Government-imposed internet censorship occurs in various degrees and for various reasons in different countries around the world. This new Internet Freedom website will serve to inform the internet community about such censorship, provide advocacy information, and allow citizens of affected countries to report on censorship incidents and find support.

HiDef’s role lies in designing and developing a website powered by the opensource Drupal CMS framework that will be robust, extensible, accessible, and prepared for localization to any number of languages.

With this new project, we at HiDef have the opportunity to do great things for a great cause as our own mission, vision and convictions direct us. We’re very excited to announce this important relationship and look forward to what we will accomplish with Freedom House over the coming months.

LogMeIn

LogMeIn helps us stay where we are no matter where we are. Our accountant has virtual access to our accounting computer 24×7 from any web browser. Our QA testers have access to testing platforms (Mac, Windows) for true interactive testing environments. There’s no need for separate test servers for each of our employees because LogMeIn can turn any computer into a virtualized  environment.

Jing

With Jing we send screencasts, short videos of your own screen, to communicate ideas to our team as well as clients without setting up a full meeting or even an online desktop sharing session (see Yugma below). Everybody seems to have the same reaction when they get their first screencast: “Wow! This is the future.” Though other screencasting applications exist, we prefer Jing because of its simplicity and usability.

Yugma

Yugma is a tool that you need just once in a while. Sometimes we just can’t convey an idea with a phone call, screenshots, and screencasts. For almost-like-being-there multiple-party sessions, Yugma is the answer: setup a Yugma meeting and invites go out with a number to call and link to click to join the session. Once the meeting starts, we’re all talking and looking at the same screen in real time. Beautiful. Did somebody miss the meeting? No problem; you can record every session. It’s not so easy to record an in-person session, is it?

Twiddla

Recycle that big company whiteboard and dry erase markers because Twiddla can do a better job! Twiddla is a “whiteboard-sharing-chat-idea-box” type of app. It’s really kind of fun to use and goof around with in your team environment, but it’s also pretty useful when you’re trying to brainstorm visually.

Honorable mentions:

Skype

Peer to Peer communication might not sound like a very big environmental saving solution. Well imagine a world with no costly electricity sucking servers, that’s a world that P2P can offer. Skype is one such solution that uses bandwidth and electricity that is already being wasted (for the most part) to do what it does, and quite efficiently at that.

DropBox

Email is a crummy way to send files to one another. Dropbox knows this and got the solution right: create a folder just like any other on your computer that synchronizes flawlessly and then updates the same folder on the other computers that need the file. Since utilizing dropbox, we’ve spent less time looking for that source file or wondering what so-and-so did with the latest design. Increased productivity = less waste. Dropbox helps keep all our project files organized, shared, revisioned–and it’s just plain cool.

LitmusApp

Sometimes we want a real quick test on some eblast we’re working on and we don’t want to have to open 10 different email programs on 10 different computers to test. Enter LitmusApp. This relatively costly, but really useful web app allows us to run unlimited tests of specific web pages or email campaigns on all the major platforms, browsers and email cleints. It’s well worth the price in time saved testing.

At HiDef we’re not concerned as much about the fringe benefits of going green as much as that warm, fuzzy, 100% organic feeling experienced when we visualize our nearly invisible carbon footprint. So whether you’re looking to save money and time or get a dose of altruistic glee, here are some of the tools we employ to pursue our passion:

1. EchoSign™ - Sign Documents Virtually

We started using EchoSign™ just a few months ago and now can’t imagine life without it. Having independent contractor agreements, non-disclosures, W4s, I9s signed and archived are as easy as a few clicks with absolutely no need for paper waste. The great part is that documents are archived forever on EchoSign’s secure servers and attached to an email as a PDF so you’ll always have a backup copy (which is great for those of us who follow the bad practice of using our email client as a quick file backup utility).

2. Rapid Fax - Virtual Faxes

RapidFax is a simple cross-platform solution that any company can take advantage of immediately. Though it’s one of many virtual fax solutions that help us prevent paper and electrical waste, we like it most because it is web based and cross-platform compatible, not to mention a nice price point. Our Rapid Fax account provides us with a virtual fax number to which any standard fax machine can send information. These faxes are received encrypted in our email inboxes for permanent archive and easy indexing.

3. PayCycle.com - Paperless Payroll, Taxes, and Direct Deposit

Paycycle.com helps us keep all of our payroll in a secure, central place, rather than pounds of paper in a file cabinet. No one has to come into an office to take a look at the books; all they need is a secure user account with strict permissions that can be monitored for extra accountability.  Paycycle also automates tax payments and even helps with direct deposits to our employees. Nobody likes paying taxes, but nobody likes getting audited either.

From Practice to Pledge

Not only do we support the environment through our infrastructure and tools, but we pursue relationships with clients and charities who promote the same. Recently we donated to CarbonFund.org to offset any possible carbon footprint we may have had. We’re also setting up donor relationships with environmental causes that we vote on as a core team. This year we’re adding on New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. There’s a reason New Mexico is called “The Land of Enchantment,” and we hope our donations to NMWA will help keep it that way.

Although we don’t claim to be the greenest of the green, our dedication to get there makes us proud. We are constantly looking for ways of improving our environmental impact as well as partnering with companies and vendors with similar visions. Our main server company, for instance, is actively dedicated to the improvement of their business practices and environmental footprint.

How does a company stay green and lower its carbon footprint while at the same time increasing collaboration both internally and with clients? Look for our next post to learn six great tools for virtualizing.

Though we do not limit ourselves to a particular system because we believe that each of our clients’ needs should be evaluated from the ground up, at the end of the day Drupal usually sits on top of list the list of possibilities. Why? Following up from last year’s best overall CMS award, it has gone through a major development cycle (from 5.x to 6.x), promising even greater reliability and expandability. In fact, Drupal is one of the best and most widely implemented CMS solutions available today, with millions of developers worldwide using and contributing daily.

HiDef Web has specialized in Drupal development for our enterprise-level work for over a year now, and we continue to add designers and developers who can use its framework to turn any client wish into a well-purposed solution faster and more efficiently.

The application was custom tailored to the exact specification required to automate the job posting and management for Sandia Resort and Casino’s human resources department. The original paper application was converted to an all electronic version with extensive security and validation tests along with enhanced database and tracking functions.

One of the biggest challenges to being a virtual company is being able to convey ideas visually and in real-time to designers, programmers, project managers, and even clients. Using virtual meeting software in conjunction with phone, skype or even visual chat allows us to collaborate from anywhere with anyone without phsyically meeting with them.

Note: An added benefit to meeting virtually versus in person is the automatic logging of visual and textual elements.

Cost: Check Yugma out, it’s free for the basic package and only $9.99 a month for the base plan which allows you to control the other participant’s keyboard and mouse!