Open Source CatholicBecause sharing is good for everyone.
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Plan for Emergencies—Before they Happen
I was recently emailed by an organization who has recently had their website go belly-up, and they lost most of their recent data. Their development company supposedly has some backups, but are not being the best of communicators right now (it can happen to the best of us).
So, in the email, I was asked to offer my help in getting their site back online. Unfortunately, I can do just about nothing, since the organization has no backups, no data, not even an old database backup.
If you run a...
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Certified to Rock - Neat Drupal User Involvement Measurement Tool
Just found this cool tool to see how involved ("Certified to Rock") you might be, in the Drupal community. The tool will be getting some updates soon, but for now, if you are a drupal.org user, check your username on Certified to Rock.com, and see how you rank!
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Website Performance
It is not enough to simply have a website, no matter how beautiful it is, or how much content you add. The best websites, and those that are liked and revisited by many, hit hard on all cylinders: They are well-designed, they have meaningful content, and they are easy on the eyes and easy to use. But something that is often overlooked, especially by those with very fast Internet connections, or those working mostly on a local development machine, is site performance.
With Google giving a bonus to websites that...
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Online Marketing Tools and Strategies
The Internet has opened up a vast array of tools by which Catholic organizations can market to the faithful, and every year, there are literally hundreds of new ways to spread your message.
This section of the Wiki will explore email marketing, social media marketing, and branding.
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Live Streaming from an Event using Ustream
Ustream, a great streaming website (founded by a Catholic, nonetheless!), is the de-facto standard for live streaming online. Ustream has made it extremely easy for anyone with a webcam (or a whole dedicated multicam rig) to stream an event from anywhere to thousands of users. Ustream is completely free, and uses Flash for stream delivery (although alternative methods are in the works... and you can stream straight from an iPhone!).
Ustream also offers Watershed, a premium service for larger events, higher quality streams, and more stream customization.
More resources...
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Email Marketing Tools and Strategies
Here are some recommended email marketing tools:
Before beginning any email marketing campaigns, you should make sure you are committed to the following:
- Allowing users to easily subscribe and unsubscribe, at any time, and always include a method of unsubscribing in your emails (most services do this automatically).
- Writing proper English, and keeping things concise; people spend about as much time reading emails as web pages—almost none.
- Using graphics/images sparingly; many email recipients won't even be able to view images. You should never...
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First iPhone App from the Vatican:
"Daily Sermonettes" - $5.99 (!)This just in off the wire:
Continue readingWe invite you to post on your website a feature about the launch of The Vatican Observatory Foundation’s new iPhone App Daily Sermonettes with Father Mike Manning launched Easter Sunday, with daily positive life-affirming messages of hope and faith and extras featuring reflections on major events of the day.
- First-ever iPhone App from any part of the Vatican.
- Follows the Pope’s recent publicized encouragement to spread the Vatican’s message to the faithful through the new media.
- Launched on Easter...