One of the last major projects I was privileged to work on (along with some other awesome colleagues) while I was working as the Director of Web Development for the Archdiocese of St. Louis (see 'A New Job' on my blog for more info) was the Eucharistic Congress website and video.
One of the major benefits of using a robust content management system like Drupal (which archstl.org uses) is that you can actually build 'special sites' that highlight certain events or causes without building an entirely separate website. For example: Every organization in the Archdiocese has it's own website, with its own content managers, its own forms, news pages, articles, etc. through the use of Drupal's 'Organic Groups' module.
For the 2011 Eucharist Congress, instead of building a separate website, and then linking back to the Archdiocesan website, we built a single page template for the Congress home page (using a standard Drupal template (.tpl.php) file), and then set up all the rest of the content (a registration form, some information pages, etc.) in Drupal.
The results are pretty impressive (you have to visit the site to see the jQuery-enabled page load effects, which look great on any device—no Flash here!):
In addition to this awesome website (the front end was designed by Ben G., who works in the Archdiocese's Catholic Youth Apostolate), an excellent video highlighting the Eucharist was produced, and is visible (in HD!) on YouTube:
Kudos to the team who helped with all of these promotional materials for the Eucharistic Congress! I think this raises the bar, or at least pushes it a little, for Catholic dioceses hoping to spread the word about their larger events!
About a week after completing work on the first release of the Archdiocese of St. Louis' "Catholic STL" app, I decided to spend a few nights and weekends working on a more personal project...
A few months ago, I was browsing the App Store, looking for a simple Catholic news app where I could quickly browse through the latest Catholic news from a relatively comprehensive array of sources. Seeing none, and realizing that my experimental 'Catholic News Live' website already had the data I needed to build my own app, I decided to port some of the code from Catholic STL, and write my own app—Catholic News Live, or CNL for short.
There's a new Twitter hashtag around these parts, for social media use. This hashtag came about as a response to those who were wondering where to move after the bulk of the #cnmc (Catholic New Media Celebration) tweets were becoming less and less about the Celebration, and more and more about general Catholic social media practices and discussion.
Therefore, a general consensus was made that #cathmedia would be a good hashtag for Tweets having to do with Catholic media, and social media initiatives.
Are there any other commonly-held Catholic Twitter hashtags everyone should be aware of? Currently, it seems the common practice to put a string of hashtags together for certain topics, like #Catholic #Prayer #Faith... while this is okay to do, it's best if there are some more specific hashtags which people can add to saved searches (like #cathmedia).
It looks like @iJimCoyle is tweeting from the Catholic Media Conference in Louisiana this week. Found today on his Twitter stream:
New Media & New Evangelization: 5 Ways to Make a Difference (from Sr Rose Pacatte FSP)
Become mindful media consumers by watching (doing) media together and talking about what you experience.
Use (mainstream) media in your teaching.
Become a media producer & encourage students & people w/ whom you share faith to "make media."
Make media the subject of evangelization, preaching, and catechesis.
Become proactive advocate for media productions that reflect Catholic social teaching because these are human, humane, & Gospel themes.
Sounds great... but where is the significance for 'new media?' At a time when our news media is bleeding like never before, hurting for money and looking to find a solid path for working online in the midst of the traditional web, Twitter, FourSquare, Facebook, etc., we need to be more specific in our goals for new media use in the Church, especially by Catholic publications.
Of course, reading from a live Twitter feed of a participant might not be the best way to participate in this Catholic Media Convention, but there isn't any other way to do it, and the Convention Blog doesn't even seem to have any content... It would be nice to have at least an official Twitter feed :)
It's definitely a 'work-in-progress', but we're just getting started trying to build an online community. We're also putting in content that's a bit more relevant to 'younger' Catholics.
If you get a chance, drop on by and register, it's free!
The Tech Details:
Based on Joomla 1.5.14
Utilizing the JomSocial component for community
Using the MyBlog and JomComment extensions for blogging and commenting
Kunena forum component
Affinity Rockettheme Template
Some other 3rd party extensions (EventList, QuickFAQ, GK NewsPro and few more)
On a side note, I did try using the new-ish K2 extension for CCK-style content, but didn't work out the way I wanted. Kinda boiled down to integration issues with the other components. It was a good exercise though, and I'll be implementing K2 in another project that should fit better.
UPDATE 11/27/09
Just spent the past 2 days revamping the site.
Loaded a new template from Joomlashack.
Went 'RED'.
Dropped the Azrul MyBlog and JomComment components and went with a WordPress for Joomla component from CorePHP and incorporated the Disqus commenting tool for articles.
Removed some of the features that weren't being used such as EventList and QuickFAQ. I might bring them back at a later date though.
From the wayback machine: an article that originally appeared in 2005 on Linux.com, written by Marco Fioretti, titled "Free software's surprising sympathy with Catholic doctrine."
"The technological configuration underlying the Internet has a considerable bearing on its ethical aspects. Use of the new information technology and the Internet needs to be informed and guided by a resolute commitment to the practice of solidarity in the service of the common good. The Internet requires international cooperation in setting standards and establishing mechanisms to promote and protect [that common good]. Individuals, groups, and nations must have access to these new technologies. Cyberspace ought to be a resource of comprehensive information and services available without charge to all, and in a wide range of languages. The winner in this process will be humanity as a whole and not just a wealthy elite that controls science, technology, and the planet's resources. Determined action in the private and public sectors is needed to close and eventually eliminate the digital divide."
The above statements sound as if they could have been written by Richard M. Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF). In fact, they come from the Vatican Report "Ethics in Internet" (EiI). The FSF position on the same issues is that society "needs information that is truly available to its citizens -- for example, programs that people can read, fix, adapt, and improve, not just operate."
The Catholic Church should not use proprietary file formats and computer protocols, since they can become a way to prevent access to information, restrict it or lock end users to any specific (maybe too expensive) software program.
The Catholic Church should work to allow open and free access to any and all information the faithful have a right to know, and doing so could involve (among other things):
Adopting the Free international standard OpenDocument for office documents in all Catholic institutions worldwide.
Avoiding proprietary file formats and protocols on Catholic Web sites and in official Church documents, and not accepting them in any official communication.
Making sure that all Catholic Web sites are certified as viewable with any browser.
What do you think? I've seem my fair share of Word documents, Publisher documents, and Microsoft lock-in in pretty much every corner of the Church I'm involved with... And it's also sad when I find software/websites break in non-Microsoft non-Internet Explorer environments.
[This post offers up some interesting topics for discussion — Ed.]
As a faithful Catholic who embraces the Internet and the whole Web 2.0 "movement," I am always amazed at how totally liberal and anti-religion many of the bright folks in this field are. Just today I was reading the great website TechCrunch, when I came across this article by Paul Carr, who wrote:
"If this were a column about religious affairs, I would undoubtedly focus this week on the shocking news that Beelzebub himself has joined a coalition opposing child abuse in the Catholic church."
It's clear that in Mr. Carr's mind there isn't the possiblity that one of the readers on his site might be a faithful Catholic who is offended by such a jab. Oh, well. Anticatholicsm is as old as the hills and the haters of the Church will always use the clergy sexual abuse scandal to slam the Gospel.
I don't know how many times I've now been contacted about building custom Church websites for various parishes, organizations, and ministries... and most of the time I am unable to accept these requests. I think our Church is finally at the point where the greatest hurdle is not necessarily pastors/leaders misunderstanding the importance of a good web presence, but the lack of great tools for building that presence.
Last night I added a new section to Open Source Catholic - the IRC ("Internet Relay Chat") discussion area. Simply click on the IRC link at the top of any page, choose a nickname, and join in with other Catholics who want to discuss a wide variety of issues—pretty much anything goes!
My main focus would be to do things such as allow a few Catholic web developers to collaborate via IRC on a project, or to have an open forum on some important topic. The #OSCatholic channel can also be used as a 'lounge' area for certain large Catholic events - you might find me in there during a Papal event, or during someone's Mass of Installation.
Just be warned: there are many times when nobody's around in the Channel (or just a few people), and sometimes, if you post something, you might not get a response... but if you do, consider it a blessing!
Read through the rest of the IRC page for more information about what IRC is, and how it can help you.
