News 2010 (selective and occasional)
comments... observations... etc.
Professional appearance
Websites for churches and church organisations should have a "professional appearance". Who can argue with that? No-one wants their website to look scruffy and amateurish.
The trouble is, "professional appearance" is increasingly being used in some church circles as a sort of code for "I'm in charge and I know what I like..." as senior people start to grasp the importance of the web, but not the importance of being well informed about it before making decisions.
"Professional appearance" is not a synonym for fashion or for putting all the latest plugin gimmicks on your pages. Nor should it push other important aspects of your website's design off the agenda. Some of the most successful sites on the planet have a very understated appearance. Professional? Yes. Self-indulgent? No. (Who's the site for?)
5th March 2010
Honourable mention
Following my comments below about 'central' Christian sites, an honourable for the United Reform Church, who have an advice page on their site, plus a CMS set-up service (using the Open Source Wordpress software) for their member churches.
24th February 2010
Church website research
A PhD thesis is being written on the theme "How do English Christian churches use websites and other online tools to communicate theological, community and practical information to, and within, their congregations and the wider public?" Full details at phdinprogress.wordpress.com/project-aims/
6th February 2010
Reflection for a new decade
I was going to write a review with a 1990 and a 2000 snapshot of life online, and a few forecasts, but I'm late and I expect there are loads of others. I will write this, though...
The web is now dominated by commerce. The power of those who want you to spend is far greater than the power of those with a concern for your spiritual welfare. It's already difficult to get attention. And it will get worse.
The trend to provide a comfortable environment for Internet users in order to maximise their potential as sources of revenue will grow. If you think "people who bought this might also like that" is as clever as it gets, you're in for a nasty surprise. But it will be subtle - you may not even notice it happening very much.
What can the church do? We need to be sure that when people look for us, they find us, and they find something that is up to standard, engages with them, and encourages them to go and talk to local Christians. Good church websites are a vital part of the answer - there are a lot more church sites than national/regional sites - many of which do not address the needs of outsiders very well.
People do not visit websites in the same way they visit church buildings. And the 'central' Christian sites are not the cathedrals of the web. Every local Christian community has a role, and the central sites should be supporting and enabling them. There are too many national/regional Christian sites which do absolutely nothing to help resource local church websites.
So some things don't change, then. Welcome to 2010.
24th January 2010
Church website competition for Baptists
The Baptist Union is running their church website competition again. This year, there is a competition for Church Magazines as well. (You enter your church magazine by emailing a PDF - of course it must surely be a print-only publication!) Usual format - for details see www.baptist.org.uk/commsawards2010
January 2010
Internet Evangelism Day 25th April 2010
I know I keep banging on about this site, and I know it's American in origin and context, but it's such a novelty to find another group of people who know what they're talking about... go see.
January 2010
Long lost Christian Web and New Media Awards 2009
In case, like me you occasionally looked and wondered if they'll ever update their website, or emailed them and never got a reply... the awards did happen, and the best list of winners I've seen is on the Church Mouse blog at churchmousepublishing.blogspot.com (...)
January 2010
Martin Brasier