Every so often, I just have to boast. One of my much-loved clients just launched a new web site, and I had hardly anything to do with it!
The Public Conversations Project (PCP) decided to develop their own Drupal web site in house, and they launched it last week. I gave them a little strategic coaching last summer, and then dropped out of rotation. They had outside help from Steve Backman of Database Designs Associates (who provided technical coaching), and from Rachel Stark, librarian extrordinaire (who catalogued the content of the previous site and provided invaluable guidance about usability and navigation). However, most of the development work was done by Andrew Park, their IT coordinator, with input from other members of the PCP team.
It's very satisfying and yet a little bit sad to work with PCP, because I keep rendering myself obsolete. I enjoy working with them so much that I'm sad when it's time to stand back and watch them go forward on a project without me. On the other hand, there's great joy in seeing clients really learn what they need to know in order to make strategic decisions and manage their projects. That's when I become obsolete, for the best of reasons. If I'm really lucky, they bring me back in when they're ready to go to the next level or take on a different challenge.
In the case of the Public Conversations Project, one of the next challenges is social media. We've already kicked off a PCP Facebook page, and I can hardly wait for them to try Twitter. In some ways, this is an organization with the potential to be a powerhouse and a force for good in the world of Web 2.0. Their mission is to foster constructive dialogue about difficult issues, and to uphold civil society by helping folks who have different world views build relationships with each other. This is the kind of skill set that is needed just about everywhere in the world right now. They can help netizens go far beyond flamewars, and can in turn be helped by the internet's ability to minimize (some) geographic barriers to effectiveness.*
* Oh, and just by the way, the PCP team can serve as role models to staff members in relatively small nonprofit organizations that want to develop their own CMS-based web sites using open source platforms . How cool is that?