Announcing the Launch of the FunnyMonkey Commons

We are happy to announce the launch of the FunnyMonkey Commons a resource that is part intranet, part course management, part collaboration platform, part blog.

Using the Commons, people within your school or organization can:

Store files. Maintain a private journal. Podcast. Share videos. Create image galleries. Create and participate in classes. Share bookmarks. Author curriculum. Collaborate within informal working groups. Sort information with tags. Learn within classes. Learn from peers.

Work on the web the way the web works.

As Private As You Want

The FunnyMonkey Commons (or the FMC) comes with precise access controls. A site administrator can make a site fully private, thus ensuring that only people from within your organization or school can see what's happening inside the site. However, for sites that want to publish information on the web, finely grained permissions make it possible for users to blend public and private content. In short, people can publish what they want, when they want.

Tools to Support Communication, Teaching, and Learning

Using the FMC, people can publish text, audio, images, and embedded video.People can share bookmarks. People can send private messages, and collaboratively edit documents privately before sharing them publicly. People can create varying types of collaborative groups, ranging from a formal class to an inter-departmental faculty working group to a club to a study group, and different types of groups can be added as needed. Within the commons, people can connect as needed, and communicate using the medium that makes the most sense for their work.

Flexible Design

The base theme used for the FMC (as seen in the screenshots, here) has been designed for this platform. For the geeks, this means that we start with a framework that displays cleanly in all the major browsers (Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer), and that uses valid XHTML and CSS. For the aesthetically inclined, this means that we have a starting point that can be customized to match the precise look and feel you need.

It's Your System. Run It How You Want

When you set up the FunnyMonkey Commons, you are storing the work and the creativity of your community. The FMC runs completely on open source components; in practical terms, this means that you have full control over your data -- unlike other systems, there are no limits on where you can host your site, and no limits on getting access to your data. While we provide hosting for groups who want it, we also support organizations who want the Commons to run on their own hardware. It's your system. You set the rules.

The FunnyMonkey Commons is proudly and happily built using Drupal. For more information on the Commons, take a run through some screenshots. For information on purchasing the Commons for your school or organization, please contact us.