The California Endowment has launched its CalConnect social networking community on the Ektron platform. The California Endowment is a private, statewide health foundation responsible for awarding more than 9,000 grants that amount to almost $1.7 billion.
The California Endowment aims to expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities and also to promote fundamental improvements in the health status of all Californians. As part of the initiative, the foundation was in need of an online environment that would foster better communication between grantees and other California stakeholders.
According to Julio Zaldivar, CalConnect architect and consultant at The California Endowment, the foundation wanted to bring together different groups and organizations that usually don’t work with each other but often have similar objectives. An online environment where these groups and organizations can network with both peers and experts and collaborate on policies, grant writing, events and projects will have a positive impact on the promotion of healthy lifestyles and community development in California. Zaldivar also added that CalConnect provides visitors access to some of the latest reports and studies through its Resource Library, while
connecting with community leaders and health experts throughout the state.
The California Endowment selected 14 communities as the participants in its planned 10-year initiative. Each of these communities was then given their own designated social Web section on the new CalConnect social network site. Ektron’s collaboration and social features such as profile pages, blogs, wikis, discussion forums and group spaces were used to provide a central location for networking and collaboration.
In addition, Ektron’s core content management technology was leveraged to offer more features for members to connect with one another and work together across both local communities and the state. Members will also be able to take advantage of features like calendars to manage events, upload and share documents, collaborate on projects, create photo galleries to add pictures, videos and slideshows as well as use alerts to broadcast and manage community announcements.
According to Steven Sherkanowski, Ektron’s vice president of marketing, Ektron’s customers are able to take full advantage of the combined power of enterprise Web content management and social software. An integrated solution company, Ektron Inc. focuses on the success of its customers’ and partners’ Web projects as well as the entire lifecycle of their Web sites.
Calvin Azuri is a contributing editor for HealthTechZone. To read more of Calvin’s articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by
Erin Harrison
