Salsa Scoop

Why We Salsa

 October 15 is a milestone for DIA and our users: it marks the end of support for our legacy codebase. You may have heard already. From here on out, everything is in Salsa. While users of the original system can still log into and use their accounts, and old pages calling that system will continue to function (well into the future, if not indefinitely), there is officially no development, patching or support available for it. It's a day ripe with the auspices of history: this date in 1582 marked the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, an overnight 10-day leap forward to correct the backwards drift of the old Julian system. We've been on in this space about Salsa's bells and whistles -- the dashboards, custom reports, and other exotica. And we've been talking about and working on it for well over a year, and lately had scarce time for much of anything else. But as we finally make the break, it's worth a few words about the deeper change Salsa represents and the bigger-picture reasons why we're making the move.  

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08:27 AM Oct 15, 2007 - 5 comments permalink

Salsa Status Report VII: The Final Countdown

Did you see the new warnings this week? No? Good!

We've set a date and put up a little notice, short and simple:

Attention: Democracy in Action is phasing out this platform in favor of Salsa! We plan to discontinue this older platform and end support on October 15. If you are not currently working with our staff to become Salsified please email support@democracyinaction.org and we will assign you a member of our Salsa Transition Team to guild you onto the new platform.

 

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10:43 AM Oct 10, 2007 - 0 comments permalink

My Day with the Marketers

 Last week, I went to the New Media Marketing Conference offered by DMAW. My reason for going was that I wanted to see what for-profit's were doing with marketing in the days of web 2.0 goodness. Fear not, nonprofits; they're trying to figure out what we've been up to for the last few years. Most of the conference was about the basics of "new media". Should you have a blog? Answer: probably. The most rousing contribution came from CC Chapman*, who delved into just how wide the reach of digital media is for for-profit companies. People are blogging, posting, Twittering, and Facebooking about YOUR company. Angry is better than silent, so pay attention.  

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10:10 AM Oct 10, 2007 - 3 comments permalink

We'll Give You a Foot Massage If You Say Nice Things About Us

 It's your chance to talk about us -- or any other CRM tool -- behind our backs. NTEN, the Nonprofit Technology Network, is rolling out a CRM satisfaction survey. In a year of industry shakeout -- Convio gobbling up GetActive, and announcing plans to go public; Salesforce establishing an influential position; Kintera stabilizing but seemingly washing its hands of the market's lower end; humble DemocracyInAction revamping our software tool -- it'd be interesting to watch the results roll in. How are any of these (or the many other) CRM tools affecting and afflicting your work?  

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05:33 PM Oct 01, 2007 - 0 comments permalink

Salsa Status Report VI

Got a question about Salsa that you want to ask in person? Come meet our staff tonight at Stetson's Bar and Grill from 6-8. RSVP and directions.