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The proposals are in.  They include some great designs; features that meet requirements; and maybe even some novel ideas.  Budgets get compared, references checked, and a selection is made.  Yet all is not well.  Several months down the road, after the new site’s public launch, problems arise that weren’t contemplated during the proposal process.

This year alone, we’ve had a half dozen or so organizations contact us expressing dismay with their current web development partner.  The complaints: deadlines are frequently missed; simple changes to the site aren’t made; and requests for new additions to the site seem way overpriced.  And they don’t know how to move the site to a new partner.

What’s going on?

Answer: the proposal process didn’t take into account two key factors, a) the platform on which the site was built, and b) the web partner’s experience with it and its dedication to client service.

So before throwing good money after bad in building a site, make sure you get solid and verified responses to these seven questions:

(1) Don’t get fooled by a great design.  Turning a mock-up into a real web site is where the rubber meets the road.  Demand that the potential web vendor demonstrate previous experience.  You don’t want to be a guinea pig.  This leads to the next question:

(2) What platform will the site be built on, i.e., is there going to be a robust content management system (CMS) housing the site’s content?  If not, you’ll be looking ahead to lots of slow, manual labor in making changes and additions to your site.

(3) Is the CMS well supported, with a growing list of new modules and refinements? In other words, are there lots of people behind the CMS, and is the CMS growing in popularity?  You want a CMS that’s successful, and that will grow with your evolving requirements. Make your prospective partner demonstrate that.

(4) Is the CMS easy to use? Most clients want to take charge of their content.  With a few hours training, a serious CMS will enable the client to do just that.  Make your prospective partner prove it.

FACT: There are a number of FREE (open source) CMS available today, such as Drupal and    Joomla.  They are powerful, easy for the client to employ, and used by all sizes of organizations and companies.  They enable basic changes to be made with little effort, and new site additions (blogs, video, social media) to be incorporated without costing an arm and a leg.  DEADLINES MET, BUDGETS KEPT.

(5) Just how adept is your web partner with the recommended CMS? You want a partner with thousands of hours on the CMS, a partner that knows every detail, no matter how small.  You want an expert, not a vendor who sees your project as a chance to build its own CMS – a disaster in waiting.

(6) What happens in the event that you need to end the relationship with the web partner? You need to make the break as seamless as possible.  The client owns the content and the transition is very simple with the right CMS – if the contract has provisions for this eventuality.  Web partners worth their salt will help with the move.

(7) What the web vendor’s record of client support? Research this carefully.  Ask lots of question from references.  How quick are they to respond?  Do they make simple changes as a matter of course?  How accurate are their time and budget estimates for site customizations? Do they keep their word?

So next time you’re in the market for a website, no matter its size, keep these questions in mind. You want to make management of the site as effortless as possible. And you want a web partner who knows what it’s doing and values your relationship.  You need both together otherwise you’ll be wasting money.  And not in a real party mood.

Watch the introductions for The Pickens Plan’s Heather Lauer and The Bivings Group’s Todd Zeigler during their panel discussion at the Personal Democracy Forum conference this week.

Entrepeneur Mark Goldenson wrote a great article in Venturebeat last week on the lessons he learned working on his failed startup, PlayCafe.  This passage resonated with me:

3. Know when to value speed vs. stability. Another reason PlayCafe’s complexity hurt us is that developing good content and technology simultaneously required too much time. We tried to make each deep and stable — important, we thought, given our live nature — but we were too slow to iterate in a novelty- and entertainment-based business.

A metaphor I like is that a chess novice can defeat a master if moving twice each round. This generally increases bugs and offends perfectionists, but I agree with Reid Hoffman that if you review your first site version and don’t feel embarrassment, you spent too much time on it.

This is a lesson that applies to all web development work.  Way, way too many organizations tend to turn a web development project into a six to twelve month process, with delays resulting from months of arguments about font choices or waiting on content that sounds good in theory, but no one has time or energy to write. 

In almost all cases, organizations are better off scaling back their initial requirements in order to get something up quickly so they can start making an impact now.  As long as the initial site is built in a flexible platform like Drupal, it should be relatively painless to then launch iterative improvements to the site over time.

A website is not a print brochure.  Nothing is being sent to the printer and a website isn’t something that should ever be seen as finished. 

“The perfect is the enemy of the good.”
-Voltaire

In February we launched brand new, upgraded, and comprehensively re-designed versions of The Personal Democracy Forum’s sibling websites, personaldemocracy.com and techpresident.com.

There are tens of new features and offerings, but highlights include:

PdF Marketplace :  a commercial bulletin board for the poli-tech community.  Job postings, domain sales,  resumes, web services — all have a place here for exposure to a highly targeted audience.

The Pdf Network :  The Forum’s new membership program, providing insider access to key poli-tech thought leaders, discounts on conference attendance, networking, and advance notice on impending developments in the field.  (Bonus:  a subscription to one of several magazines is included in your membership.)

VoteVid :  This is techPresident’s video forum, on which anyone can propose, share, and vote on online political videos.

Topics :  The content produced by PdF’s magnificent stable of bloggers is now drawn directly into a set of seven verticals (eGovt, Fundraising, Mobile, Advertising, Video, Strategy and Cool Stuff)

Ratings and Metrics :  blog posts are now rate-able through an AJAX-based five-star ranking system, and posts can be sorted by such metrics as “Most Emailed ” and “Most Read “.

Charts:  PdF has added charts set to visually track such developing phenomena as the 2012 GOP presidential field, and the latest rankings of key political figures in terms of their Technorati rankings as well as the number of friends each has accumulated on Facebook.

Calendar :  a listing of all of the most important and groundbreaking upcoming events as determined by the PdF editorial team.

Advocacy :  a centralized grouping of the key players in political advocacy, along with profiles of each.

The reaction has been overwhelmingly welcoming and positive thus far, but have a look for yourself. Visit the site , create your free or paid membership , subscribe to the blog, learn about the fast-approaching 2009 PdF Conference .  Then, let us know what you think.

I attended DrupalCon last week, and the various speakers pointed to a variety of Drupal resources that are of interest to Drupal users of all skills sets.  Following is a breakdown of the various resources speakers at the conference crecommended.

For the beginners who know very little if anything about Systems, Frameworks, API’s and are only interested in front end layout design, Drupal Developer and speaker Addison Berry has compiled a list of handy tools that will allow you to dive into Drupal theming through CSS and HTML styling.

• Firebug add-on for Firefox. This plugin gives you the ability to modify cascading style sheet properties on most webpages.
• Web Developer add-on for Firefox contains various tools which give you full control over how a website is displayed on your browser.
• Colourlovers.com is a site dedicated to designers who struggle to find matching color themes. There you will find support and ideas that will help you in your design work.
• The handy Devel module can display what is happening in any section of the site to an administrator. It can be very useful when debugging a block in Drupal.

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I attended Drupalcon last week, which is a bi-annual Drupal conference for developers, themers and business development types like myself.  I had a great time, so here are some quick thoughts on the conference.

(1) Drupal people are really nice.   Conversations came easily and people are willing to share.  In his presentation, Kyle Williams mentioned that the reason he got into Drupal was because the community was so supportive and positive.  He’s right.

(2) Multiple people wondered aloud why the Drupal alien logo has to be so scary (see alien in upper right).

(3) There were few Republicans at Drupalcon.  David Cohn wrote a great article a few months back about how Drupal has helped power the progressive movement.  Based on the demographics of the folks at the conference and the sites showcased, Drupal is still being used much more aggressively by left leaning organizations than those on the right.

(4) Anyone that has used Drupal for any period of time knows how dramatic the changes are when a new version is released.  There are tons of sites out there still running on Drupal 4 and 5 due to how hard it is to upgrade.  In talking to folks at the conference, that really is by design.  The Drupal community is focused on pushing the code forward.  If the cost of progress is problems with backward compatibility, so be it.  This is in stark contrast to packages like Wordpress that worry much more about relatively easy upgrades.

(5) In his presentation, Neil Giarratana mentioned that one advantage of Drupal is that tons can be accomplished through configuration using administrative tools as opposed to through customization, which inevitably involves hard core developers.  Configuration is relatively easy and cost effective while customizations are hard and expensive.  This has been my experience as well, so it was nice to have Neil articulate the divide so well.

(6) Neil also had a good quote, saying that Drupal is free in the same way a puppy is free.  By the time you feed it, take it to the vet, etc. it actually ends up being expensive.  This is true of all content management systems, but I think it is important for people who launch Drupal sites to account for ongoing upgrades and maintenance.  One of the great things about Drupal is that it is relatively easy to make changes and the development never real ends.  Companies should plan for that when they launch sites.

(7) On the negative side, the sessions at the conference were hit or miss, more so than at any conference I’ve been to before.  I saw a few sessions that were among the best I’ve seen at any conference and a couple I literally got nothing out of despite being interested in the topic.  As someone who submitted a panel idea that wasn’t accepted, the inconsistency got me wondering about how the sessions were selected.  My guess is that it was a bit of a hybrid between votes and editorial process. 

(8) On the positive side, Drupalcon was the first conference I’ve been to with a fooseball table.

(9) If you were on a PC, the wifi at the conference was spotty, particularly if you are on Vista.  If you were on a Mac, it seemed to work fine.  The Drupal community is definitely Mac friendly, so this was probably some sort of conspiracy. 

(10) I saw a lot of examples of great Drupal work at the conference, but I would put our work up there with anybody’s.  I’m really proud of the work my Bivings co-workers have done on complex Drupal sites like IJNet, Personal Democracy Forum, Techpresident and Wild Australia. 

When I headed to DrupalCon this week, I thought it would be strange to attend a talk called "Why Drupal Sucks", but that's exactly the title of James Walker's talk this morning about Drupal and all that's wrong with it.

Walker starts off by talking about some of the great things about Drupal. But in a comedic style, he targets some of the most often complaints regarding the open source platform. He focuses on usability, the fact that Drupal tries to be all things to all people, and that it's nearly impossible for a newbie to effectively involve themselves in the community with ease.

A lot of what he takes issue with is well known. Core has 30 modules, many of which are difficult to use or impossible to configure. Every Drupal developer knows the phrase "there's a module for that!" and they use it religiously. The problem is that average, ordinary folks don't want to find the module for that – they just want it to work.

He highlights a lot of great things about Drupal as well – the community, the level of involvement, the fact that there are 1,400 people at Drupalcon. As someone relatively new to Drupal, but a seasoned PHP developer, this was a great overview.

Walker ends his talk by saying "Drupal sucks at being a product so we should become a movement." I don't entirely support his argument but I appreciate the sentiment. In all, Walker provides some great things for the community to consider, and makes some important points about the direction Drupal is going.

Anyone that has done a lot of work in Drupal knows what a complete pain it is to upgrade from Drupal 5 to Drupal 6.  The change was dramatic, and many vital Drupal 5 modules still haven’t been upgraded to work in Drupal 6.  For many sites, going from Drupal 5 to Drupal 6 isn’t so much an upgrade as a rebuild. 

Given this, it is sort of amusing that Drupal’s flagship website, www.drupal.org, is down today for maintenance as they upgrade from Drupal 5 to Drupal 6 a full year after the release of Drupal 6.  I guess it really is as hard of an upgrade as it seems.