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.

Technology 101 workshop slides

The Digital @ Leadership Network blog put slides to its Technology 101 workshop online. Be patient after clicking on the link -- the slideshow takes a while to appear.

Tips for web designers

Here are some uselful links:

• Top 10 books for Web designers
• Top 12 blogging tips
• Web design - setting goals
• Get off your RSS (SitePoint)
• 3 ways to make a good first impression
• Great church web sites - things to do
• Great church web sites - things to avoid

More ways to read these postings

You can always come to this blog's web page to read the posts. That's my personal preference. But if you start subscribing to a "bunch o' blogs", the number of new articles may get large. One way to manage scanning them for what you really want to read is to use a " Feed Reader", which I've mentioned in prior posts.

Blog readers (a.k.a. feed readers or RSS readers) come in two basic forms -- web-based and ones installed on your PC.

• The web-based variety involves setting up an account at Google, Yahoo! or similar wites, then adding blogs to track. You log onto the Web site to see new headlines from the blogs in your list.
• The local install method gives you a program. When you run the program, many of which look similar to MS Outlook, you "subscribe" to blogs. The program then pulls down information about the blog postings and you read as you like.

Here are a few recently touted feed readers (blog readers):

• SharpReader (donationware)
• RSS Bandit (donationware)

Most clueless about phishing, podcasting, RSS

A survey commissioned by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that the vast majority of people have no idea what Phishing , podcasting, or RSS are. Yet some web developers assume that people know what to do with the little RSS "chicklet" image or a little pretty orange "Feed" icon or associated link (the icon will probably become standard -- it's already used by Firefox and the upcoming IE 7).

Pew/Internet survey (PDF)

Can your church offer "feeds"?

If you are interested in more advanced web offerings, consider making some of your content available as "feeds". Right now, the number of sites offering feeds like RSS are a small percentage, but the number is growing daily. The United Methodist Communications site also offers RSS feeds.

No clue what that means? Check out the Feedburner page "About Syndication, RSS, and Other Web-Altering Chemicals". That Blog-format page also has links to other good background information in the top of the right column.

What could your church offer as a feed? Keep in mind that such feeds are a way to distribute new information. Also note that the person who wants to see that feed may need to install RSS Reader software, for example. If all your information on the web is static, there's no need for a feed. Here are a few quick ideas...

• Sermons
• Church news
• Youth news
• Church event reminders
• _____
  [Go ahead -- click on the "comments" link at the bottom of this entry and add your ideas.]

If you subscribe to a web page development service, ask if they have can handle RSS or other feeds.