January 9, 2007

We are happy to announce that after extensive testing by 12 different nonprofit organizations, we have made a production-ready version of ODB available at the download section of this web site.

ODB 1.0.1 is extremely stable and you can use it to upgrade right now. It will bring your 0.9 database up to the new version in about 30 seconds! We actually made a full 1.0.1 release available on January 4 for early adopters; today's release fixes two small problems that the early adopters found and reported at http://mantis.organizersdb.org, our bug tracking site.

Also, on January 1, 2007, we announced some new pricing for ODB support. Click Here to see the new price list. We have a new $100 support option available for those of you who just want to get 1-2 hours of help -- some handholding during your upgrade to 1.0.1 and a consultation to enable you to take advantage of its new features.

1.0.1 includes 78 changes since the last public release in June, according to our Mantis site. Most of these are small tweaks and fixes you won't notice. But there are ten changes you will notice. They are:

a) user friendly 'settings' area
b) cool 'splash screen' with countdown
c) form letter printing with no need to mail merge
d) friendlier generation of thank you notes
e) enlarged comment area
f) streamlined process for downloading DB drivers if needed
g) additional built-in mailing label size (shipping label)
h) friendlier prompts for setup and backup operations
i) streamlined process for running conversion utility
j) improved speed and stability

Also 1.0.1 provides an optional '3rd address line' for those of you begging for that. You can turn it on in about 10 seconds if you need it.

We ARE raising funds to support 3 more new features. Not included in this release, but coming soon if we can raise a bit of money, are: 1) additional 'job title' address line; 2) Import improvements; 3) ability to create DB in Access 2000 format. If you'd like to see these improvements, please email support <at> organizersdb.org and we will help you join forces with the other groups needing these enhancements, so that we can all share in the cost of developing them.

Be forewarned: you CANNOT use both 1.0 and 1.0.1 versions of ODB to open the same database file. 1.0.1 makes a significant update to the database, so you must update all of your PCs on a local network at the same time.

The database upgrade utility was tested extensively, so it is quite solid. IF you are upgrading from 0.9 please run ODB on the same computer where the DB file is stored, if this is possible.

Thank to all of you who have helped to make this new version a reality. At last ODB is looking very much like a commercial-grade piece of software. And things will only continue to improve from now on.

-Rich Cowan
for the ODB Project

--
Organizers' Collaborative
14 Beacon St. Suite 707 - Boston, MA 02108
rich@oc-tech.org [email] - 617.720.6190 [voice] - 617.642.3379 [mobile]
http://organizerscollaborative.org/

| Technology and training to advance and sustain social change |