The Kabissa team is very pleased to announce that we received grants from the OSI Information Program and the Ford Foundation for two new projects that will, over the course of the next 12 months, revolutionize our membership system and hosting services. In order to make the process of becoming, and remaining, part of the Kabissa member network more user-friendly and beneficial to everyone, we are replacing our existing members database with a sophisticated constituent relationship management tool. At the same time, we are restructuring our hosting services to enable our members to quickly and easily set up an effective, professional web presence that serves their needs, with a minimum of technical skills. Read on for more details!


Embracing Web 2.0

Over the past six years, Kabissa has played a crucial role in putting the power of the Internet into the hands of African civil society organizations. Now, a new generation of Web tools and services (often referred to as Web 2.0) has the potential to revolutionize the Internet yet again by putting control over the content of the Internet into the hands of everyone, not just those with specialized technical skills. These new tools hold special relevance for African civil society, where resource, infrastructure, and capacity constraints often keep organizations from fully integrating the Internet into their work. Kabissa will leverage these new tools in our own services for African civil society and in the work of individual members through two new projects funded by the Ford Foundation and the OSI Information Program.

CiviCRM

As a first step, we are revamping our basic infrastructure for member data and communications. A new member relationship management system built using a so-called constituency relationship management tool called CiviCRM will provide a platform for developing and offering powerful Web 2.0 services. Once this first step is completed, Kabissa will be able to:
  • Give organizations more flexibility and control over their profile on the Kabissa site - often their only presence on the Internet
  • Make information on African civil society organizations more accessible and transparent to the general public, including donors, partners, and beneficiaries
  • Contact member organizations with more targeted information according to their preferences and relevant to their specific sector or country

Turnkey Web sites

We are also restructuring our Web site hosting services. Currently, hosting a website on Kabissa requires our members to have reliable access to the Internet and technical skills in creating and uploading web pages using HTML or themselves installing and configuring a Content Management System (CMS). While some members are thriving with these powerful tools we offer, many others are frustrated by their lack of user-friendliness. During the course of the next year, we will be upgrading our existing services with the following three new services, which we expect will better serve the varying levels of organizational capacity and requirements of Kabissa members:
  • Expanded organizational profiles on the Kabissa Web site, built on the CiviCRM tool described above, will give organizations the ability to instantly share their vital organizational data and latest news via the Web, even without having to host their own Web site.
  • Simple Web sites, created using a user-friendly Content Management System (CMS) provided by Kabissa, will serve organizations that do want a Web site but do not have alot of time to spend online and do not want to invest in a web developer. Thanks to the CMS, these organizations will be able to quickly and easily create and maintain a professional and up-to-date Web presence.
  • Advanced Web sites, created with a CMS but coupled with strategic consulting from Kabissa?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s team of web developers, will give organizations with more sophisticated needs the ability to quickly launch Web sites in response to a certain situation or project need, incorporate advanced interactive features to their Web sites, and distribute responsibility across multiple locations or departments.
Pricing for these new services has not yet been established, but as always the lowest tier will be free for standard and essential services such as organizational profiles and simple Web sites.

Next steps

As always, we will be consulting with Kabissa members as these projects develop, and a steering committee of civil society organizations will be advising us throughout. Stay tuned for progress reports, and feel free to get in touch with us anytime if you have any suggestions or feedback.

For more information on CiviCRM:
CiviCRM official website: http://www.openngo.org

For more information on Web 2.0:
Web 2.0 on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
Netsquared Web site, Web 2.0 for advocacy: http://www.netsquared.org

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