Toby House, Inc.

I'm quite sure that some people are asking that question and it's a reasonable question to ask. I would expect that most people who are not avid Internet users would ask that question.

I have essentially duplicated all of the static content that is on www.tobyhouse.com onto this web site and it is my hope that we shut it down and drive all of that traffic to this web site. The web site that is presently www.tobyhouse.com is static, it has no capacity for change with the exception of instructing someone technically inclined to make the changes and appearance changes require a complete makeover which is time consuming and costly if you get a professional web designer. But it's the static part that is the problem.

Many companies and non-profit organizations have come to the realization that static web sites discourage repeat traffic. Seriously, who is going to Wells Fargo web site unless they need to find a location or check their balance?

What benefits can we get from a CMS system?

A CMS system is dynamic. The moment I save this 'blog' entry, it appears to all users on the first page they see when they get to this web site but as time goes on and more entries are created, regardless of who creates them, this blog entry will be pushed further down the page until it no longer appears on the first page. That ensures timeliness.

A CMS system is participatory. Anyone can have an account and can comment, create blog entries, participate in a forum discussion and can provide 'links' back to other people to point out what is being discussed. I encourage employees and board members to register for an account and get involved. I also encourage our clients and their families to register and participate. Likewise, the public at large is encouraged to register and participate.

A CMS system is a public outreach...it's not only capable of handling a dialog between Toby House staff and the public, it's probably the best reason for it to exist.

A CMS system provides access requiring a very low threshold of knowledge. You can create a blog simply by typing or by copying and pasting from any text editor. You need not know any codes or symbols at all (but they do help to provide visual stimulation). I have enabled 'Compose tips' on the sidebar so if you do want to add tags for bold/italics or links to other web sites...it's really easy.

How does this involve you?

If you're an employee of Toby House, what you do is certainly of interest to someone. Tell us what you do and what you think that we could do better. Clients making progress? Could you find a better place to note that than here (Client confidentiality must be preserved however).

If you're a supervisor, you can acknowledge your staff in a public way because we always appreciate being acknowledged, even if it doesn't include a pay raise.

If you're a board member, you can use this space to advance your point of view with other board members. You can use this to provide feedback.

If you're just an interested party that wants to discuss Mental Health issues...Welcome

What is so great about this CMS system?

This is the latest, greatest CMS management system going.

It offers a news feed (see the orange news feed symbol on the bottom of the pages). If you use a news reader and subscribe to news feeds, this will let you know just a soon as content is posted. I'm reminded of the Sonic commercial with a man and his wife sitting in their car and talking about the peach smoothies and the guy says that he is going to have to write this up in his blog. His wife suggests that no one reads his blog. The guy points out that his mother reads his blog and his mother is going to get one of her neighbors to read it too. Well, if you create a blog entry, you can be sure that I will know about it right away and will read it so that means you're already ahead of the guy at Sonic.

It is visually attractive, able to be themed, colored and adjusted in an endless variety of ways but yet the content remains.

It has some really nice ajax features and I've added some cool stuff to manage pictures and lightbox graphics and slide shows. I am willing to add more bells and whistles if people ask.

I've created a number of Image Repositories to contain images that people upload. There also is a great tool called "Image Assist" that appears on the 'create content' pages that lets you insert images into your blogs with no real knowledge required.

How can I help make this a success?

You can participate...you can comment on the things you see/read. You can create your own blog entries. You can participate in the forums...I am setting up forums regarding computers and technology as soon as I finish this.