As a Catapult Media Associate (creative director), we work with non-profits and civil societies – no private sector in strategizing and building online communities. This body has a huge social mandate and agenda – from health, education, to community economic development BUT their capacity is still lacking. It’s our job to help these organizations deliver their social mandate. I am consulting and strategizing in building online communities and tapping online tools and social networks and softwares to better their communities online, help web presence and teach and show how to best utilize social media.
Anything to create an ongoing dialogue, sharing info, knowledge, stories: all strengthen community – Non-Pro’s need this more than anyone. To grow what they do in the real world, they need virtual communities.

* blogging as one avenue – set up your own via free engines – wordpress, typepad, blogspot, or find community blogs you can signup to and contribute (ie changeeverything.ca) – link love and growing a convo will get your cause far into outreach.
* videosharing – why not post public events and rallies and upcoming events to reach the masses for your cause online first, promote it FOR FREE, and use it as a means to gain more support?
* facebook – gotta talk about it – it’s been explosive to the mainstream, highlighting exactly what these tools can/could/will/are doing – in non-profits, it’s a challenge to move people to take community action in the real world – an outlet such as facebook has made connecting so easy and available…. The masses are understanding the power of the internet though these tools… it’s a great answer right now – look at all of those APPS!!!! Plug-ins for all other social networks – it’s all there. But it runs the risk of perhaps becoming too cluttered in time with crappy apps and the masses will tire, perhaps of low productivity!… I think it’s a great place to look at how the online community is effecting business, especially the non-profit sector.
* flickr – photosharing
* social bookmarking
* community event calendar – Upcoming.

RELATED WEBSITE LINKS

* www.Wordpress.com (blogging platforms)
* www.Flickr.com - photosharing
* www.Del.icio.us / Magnolia.com / digg.com – social bookmarking
* www.Facebook.com – we can’t avoid this one –
* Upcoming – event calendar
* NowPublic – participatory news site (we don’t have to talk about this one, but it’s a good community outlet for information, current event coverage and posting…)
* videosharing – youtube, revver, blip, video.ca
* www.Catapultmedia.ca
* www.Megancole.org (my blog)

3 main types of microphones (dynamic/condenser/USB)
What is phantom power (48v)
Connecting a microphone to a mixer
Connecting a microphone to an audio interface
What are polar response patterns
USB connectivity
Recording with multiple microphones

RELATED WEBSITE LINKS
Shure SM 58
http://www.shure.com/ProAudio/Products/WiredMicrophones/us_pro_SM58-CN_c...
$99.00

M-Audio Luna mic
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Luna-main.html
$199.95

Samson G-Track USB mic
http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1917
$129.00

Digidesign MBox 2 mini
http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?langid=100&navid=114&itemid=4962
$295.00

Behringer MX602A mixer
http://www.behringer.com/MX602A/index.cfm?lang=eng
no longer in production

Blue Microphones Snowball USB mic
http://www.bluemic.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Products&file=index&p...
$99.00

The initial design for the re-skinning of the lab site was done by Tavis in Adobe Photoshop.
Raj then took the photoshop file and created web images from the different layers. Because we
use Drupal as our content management system, we created a new theme with our own CSS file.
You can find more information about making your own themes for Drupal at http://drupal.org/node/509.

www.drupal.org
www.adobe.com