Saturday, April 21, 2007

Cool Kuler Coolest

Adobe Labs has come up with a winner -- Kuler. Fun to use and a boon to web and graphics designers of all types, this color grouping creator and sharing application is a very popular site.

Take the Kuler tour (aka tutorial) to see what it's all about. It even plays cool music while you learn. To create or share color groupings, you'll need an Adobe ID.

The Museum of Modern Betas (MoMB) lists Kuler as #7 in their "Top 100".

Friday, April 20, 2007

Web inventor explains impact of Semantic Web

Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web and is director of the World Wide Web Consortium, explains to MIT's "Technology Review" how the Semantic Web will transform the way we use data.

The video presentation is by Brightcove video publishers. I find the interface interesting and easy to use. The maximum size is not full-screen, but plenty big enough for a computer screen.

Friday, April 13, 2007

My Maps a great new resource

Google has done it again! The Google Maps home page now offers "My Maps". This tool lets you add several map points, lines, shapes, balloon text, pictures, and more.

Prior to this new feature, I had tested MultiPlottr, which is a similar tool and does use Google Maps. Google's My Maps appears slicker and offers the familiar ease of use and easy to learn GUI we've come to expect from Google. With Google My Maps you have to guess at location by dragging a plot marker. Try both and see if you agree.

Side note: There is a limit of 50 plotted addesses per map at present.

Ideas for possible uses
  • Plot the street addresses of your church members. A visual look at clustering and dispersion may give you added insight for outreach or visitation planning.
  • Plot members' addresses, but use different colors for:
    • Members who have moved out of the area but still attend.
    • New members within the last year.
    • Founding members (if the church is new).
    • Members who have not moved out of the area.
    • Your church's street address (the key reference point on the map).
    • Location of selected community resources (City Hall, Courthouse, City or County agencies that help people, Clothes closets, etc.). This might become the basis for a "Where to get help" portal page for your community.
  • Home address of visitors in the past year.
  • Plot the location of an event away from the church. The Church Art Online Plus Calendar does this, but that is a paid subscription. You could email this map link to all church members and any visitors that gave you their email address.
  • Plot any type of demographic information about your members that is related to their address. Just remember the 50-address per map current limit.

Special note about long links. Remember that if you email map links, you should check the length and potential for problems at the receiving end. If the link is a long one or contains special characters, the recipient's email messages may "break" the link, especially when it wraps lines.

A way to avoid that problem is to use the free "TinyURL" online service to create a special short link when the target is a long one. TinyURL creates a special very short link that points to the long one you provide. An example long link reduced by TinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/ywzpx8 .

TinyURL also offers a "preview" feature that lets people see the actual destination link before they decide to select it. Here's an example of the same link as a "preview" one: http://tinyurl.com/preview.php?num=ywzpx8

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Church PR using Flickr

If your church uses Flickr or some similar sites for photo albums, you also have easy access to a unique avenue for identity products.
  • Zazzle
    Zazzle site lets you design produce custom stamps, T-shirts, mugs, and more. Custom stamps come in varied sizes using photos of your choice and sizing. They are more expensive than USPS stamps, but it's a unique way of promoting your church. Flickr offers a cross-site link to Zazzle.
  • QOOP
    QOOP uses your photos to create custom cards (myCards) of different sizes, calendars, Posters, an more. You can create picture-based business cards, for example. Or mini-cards with a photo on one side and printing on the other. You might want to purchase some for special seasons or to promote select events.
  • Moo
    Make notecards or mini-cards

Monday, April 09, 2007

Church webs -- Heal!

A few sites dedicated to helping you improve your web site:

Monday, April 02, 2007

Hone your keywords

You can find out what words are getting associated with any keywords you specify by using Google's Keyword Tool.

Although designed for use with Google AdWords, the handy online Keyword Tool can help you tweak the ones you are using or considering.

Other free keyword-related tools: