Given that we write software for building and hosting web sites, it seems only natural that we would host our own sites on Renao. But while Renao's site has always been running on its own software, up until just recently Enterity's corporate site has run on an older version of our software. Now, however, we have moved the site to Renao, and I am definitely enjoying the better tools and fresh interface Renao provides.
This isn't much of an announcement except that it means something about any other site also on Renao: we're using the same tools as you, which means that pretty much anything our sites can do, yours can do too. So if you see anything happening on your site and want to know how it works, just ask in the forums. I'll be happy to give you some pointers.
Thank you all for being early adopters on Renao. The feedback we've received has been invaluable, and we hope to continue to hear from you.
I wanted to take this time to introduce you to a new feature on myrenao.com, which is the community discussion forum:
http://myrenao.com/discuss
Here you'll be able to ask and get answers to questions; both about using the software, and about growing your business or organization online. I also hope that you will chime in if you see a question or a comment to which you have something to add.
If you have been away for a while, you will probably notice some changes and improvements to the Renao management site. Your login is now protected by the same quality SSL security used by e-commerce sites across the web. Many usability tweaks and bug fixes have gone into the site recently as well. The documentation at http://myrenao.com/learn is expanding, and we are rolling out contextual help. Once completed, clicking the 'help' link in the upper-right hand corner of the management screens will display a quick-reference panel specific to your current location, with links to further help and the forum.
Please continue to share your problems and your epiphanies with us and each other on the new forum. I will note that at present Firefox is getting the most attention right now among the supported browsers. More attention for Safari, Internet Explorer, and Opera is planned for the near future. In the meantime, I apologize for the lumps and bumps you may experience when using these other browsers. If you'd like to help us triage bugs in them, great. If you'd really rather just get to work on your site, Firefox is a free download at mozilla.com.
Enterity has just released the third major revision of Osiris.
Using the same underlying principals for managing content found in
versions 1 and 2, we have improved the experience for both the site
owner and the site visitor.
Improved Editing Interface
-
Better Cross-Browser Support for the editing interface
Osiris is now actively tested under both Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer 6.
The addition of Firefox to the list of supported browsers means that no
matter your choice of operating system, you always have access to
managing your web site. Osiris is also known to work in Safari, but is not actively tested there.
-
Command Menus keep options handy while removing clutter from the interface
We've tidied up your work space by moving secondary tasks into a drop
down menu next to the page title. This keeps them nearby for when you
need them, and out of sight for when you don't.
-
More Application-Like Mouse Behaviors for faster use
Double click to open a resource for editing. Right click on one for
more options. Two features you take for granted on your desktop have
made it to the web.
Reclaim your URLs
Content management systems (CMS) are notorious for jamming awkward
urls into your visitor's address bar. Long winded and hard to remember,
they aren't doing anyone but the CMS developer any good. Aliases in osiris are short, url-friendly names you give resources on your site that can then be used to provide more memorable urls.
On the Fly Categorization
Tags let you mark a resource with keywords. With
one click your visitors can then easily find all resources marked with
that tag. Tags can be shared across different resources, too. So feel
free to tag pages, articles, movie reviews, event listings and whatever
else you may have with the same tag. They'll all show up on that tag's
page.
Search Comes Standard
Your number one priority as a site owner is insuring your visitors
find what they are looking for. Given that they wouldn't necessarily
think to organize things the same way you have, a search box is a more
effective way for them to ask after exactly what they want.
Improved Osiris Extensions
-
mail lists: you can continue to manage your
mailing lists via Osiris' administrative interface, but you are now
freed to send email to those lists from any email client you desire,
rather than being bound to a web interface to do so.
-
site traffic analysis: Osiris' traffic analysis
has grown from a simple hit counter to showing average page views,
browser and operating system statistics, paths-through-the-site and
more. And this is available at both a site wide resolution down to a
single resource view.
When a group of people start a new commercial venture, one of the early
steps they will sometimes take is to write a business plan. This is
especially true for groups seeking funding from a third party. Their
goal is to sell the funder on financing their venture, but a really
effective business plan does more — it imparts to the reader clear
understanding of what the venture is about, where it is headed and what
the venture's principals feel is needed to get it there.
This sort of understanding is at least as important as getting the
reader excited about throwing money at your venture. It lets them make
effective decisions about how they participate when they decide they
are interested in doing so.
Clearly a document that helps people participate effectively is just as
useful within an organization as it is for drawing in new resources.
First of all it is a concrete way of laying out the venture's mission
and road map. Second, when done in a participitory fashion, it is a way
of documenting consensus of what that mission is. Finally it is a good
document to share with any organizations you partner with to help you
meet your goals.
We prefaced this discussion talking about commercial ventures, but in
truth a planning document is useful for any long-term venture,
including a web site. A web site is usually a venture within a venture
— it must fulfill a goal in the overall mission of the organization
that owns it. A plan written for a site is of interest to the
principals in the organization, the editors and project managers for
the site, and the technical staff who will help build the
infrastructure to help the site fulfill its goal.
While a full-on business plan includes a lot of financial projections
that are important to think through, that is not really the best place
to start your big picture thinking. Nor is it the part of the document
that should necessarily get the widest distribution. Below are some
web-site centric questions that you should probably condiser answering
when drafting a plan for your site. It is not intended that you would
restrict yourself to answering only these questions. If you have other
concerns or thoughts as you write your site plan, include them where
you think them appropriate. Expect to revisit the document you create
here every 6 months to a year, depending on how
actively you are growing your site.
- what is the overall goal of the site?
- who do you expect to use the site, and what will they be using it for?
- what are the features/components that will help meet the goals for the
site?
- how are these features and components interrelated?
- how do you expect the site will grow and evolve?
- what criteria will you use in determining the suitability of new
ideas/features/components as appropriate for inclusion in the web site?
How will these as-yet unthought-of ideas integrate into the rest of the
site if they are determined useful?
- how is information that is published on the site gathered?
- where else might the information published be useful? other mediums,
inter and intra-organizational uses, etc.
- plans don't come to fruition overnight. In what order should needed
features/components be introduced to your audience? Are there any which
ought to be timed to coincide with certain dates/events?
You might already be on top of things and have a plan like
this. That's great if you do. Your next step is making sure you're
sharing the answers to these questions with people who are responsible
for helping your site grow, from the technical level to the conceptual
level and everyone in between. Giving all players a clear view of the
site's mission and how to achieve it will facilitate work later as
everyone can refer to the same map.
As a person or organization that wants to use the Web to communicate,
your message probably isn't "I have web pages I'd like to share with
you." More likely you want to share news, event or product information,
journalistic essays, survey information, and so on. These and other
types of information often have a degree of structure to them -- an
event's date and time, or a surveyed building's address and current
owner. And yet when people look to bring their content onto the Web for
the first time, they often think "I've got to make web pages." On their
conceptual journey to the Web, they think in terms of the technology
involved and flatten their richly structured information into a
one-size-fits-all document format, mistaking the delivery mechanism for
the content delivered.
The truth is while novice web authors find themselves thinking in web
pages, their audience doesn't travel the same conceptual path. Ask a
web user what they are doing and they'll tell you they are "looking up
movie times" or "searching for a good fudge recipie." They aren't
thinking "I'm downloading a document that provides movie listings" or
that "I'm looking for a web page that describes a good vanilla fudge."
They've subconciously skipped the delivery mechanism. For them, the
unit of content is "movie times" and "recipie," not "web page."
Why should the content owner's perspective be any different? After all,
his or her goal in publishing on the Web isn't to make web pages. It's
to move product, or raise awareness, or help people connect. The less
time the content owner has to spend thinking about the medium, the more
time they have to effectively shape and craft their information --
which is likely to be where their expertise lies in the first place.
The proper tool set is essential in abstracting the crafting of the
information from the medium in which it will be communicated. Such
tools allow the content owner to represent their content in the
structured format most fitting to that information, and automatically
render it appropriately into the medium required for transmission. This
keeps the owner in the same mindset as the audience -- movies and
recipies, not pages. An author and audience working on the same
conceptual level can only improve communication.
The beauty here is that this translation of the source data to the
target medium can be made for any number of formats. It doesn't matter
what the web might look like in five or ten year's time -- the only
thing that needs to change is the thin translation layer.
Even without looking to the future this architecture has benefits. The
same information can be represented in many ways right now -- web
pages, RSS feeds for syndication, WML for mobile devices, email and
printed documents, to name a few. All without any additional work at
the authorship layer -- write once, publish anywhere.
On a mundane level Osiris does what good software has always done --
hiding the technical details involved in what would otherwise be a
tedious and somewhat arcane process. But more fundamentally it strips
away the ancillary concerns and distractions that surface when
publishing to the Web. This allows the owner to focus on questions like
"have I effectively communicated the pertinent details here?" rather
than "I wonder what shade of blue I should use for the background?"
This focus is what produces content that your audience will be drawn
to. This focus is what will differentiate your site from any others
that share the same content niche with you. And it is this focus that
brings your information, and therefore your expertise, to the forefront
of what could otherwise be a technologically overwhelming endeavour.
Enterity was recently contracted by West Rock Development
Corporation and Empower New Haven to develop a comprehensive web portal
for the New Haven, CT based community organization.
The web solution for WRDC will be developed to achieve several key
goals including providing WRDC with a tool to aid in business
development efforts (attraction of potential sponsors and funding
sources) as well as a means to publish and promote available programs
and community services and to promote West Rock as a strong community
within the region. The solution will also include resources and
mechanisms to assist WRDC personnel in their daily activities.
In addition to incorporating Enterity's Osiris Web Content Management application,
WRDC will be taking advantage of several consulting and creative
services offered by Enterity, including graphic design and strategic
content consulting.
About West Rock Development Corporation, Inc.
The mission of West Rock Development Corporation, Inc. is to help
develop the West Rock/West Hills area in New Haven, CT into a viable,
cohesive and desirable neighborhood where housing preservation and
development, and community services are readily made available to low
and moderate income residents to reduce poverty, and provide quality
living conditions within the West Rock/West Hills neighborhood.
About Empower New Haven, Inc.
Empower New Haven is a federally funded entity with the express purpose
of facilitating or creating processes and practices that provide
sustainable measurable improvements in the economic status and quality
of life of individuals, families and businesses within the Empowerment
Zone of New Haven, CT.
Enterity is pleased to announce that Brad4d Digital, a long time Channel Partner based in New Haven, has joined with Enterity.
"Both firms are proud of the quality of their personnel, their
knowledge and advice, and their standard of care" states Jonathan
Biebesheimer, CEO of Enterity. "This joining of complimentary firms
will enable us to streamline and strengthen our ability to offer and
service clients with an array of compelling web-based products and
solutions."
Formed in 2001, Brad4d Digital has been a leader in small business
web technology, providing a full range of web-based services and
solutions. Brad4d Digital's unique fusion of creative, visual and
technical competency, complimented by strong business consulting
expertise, has enabled small businesses and organizations to
dramatically increase their ability to use the web as an effective
business tool.
About Enterity
Enterity is a privately held Connecticut-based corporation. Since 1999,
Enterity has helped private corporations and non-profit organizations
of all sizes to significantly reduce the time and expense involved in
creating, updating and managing web content. Enterity's products power
Internet, intranet and extranet sites nationally, and have received
state and national award-recognition. Enterity's products are packaged
and available as total solutions through industry leading image,
advertising, and technology-related companies in Connecticut, Florida
and Massachusetts.
Enterity, a mid-market web
content management provider located in the 9th Square District of New
Haven, today announced the immediate availability of Dharma:
Structures, one component of the Dharma product line, Enterity's
contemporary suite of web-based tools designed to manage and publish
historic resource information via the World Wide Web.
"With a long-standing commitment to the preservation of historic
resources, Enterity is now offering an unprecedented level of
convenience, simplicity and value to history and preservation-based
organizations with the introduction of the Dharma product line," states
Jonathan Biebesheimer, CEO of Enterity.
Dharma: Structures
is the first web-based archive management solution designed
specifically to empower communities, municipalities or preservation
professionals with the ability to manage, share and publish historic
structures information on the World Wide Web. With Dharma: Structures,
a community's entire inventory of historic buildings and structures may
be browsed or searched by the public 24/7 via the Web, with access to
all information included in the state's standardized Historic Resource
Inventory survey, structure designations, optional digital photos for
each structure and more. Administration of information is done entirely
via the Web through a secure Web browser-based interface, allowing
designated non-technical personnel to maintain information anywhere,
any time, with very little training and with no special computer
hardware required.
"Identifying historic resources and making information about them
publicly accessible are two fundamental and critical first steps in
preservation," indicates Helen Higgins, Executive Director of the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation. "Enterity's focused solutions offer a tremendous benefit and value to this cause."
Tools in the Dharma suite are based on, and integrate easily with
other web content management solutions developed by Enterity, including
the award-winning Osiris Web Content Management Suite.
Relationships with professionals and organizations in the history and
preservation field lend Enterity key insights for the most effective
development of these tools.
As part of an on-going commitment to support the vision of
protecting the nation's irreplaceable historic places and treasures,
Enterity also announces the establishment of its Vision Pledge Program,
an initiative where a portion of Enterity's sales of Historic
Information Management solutions will be donated to designated state
and national historic preservation organizations to assist them in
realizing their mission, and to help them serve municipalities,
constituents and the community more effectively.
"The message carried by history and historic preservation
organizations is clear and strong. The protection and promotion of our
past provides us with a sense of continuity, pride and understanding,"
concludes Enterity CEO Biebesheimer. "Enterity and its shareholders
have had a deep interest in the preservation of historic resources; the
Vision Pledge Program was a natural means for us to contribute to
on-going efforts in this area."
For more information on the Dharma suite and the Vision Pledge Program, please visit http://www.enterity.com/preserve.
About Enterity
Enterity is a privately held Connecticut-based corporation. Since 1999,
Enterity has helped private corporations and non-profit organizations
of all sizes to significantly reduce the time and expense involved in
creating, updating and managing web content. Enterity's products power
Internet, intranet and extranet sites nationally, and have received
state and national award-recognition. Enterity's products are packaged
and available as total solutions through industry leading image,
advertising, and technology-related companies in Connecticut, Florida
and Massachusetts.
NEW HAVEN -
Pilobolus may live and work in a small town in Connecticut's rural
northwest, but it has performed for stage and television audiences all
over the world. This award-winning dance troupe is a veteran of two
seasons on Broadway and has played to full houses from London's
Sadler's Wells and Rome's Teatro Olimpico to Copenhagen's Tivoli
Gardens and Paris' Theatre de la Ville. When it came to updating the
company's presence on the World Wide Web, Pilobolus selected Enterity's
Osiris Web Content Management Suite as its development platform.
Osiris enables Pilobolus' non-technical personnel to make updates
and changes to their web site content, whether they're in Connecticut,
Rome or Copenhagen. All they need is a web browser and access to the
Internet. Because the Osiris administrative interface has been
developed specifically with non-technical users in mind, Pilobolus is
looking forward to ongoing maintenance that is less costly and far more
flexible than their former static web solution.
While Enterity has provided web solutions for a broad variety of
clients, Jonathan Biebesheimer, CEO, is particularly enthusiastic about
the fit ofOsiris with the Pilobolus' needs: "Pilobolus is comprised of
two touring companies, each with their own performance calendar, with
over a hundred performances throughout the year at venues around the
world. To manage this level of complex information, Pilobolus needed
more than your average web content management system. The robust and
stable enterprise-level features of Osiris were a natural for
Pilobolus' requirements."
In addition to effective information management, it was crucial that
the solution be extremely flexible in terms of its visual presentation
and in its capacity to incorporate rich media elements in the future.
"One of Osiris' key features is an extremely agile content templating
system, which imposes very few limitations on a site's design and user
interface," explains Biebesheimer. "This was an extremely appealing
quality to Pilobolus, providing them with a platform on which they can
develop a highly visual and interactive environment for site visitors
in the years to come."
Visit http://www.pilobolus.com.
About Pilobolus
Pilobolus has toured extensively in the United States as well as in
Central and South America, the Middle East, Far East, Russia and
Europe. The U.S. State Department has sponsored tours in Portugal,
Spain, Afghanistan, and the Indian subcontinent. Pilobolus currently
presents a month of performances at the Joyce Theatre in New York City
every year.
Pilobolus works are also represented in the repertoires of other
major dance companies -- including the Joffrey, Feld, Ohio, Hartford
and Arizona Ballets in the United States, the Ballet National de Nancy
et de Lorraine in France and Italy's Verona Ballet. The company has
received several prestigious honors, among them the Scotsman Award for
performances at the Edinburgh Festival, the Berlin Critic's Prize, The
New England Theatre Conference Prize, the Brandeis Award, the
Connecticut Commission on the Arts Award for Excellence and in 1997 a
Primetime Emmy Award.
About Enterity
Enterity is a privately held Connecticut-based corporation. Since 1999,
Enterity has helped private corporations and non-profit organizations
of all sizes to significantly reduce the time and expense involved in
creating, updating and managing web content. Enterity's products power
Internet, intranet and extranet sites nationally, and have received
state and national award-recognition. Enterity's products are packaged
and available as total solutions through industry leading image,
advertising, and technology-related companies in Connecticut, Florida
and Massachusetts.
NEW HAVEN, CT
- Enterity, a web-based application development company located in the
9th Square District of New Haven, announced the integration of analysis
and reporting tools to its Osiris Web Content Management Suite.
"Understanding how web content is being viewed is a critical piece
in creating a more valuable web site experience" states Jonathan
Biebesheimer, CEO of Enterity.
Industry experts and analysts agree. According to a recent industry
report published by BusinessWeek, "those Web sites which are able to
incorporate and manage dynamic content will survive. Those sites which
don't invest in Web content tools to enhance customer interactivity,
personalization and profiling will not."
The Osiris analysis and reporting tools yield information about
content usage that far exceeds what is typically gained from a web
server statistics report.
"The types of content-use reports we are able to provide bring our
customers vital information that lets them develop more dynamic,
personalized content for their users; the result being a much more
relevant and meaningful user-experience than competitors who are
publishing content without the benefit of user-feedback" explains Abram
Sirignano, Operations Director and Osiris system designer. "In addition
to improving the user's experience, an organization can extrapolate
information that may have significant bearing on advertising, marketing
and public relations decisions."
In addition, Osiris analysis and reporting also includes reporting
on solution search terms. "Studies show that of equal importance to
what a user views, is what a user looks for" continues Sirignano.
"Through analysis of solution search terms, an organization is capable
of improving the effectiveness of the information they distribute via
the web to an even greater degree."
Osiris analysis and reporting capabilities are immediately available
with both pre-packaged and customizable reports to current and new
Osiris customers.
Enterity is a privately held Connecticut-based
company. Since 1999, Enterity has helped private corporations and
non-profit organizations of all sizes to significantly reduce the time
and expense involved in creating, updating and managing web content.
Enterity's products power internet, intranet and extranet sites
nationally, and have received state and national recognition. Enterity
products are packaged and available as total solutions through industry
leading image, advertising, and technology-related companies in
Connecticut, Florida and Massachusetts.
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