MoogFoundation.org — behind the curtains

Hello to all of you out there in our online community.  I wanted to take a minute to give you an update on 8 months of hard work by a small group of dedicated volunteers in building this website.  So, I present:  a peek behind the curtains of the MoogFoundation.org.  First and foremost, thanks to our Rockstar team:  Gene Felice, Jeremy Ferguson and Mike Ostrich.  These guys have put in countless hours to make this machine work and in doing so, added tremendous value to the foundation and given us so much more capacity to fulfill our mission.

First, a quick tour of the software to give credit where it is due.  We use the open source, world-rocking, amazing WordPress content management system, as well as Linux, MySQL and PHP.   We use about a dozen free and open source WordPress plugins, which I won’t list for security reasons, but sincere thanks to all of the developers who have made these systems available and open source.

There are several third-party services that expand our functionality.  We use iContact for our email newsletter, Groundspring for secure online donations, and we based the original design of the site on a template from GraphPaperPress.  The current design of the site is a collaboration of our team, with Gene Felice doing the heaviest lifting.

It would surprise some people to realize just how much we have going on.  Did you know, for example, that we have an iPhone and mobile friendly version of the site?  Yep, we do.

A few other things people might not realize is that we have a regular blog series that will be expanding across the course of 2010.  We maintain a micro-site for the Moogseum at www.Moogseum.com.  Beyond that, we have our Twitter account, Facebook page and Facebook Causes page, a YouTube Channel, a MySpace page and an email newsletter list that reaches somewhere around 5,000 people a month.

[edit:  I also forgot we maintain a Flickr account with lots of great pictures of Bob’s Archives.]

Later in the year, I hope that we can be a little more transparent about the traffic to the site, but for now we are not releasing that information.

All of this is in place to help us foster innovation at the intersection of science and music.  So special thanks again to our Rockstar team.  You guys are amazing!

And thank to you, our friends, donors and allies.

–Sean McDonald, board member

p.s.  I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our bloggers–Dave & Seva–and our truly tireless Executive Director, Michelle Moog-Koussa.  This foundation depends on Michelle for everything we do, and she is remarkable in her commitment!