Open Source CatholicBecause sharing is good for everyone.
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Twitter
Twitter (and related status-sharing services) has grown tremendously since it's beginnings in 2006. In late 2009, the service gained credibility and mainstream adoption after many celebrities began using the service to send updates to their fans.
Twitter's strongest draw is its ease of use, enabling users to quickly jump in and start 'tweeting.' There is little to no information required of a Twitter user, and there are literally hundreds of ways to send updates to your Twitter account.
It is also very easy to follow others and be followed. Many...
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Streaming Media
Catholics have long been involved in the broadcast of religious services and Masses on Television and the Internet. There are few online interactions more personal and more engaging than a live stream of an event, or a personal interaction via video or audio chat.
Catholics should seek to become involved in streaming media in a deeper way than simply broadcasting and rebroadcasting Masses and homilies. This section of the Wiki provides useful information for Catholics involved in the production and delivery of streaming media.
CatholicTuner.com offers a wide variety of...
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Social Networking and Online Community
"New digital technologies are, indeed, bringing about fundamental shifts in patterns of communication and human relationships... These technologies are truly a gift to humanity and we must endeavour to ensure that the benefits they offer are put at the service of all human individuals and communities, especially those who are most disadvantaged and vulnerable." (Pope Benedict XVI).
Recognizing the importance of social networking and more advanced forms of communication that were only dreamed of fifty years ago, we Catholics must advance our evangelistic endeavors to the online realm,...
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Facebook
Catholics can use Facebook to help distribute news, images, videos, and create discussions among members of the faithful. It is a little harder to evangelize to outsiders on Facebook, but it is possible.
Facebook boasts more visitors every day than any other website in North America. This is reason enough for every Catholic parish and organization to, at a minimum, keep tabs on what's happening on Facebook.
Parishes and organizations that maintain Facebook Fan Pages and Groups, and actively promote the use of Facebook as a collaborative tool, have much...
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Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups are more of a private community, where members of Facebook can join, and access may be controlled with relative ease; you can set a group to be public or private, and you can set groups to allow anyone, only those who you invite, or those invited by members, to join.
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Facebook Fan Pages
Facebook Fan Pages are great for marketing, and are typically used for public relations more than community development. Groups are usually a better option if you want to allow for more discussion, image and video sharing, and have more fine-grained controls over who can have a voice.
Many Catholic organizations are already using Fan Pages to great effect. For instance, the Archdiocese of Saint Louis' Facebook Fan Page has close to 1,000 members—all of whom are notified in their own information streams when the Archdiocese posts an update. Anyone who...
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Preparing for the iPad...
Good post from Apple about preparing content for the iPad in particular (but is good to keep in mind for most smartphones and touch-based-devices:
Preparing Your Web Content for iPad
I always spend a few hours working on sprucing things up for the iPhone, at least, and hopefully soon I'll be able to test on an iPad as well :-)
The big gotcha is HTML5 video. There is a cool player called SublimeVideo from Jilion, but IE support is nil, without the Chrome frame installed. FF, Opera, Safari, Chrome, etc....
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