I’m my Church web guy (web design is my day job as well). We’ve been podcasting the audio sermons for years (I think we were one of the first UK churches to do so!). Our ministers often use PowerPoint during the sermons and it seemed a shame that people couldn’t see the (sometimes vital) visuals that went with the audio.
So I started looking for a nice, simple and elegant solution and I found one that I (and many church people!) have been very happy with.
authorSTREAM
authorSTREAM is a great way of sharing PowerPoint on the web. Traditionally the ‘big boy’ in this area has been SlideShare but, to be honest, I don’t like how their embedded players look!
So when I found authorSTREAM, I thought I’d give it a try and I’m really glad I did!
You can upload single or multiple files and you get a email when your presentation(s) have been processed and are ready to go (generally only a few minutes even for big and complex presentation). One nifty feature if that you can choose set the presentations to use one of several Creative Commons copyright licences (as well as ‘all rights reserved’) – very handy as we also release our sermons under CC.
You can embed presentations using html (using an <object> tag – no <iframes> here!) but one brilliant embedding feature is authorSTREAM’s own WordPress plugin and shortcode embed. This is what I use on my church’s site and it’s so easy! You can view my church’s sermon presentation on the church website.
There’s sharing on Twitter & Facebook, a feed for your presentations and a selection of widgets to show off your presentations! You also get the standard channel for all your presentations.
You can convert PowerPoint files into video (one for free account, more in the paid accounts) and share presentations live.
For no ads on your presentations, better analytics and more security & branding options you’ll need a paid account. There are two options, Pro – $2.50 a month and Business – $39.95 a month. Both of these are significantly cheaper than their SlideShare equivalent packages!
authorSTREAM is based in India and brings a real breath of fresh air to the online presentation market.
So if you’re looking for a great way to add your church’s PowerPoint presentations onto your site, then give authorStream a try – I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised!
Dave Anthold says
This looks sweet. It’s really clean on your site. I’m like you – I had the slideshare embed that it gives you, but there were never any good alternatives. Perhaps this will be new alternative. Thanks.