Raised Eyebrow Blog

Our new offices in the Flack Block bring us even closer (by a hundred feet or so) to the new Woodward’s site development that we’ve been watching evolve over the past couple of years — now we’re located in the same city block as the old Woodward’s store, which is slowly but surely transforming into a large-scale mixed-use project that promises to change the landscape of this part of the city when it’s completed.

We are just months away from the projected completion date, and buzz is building. Today I received an RFP (circulated by the Centre for Social Enterprise) for a social enterprise business opportunity in the new retail space at Woodward’s. Read on for more details…

RFP for a social enterprise within Vancouver’s Woodward’s development
July 4, 2009

Non-profit organizations are invited to respond to a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a social enterprise business opportunity in the new Woodward’s development at Hastings and Abbott Street.

The RFP is open to any Vancouver based non-profit organization with a social, cultural, or artistic mandate that wishes to operate a social enterprise in a retail space.

They define social enterprise as a non-profit organization which sells goods or provides services to provide both a financial and social return on investments. The final selection is subject to approval by Vancouver City Council.

Details are available in the RFP package which must be picked up in person at 300-515 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC.

Deadline for RFP submissions is Friday, July 31, 2009 at 4 pm.

The RFP process for the social enterprise space at Woodward’s is being handled by the City of Vancouver’s Real Estate Department. Please contact them for further details at 604.873.7438 or via their website.

We’re delighted to announce that the BC Centre for Disease Control has launched their new website. The BCCDC provides a wide range of services for British Columbians that extend far beyond the “hazmat” image many people have when they think about disease control. They offer STI testing clinics that are open to the public, critical information about diseases and conditions from Anthrax to Zoster, and leading-edge research and statistics on a remarkable breadth of topics.

The new website takes an enormous amount of information and makes it remarkably accessible and easy to navigate; and although we would love to take credit for that, it was Analytic Design Group who provided information architecture consulting on this project — and they did a fabulous job indeed. We provided the graphic design for the new site, which needs to balance the BCCDC’s position as a source of authoritative scientific information with its role in public outreach. Our design approach was therefore guided by the client’s vision of helping to make British Columbia the healthiest place on earth; you won’t see any glaring red or other “emergency” symbols (although we did work in a space for emergency alerts that can appear across the entire site at a moment’s notice), but rather a warm, welcoming, and accessible look and feel that reflects the BCCDC’s collaborative approach to public health.

We would also be remiss if we didn’t credit the technical team at the Provincial Health Services Authority, who really outdid themselves on this particular project. This was a major team effort and we are grateful to have played our part!

We have some folks with allergies in the office and that makes it difficult for us to splurge on desserts that contain:

• Flour
• Sugar
• Eggs
• Dairy

I am a big fan of raw food and was met with surprise when I mentioned to my colleagues that I made a raw chocolate cake, from Avocado, that was almost too good for words. So to mute their surprise I made one and brought it in for them to try.

The mention of an Avocado chocolate cake usually results in people making a face that suggests they’re thinking of a big green cake with chocolate chips or something altogether more monstrous and horrible tasting. Well they couldn’t be more wrong, this thing tastes divine and looks even better. I found the recipe in a book called Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People by Jennifer Cornbleet (Google Books, Amazon).

It involves using two separate recipes:

• One for Coconut Crust (Page 145)
• The other for Chocolate Mousse 9 (Page 160)

Note that I used Agave Nectar rather than Maple Syrup, I love the sweetness of Agave Nectar and was able to find organic nectar easier than organic maple syrup.

I think everyone here in the office was pleasantly surprised as to how tasty it was and I’ll definitely be making another one soon. And when I say tasty I mean real tasty; this is one rich tasting, dairy free, raw chocolate cake.

The website we designed for Pivot Legal LLP has been entered in the PopVox Awards.

The PopVox Awards, if you don’t know, are people’s choice awards given out during Vancouver Digital Media Week in May. The Pivot site, which we’re very thrilled with, has been entered in the Best Website Category (naturally). You can vote for it here, though I warn you the site’s interface isn’t super easy to get around. Winning this award would obviously be great for Raised Eyebrow, but also wonderful for raising profile for Pivot. So, please go vote and tell a friend!

Are you a nonprofit or other self-defined “do-gooder”? Are you looking for tips and techniques on how to rock the social media stuff everyone’s talking about these days?

If so, I recommend you check out Net Tuesday’s free event next Tuesday (details are posted on both Meetup and Facebook — choose your poison). Here are the details:

Mini Social Media Camp for Nonprofits & Other Do Gooders!
When: Tuesday, April 28, 5:30-8:00 PM
Where: Workspace – #400 – 21 Water St, Vancouver, BC

Topics may include:

• How can my organization use Facebook to be more awesome? Should I use Pages or Groups?
• How can I use Twitter to find new supporters?
• How can I use free analytics tools to measure my success?
• How can my NGO use free Google adwords?

You’ll get a chance to pick three topics; each topic will be discussed in a 30-minute breakout group. I’ll be leading sessions on Twitter!

Please spread the word to friends and colleagues; I know there are a lot of people in the nonprofit sector who can benefit from this stuff!

Just two weeks after Anna’s first day, we’re welcoming another new team member to our studio: Chantel McBride. Chantel is coming aboard as our Junior Web Designer, and will be working closely with me on the visual side of our work, making sure all our clients’ sites are designed with both visual beauty and intuitive, usable interfaces in mind.

Chantel found her way to design the same way I did; she started out as a coder, learning the fine art of building clean, standards-compliant websites first, and exploring the presentation layer only after mastering the coder’s craft. I’m a big believer that websites need to make good sense in order to be beautiful, so it will come as no surprise that I’m a fan of designers who can code with the best of ‘em.

We’re delighted to have Chantel aboard!

We posted in early March about the two desk spaces we have available for rent in our beautiful new offices. We’re still looking for the right people to share space with us, so if you (or someone you know) is looking for a great place to hang their hat, please have a look at the details, and get in touch!

The architecture is gorgeous, the infrastructure is state of the art, and the neighbours are lovely — the kind of lovely where they leave cake on the fridge with a “please help yourself” note stuck to it. Seriously. (It’s happened twice since we moved in two months ago.)

Trust me, you want to work here.

Slate has a great article up on “The 10 cunning ways public radio stations convince you to give them money” — as I was reading it (and listening to the fabulous audio clips that accompany the article), I reflected on how many of these same smart fundraising techniques apply to good causes everywhere.

Personally, I am a big fan (and longtime supporter) of KEXP, the Seattle-based radio station that also delivers their exceptional music programming online, and one of the things I have always admired about them is their sheer genius when it comes to fundraising. (They’re in the middle of pledge week right now, as a matter of fact, should you feel inclined to give to a great cause.) One year during pledge drive they accepted bids on seemingly random items scattered around the station, so that for, say, $500 (I can’t remember the actual amount), you could get your name on the front of the coffee machine, where staffers would grab a cup of joe. For $1000, you might get your name on a microphone that’s used every day for in-studio performances by some of the best musicians in the world. And so on. The intimacy and immediacy of the items one could sponsor made them incredibly appealing to listeners like me. (I still want my name on that coffee machine.)

I think of all the techniques described in the Slate article, the one that’s most effective at getting my credit card out is this one:

8. Niche marketing

The best of public radio’s weekend shows have distinct personalities: the discursive storytelling of This American Life, the self-deprecating bickering of Car Talk, and the cozy in-jokes of A Prairie Home Companion. All these shows produce special pledge editions, pitching in their signature styles. Ira Glass clearly missed his calling in sales; he is a master of the “ask.” He appeals to his people in their native tongue, sarcasm, calling on them to show their love for the show rather than the station it happens to be playing on: “There is one sure way that you can send a signal to this radio station that you like this program, and that you want them to continue running this program, and that is to call right now. …. Not later, not in an hour, during that other show that comes after us.”

I want to be made to feel special — to feel like I belong to a community of people with whom I share certain common interests and values. If you can make me feel understood and valued, then you will gain my loyalty, and with my loyalty comes a much greater willingness to part with my hard-earned cash.

And you know what didn’t make the list? Fearmongering. (Yes, they did include guilt-tripping, because where would fundraisers be without the ability to tug on heartstrings?) I, for one, would really love it if I never received another fundraising letter that implied the world was on the brink of destruction and that only my dollars could save us from apocalypse, whether the end of the world was coming in the shape of environmental, cultural, or social degradation. I am rarely motivated to action by doom-and-gloom scenarios; what does motivate me is a clearly articulated vision of a better world that I want to live in — even if it’s just a world where The Pixies still get played on the radio every day.

Raised Eyebrow has two desk spaces available for rental in our bright, spacious office in the newly-renovated Flack Block in Gastown. This five-story heritage building has just been renovated to top-notch environmental standards (LEED Gold, for those in the know), and features high ceilings, original brick walls — and our favourite feature, windows that open and let in the fresh outdoor air.

Your rent includes high-speed internet, access to shared meeting space, a beautiful kitchen and eating area that’s decked out with energy-efficient appliances, secure bike storage and showers, and lots of opportunities to interact with some of Vancouver’s brightest sparks of progressive change — our neighbours include Renewal Partners, Penner & Associates, Forest Ethics, Hollyhock Leadership Institute, Tides Canada, Bullfrog Power, Octopus Strategies, and Rainforest Solutions. The building is highly secure, with fob access at every entrance, and alarms on both our floor and within our suite.

We’re located on the corner of Hastings & Cambie, with fantastic transit access, great lunch & coffee spots all around, and right across the street from the greenery of Victory Square Park.

Depending on your needs, we can negotiate shared printing, photocopying, and phone lines.

Who We Are

Raised Eyebrow helps mission-driven organizations use online tools more effectively. We work with clients like Pivot Legal Society, the BC NDP, and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives to fulfill their commitment to positive change through smart, effective online communication strategy. You can find out all about us on this here website.

Our Office Environment

We value sanity in the workplace, so we try not to work too late or too long, though some of us do work into the evenings from time to time. We’re pretty quiet – mostly geeking out in front of our computers with headphones on, with occasional phone calls and conversations; but we also love to stretch our legs and make each other laugh from time to time. We have an impressive tea collection and an affinity for brightening up our space with fresh flowers. We love our work and our clients, and we put a lot of energy into making sure our work — and our work environment — reflects our values.

Who We’re Looking For

Responsible, interesting folks who feel like they can both benefit from and contribute to a healthy shared workplace.

Get in Touch

Rent is $500/month. If you’re interested, please email lauren [at] raisedeyebrow [dot] com with your name, phone number, and a good time to call.

As Melanie mentioned, we just launched a site for Pivot Legal, and a successful launch it was too. I thought I’d take a moment to give a quick breakdown of some of the tricks and wizardry we incorporated on that site.

Valid Code

For starters, we succeeded in getting most of the site to be valid XHTML, of course with Drupal there are parts where client content entry will cause some warnings and Drupals own internals will also do the same, but most of the pages on this site, within our control, are valid.

Lawyer Blogs, Resources and Events

This was the first site that we have implemented multi user blogging and user content categorization, so it was a learning experience for us. Each lawyer has their own page, in this case, that page is the default user profile page. However it’s not just your ordinary user profile page, it’s a themed user profile page. To allow us to theme this page we simply called the following function in template.php

/**
* Catch the theme_profile_profile function, and redirect through the template api
*/
function phptemplate_user_profile($account, $fields) {
	return _phptemplate_callback('user_profile', array('account'=>$account, 'fields'=>$fields));
}

Then create a template file called user_profile.tpl.php, here’s a snippet from that file:

$lawyer_profile = '<div id="lawyer_profile">'. chr(10)
   .'<h2>'. $account->profile_fullname .'</h2>'. chr(10)
   .'<h3>'. $area_of_law .'</h3>'. chr(10)
   .'<p>'. $account->profile_biography .'</p>'. chr(10)
   .'</div>'. chr(10);
// Photo, if any:
  if ($account->picture) {
    $lawyer_photo = theme('image', 	$account->picture, $account->profile_fullname .'\'s photo', $account->profile_fullname);
  }

The Blog, Resource and Events blocks on the lawyer page are simply View blocks that have the username as an argument. To achieve this we used the Usernode module to convert user profiles to nodes so that we could use their properties in views. I believe Views 2 in Drupal 6 will handle all this without the need to this module.

Username funkiness

As there are lots of users creating lots of content Drupal spits out their username attached to the piece of content (e.g “Posted by colin on Feb 26, 2009″). However on this site we wanted to show their full name and link that back to their profile page, again a simple theming function achieved this

function custom_theme_username($object) {
  if ($object->uid && $object->name) {
    // Load user so that we can get the full profile name instead of the short username
    $user = user_load(array('uid' =>$object->uid));
    $name = $user->profile_fullname;
    // If it's the "Pivot Legal LLP" user, go to the 'about-us/' page instead:
    $path = ($name != 'Pivot Legal LLP' ? 'user/'. $object->uid : 'about-us/');
 
    if (user_access('access user profiles')) {
      $output = l($name, $path, array('title' => t('View user profile.')));
    }
    else {
      $output = check_plain($name);
    }
  }
  else if ($object->name) {
    // Sometimes modules display content composed by people who are
    // not registered members of the site (e.g. mailing list or news
    // aggregator modules). This clause enables modules to display
    // the true author of the content.
    if ($object->homepage) {
      $output = l($object->name, $object->homepage);
    }
    else {
      $output = check_plain($object->name);
    }
    $output .= ' ('. t('not verified') .')';
  }
  else {
    $output = variable_get('anonymous', t('Anonymous'));
  }
  return $output;
}

Searching

It was a requirement to have a searchable directory of free legal resources on this site. We built this using a content type and Views, along with the Views Fast Search module. This allows you to create a view which acts like a search but uses view Filters to restrict the search. Robert Douglass, one of the famed Lullabots has written a great tutorial on how to set it up.

How did you get the search box on the home page?

This is pretty easy. Go ahead and create your Fast Search that we mentioned above. Then create a block and paste the following code into the body of the block, making sure to include the php tags and to set the input format to PHP:

  < ?php
  // Get the view
  $view = views_get_view('directory_search');
  // Get the filters ( in this case the search box) - this is returned as a form
  $form = drupal_retrieve_form('views_filters', $view);
  // When you submit the form make sure we go to the view page
  $form['#action'] = url($view->url);
  // Set your form up correctly in drupal
  drupal_process_form('views_filters', $form);
  // Spit the form out to screen
  return drupal_render_form('views_filters', $form);
  ?>

Of course this method can be applied to any view filters.

Views, views and more views

The rest of the site is mostly views and view blocks with some serious argument handling. The rotating images on the homepage are achieved using a simple content type for the image and then using a view to randomly load one of those pieces of content.

If you have any questions about any of the other functionality on the site or on anything I’ve menitoned above please feel free to post a comment.