Building a Multimedia Website as Progressive as Thom Hartmann
When we needed to rebuild our website, we looked around and found at OpenSourcery not only brilliant webmasters and designers but also highly ethical and progressive people who care about the planet and small business. -Thom Hartmann, nationally syndicated talk radio host
Four-time Project Censored award winner Thom Hartmann, named the 10th most important talk show in America by Talkers Magazine, has more than 20 books in print and 200-plus published articles. His daily progressive radio talk show, The Thom Hartmann Program, boasts a community of 2.5 million unique listeners a week and is carried in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, and more than one hundred other outlets nationwide. In addition, he produces a half-hour daily TV show, The Big Picture, which is syndicated by Free Speech TV and distributed via Dish Network as well as local cable TV stations.
Clearly, when it came time for OpenSourcery to develop the official site for Thom Hartmann, the challenge would be in building something as diverse and multi-faceted as Thom himself. In response, OpenSourcery designed a site where his vast community can listen to his programs, watch live streaming video, purchase books and merchandise, and subscribe to podcasts.
However, it was also crucial that ThomHartmann.com offer social networking functions to its users. To fulfill this need, OpenSourcery created forums that resulted in an immediate increase in community engagement. Due to OpenSourcery’s efforts, ThomHartmann.com was able to consolidate several different applications into a cohesive site with a single sign-on that was also easy to manage for Thom and his staff. In short, OpenSourcery made ThomHartmann.com a dynamic community where listeners can participate in live chat, post on forums, submit user-contributed content, and get the latest news and information they need.
Key features:
- Ecommerce site featuring podcast subscriptions with weekly or annual options
- Direct download of podcasts through the web browser or via iTunes
- Content delivery network (CDN)
- Dynamic member blogs
- Highly active message forums
- Live chat
- Sophisticated moderation and administration tools
- Embedded live video streaming of Thom’s daily show
- Facebook and Twitter integration
- Sophisticated layout and tools to support multiple daily updates and content publishing
- SEO optimization
ThomHartmann.com: News. Opinion. Debate. Now Online.
Today, fans of Thom Hartmann can visit ThomHartmann.com to stay plugged in to their favorite talk show host, whether they’re at home, at work, or anywhere they have an Internet connection. Browsing his online store, signing up for his daily newsletter, or creating an online profile is a snap, thanks to OpenSourcery’s Drupal experts.
