After spotting a recent Tweet by a friend on installing Open Atrium, an intranet-in-a-box, I was intrigued. Just what was in that box that would help people collaborate on a project or a web site?

Over on the Open Atrium web site, the fresh and colorful graphics describe the free software package as “Part intranet, part do-it-yourself project with a kick of open source hotness.” More specifically, Open Atrium is a theme built on the core of Drupal, a dynamic content management system. That means, once set up, the user is spared from having to know or write code. (Whew! That’s a relief.) You just write in the appropriate place, click a button and you’re good to go.

Open Atrium is designed with private group spaces to allow different teams to have their own conversations. Atrium’s six features, as it comes “out-of-the-box” are a blog, a wiki, a calendar, a to-do list, a shoutbox and a dashboard to manage it all. That certainly worked for me. And being open source, it allows users to add new features if they choose, and select more new features as they’re developed.

So, if I could set up Open Atrium, I would be good to go with a full-featured intranet.

Why would I need an intranet? Well, I’m extending the brand of my company, AdvancingWomen.com,  by creating a private platform for coaching and communication, targeting executives, managers, small business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals.

We will be integrating a number of very sweet tech tools to disseminate content, collaborate with coaches, schedule coaching appointments and events and manage the technology for them. Prior to this, I generally worked one-on-one with service providers and clients.

With a somewhat larger influx of coaches, and more techs in the loop, however, it’s time to ramp up my in-house technology. An intranet seems to me to be the perfect solution.

The question now was, could I set up Drupal? I had never set up a Drupal site in my life. However, lately, I’ve used WordPress a lot. WordPress works on a similar principle as Drupal — it is a database serving up dynamic modules. But . . . (loud warning bell in the background) . . . all systems are different and each has its idiosyncrasies.

On the plus side, Drupal seems to be a favorite of a lot of journalists, and they are a hardy and analytical breed. They also must be a helpful breed, as I am always seeing Drupal meetups and get-togethers flashing across my social media screens. I figured I could muddle through and reach out for help if I needed it. Plus, I am only a Skype chat away from one of my WordPress programmers. Not entirely convinced I could do this, still, I dove in.

I looked at some of the steps in http://drupal.org/getting-started/install, which is a little more scary than it needs to be. Here is a description of steps, with links to more detail:

• Download the package from the Open Atrium site here: http://openatrium.com/
• Grant write permissions on the configuration file using your FTP client
• Create the database using your control panel
• Run the install script (click on Atrium rather than Drupal)
• From your control panel, set up cron for automated tasks
• Create a “files” directory for uploads (this is in your FTP client)

Some web hosts let you click for automatic installation . . . lucky for them. So the level of expertise would be someone who knows how to create and FTP files and use a control panel ( If you get stuck, go to http://drupal.org/getting-started/install)

After logging in as the administrator, you will be taken to a “welcome screen” where you set up your first group to get started.

This couldn’t be simpler: Name your first group, describe it, put in a one-word “path value,” naming the specific file for the url, i.e., something like “firstgroup,” no spaces, or, in my case, “collaboration.”

Click “save” you got to the dashboard which displays your recent activity and a calendar. There are also icons for you to navigate to blog, or documents ( but yours won’t have any content/recent activity yet). First, complete your profile. Then enable your shoutbox, a feature which provides a team microblog, a way to reach out and tap another team member’s shoulder and tell them what’s on your mind.

Now you’re set up and ready to start adding content. First, click on the “Groups” icon, then on the group you’ve set up. (For example, mine is admin collaboration.)

This will take you to the dashboard which will show “No recent activity,” because you are just starting. Time to change that.

Go up to the top line on the left; after “Administration,” you will see “Content.” Click on “Content.” Then, underneath, you’ll find add or edit. You want to click add. This will take you to a “Create Content” page which gives you a range of types of content you can produce – everything from an admin message or blog entry to a project or shoutbox.

A particularly useful Open Atrium feature for managing is a Case Tracker, a full ticketing system that lets you assign to-do’s and create unlimited projects within each of your groups. The case tracker also lets you classify the to-do, give it a priority, and manage its status.

You must create a project first, before you add cases to the Case Tracker in order to track it. With that, you might want to add an iCal Event, an event within a group and an iCal Feed, a feed within a group, just to keep things tidy and coordinated and everyone on the same page, hopefully at the same time.

Now that you know how to add content and projects and to track them, you are ready to roll. Just invite your other group members, show them the ropes, walk them through the basics – or just show them this “how to” – and start to manage.

You’re all ready to start adding content and managing coaches, as I will be doing, or open an ice cream parlor, collaborate on a new web site or use it for web-based team work on just about anything.

Good luck!

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Gretchen Glasscock is President and CEO of AdvancingWomen.com and GGWebGroup, and is a past member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO-San Antonio).  She also operates the AdvancingWomen Blog, the AW WebBiz & Social Media Blog , and Advancing Women in Leadership Journal, the first online refereed journal on women’s issues. She twitters @gretchenglas on web business, tech tools and social media and @advancingwomen on career, entrepreneurship and women’s issues.

• Drupal
• Helpful
• intranet
• Open Atrium
• open source
• small business