Finding a robust, easy CMS

Our church has been seeking a Content Management System (CMS) and new Web Hosting for over a year. The frustration is palpable.

In the process, though, we have come across a couple of very useful sites that let you compare CMS software features and even give them an online trial.

• CMS Matrix
• Open Source CMS

We have also had time to look closely at our list of required and desired Web Hosting features. While that list seemed great at the time, after looking at a feature comparison at CMS Matrix, we revised the list to add specifics about the CMS. The list below shows our current features list for both Web Hosting and a CMS.

Web Hosting

• Offers a Content Management System (CMS) and templates suitable for our church's use.
• The web hosting company must be an established one.
• 24 x 7 support. Email is OK, though phone is better.
• Hosting firm has good ratings (when I can find them).
• A very high percentage web server uptime.
• Web server operating system: Windows 2003 server, Linux, Unix, or Apache (needed for a lot of open source CMS solutions).
• The hosting package includes room for our web to grow (pages/disk space)
• Offers at least 30 email addresses, auto-forwarding, POP access, and Spam filtering.
• Hosting solution is $300 or less per year. (E-Zekiel is way out of our price range for the size web we have.)
• Domain name registration/renewal is inexpensive (these should be very low cost these days).

CMS

• The CMS should let nearly everyone (with minimal orientation) add, edit, or delete text, add or delete images, create or delete pages, and upload files. Templates must be pure CSS -- no use of tables for layout.
• Ability to directly edit the code as well as use a pure GUI.
• Must allow addition of alternate text and/or titles to image code (for accessibility).
• Ability to upload files via FTP or via Web.
• Absolutely no ads or forced frames with hosting company info showing.
• CMS templates must allow inserting of multiple-level menus -- horizontal or vertical or both. Pure CSS menus code is heavily preferred by Java is acceptable.
• The system requires email verification to activate a new account.
• Granular privileges by page or content item.
• Administrator can see who's logged in and disconnect the user if required.
• SSL logins and pages are possible.
• Versioning
• Good online help and developers forums.
• Drag-n-Drop of content
• The system lets you force friendly URLs, not database code characters for "page" URLs.
• Integrated Spell checking of content during editing.
• Users can subscribe to varied "pages" and receive email notification of changes.
• The Administrator can force a less advanced user interface for basic content editors.
• The system allows Undo of content changes.
• A WYSIWYG editor.
• You can schedule posting of content changes.
• The CMS allows sub-sites.
• The CMS provides Web-accessible statistics.
• Support for RSS.
• Support for iCal.
• Event management using the calendar.
• WAI compliant.
• XHTML compliant.
• Allows use of Metadata for content objects.
• Provides blogging capability.
• Provides Chat capability.
• An app to organize FAQs.
• Link management.
• Forms for email.
• Users can subscribe and unsubscribe themselves from email lists.
• Photo gallery.
• Polls.
• Surveys.
• Quizzes.
• Site search.
• Site Map.

Open Office 3.0 features

OpenOffice version 3.0 is about due for release and the OpenOffice.org Ninja blog has a decent article on some new OOo 3.0 version features.

Just try to ignore some of the fanboy rants (both pro- and anti- Microsoft Office) in the tons of comments. My take: OpenOffice is definitely improving but I'd like to see more and enhanced features along with an improved look and feel (user interface). That would make it an easier sell to more managers in the business community.

Also remember that Sun's StarOffice is free software you can grab as part of Google Pack. Installed that for my mother-in-law and she's never asked for any help with it -- a great sign of ease-of-use for the basic user.

Tech trends among Christians

A recent Barna Research group study, "Social Networking, Online Entertainment and Church Podcasts" has some interesting results. Christians use technology in the following most common ways (in decreasing order of use)

• Searching online (Google, Yahoo!, Live Search, etc.)
• Instant Messaging (including texting on a cell phone)
• Listening to a sermon or church teaching via a podcast. This was more common among Evangelicals and others who consider themselves "born again".
• Viewing a video of some sort online.

The challenge for churches is to better relate its message to the current generation. When Paul said, I am all things to all men" he meant that he couched the message of Christ in terms and in a way that the particular audience could best grasp it.

For churches today, that means seeking ways to better communicate using the web tools available to us. That also means keeping up with newer methods as they become available. At the same time, we must remember to help safeguard the privacy of our members and web site visitors. Until Facebook and similar social networking sites become more secure and users a bit more savvy about not divulging personal data, I'll stay away from using it as an integral part of the church's online presence.

You may want to read the full Barna report.

New media in ministries

What is "new media" and how can we use it in our church ministries? Aaron Linne has a few videos online about this topic. The introductory one, "New Media for Ministries: What is It?", is below. Here are links to the other videos on Vimeo (so far):

• Interactive Metafiction
• Creative Commons
• Concepting a web page

New Media for Ministries: 101 What is It? from Aaron Linne on Vimeo.