OpenSourcery

Solar 4R Schools is a program developed by the Bonneville Environmental Foundation that educates students, teachers and community members about the science and benefits of renewable energy technology. The program provides hands-on activity guides, science kits and demonstration solar electric systems at no cost to schools, by working with local funding partners who want to show their commitment to renewable energy education. The Bonneville Environmental Foundation selected OpenSourcery to develop the website for the Solar 4R Schools project. The Solar4RSchools.org website is a sophisticated Drupal-based website that:

• Collects real-time data from hundreds of solar panels
• Displays interactive real-time and historical information with
  • Charted historical and real-time raw data (e.g. Power output, Irradiance, Temperature)
  • Interactive charts displaying student/teacher-friendly data (CO2 offsets + real-world usage displacement – a video game system for x weeks)
• Shows live weather from Yahoo Weather
• Allows visitors to download the raw data in a user-friendly CSV format for school experiments and reports
• Provides an interactive custom map of the US for visual browsing of installed sites
• Integrates Google maps
• Allows anyone to embed a widget on their site that displays real-time solar collection data
• Incorporates a full-featured blog with an RSS feed, tagging and image, video and sound uploads
• Aggregates news from a variety of sources which automatically appear in the news section
• Lists upcoming events with an easy to use web-based system for adding new events
• Allows site administrators to easily add new sites, including pre-publishing
• Enables schools to fill out an online application form to sign up for the Solar 4R Schools program
• Includes a teachers-only area that allows teachers to download lesson plans, activities and share photos and experiences with their solar curriculum
• Approved school administrators or teachers can upload video and images as well as edit text on their school pages
• Provides an email newsletter with self-service subscribing/unsubscribing

Solar 4R Schools was developed by the Bonneville Environmental Foundation which supports the development of renewable energy and watershed restoration while empowering people to shrink their carbon footprint. OpenSourcery is the leading developer of Drupal-based education and non-profit websites. For more information contact OpenSourcery at (503) 777-7033.

Not long after OpenSourcery and the Linux Foundation launched the new Linux Foundation Video Site, news of their "I'm Linux" video contest appeared on Slashdot.

We're excited because the site itself is elegant, clean, and easy to use. The video upload module and social networking tools are a perfect match. We think the Linux Foundation will have a lot of fun promoting user-generated content and sharing internally produced videos and interviews with their community. But for now, the contest's the thing.

Basically, the Linux Foundation has joined Apple and Microsoft in promoting their operating system through humorous videos. Instead of top-down production (Apple) or faux user-generated videos (Microsoft), the Linux Foundation is gunning for the real deal. Actual users uploading their own videos enumerating the joys of Linux. The winner gets a trip to next year's Japan Linux Symposium held in Tokyo and, according to LF itself, "some serious geek cred."

Please read more about OpenSourcery's work on the Linux Foundation Video Site here, and then write yourself a reminder to submit a video on January 26, the day "I'm Linux" begins.

Thank you for reading.

The Linux Foundation Video Site allows visitors to share, search, and respond to user-generated videos, and to search Linux Foundation-produced videos and interviews. It's an elegant, user-friendly Drupal site that employs contributed and custom modules.

Key Features:

• YouTube Video Upload Module, updated from Drupal 5 to Drupal 6
• Related Content, Voting, and Tagging tools
• Social Networking tools
• User-friendly video upload

Story:

Imagine our excitement when the Linux Foundation approached OpenSourcery to develop a Drupal site that revamps how users upload, share, and comment on Linux-related videos. As Linux users and devotees ourselves, this project was doubly exciting: it meant working with one of our favorite organizations while employing development skills honed on previous social networking and user-generated content sites. The Linux Foundation chose OpenSourcery to replace their previous video portal with a dynamic, attractive Drupal site. We proposed a set of custom and contributed modules to support user-generated videos, improve search functionality, and transform the site into a true community forum. Our experience developing Video Upload modules, our ability to leverage a large code base, and our understanding of the Linux Foundation's long- and short-term project goals made OpenSourcery the right partner. We're ecstatic about the results (and if the immediate attention is any indication, so is the community).

Development Process:

OpenSourcery's development process and tight project management were integral to a successful launch. Upon our selection as developers, we assembled a Drupal team that would work closely with the Linux Foundation stakeholders and tech lead through every stage of the project. OpenSourcery's short development iterations and frequent communication with the Linux Foundation enabled us to launch the video site within a short space of time. We're happy to report that OpenSourcery continues to work with the Linux Foundation on an even more ambitious Drupal project encompassing their main website.

Read the complete case-study here.