Digital @ Leadership Network

The Future of Religious TV?

The National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) annual convention was held this week in Nashville, and the buzz out of the event, according to ASSIST News, is that it was dominated this year by "grey-haired white males from the ranks of senior management" who were "sober and pensive" about the future of religious broadcasting.

Phil Cooke was on-hand again to share some of the tough love from his book The Last TV Evangelist: Why the Next Generation Couldn't Care Less About Media and Why It Matters. As Cooke has written, "Religious media has alienated a generation. Perhaps even more important is how the style of religious broadcasting has turned off the next generation. TV evangelists with fake hair and gold furniture, tasteless programming, and hard core fundraising techniques have reached embarrassing levels, and young people today want nothing to do with it."

The younger generation that did show up at this year's NRBfest were sharing their thoughts via Twitter. (To be fair, Billy Graham's 85-year-old sidekick Cliff Barrows was tweeting from NRB also!) 

With the wrap-up of NRB and the impending switch to digital television (which 500+ stations are still planning to do next week), my thoughts were turned to "the future of television," and I was reminded of what happened less than a month ago: the inauguration of Barack Obama, which was broadcast live on TV and the Internet. 

At the time, Liz Gannes of NewTeeVee.com wrote, "I found the best experience was offered by CNN Live with Facebook Connect integrated, making the livestream experience social in a relevant way. And I really think it points toward the future of TV. ... I loved feeling like I was in a room of friends watching the events. And not a room of friends who necessarily know each other—people from all different parts of my life were streaming into a feed of comments customized for me. ... This is TV getting interactive in a massive way."

Sarah Perez at ReadWriteWeb called this "one of the most brilliant examples of the real-time web in action," adding, "If there was any doubt of the power this platform provides, we've just witnessed an incredible—if not historic—example of what it can do."

Ian Kennedy at Everwas wrote, "We’ve reached a tipping point. In my mind the lines between social media  and other types of media are so blurred that it’s not even useful to distinguish the two, just drop the “social” because all media is now social."

By all measurements, the CNN + Facebook mashup was a huge success. This is the kind of innovation and creativity that needs to go into generating the next generation of religious broadcasting. 

If you've been thinking about taking your church services and putting them on TV, you might want to think again. Using videostreaming and social networking sites to create innovative mashups (like CNN+Facebook) is more the direction I think you need to be thinking. Where will you take it?

—Steve Knight, Kingdom Journalist and International Communication Coordinator for SIM (Serving In Mission)

(Top photo: ryanwynia / Bottom photo: Steve Garfield)

Tech Tuesday: how does duplicate content affect search engines?

This Digital blog is a team blog, with multiple contributors. The idea here is to provide one blog that gathers insights from a plurality of perspectives about how to use technology for ministry, and explain it to non-techies. (Each of our contributors have their own personal blogs too, so it'd be too much to ask them to generate entirely original content for yet another blog.) Or to say it another way, this blog provides both aggregated content and original content, with the aim of providing our regular readers with practical ways for using technology.

This week's Tech Tuesday question is on the other side of being "non-techie," and much more technical.

At the urging of ChurchCrunch.com, an excellently church tech blog by the very technically-competent John Saddington, he raised a red flag in Duplicate Content is Costly - A Blogger Bedtime Story about lessons learned regarding Google search results.

So I asked 2 other web developers, "Question about SEO-- does (occasionally) cross-posting on 2 blogs badly affect one's Google result ranking (search engine optimization, aka SEO)?"

Here was their responses:

• "occassionaly no, but frequently yes. I would define 'frenquent' as at least daily. don't worry about getting tagged by google unless you are doing it a BUNCH. They're worried about real spammers"
• "if there is a link back and forth you should be fine. might be better if one was a summary."

Here's an excerpt of what Google say about Duplicate Content::

In the rare cases in which Google perceives that duplicate content may be shown with intent to manipulate our rankings and deceive our users, we'll also make appropriate adjustments in the indexing and ranking of the sites involved. As a result, the ranking of the site may suffer, or the site might be removed entirely from the Google index, in which case it will no longer appear in search results.

Hmmm.. from what I can tell, the answer might be, "it depends." How Google ranks its results incorporates over 200 factors. Duplicated content is one of them.

What has your experience been with aggregators, cross-posting, or mirroring content?

// DJ Chuang is a Director at Leadership Network, launching digital initiatives, and connecting multi-site churches and Asian American pastors.

Blogging: Find Your Niche

Early in my blogging career, I started reading some blogs and that inspired me to start my own.  That went well for a short time but I guess I lost interest.  About a year later, I returned and started another blog and was enjoying myself as I just wrote random stuff about me and my life.

But as I did this, it became apparent that I was writing more and more about technology in church and I decided I should have a blog dedicated to that topic.  So, I started yet another blog, but now with a focus.  I viewed it as a short term thing and figured once I got it out of my system, it would fade away like the other two blogs had done.  4 years later, I guess my passion is here to stay.

Little did I know, I had found my niche and that helped me to write more effectively.  It also helped me to stay interested in writing because I was writing about what I knew and the more I wrote, the more I learned and the more connections I made in my "niche" world.

I've seen a lot of people become interested in blogging and seen quite few even start a blog, but many of them do not last.  I have considered what gives a blog the ability to last and I believe there are several factors but it seems that the blogs that last, oftentimes do so because the author has found their niche.

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, a niche is "a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted". In writing terms, write about what you know and what you are interested in. Don't try to be something in your writing that you are not in real life.

For example, if you are a pastor, write about what you are studying and teaching or write about how you are seeing lives changed in your church.  If you are a children's pastor, write about ways that you have successfully reached kids with your object lessons.  If you are interested in media or technology in church, write about that.

Finding your niche is not difficult but it might take some soul searching and prayer to fully understand it. You actually may not know offhand what your niche could be and that is ok.  However, what you will find once you start blogging about what you know, in your niche, so to speak, is that you will begin to connect with other like-minded people, people that share your passions and maybe even have the same questions you have. Eventually, you might even find a community in your "niche".

Do you know what your niche is?

Are you blogging about it?

using web technologies at Innovation3

During the Innovation3 Gathering, we used a number of web technologies at the conference, connecting both those present in person and those who watched main sessions and interviews from remote. This blog post gives a brief overview of what we used and how it worked. Only the first two items below were planned; the rest were spontaneous experiments that happen to work very well.

• Webcam - using an off-the-shelf Logitech webcam, we live-streamed video interviews with a number of the presenters. And, for live-streaming the main sessions, a standard video camera was set stationary to shoot an HD video monitor. Both live stream videos were broadcast using Web Church Media (which also powers Shapevine). Special thanks to Web Church Media for providing the personnel and customized technologies for Innovation3 Live-streaming!
• Blogs - we invited 12 bloggers to provide coverage during the event, and they blogged up a lot of notes; several even "live-blogged" like a court recorder. Other attendees blogged too.
• Skype video call - during the "Technology, Blogging, and Social Networks" breakout, we had to improvise because 2 out of the 3 scheduled presenters couldn't attend. So we pulled-in Cynthia Ware and Kent Shaffer, along with the previously-scheduled Tony Morgan. While the trio was preparing on-the-spot, we were able to connect in Bobby Greunewald and Terry Storch from LifeChurch.tv via Skype Video, and Cynthia interviewed them about digital technologies! We could bring in special guests from remote and breakout participants could experience using technology (instead of just hearing about it).
• Ustream.tv - in the tech breakout, we also setup a MacBook Pro and live-streamed video to about 60+ viewers from elsewhere, while 30+ sat in on the breakout in person. We recorded most of the session as well (parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) using Ustream.tv.
• Tokbox - when the Skype video call ended, I pointed a webcam on the breakout presenters for a "watch party" at churchtok.com. About 10 people stopped in to watch the breakout together. Maybe there's something to sharing an experience online with others at the same time.
• Twitter - we had 2 scheduled "tweetups" and a handful of other spontaneous tweetups. This turned out to be a great way to connect people during the event, for them to find each other, jot down quotes, and have side conversations. And, by using a "hashtag" #i3 in their updates, twitterers generated a lot of buzz during the event, so much so that it was on the home page of search.twitter.com as a top trending topic!

What's so amazing is this: blogs, Skype, Ustream.tv, Tokbox, and Twitter are all FREE! And, all of the live-streaming during the tech breakout was done over wifi (not a wired Internet connection).

I know this is a church tech blog for non-techies, so we can explain in more detail about any of these items -- just add a comment with your questions, and someone will jump in to answer. At this time, I wanted to first give you an overview.

And earlier today, we used TokBox for a quick video conference debrief about the above items (note: the audio portion wasn't working for all of us, so that was disappointing. One of the big issues with using internet is how the connection can be unreliable -- a subject for a future post):

 

So, what do you think? How can these technologies add value to a conference event? What about adding value to your church and/or ministry?

// DJ Chuang is a Director at Leadership Network, launching digital initiatives, and connecting multi-site churches and Asian American pastors. He joined the Leadership Network team through a partnership with L2 Foundation.

Tech Tuesday: open source church management software

As the questions come in, we'll feature them here at the Digital @ Leadership Network blog. This question explores how to use existing open-source web apps (usually free) for managing a church's databases of information:

[I'm a] pastor of a small church plant located in [Alabama].  We are on a very tight budget.  We used ConnectionPower for the first two years to manage visitors and members at our church, but had to discontinue it this year due to budget cutbacks.  I've been searching for open source solutions to church management software and haven't found any compelling examples.  I wondered if you knew of anyone using Google Docs or Zoho Office to manage a church.

I use Google Apps for Domains for our church email.  I also use Google Docs to store and share church related documents.  I'm experimenting with Zoho and see a lot of potential in Creator and DB.  I'm a bivocational pastor/mechanical engineer and feel very comfortable with spreadsheets and databases, but worry church members won't be.  I'd appreciate your thoughts on this! 

What have you found in the open-source and/or free web app space that works for a smaller church or a smaller non-profit organization?

Have a church tech question? Email them to dj.chuang[at]leadnet.org to be featured here on a future Tech Tuesday.

// DJ Chuang is a Director at Leadership Network, launching digital initiatives, and connecting multi-site churches and Asian American pastors. He joined the Leadership Network team through a partnership with L2 Foundation.

The State of the Church Online, Part 1: Social & Community Networks

Just before I left for Innovation3, I was contacted by my friend, Drew Goodmanson of Monk Development (and elder/pastor at Kaleo Church in San Diego).  Drew is someone I really respect, both as a Christian leader and as a savvy business person.  He was one of the first people I discovered who was using the Internet (and SEO) to reach people for Christ.  You can read his story elsewhere online but I'm inviting you to help him & those who are studying social media and the Church by taking this simple 5 minute survey.  Here's an overview....

Are churches using the internet to gather, disciple and build community?

In the last couple years a number of new private church community networks have been launched in addition to numerous social networking sites.   We are still very early on in understanding what churches are doing effectively online.

We invite you to participate in this first survey of several that examine the State of the Church Online.  This survey in particular begins by examining what churches are doing with social and community networks.  How pervasive are the use of these web applications?

Future surveys will expand to examine what Christians are doing with social networks, how churches are using their websites and other online strategies.  Our prayer is that these studies help bring clarity and guidance for churches to pursue excellence online to the glory of God.

This survey is being led by Kevin Ring.  Kevin brings years of experience from Bainbridge Consulting leading qualitative research projects - designing and executing customer/competitive research and analysis across multiple industries, focused on Fortune 500 companies including Google, Yahoo!, Citibank, Hewitt Associates, Gallup, Bank of America and others.

The survey is free and takes very little time to complete.  Feel free to leave your name here (below in the comments) if you participate.

Link to it here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=bQWu6K2vXJyKE1aGHWr8_2fg_3d_3d

Cynthia Ware - The Digital Sanctuary