Back in 2011, at a networking event in town, Apt613’s François Levesque made an open request asking for help with an improved calendar for their site.  OAK’s Manu Sharma, ever present at such events and a huge fan of Apt613 (as we all are at OAK) stepped up instantly, recognizing that this partnership would bring good things to Ottawa’s community engagement.

From Calander to Full Redesign

As with any good design process, it all starts with some lengthy (sometimes coffee accompanied, sometimes beer accompanied) conversations.  What’s working?  What’s not?  What’s your goal?  How do you want to scale?   All of these have to be answered.

And what the conversations illuminated was that Apt613, with its thousands of daily readers, had outgrown its present template WordPress solution.  They now needed a custom WordPress solution to suit their new needs:  look fantastic, flexibility to highlight specific content, spotlight events, advanced search, maximize automation and minimize required training.

With great attention to detail, the OAK & Apt613 teams went through multiple stages:  usability studies that led to information re-organization, wireframe designs, development, testing, training, and today’s launch.  What you see today is the fruits of all of our hard work.

What we love

We love the elegant look & feel, the white space, the advanced search capabilities, the beautiful pics that automatically resize from large banners to tiny thumbnails, the newly simplified and now image enhanced navigation bars, the  news ticker… And let’s not forget the pièce de résistance, the Apt613 events calendar.  With its ability to highlight upcoming events, incorporate advanced search,  integrate social media, and be very easy to navigate – its just beautiful (if we do say so ourselves).

And they lived happily ever after

But really this is just the beginning.  We are extremely excited to see the possibilities an Apt613 & OAK partnership can bring to community and neighborhood engagement, and we’re just getting started!

Local Organization looking for a Technology Partner? 

OAK is an Ottawa based software development firm with a strong commitment to community.  Every year we seek to help 4-5 community organizations with their web/technology projects.  If you are an Ottawa based community organization with a strong focus on grass-roots change and you have a strong desire to see how technology can help you further your change footprint, then please get in touch with us.  We are always happy to hear your vision and how you feel we can work together to make our wonderful Ottawa community stronger and better connected.

A Little About Apartment613

Apt613 is Ottawa’s go-to community website, committed to connecting people to their neighborhoods.  Written and produced by a group of passionate & eclectic individuals whose goal is to uncover the pulse of the city, Apt613 profiles “exciting people, places and going ons”; that is, the world of art, dance, music, food, fashion, politics, love, opinion, and anything interesting in the Ottawa scene.  Apt613 is a platform for participation and community building, only 3 years old, but already the gold standard in Ottawa.

A Happy Story of an Apartment and an OAK

This partnership, similar to OAK’s partnership with HUB Ottawa, is another case of being at the right time at the right place.  At a networking event in town, Apt613’s François Levesque made an open request asking for help with a better events system for their site.  Manu Sharma, ever present at such events and a huge fan of Apt613 (as we all are at OAK) and their community building efforts, instantly recognized the technical expertise OAK could provide Apt613.  With a strong portfolio of design and development work in building media-rich sites used for multi-colloboration, and with a long history of deploying solutions to local grass roots community projects (see Hub Ottawa, Byward Eats, CISED, CPhA Diabetes Forum , One Prosper), OAK was a natural fit to Apt613.  As all good design projects, the decision was made to rework the entire site rather than inputting a sophisticated calander into a solution that Apt613 had outgrown.  As we like to say, why put a Ferrari engine into a Mustang chassis?

We are extremely proud of the fruits of our labour and are extremely excited to see the possibilities an Apt613 & OAK partnership can bring to community and neighborhood engagement.  We’re just getting started!

And the party is just getting started!  Come out and celebrate the launching of the new site today at RAW Sugar – all info can be found here!

If you are an Ottawa based community organization with a strong focus on grass-root change and you have a strong desire to see how technology can help you further your change footprint, then please get in touch with us. As a part of our community commitment, we seek to help 4-5 community organizations each year with their web/technology projects. We are always happy to hear your vision and how you feel we can work together to make our wonderful Ottawa community stronger and better connected.

A Little About Hub Ottawa

Hub Ottawa is a a community where individuals have the space, resources and peer support to kick-start their ideas, collaborate and grow. Located at 71 Bank Street, the Hub will give our community access to a buzzing co-working/learning environment where ideas will cross-pollinate and come to fruition.

As the Hub’s technology partnership, OAK will help Hub Ottawa leverage the power of web, mobile and social media to grow their social footprint and amplify the impact of their service delivery.

How it came to be:  A Case of Being at the Right Time at the Right Place

In the very early stages of Hub Ottawa – at Hub Ottawa’s first Hub & Spoke event – Vinod Rajasekaran, co-founder of HUB Ottawa, made an open request asking the Hub community for help with the design and launch a web presence.   Manu Sharma, OAK’s founder and managing partner, was at the event and knew this would be a natural fit for OAK.  With a long history of developing programming support for youth entrepreneurship through programs such as TalentBridge, Ottawa Innovation Challenge, and Ottawa Community Challenge, a strong portfolio in developing and deploying projects for local non-profit community organizations like Apt613, CISED and One Prosper, OAK and its team had the necessary strengths to help Hub. But what was most exciting was the shared ideal of driving social change through innovation, and the common belief in the role that businesses and markets can play in addressing community issues and challenges. HUB’s vision matched perfectly with OAK’s ideals, and a perfect relationship was born.

The journey is just beginning. We are excited about the possibilities and look forward to the the Hub becoming the catalyst and driver for innovative home grown solutions for social/community development. In the past couple of days, we have been asked by a few people why we are so pumped about this partnership. And our excitement is really driven by the team behind the Hub – the passion and self belief they have brought to this initiative, the creative zeal that has transformed an idea into something so incredible, the thoughtful consideration they have given to every suggestion we have had to make about their digital presence, and the dream that they collectively share of making Ottawa a stronger more well resourced community.

… Few DREAM, fewer BELIEVE, and even fewer DO … and the six founders of the Hub did it!

If you are an Ottawa based community organization with a strong focus on grass-root change and you have a strong desire to see how technology can help you further your change footprint, then please get in touch with us. As a part of our community commitment, we seek to help 4-5 community organizations each year with their web/technology projects. We are always happy to hear your vision and how you feel we can work together to make our wonderful Ottawa community stronger and better connected.