There is a term that developers refer to when building websites called usability. The basic premise involves creating websites that are easy to navigate, as well as being full of useful information and having a “pretty” look and feel. After all, even if you have a beautiful looking website with rich content, if the…
Digital tools have become essential to farmers. From Amanda Andrews at Tamarack Hollow Farm, who used Kickstarter.com to raising the necessary funds to move her farm off of a flood plain and is using Instagram to promote the farm, to Eric Rozendaal of Rockville Market Farm, who, in addition to Facebook and Twitter, also uses…
The Woodstock Community Food Shelf board of directors: back row, left to right: Sally Gottlieb, Joan Williamson, Norm Youknot and Laura Kent; front row: Cassie Horner, Sheila Murray and Bev Regan. Food shelves provide support for a community and can also inspire the community itself. Like many Vermonters, I grew up in poverty. Our local…
Every community in Vermont now has access to its own online calendar, thanks to Front Porch Forum and the Vermont Council on Rural Development’s Vermont Digital Econony Project. This just-released innovation comes from years of listening, planning and work. Please go to FrontPorchForum.com to check out your local FPF community calendar. As we work throughout…
Stepping up the use of digital tools can be a game-changer for small agricultural and forest products businesses. The integration of farm and forest mobile applications has been shown to save both time and money, while improving productivity by enabling farmers and wood products businesses to spend more time on their core business. Starting a…
Director Georgia Brehm and Assistant Director Linda Tucker from the Black River Academy Museum use Square and a tablet to take mobile donations. As fewer people carry cash or even use check books, many nonprofits are scrambling to find new ways to capture donations. Passing the hat or asking people to pull out their checkbooks…
Alerts like this one, can be emailed, texted, and sent by other methods. Just sign-up at www.vtalert.gov[/caption] The Digital Economy Project was created to support the use of digital tools for disaster resilience. We’re always happy to see the State of Vermont take steps to use mobile technology, as well as email and social media…
Juli Reiderer, Park House Exectutive Director, looks at her organization’s new website An empowered organization is a successful organization. For a nonprofit to be successful, it must have control over its message. For most organizations, a website is their public face and, often, the first point of contact between the organization and a potential donor,…
Here at the Vermont Council on Rural Development, we are in the process of asking for donations to fund our great ongoing work, including support for programs like our Community Visits Program and our Working Landscape Initiative. As we looked at numerous ways to solicit donations, including mailings and emails, we realized that we should…
This year, we were excited to be a part of Tech Jam, a technology-focused job fair that also serves to showcase how well Vermont is succeeding at creating and adopting to new technologies, from being the home of companies such as Dealer.com and MyWebGrocer to fostering smaller businesses such as Found Line. Many of these…