Customer Profile:
Extreme Ice Survey
“concrete5 is provides a very powerful toolset right out of the driveway. Using concrete5 we integrated the design very quickly, and had our site up and running in under 2 weeks. ” – Bryce Tugwell
Hosted by concrete5!
Who we are
Extreme Ice Survey (www.extremeicesurvey.org) is an environmental photography project by award-winning nature photographer James Balog that documents the impact of global climate change on glaciers around the world. The Extreme Ice Survey has set up 26 time-lapse cameras in Greenland, Iceland, Alaska, the Rocky Mountains, British Columbia, the Alps, Bolivia, and on Mount Kilimanjaro to collect visual evidence of retreating glaciers. The acclaimed project is the subject of a NOVA documentary and the book Extreme Ice Now.
Challenge
Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) already had a Flash-based website that showcased the time-lapse photos taken by the 26 cameras, as well as many of James Balog’s stunning photos and videos shot on trips to visit glaciers around the world. But EIS wanted to develop a more sophisticated website that integrated Google Earth into the fabric of the site, overlaying EIS footage and photos over Google Earth satellite maps. That couldn’t be done in Flash, so the team began looking for an HTML-based content management solution that would allow them to build the sophisticated site they needed and would also allow for easy, automated updates to the site, since continual photo updates from the time-lapse cameras are key to the EIS project. The site also needed a real-time blogging function, so that James Balog – and the wider community – could add comments and thoughts to the site as the EIS team travels the globe documenting the glaciers’ retreat.
Solution
EIS chose concrete5 as the foundation for their new site. The EIS team hired two consultants, Eric Turner and Bryce Tugwell, to design and build the site. Eric designed and developed the front end of the site, while Bryce integrated Concrete5 and developed the Google Earth files showcasing the EIS Videos around the world. The team appreciated concrete5 for its intuitive interface and ease of use, as well as the ability to apply different “themes” with the click of a mouse. Having used Drupal and Joomla on client projects in the past, Bryce found those platforms inflexible and difficult to theme. Most importantly, with concrete5, EIS now has a fully functional, sophisticated website that its non-technical team can update automatically and continuously with live photo feeds from the 26 cameras.
Why we love concrete5
concrete5 is so easy to use that EIS is able to manage most updates to the site themselves, without having to hire a consultant to continually update it. Since EIS is a creative and environmental project, they didn’t want to worry about the technical nuts-and-bolts of running a website, but instead wanted focus on providing a highly engaging website that would draw the most visitors as possible. EIS’ goal is to educate as many people as possible about the very real – and immediate – impact that global warming is having on the planet. With concrete5, they now have a website aligned with that mission.
From the developer
“concrete5 is provides a very powerful toolset right out of the driveway. The EIS site is media rich, state-of-the-art and highly sophisticated, merging real-time images, video, and Google Earth satellite maps into a seamless, easy-to-navigate site that invites interaction via live blogs. A site like EIS's would have taken significantly longer to develop using Drupal or other platforms and would have involved significant client training. Using concrete5 we integrated the design very quickly, and had our site up and running in under 2 weeks. ” – Bryce Tugwell
