Collabowrite

This blog has moved

2010-04-19T10:36:00.001-04:00

This blog is now located at http://blog.collabowrite.net/. You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here. For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to http://blog.collabowrite.net/feeds/posts/default.

Project Footlight Festival & Network Site Launched

2008-12-29T00:15:00.002-05:00

Last week Collabowrite launched the site for Project Footlight Festival & Network. Project Footlight serves musical theater writers and directors in the New York City area. Projectfootlight.com has a blog for news and uses ning for the social network. The site, a fully XHTML-compliant, tableless CSS-based design, has a dark gray background with the names of famous musical theater collaborators and riffs on the typewriter motif to speak to the role of the writer, meaning the creator, in the development of musical. Collabowrite also developed a facebook fan page for Project Footlight.

The Project Footlight festival is a camp for emerging musical theater writers that focuses on the developmental process and the art of collaboration. This year the festival performances will take place on February 6 and 7 in the new Dixon Place theater at 161 Chrystie Street. The festival and other events will work in concert with the social network, which enables New York lyricists, composers, bookwriters and directors to find partners and projects, discover new resources, promote their shows, and generally socialize with their peers

Welcome to the new Collabowrite!

2008-08-14T22:30:00.001-04:00

Another server move, another face for Collabowrite. But we are not just prettier and hipper (though we thought our old site was awfully pretty too), we are all simplicity under the hood. No longer on Joomla! CMS, collabowrite.net has stripped down to the bare essentials the Web 2.0 way for the company information site. We also wanted to focus development energies on our demo sites for Joomla! series 1.0 and 1.5, while maintaining design flexibility for the informational site. You should still be able to find everything you need and stay tuned for updates about Joomla!, Joomla! plug-ins like VirtueMart, sh404SEF and EventList, and other open source or free web technologies essential to non-profits and small business.

Sidling Up to Search Engines

2007-11-30T12:50:00.002-05:00

Want your pages showing up in Google? You can increase the likelihood with SEF URL's and sh404SEF. sh404SEF has great support for all the top Joomla! plug-ins, like VirtueMart and Community Builder, offers enhanced security protection, and features fast caching and low overhead. He updates frequently though so be prepared for maintenance on this plug-in.

Security and Joomla

2007-11-20T12:48:00.002-05:00

Recently many Joomla! sites, particularly those that have not performed the 1.0.13 upgrade, have attracted hacker attacks. While using open source software has many advantage and is especially well-suited to non-profit organizations, OSS content management systems like Joomla! require special attention to security.

If you have not upgraded your Joomla! installation to the latest version and checked all your plug-ins for security patches, you may want to do so as soon as possible - hack attacks cost time, and sometimes data as well as users. In addition to upgrading, several server features, like a hardened php.ini (including turning off register globals, magic quotes, and safe mode) and htaccess file, as well as other settings, should be in place. Regular backups outside the www folder should also be part of any good security plan - joomlacloner is a good bet for backups and has a chron tab for scheduling regular backups. Any time you or the webmaster uploads files to the site, he or she should use SFTP not FTP as FTP is not secure.

Elegant Additions SEO

2007-11-17T12:47:00.002-05:00

Elegant Additions is looking to move up the ranks in keyword phrases like designer kitchens and baths, european and contemporary faucets, and related industry terms.After a revamp of the Elegant Additions site a year ago, where we put them on the Joomla platform and added a product catalog, Collabowrite is doign search engine optimization for Elegant Additions. We will be adding a blog on design ideas and product trends, and other content, putting in search engine friendly URL's, as well as going through the usual SEO paces. Look at elegantadditions.net for more great content on bath and kitchen plumbing and hardware in the coming months.

Leaves Leaving Trees

2007-11-07T12:42:00.001-05:00

Since Central Park is once again aflame in color - "L'automne est un deuxième printemps où chaque feuille est une fleur" (Camus) - Collabowrite follows suit with fall imagery and colors.

Better Image Galleries

2007-09-16T12:41:00.002-04:00

RSGallery2 is well-supported and has the most useful features that zOOm did without the epic bloat and bugs of that application. Here are some of the features in addition to general gallery management:

Random thumbnail for gallery image
Working slideshow
Watermarking
Download image link
Permissioning
Voting, hits, and comments

Collabowrite has just moved Southwest and Young Learners Schools to RSGallery from zOOm. Now if only the migration tool from zOOm 2.5.1 RC1 worked!

Update Time

2007-09-15T12:39:00.002-04:00

Joomla 1.0.13 came out in July and many components have upgrades available now. According to Joomla.org, "Joomla! 1.0.13 is a minor security release that addresses several small security vulnerabilities, bugs, and long-awaited features. "

Because Joomla! 1.0.13 is a security release, it is important that you upgrade but we strongly recommend that you take extra precautions when performing this upgrade. This release features several improvements to the password storage system designed to help protect the future security of your Joomla! powered website. These changes will cause compatibility issues with some 3rd Party Extensions, especially bridges. If your Joomla! site utilizes bridges to other applications or extensions that have their own login system such as Community Builder, Virtuemart, or others you should not upgrade your site until those extensions have also been updated.

Joomla! 1.0.13 features:

Several low-risk security fixes
Improved password storage system
Easier control over Register Globals Emulation
An Itemid backwards compatibility setting
Improved administrative session security
Improved HTTP/HTTPS switchover support

JoomlaCloner

2007-09-12T12:26:00.002-04:00

During a complex client transfer to a new server, Collabowrite discovered a gem of a new tool - JoomlaCloner. While proprietary, JoomlaCloner makes backing up and transferring sites a snap.

Seasons of Collabowrite

2007-05-01T12:13:00.001-04:00

"As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age." - Henry David Thoreau

With the snap of a digital camera and the flick of a switch (practically), Collabowrite ushers in the lush beauty of spring in New York City. With new banner photos taken in the West Side Community Garden and Central Park and a greening of the CSS, the website has an all new face for the season. Contact us today to find out how easy updating the look of your site can be when you are using Joomla! for content management.

Elegant Additions

2007-03-02T12:25:00.001-05:00

Collabowrite has just released the newly revamped Elegant Additions website at www.elegantadditions.net, complete with Joomla! content management system and product catalog using VirtueMart. Elegant Additions works with designers, architects, and developers to add ideal luxury home and plumbing fixtures in renovations and new construction.

According to Julie Koch, the company's founder:

"Since 1985, we have been working with Houstonians on their local and destination homes and have mastered the ability to turn an idea into reality. While Elegant Additions does work through the trade, we would love to open our doors and give you a private tour of our showroom."

Southwest Center for Microsurgical Tubal Reversals

2006-11-22T12:24:00.001-05:00

Southwest Center for Microsurgical Tubal Reversals, in Houston, Texas, now has a beautiful new website at www.swtubalreversal.com. This clean yet vibrant site looks good but also has some great functionality like a secure and encrypted online patient registration form as well as online payment form. There is also a wealth of information in the Infertility & Pregnancy Resource Guide on pregnancy, tubal ligations, and infertility issues. Check it out!

The Open Hand V2

2006-03-02T12:20:00.000-05:00

The Open Hand is finally headed toward publication in March 2006. The site will operate on the Joomla CMS and features photography from Michelle Feldman. This SAT and college preparation school, located in New York City, offers intensive standardized test prep in both classes and private tutoring sessions. Test scores jump, on average, 300 to 400 points after completing a year's series of tutoring with The Open Hand. In the future, students will be able to take virtual classes, with online quizzes and tests, chat sessions, and homework submissions.

Welcome to Collabowrite!

2006-02-24T12:04:00.001-05:00

This is Collabowrite's new website, powered by the Joomla! content management system. Our design is CSS, tableless, and standards-compliant (even if Joomla! itself is not quite there yet) - the kind of spare, and hopefully elegant, design we advocate for our clients. Michelle Feldman took the banner pictures in Central Park after the great snowstorm of 2006 - we like the wintry charm of these photos and feel that they convey the sort of zen design principles of A List Apart and CSS Zen Garden to which Collabowrite aspires to adhere. Enjoy!

Ellen Cokinos Consulting

2006-02-06T12:23:00.000-05:00

In February 2006, Collabowrite unveiled the newly revamped Ellen Cokinos Consulting site, which features Pam Francis photography and the handsnet news feed. Ellen Cokinos is an experienced non-profit development and strategy consultant, and a passionate, accomplished child advocate. Based in Houston, Texas, but with clients all over the country, Ellen Cokinos Consulting offers strategic and marketing services, financial management, assistance with entrepreneurial collaboration, and board development for non-profit organizations.

Marcia Feldman & Associates Revamp

2006-02-06T12:22:00.000-05:00

In February of 2006, Collabowrite revisited the design for Marcia Feldman & Associates and gave the site a complete overhaul.

Marciafeldman.com now features an atomz search function, with customized results display, CSS/table hybrid design, suckerfish drop-downs, renovated Blogger weblogs, and really pretty lists! In the next few weeks, MF&A will be working on her direct mail portfolio, which will use a flash slideshow.

Marcia Feldman & Associates partners with Collabowrite to deliver comprehensive solutions for non-profit organizations. Since 1989, MF&A has produced the direct mail campaigns and significantly enhanced fundraising operations for a wide variety of non-profits, from hospitals to international relief to animal shelters. Over the years, MF&A has worked with The Red Cross, Texas Children's Hospital, Ronald McDonald House, Methodist Hospital, The University of Houston, The University of Texas, and many more great organizations in both the Houston area and nationally.

Young Learners & Southwest Schools

2006-01-30T12:15:00.000-05:00

In December, Collabowrite acquired a new client, Educational Leadership/Leaders in Education, who operate Southwest Schools and Young Learners, respectively. These charter schools, located in Houston, Texas, focus on developing skills and academic discipline in children and youth, ranging in age from pre-K to high school.

Young Learners, a Head Start partner, operates pre-K programs in twenty-eight Houston Independent School District locations. Southwest Schools has an elementary school, a separate middle and high school campus, as well as a residential treatment center. Their websites, younglearners.org and swschools.org, will feature the Joomla! CMS, an events calendar, job opportunities, online donation, a wealth of Pam Francis photograhy, and much more. Educational Leadership/Leaders in Education plans to unveil the websites on March 2, 2006.