bomb bust). You can read his synopsis of evolution of the term here. Warning: there are a lot of buzzwords on this page that really are part of the larger picture but off the point – i.e. radical trust, radical decentralization, etc. Read the whole thing, and then think about each of the pieces – or read the rest of this post where I boil it down.

Web 2.0 is an idea in flux. Many have dismissed it as a Marketing Buzzword (which it is when it’s used by Marketers who don’t understand what it means – and there are a lot of them out there). Others simply feel that it is an oversimplification – a pointless pigeon-holing of trends in web development and use.

I think Tim has something (and a lot of other people agree). To me, web 2.0 is an idea about how the web is enabling the sharing of ideas and the creation of dialogues.

The important characteristics of web 2.0 technologies are:

1. Service – Websites that act like applications or services – think Writely (now Google docs and spreadsheets, CogMap, or SalesForce.com
2. Simplification – User processes that are easy to sign up for, simple to implement, and easy to invite others – think MySpace, Feedburner, or Campfire.
3. Open Data – Data that is entered once and used in a variety of forms and formats. Data easily shared – think RSS, Google maps API, and Flickr.
4. Sharing – Individual experience and data populates communities that influence individual experience. A cycle of information – think Digg, the Wikipedia, and del.icio.us.

So that’s the 20,000 foot overview. What does it mean to you?

It means that there are more and more tools out in the great web beyond that will allow you to leverage those four ideas on your own website, with your ideas, using your data. Blogs, wikis, RSS, and social bookmarking are all easy to setup – but how do you integrate them with your current business process? with your website? with your in-house web team? That’s the crux of the web design and web development processes. Now that you understand the high level overview, you can talk to your web development team about taking things to the next level.