tag:substantiv.com,2008://1 2008-11-18T00:51:39Z Movable Type 3.33 tag:substantiv.com,2008://1.74 2008-10-19T19:19:26Z 2008-11-18T00:51:39Z

One option when dealing with content-rich websites is to create smaller, "micro" sites that highlight a specific issue or audience. This is an especially good idea for large organizations, whose abundance of information may be overwhelming to a new user....

Eileen Solutions for Our Future higher education advocacy site, we're designing several micro-sites. SFOF is very rich in information across the higher education spectrum, so creating micro-sites around certain topics such as the environment or healthcare makes a lot of sense. Here are a couple of our designs, created by Daniel, which will be developed using their existing Convio Content Management System:
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One of the more obvious challenges involved in maintaining a deep web presence is simply the fact that the web team holds the technical knowledge, while the content managers hold the domain knowledge. This seems obvious, I know, but it...

Eileen One of the more obvious challenges involved in maintaining a deep web presence is simply the fact that the web team holds the technical knowledge, while the content managers hold the domain knowledge. This seems obvious, I know, but it can be a tough hurdle to overcome for a large organization. And there is really no quick fix. Often I hear organizations blaming their CMS or other technology issues for the problems they face with putting content on the web. They think they chose the "wrong" CMS, or they think a redesign will fix the issues they have. But the technology is not the answer, it usually comes down to the implementation. How are you using the technology? Did you take the needs of the organization into consideration when organizing the workflow? How did you tag your content and build your templates? No external consultant can come in and "fix" the website, no new CMS will be able to shortcut this analysis and work. The internal players need to be bought in and use their domain knowledge to construct the appropriate solution. It all takes time and effort from people who may not have the web as their main focus. tag:substantiv.com,2007://1.60 2007-05-07T16:05:42Z 2007-05-07T16:13:30Z

Dear friends of Substantiv, I hope this message finds you well. Has it really been a year since I last sent an update?... I guess we've been busy! Here are just a few of the projects that we have been...

Eileen www.solutionsforourfuture.org www.studybuddy.com www.dancemetrodc.org www.fcmlcc.org www.pilatesbodyandsoul.com www.communitybridges-md.org Also, we continue to provide full-time content management and web services to the American Council on Education (www.acenet.edu). One of our current goals is to find a way to offer this service to more associations. Last month, we launched a refreshed Substantiv website which includes a new portfolio of our work. It has a Movable Type backend, which makes for easy updates (and makes my geeky side very happy.) In March, I went to South By Southwest Interactive in Austin Texas (www.sxsw.com). It was good to meet up with some former co-workers, and old friends. Oh yeah, and to learn some stuff too! Web technology still feels like magic to me, so I always come away from experiences like that even more inspired by my job and the industry in which I work. I can't believe it has been two years since I first registered the domain substantiv.com, and left the nine-to-five world for the crazy life of running my own business. It is unpredictable and I have had to learn a lot really quickly, but I'm having such a great time doing it. None of it would be possible without the support of great clients and friends like you. Best wishes from, Eileen, and the team at Substantiv]]> tag:substantiv.com,2007://1.52 2007-03-07T06:19:34Z 2007-03-12T00:04:26Z

Last week, we launched the new substantiv.com. In addition to a slight design refresh, the site itself is now run completely on Movable Type, which will make it easier to update our content. The site is composed of five "blogs":...

Eileen Last week, we launched the new substantiv.com. In addition to a slight design refresh, the site itself is now run completely on Movable Type, which will make it easier to update our content. The site is composed of five "blogs": Links, Services, Projects, Team, and the main Substantiv blog where we have news and other types of entries. tag:substantiv.com,2006:/MT_test//1.10 2006-05-31T23:50:29Z 2007-02-11T02:54:56Z

Dear friends of Substantiv, I hope you all had a happy and productive spring season :) Phewf! Quite a lot has happened since we last sent an update. Eileen spent the past several months in a project-management role for the...

Eileen Dear friends of Substantiv, I hope you all had a happy and productive spring season :) Phewf! Quite a lot has happened since we last sent an update. Eileen spent the past several months in a project-management role for the creation of AOL's new education portal, StudyBuddy. It was a huge effort, including a lot of different players, AND it launched on time! The beta for StudyBuddy is here: http://studybuddy.aol.com/ Earlier this year, we launched the American Council on Education's Toolkit for the "Solutions for Our Future" initiative. Both online and print versions of the toolkit were distributed to higher education institutions across the country. The online version is here: http://substantiv.com/ACE/index.html Mikael, Shanon and Eileen have been working extensively on the site for Dance/ Metro DC, a non-profit resource for the local dance community. It will feature news, performances, events, and a large database of dance organizations. We have a preliminary version here: http://www.dancemetrodc.org/front/index.html COMING SOON... :::Eileen and Daniel have just started work with Mark Bisnow, of "Bisnow on Business" (www.bisnow.com) to produce his large collection of e-newsletters :::Betsy and Eileen will be working with the non-profit Community Bridges of Maryland to redesign, and update the content for their website (www.communitybridges-md.org) ::: AND, we are very fortunate to be continuing work with the American Council on Education throughout the summer. Michael and Eileen will be providing content services for www.acenet.edu; Eileen and Shanon will be doing a redesign of www.solutionsforourfuture.org. ................................ The past few months have been incredibly fun, and busy--as we swing wildly back and forth between trying to build the infrastructure to handle large projects, alternating with panic that no one will ever hire us again :) Thank you so much for your continued support! I feel so very lucky to be doing the work that I love, alongside such great clients and partners. Best wishes from, Eileen, and the team at Substantiv tag:substantiv.com,2007:/MT_test//1.9 2006-01-06T23:44:46Z 2007-01-06T23:47:52Z

Dear friends of Substantiv, I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing holiday season...and didn't break your new years' resolutions on January 1 like I did ;) This month marks the half-birthday of Substantiv, and we've been very busy!...

Eileen Dear friends of Substantiv, I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing holiday season...and didn't break your new years' resolutions on January 1 like I did ;) This month marks the half-birthday of Substantiv, and we've been very busy! Here are a few of the projects we have been working on... +++ The American Council on Education's "toolkit" for higher education advocacy. This has been a very exciting cause to be involved in, and we have gotten to work with some great people. An early comp for the interactive version is here: http://substantiv.com/ace.jpg +++ We're doing extensive production work for the site redesign that Fluke Networks (http://www.flukenetworks.com/) is launching this spring. I was a full-time employee at Fluke--back when I lived in Seattle about seven years ago--and it's been fun to work for my former co-workers again. +++ And we've just submitted a proposal to Families Against Mandatory Minimums. It's for a complete redesign of their website (http://famm.org/)-- another great cause with which we would love to be involved. +++ Of course the most exciting news to come out of of 2005 is that Substantiv now has an official mascot: http://www.flickr.com/photos/leenie/sets/1324186/ Sawyer is a 2-year-old mutt rescued from the Norfolk city shelter. His hobbies include chewing, wrestling, and hiding shoes. When we're trying to seem literary, we say he's named for "Tom Sawyer"...though occasionally we'll admit his name is more likely inspired by the hot guy on "LOST." Wishing each of you a happy and healthy 2006, Eileen