CivicSpace

CivicSpace has always taken an open source approach to developing as well as distributing its technology, which is built on the Drupal open source framework. CivicSpace On Demand, CivicSpace's new software package, continues this philosophy by offering CivicSpace software as a hosted ASP, so users don't have to download and install any software themselves. The majority of civic organizations needing simple fundraising, communication and website tools don't know what MySQL, Apache and tarballs are, much less how to use them," says Managing Partner David Geilhufe. The group only provides technical support to resolve errors, leaving product support (answering "How do I..." questions) to Internet resources and CivicSpace Associates. Those without the inclination or in-house capability to install and customize the software can do so through CivicSpace Associates or independent Drupal/CiviCRM consultants. At the time of publication, as of January 2007, CivicSpace had not yet published a list of Associates.
The CivicSpace On Demand platform is a content management system enabling content syndication, blogging, social networking, forums, polls, surveys, event management, site user registration, data importing, mailing list creation and management, online fundraising, email marketing, and community website development. CivicSpace software also enables database management and segmentation. The organization also offers a constituent relationship management (CRM) tool, built by the Social Source Foundation.
Being open source, the software code is not proprietary, so it can be altered by anyone, and sometimes integrated with other technologies as needed. By its nature CivicSpace is a fluid product, in development both in-house and elsewhere. Indeed, much of the code that enables CivicSpace’s offering is not developed by CivicSpace, but by the broad open source community of developers. “The code comes from many different places,” says Rosen. He believes that, in addition to the lower costs and flexibility enabled by open source technologies, they are preferable to proprietary ones that “lock customers into vendors.” Adds Rosen, by using CivicSpace, “If a customer does not like a vendor they have an easy time going to another vendor.” In addition, the open source community at large benefits from CivicSpace's work; all of their improvements go directly back to the Drupal development community.
In early 2007 CivicSpace released Groundswell Professional, a $50/month fundraising, email, website, and database solution.