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Mobile, Web 28

Clover Launches Mobile Ready Versions

Posted By on August 17, 2009

soulcitychurch_iphoneThose guys over at Clover Sites are definitely cooking some awesomeness up (including a new template like this one).

They recently announced mobile-ready versions of all of their sites on their blog.

I didn’t buy it (meaning, I wanted to see if it worked) and it did; SoulCityChurch.com is iPhonized as you can obviously tell by the screen to the left.

This is definitely a huge value-prop for their business and is a nice addition to their portfolio.

I’m actually quite impressed and excited that this was a considerable focus for their product team and the results look pretty.

I haven’t checked any other sites out, but if you’re partnering with Clover let us know in the comments so I can see some other goodness and examples.

WTG guys.

Keep knocking it out and I’ll keep blogging about you and your hawtness.
;)

Facebook, Twitter, Web 7

Savor Chat – Group Chat Now Embeddable

Posted By on August 17, 2009

When I first noticed Savor Chat back in July I mentioned that in the end I had talked with their management team about making it embeddable, which was pretty much the biggest missing feature.

It’s now available, and it’s looking really cool as you can see below. The only catch, of course, is that they have some Google Ads on the left.

Oh well, nothing’s perfect, right?

Thoughts?

Web 6

VOTE for the Church Panel at SXSW!

Posted By on August 17, 2009

Super excited to see an amazing lineup for the Church Panel at the upcoming South by Southwest…!

BUT, we’ve gotta VOTE for it to get chosen!

Please go here, register an account, and VOTE for the following:

SXSW-10-Topic-1-Banner

SXSW-10-Topic-2-Banner

SXSW-10-Topic-3-Banner

SXSW-10-Topic-4-Banner

As you can see, I’m going to participating (hopefully) in the first panel which would be an amazing opportunity to show the world how we do community differently.

Let’s get it started.

Facebook, Internet Church, Twitter, Web 9

MediaSocial.tv Launches Crossroads Church’s Facebook Campus, GenerateLife

Posted By on August 17, 2009

Generate

MediaSocial.tv has launched what appears to be one of their first production examples of their Internet Campus Solutions and Platform with Crossroads Church.

You can take a look at the live site here. They are calling it their “Facebook Campus.”

We first reported on MediaSocial back in June (click to see some specs and details) and it looked very promising at the time, and it doesn’t appear to disappoint. They’ve got some obvious integration with Facebook and some links to Twitter, etc.

It’s interesting to note the specific name “Facebook Campus”; can we expect a Twitter Campus next?

Thoughts?

Blogging, Web 6

1,000th Blog Post Winners!

Posted By on August 16, 2009

1000yen

Wow.

My apologies guys…! I had the winners picked out but I never got the opportunity to post it, for whatever reason.

And yes, even though I don’t usually blog anything more than that Sunday Special QA, this was already queued up and written.

So, without further ado, here are the winners of the ChurchCrunch 1,000th Blog Post Giveaway! Thanks again all for making this all so very fun!

Picture 15 Picture 14 Picture 13 Picture 12 Picture 10 Picture 11 Picture 9 Picture 7 Picture 8 Picture 6

If you find your name in these screencaps, then shoot an email over to me and we’ll get you some cards.

[Image from Tamakino]

Web 6

Sunday Special QA No. 21

Posted By on August 16, 2009

It’s that time again…! Sunday’s a good day to take it easy.

I’ve decided that on Sundays I’m not going to do any blogging except for a very simple post series called “The Sunday Special” where you get to ask me anything you’d like.

You can ask about me about web technology, WordPress, blogging, what I ate for breakfast… whatever.

I can’t promise that I’ll answer all of your questions, but feel free to answer each other’s questions as well.

I’ll try to answer all the questions throughout the coming week.

Simple enough, right? Go.

Web 29

This Ain’t No Clover Site

Posted By on August 15, 2009

Perhaps one of the most retro Church flash sites I’ve seen in a long, long time.

We’ve come  along way baby. I think Clover Sites should offer one of these “looks” in their collection!

I’m not hating, I’m appreciating! Evangel Cathedral, you guys are awesome!

[HT: John Dyer]

Blogging, Web, WordPress 6

Mozilla + WordPress = Awesomeness

Posted By on August 15, 2009

mozilla_wordpress

Mozilla Labs recently announced that with their redesign they’ve decided to leverage WordPress-MU as their backend.

This news has little value really except that it simply excites me that two of my favorite things have come together: Mozilla powers the best browser out there (Firefox) and WordPress is the shiznittle.

If you’re not already aware, WordPress-MU is a Multi-User version of WordPress, and a number of ministries are already leveraging it effectively to manage their sites, like Inside North Point and North Point’s InsideOut Students site.

If you haven’t considered it I’d recommend it.

Communication, Strategy, Web 10

A Technological Challenge that the Church Does Not Have to Deal With

Posted By on August 15, 2009

gmail-aol-hotmail

The above chart, courtesy of Techcrunch, shows the steady decline of an email legend and the ascent of a legend-in-the-making: AOL and Gmail.

I remember vividly the days of AOL and the “You’ve Got Mail” message that I literally prayed for every time I waited for my 28k modem to connect to the interwebs.

Now, though, AOL is a far-distant memory; I haven’t used it in more than a decade.

But reading the article I was quickly reminded of a particular challenge that the Church doesn’t necessarily have to deal with and how blessed it is to be developing applications in a ministry setting: Competition.

The graph speaks to a number of things but ultimately many of the paths land back on the business of developing products, and the business of developing products is making money, and making money is about being better than your competition.

The Church, though, doesn’t have to deal with this: We aren’t in competition with each other to create the best, fastest, or prettiest product; our goal, rather, is to make the most effective web apps and services that are contextually-based and specific to our ministries, demographics, and callings.

I like that.

We’re not competing with each other for bandwidth or traffic or praise, we’re competing with ourselves to provide the most effective communication tools and platforms for the Gospel message. Our goal is to be better than we we’re yesterday at doing what we know we need to be doing in the web space.

Strategy, Web 10

Brad Lomenick Talks Developing Credibility

Posted By on August 15, 2009

compassindesert

Brad Lomenick gave me a cause to pause the other day with his post about developing credibility; I have honestly been thinking about this a lot, and one thing in particular that he didn’t mention.

Brad says it this way:

C = T  x  (E  + E). Credibility = Time (times) Experience + Expertise.

I think he’s right. In addition he adds these points to consider:

  1. Listen. Simple enough
  2. Find those who are smarter than you, and latch on. Learn from them.
  3. Become an expert before you need to be- when you are asked for your opinion or involvement, give it or do it.
  4. Self awareness and self identity- know who you are. You are young- deal with it. Don’t think you know more than you really do.
  5. Stay focused, but broad. Those who have the most credibility no longer are just experts in one area. You need to be a generalist.
  6. Learn how to follow. And follow really well. It will position you for authority later.

Yup. The only thing I might have issue (and just a contextual-based one) is that specifically in web technology it’s almost impossible to an expert in more than one area; perhaps that’s arguable though.

But what I’d add is one additional point that has deeply impacted my thinking and that is moral authority. I feel, personally, that the men and women that I deem to have amazing credibility and influence in my life also strive to be completely above reproach in all that they do.

Moral authority takes time, and no matter what I do in terms of web development, etc. I can lose my credibility in an instant if my moral compass takes a turn south.

Let’s spend as much time building our character and moral authority/credibility as we are coding stuff for our ministries.

Anything you’d add?

[Image from Kahuna]

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