Mayfirst hosting has a lot of flexibility and great services, but it would be better for my organization if we had stronger IT skills. For our site we’d also like to switch to a HUGO site like Mayfirst,too, but need some assistance. There is also some open source campaign management software we’d like to work with as well but are uncertain of installation. We probably need some ongoing help with everything as well.
I’m looking online at who I can ask for help locally, and am confused about what kind of qualifications I need to seek. General terms like web development or computer science are too general for me to determine whether a person is able to help in this area and use open source options, especially since web development in some cases means using squarespace or wix.
I wonder, can you give some recommendations at what kind of key skills and educational background I should seek?
Hi lasttreelaws - All great questions with no easy answers.
If you have a budget and are able to pay for professional services, you could always start with a free software friendly consulting firm like Agaric or Palante or Design Action or for campaign software Powerbase (all are members of May First and full disclosure - I work for PTP/Powerbase). This may be expensive and they may direct you to the software they are most familiar with, but you’ll be well taken care of.
If you are set on Hugo or any other specific technology (i.e. CiviCRM) you can focus your searches on the specific tech you want (i.e. CiviCRM experts page or (gulp) a totally random corporate search for Hugo developers (I’m not sure how far I would trust anyone on that list but it’s a start).
In completely the other direction… if you are short on funds but have a volunteer pool or staff ready to learn, you can take the long road of building these skills closer to home. May First has limited time and resources, but we are always interested in teaching our members and answering questions about how to do things yourself when we can. It takes more time on both our sides, but does put you in a better position in the long run.
Hugo, for example, is a lot of fun - but takes some time to get used to. We can point you to some resources to get started and try to hold your hand as you go.
I’m glad to see the list of progressive businesses and possibilities, though I think we’re going to go with working with volunteers in house since unfortunately we don’t have the funds, at least not now.
I also notice that CiviCRM, which looks good, can’t be installed on Hugo, only on Backdrop, Drupal, Joomla and WordPress, which is something to consider as a program like CiviCRM would help immensely. I suppose then Hugo isn’t as useful unless used as a landing page with links to a central site with CiviCRM.
I do like the multilingual strength, the speed, and I believe extra security of static sites, but I can let that go for now and instead focus on seeing if I can find someone in-house who can help with CiviCRM.
That’s a good place to start. It should allow you to build a web site on your own laptop/desktop computer. You’ll want to be sure you are comfortable with the process of creating and editing pages. It can be a bit challenging to do the work on the command line.
Let us know how it goes - and when you are ready, we can talk about copying your files to the May First server. Or, if you run into trouble, feel free to ask for help.
- but takes some time to get used to. We can point you to some resources to get started and try to hold your hand as you go.