One of our goals at Partners is to create a web-site which makes it easier for all of our Partners to work together. So we've been working with one of our Partners extensively, incorporating changes as a result of her review and feedback.  A big thank you to Karen Gould for her assistance.
 

Check out Karen's project Barton Jamiacan Project.

Here are a few of our accomplishments (we will provide more detail in the next Article).

1. We've created two new map functions, the first which you will see right on the front page of the site. Although not all of our Partners have been mapped yet, about 60 have been.
2. We've have a second map under Find Partners and Projects > Near By. You will find this when you are logged in to the system and if you have your location set (longitude, latitude). You can set your location by logging in, editing your profile, going to the Location tab, and adjusting the map pointer to your location or the location of your project.
   
   
   
3. We've cleared up some of the unwanted menu options to make the system a little simpler.
   
   
4. We've added a chat function so if any of the Partners are logged in on-line, you can click on their User ID in the bottom right corner and create a chat window to communicate with them. If you see me on-line, please feel free to ask questions and I'll help.
   
   
   
5. We have added a link to the Open Forum on CSO Development Effectiveness in our Resource section. Partners is using the Siem Reap Framework and Instanbul Principles as guidelines for our projects.

What have we got planned?

1. We want to improve the map function so that you can find partners which match your criteria. And we hope to be able to show connections between Partners and Projects.
    
2. We want to create a map function that shows you how many partners are in a certain area of the world. The current map will only show all of the markers in a certain area if you are zoomed into that area. The Near By map zooms in automatically.
    
3. Eventually, we plan to have mobile option that works better for smaller screens like mobile phones.
    
4. We hope to incorporate forms that will help with project planning and reporting.
    
5. We are implementing a contract system. This requires a bit of work so we're starting with a few select Partner first. Every project will be made transparent through this process.  

We encourage all of our Partners to invite other Organizations and Volunteers to the Partners network.

More to Come 

In future articles, we'll give you examples of our project work and you can use the Partners framework to faciliate them.