I just got back from the 2012 Interactive Connections conference. It was a great couple of days of information sharing, discussions, along with a few good debates. It is great to see the church awaken (albeit slowly) to the power of Internet and technology. I loved in particular Father Rice’s (@lrice) keynote address. It was [...]
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Rate Your Church Website
I’ve been thinking a great deal lately on what makes a great church website. I’ve seen some beautiful websites, gorgeous sites that are virtually non-functional and, on the other end of the spectrum, there are those content rich sites that are so densely packed with information they can only be used by experienced research librarians [...]
Wikipedia Is Going Dark Tonight, Does It Matter?
As I drove into work today, I was surprised to hear two of the main stories beyond the upcoming presidential election were both on Social Media. One was a brief interview from an Egyptian Author, Wael Ghonim, who just published the book “Revolution 2.0″ on the power for crowds, crowd sourcing, and social media to [...]
Are You Really Sure Your Parish Owns Your Twitter Account: The Importance of Tech Policies
It’s nice to see so many parishes embracing social media and establishing accounts on services like Twitter and building Facebook Pages. As I look at various parish websites that have staff email addresses posted I have noticed that many are obviously personal addresses (i.e. @Yahoo.com, @Live.com, etc.) I wonder how many parishes have a technology, [...]
Which Internet Browser?
As most internet users have found out, not all browsers are created equally. Internet Explorer was basically the one most used for several years, but then quickly got tired of the fact that the internet moved faster but your browser didn’t. Or that they made the application increasingly more complicated to the point of not [...]
Music Lover Prayers Answered: Google Music
Ever since I was a kid I have loved music. I remember spending hours sifting through and listening to 45′s (yes, I’m that old). Later on, like many people, I amassed the large number albums, then cassettes, and then CD’s. There was always a few problems I ran into with these: Storage Finding the music [...]
The “Social” in Social Media
Over the Christmas holiday, I had the opportunity to go back to my old church, St. Bernard, here in Wauwatosa, WI. They have a new priest, Father Mike Barrett. I hadn’t met Father Mike before, but I greatly enjoyed his homily and was struck in how he conducted mass. His approach to mass got me [...]
There’s a Catholic App For That!
I’m starting to see more and more good Catholic Apps out there, so many, that I’m losing track of them. Consequently, we’re starting to create the Catholic Tech Talk Resource Pages which is a compilation of your favorite apps or church services. Please take a look at our growing list of Catholic Apps here, http://catholictechtalk.com/mobile-apps. [...]
5 Great Google Updates You Might Have Missed
If you’re a Google user like me you probably noticed what seemed to be “rapid fire” changes this past year. All of which were great changes too. Let’s take a look: Google+ – A lot of people have mistakenly approached Google+ as simply a competitor to Facebook. In all honesty, Google+ is what Facebook has [...]
Catholic Technology Conferences – A Sign We’re Catching Up!
In terms of technology adoption, I’ve heard cynically stated that Catholics move ‘at the speed of church’. Well, as John Fielding put in his comment on the last CTT blog entry, Vimeo vs. YouTube, “we Catholics are finally catching up”. I am pleasantly surprised to see that Catholics now have two annually technology conferences available [...]
Vimeo vs. YouTube
I am seeing more and more of a Catholic presence online through video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo. Pastor’s are posting vlogs (video blogs), youth groups are recording fun events, and there are tons of resources available to help teach the faith. There are many things to consider when publishing video online but I [...]
What Good is a Parish Logo?
I was working on a website a few years ago for a parish that had a parishioner create a complete branding of their parish name to use in stationary, on their website, and anywhere that they placed their parish name. While designing their site, it made it incredibly easy for me to design their site, [...]
Have Cloud, Will Travel
The past two weekends my wife and I traveled to visit family. I’m a fan of traveling, but I’ve never been a fan of packing. In addition to clothes and toiletries, now we have to be concerned with access to business stuff plus you want stuff to do. So here’s what we took in addition to our [...]
Don’t Just Translate, Enculturate!
One of the challenges hitting some web administrators is the need to provide a bilingual version of their website. The Hispanic population is one of the fastest growing segments of the Catholic faithful and in many markets in the US its becoming a prerequisite that the church offer masses in both English and Spanish. If [...]
Who can build my website?
Even though I’m semi-retired from the web development business, I still get asked all the time, “Who can build my website?”. I’ll attempt to answer that question.
A book every blogger should read
Ignore this book and your blog posts will suffer. I should know – mine did.
Notable Parish Websites
The Parish Website is becoming more and more common. Most parishioners think the parish needs one, and most Pastors want one. I’m a firm believer that every parish should have a website. It’s my firm belief that the parish website’s purpose is to serve as a community hub and 24/7 extension of your parish office. [...]
Google+ Pages Part II: Why You Should Have One
So Google+ Pages went live this past week. Someone in your parish office or a parishioner might even suggested that your parish set one up. Then the thought comes to your mind, “Well, we have that Facebook page they told us we should get; why do we need another one somewhere else?” Good question, and [...]
Podcast Feed
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2011 Tech Wish List For The Church
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Hacked! iTunes account compromised
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Catholic SEO: A Failing Grade?
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Parish Online Communities – Private vs. Public
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To Tech Or Not To Tech – In Mass
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The 5 Best Diocesan Websites
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Mobile Technologies for Your Ministry
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Rate Your Church Website
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Wikipedia Is Going Dark Tonight, Does It Matter?
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Are You Really Sure Your Parish Owns Your Twitter Account: The Importance of Tech Policies
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Which Internet Browser?
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Music Lover Prayers Answered: Google Music
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Brad: This is a great topic. I don't have much experein...
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David Niles: We update our parish website a few times a week, b...
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Joe Luedtke: Mark, thanks for doing this. I eventually want to...
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Robyn Broyles: Thanks for this article... I am thinking of making...
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Jcavins: I really like the Unibar function of Google Chrome...
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Mark Alves: Parish email addresses are good ideas for church m...
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