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Caravel Lowers Barriers to Enterprise Web Content Management for Schools, Non-profits, Businesses
GOSHEN, IN. A simple desire to help churches and non-profits develop effective websites put Goshen College IT Director Michael Sherer on a five-year sojourn that led to the creation of Caravel, a cutting-edge enterprise web content management system. Two years in development and testing, the Caravel Project is now ready for free download at the project's website http://caravelcms.org. "We are so excited to finally be able to share this with others," said Sherer. "Four months into the project, I knew we had something special that would be of interest to a lot of organizations, particularly in the non-profit world where resources are limited." According to Sherer, he created Caravel after researching available systems and finding commercial systems too complex and too expensive and existing open source options clunky and more geared to single site installations. The resulting product scales to thousands of sites, allows users to edit from the browser of their PC, Mac or Linux computer, and is designed to be intuitive for people familiar with page layout and word processing software. The latest version of Caravel can be installed in enterprise settings such as school corporations, ISP's, colleges, and businesses, and integrates with the organization's enterprise LDAP directory. Organizations who want a hosted Caravel website can obtain one through Mennonite.net by emailing or call 888/868-7099. Caravel is a flexible, enterprise web content management system designed for the non-profit and educational communities. It scales to thousands of sites, yet is designed to be easy to learn and use. As an open source, GPL project, Caravel is available at no cost to commercial and non-commercial entities. For more information, visit http://caravelcms.org or email July 4, 2003 Caravel Development Team Publicly Thanked ATLANTA - You’ll probably never see a bumper sticker that says, “Have you hugged your system administrator today?” or “If you can compute this, thank a programmer.” No, most techies labor in obscurity, and generally like it that way. But with today’s release of Caravel, an innovative web publishing system, Michael Sherer, Mennonite.net’s Executive Director, decided it was time to break the silence. “Over the past 18 months, I’ve had the pleasure of working with some of the brightest, hardest working, most dedicated people you could ever hope to meet,” said Sherer, “They have worked long hours, nights and weekends, and logged many volunteer hours to create Caravel and support Mennonite.net customers. It is their gift to the church. To the extent that Caravel is cool, innovative, useful, and successful as a product, and to the extent it helps the Mennonite Church become more effective users of technology and the internet, it is to their credit.” Sherer went on to publicly recognize the following people: Carl Meyer. Carl created Caravel’s layout management system, which is browser-based, cross-platform, and more intuitive than competing systems. He is also the architect of Caravel’s innovative use of OpenLDAP, the author of the content block API, HTML Snapshots, variable width tabs, content subscription and countless other small but useful features. Peter Hartman. Peter wrote the document app, the file manager, the file uploader and the Word conversion utility. Most recently, Peter has been responsible for the mind-numbingly complex migration from the old Mennonite.net system to Caravel. Working from Oxford,England, Peter sees that bugs are stomped, often before we wake up. Velin Kounev. Velin, originally from Bulgaria, is responsible for much of the graphic design-focused tools in Caravel. A graduate of Goshen College in Computer Science and Graphic Design, Velin wrote the section and block-level customizer tools, and was a tireless advocate for user interface consistency, simplicity and elegance. Velin spearheaded a redesign of the file manager to make it simpler and more intuitive. He also came up with the Caravel name and logo. Paul Leichty. Paul is operations manager at Mennonite.net and has kept the organization going during the transition to Caravel for its technical foundation. Paul answers countless customer support questions and has been a useful beta tester in his role with ADNet (Anabaptist Disabilities Network) David Glick. David is responsible for Caravel’s RSS channel tools. RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a standard for moving news and event information around the internet. If Caravel revolutionizes churchwide communications, David’s RSS tools, which allow you to create, display and post to RSS channels, will be the reason. Ben Jacobs. Ben implemented Caravel’s calendar, a clever integration of PHP iCalendar, Caravel and David’s RSS tools. Jan Skranka. Jan, an MCC trainee from the Czech Republic, has worked on prototyping, testing, market analysis and graphic design. A talented photographer, Jan has amassed a large digital photography collection, much of which we hope makes it into Caravel’s global shared folder for stock photography. Steve Johnson. Steve was largely responsible for getting Mennonite.net’s nationwide internet service off the ground. He has also done graphic design work and testing for Caravel. Steve has also been a tireless proponent good customer service and getting the word out about what we’re doing at Mennonite.net. Wako Yirga. Wako is doing a summer internship with Mennonite.net through Goshen College. He’s currently working on porting Mennonite.net’s churchwide cookbook to Caravel. Beta testers at Indiana Michigan Conference, Central District Conference, Landisville Mennonite Church, Berkey Avenue, Pilgrims, Evergreen, First Mennonite Indianapolis, Shalom, MDS and others for their feedback, encouragement, patience and graciousness as we gave birth to Caravel. In the end, birth is the perfect analogy for a project like Caravel--long, at times arduous, at times painful, but ultimately miraculous and wonderful. Mennonite.net is a leading provider of internet solutions for churches and non-profits.With its mission to build Mennonite community on the web, Mennonite.net offers website hosting, content management, nationwide internet service, web application development and design, audio and video production and distribution.To support the work of Mennonite.net or for more information, contact us at infomennonite.net or toll free at 1-888/868-7099, or visit us on the web at http://www.mennonite.net. July 4, 2003 Mennonite.net Announces Ministry Goals, Invites Collaboration Technology and ministry are not commonly found in the same sentence, but a technology ministry is just what Mennonite.net aspires to be. “Technology is strategic for everything the church aspires to be and do,” declares Michael Sherer, Executive Director of Mennonite.net. “It impacts mission, service, evangelism; it’s a justice issue; it’s a stewardship issue. We want to partner with the church to make the Mennonite Church a model for effective, strategic use of technology.” For Mennonite.net, the transformation into a technology ministry has been an evolutionary process--adding nationwide internet service in Fall 2002 to help connect the church and generate revenue, introducing Caravel, a cutting edge web content management system as a foundation for collaboration and cooperation, and finally, making sites free to Mennonite churches and organizations, focusing all energies on creating a critical mass of sites. To mark this transformation, Mennonite.net has outlined its vision and ministry goals: • An effective web presence for every Mennonite church and organization • Advanced technology for enhanced ministry and lower costs • 3 clicks clicks or less to any resource in the church • World-class web content management for churches and non-profits • A community of shared infrastructure, shared content and services • A technology co-op where pooled resources means the best product at the lowest cost Mennonite.net believes that, with the introduction of Caravel, these goals are not only desirable, but achievable, and affordable. In fact, creating this collaborative technology infrastructure is a key to lowered costs and increased ministry effectiveness. Mennonite.net is a leading provider of internet solutions for churches and non-profits.With its mission to build Mennonite community on the web, Mennonite.net offers website hosting, content management, nationwide internet service, web application development and design, audio and video production and distribution.To support the work of Mennonite.net or for more information, contact us at infomennonite.net or toll free at 1-888/868-7099, or visit us on the web at http://www.mennonite.net. Mennonite.net to Offer Free Web sites to Mennonite Churches and Organizations July 4, 2003 ATLANTA - Mennonite.net made tandem announcements today designed to eliminate two barriers to effective websites: cost and ease of updating. First, Mennonite.net introduced Caravel, a tool designed to simplify website creation and maintenance, and second, announced that sites using Caravel would be free to Mennonite churches and organizations. “Caravel creates a community of sites where information and resources flow easily and naturally,” explained Michael Sherer, Executive Director of Mennonite.net. “Such a community is far more interesting when everyone participates, hence our determination to make the sites free.” Most churches and organizations already have Caravel-based sites set up. Later in July, Mennonite.net will send out ID and passwords to allow access to these sites. According to Sherer, organizations without websites or with unmaintained websites will find Caravel sites easy to develop and update. Organizations with well-developed sites will find Caravel a useful adjunct for creating electronic newsletters that can be pushed into other sites, and for creating channels that other organizations can subscribe to. Caravel also creates the foundation for a technology co-op where the cost of creating new features can be spread across multiple organizations, even organizations beyond the Mennonite church. This makes Caravel an attractive development platform for advanced website features. Sherer’s long-term goal is to create a self-sustaining web community funded by traditional web hosting fees, internet service, and development income. However, initially Mennonite.net will seek donations to cover the cost of helping churches and organizations get online and adding highest priority features. Mennonite.net is a leading provider of internet solutions for churches and non-profits.With its mission to build Mennonite community on the web, Mennonite.net offers website hosting, content management, nationwide internet service, web application development and design, audio and video production and distribution.To support the work of Mennonite.net or for more information, contact us at infomennonite.net or toll free at 1-888/868-7099, or visit us on the web at http://www.mennonite.net.
The Future of Web Publishing Begins in Atlanta;
Mennonite.net Releases New Web Content Management Tool July 4, 2003 ATLANTA - Proclaiming the future of web publishing begins in Atlanta, Mennonite.net announced the initial release of a new system designed to simplify the creation and maintenance of websites for churches and non-profits. Christened Caravel™, the content management tool was designed to allow pastors, secretaries, administrators and volunteers to easily create sites and update content. “Today’s release of Caravel represents the culmination of 18 months of development and testing,” explained Michael Sherer, Executive Director of Mennonite.net. “But it is also the beginning of a totally new approach to web publishing based on community.” According to Sherer, Caravel goes beyond traditional web content management systems to create a global content management community where resources, content and information can be shared. “In the past,” continued Sherer, “organizations would go it alone when it came to their websites. If they needed a feature they would pay the full cost of its creation and maintenance, and it would be used only by them. With Caravel, if one organization creates a feature, thousands of organizations benefit. The net result is lower costs and richer functionality than traditional web development approaches. No more reinventing the wheel.” Caravel™ highlights include browser-based editing with word-processor-like tools, customizable navigation, calendar display and sharing, content channels (using the popular RSS standard), customizable graphics and layout., content scheduling and queuing, content subscription and file sharing. Mennonite.net also announced that Caravel would be used beyond the Mennonite Church in order to achieve greater economies of scale. In partnership with Lightsky Design Studios, Mennonite.net has tailored Caravel for an Indianapolis public school system and is looking to work with colleges, universities, non-profits and municipalities, as well as other Christian denominations. Mennonite.net is a leading provider of internet solutions for churches and non-profits.With its mission to build Mennonite community on the web, Mennonite.net offers website hosting, content management, nationwide internet service, web application development and design, audio and video production and distribution.To support the work of Mennonite.net or for more information, contact us at infomennonite.net or toll free at 1-888/868-7099, or visit us on the web at http://www.mennonite.net.
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