Grace and Truth and Technology » design

davidandhannah.com

Dave Stone — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:48:01 +0000

So, I put up a new website featuring some engagement photos–davidandhannah.com

Wordpress speeds up with Google Gears

Dave Stone — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:49:42 +0000

Google gears logo

Wordpress 2.6 is out and it sports a new link in the top right that says Turbo. I clicked it and discovered that it speeds up the interface via Google Gears – a technology that caches files in order to speed web-based apps. So far so good.

The biggest drawback to Wordpress so far (especially on my powweb server, 1and1 hosting seemed to respond a bit better) is it’s long response time. It’s slow. But, in my cursory tests of the admin interface it seems much speedier. Way to go Wordpress and Google gears developers!

Goodbye MyChurchEvents; Hello Google Calendar

Dave Stone — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:20:17 +0000

We’ve used MyChurchEvents for a few years now as our (Bethel’s) online calendar solution. They offer a decent service…minimal downtime, easy enough to train volunteers on how to use. However, they have a few strikes against them:

No ability to track usage (I’ve asked multiple times)
Extremely limited access to calendar data in usable format (e.g., no APIs)
Layout is cluttered
It’s very much a web 1.0 app
It’s slow (relative to Google)
They still charge $60/year

By my count, that’s six strkes against them…that’s enough for two outs. Here’s the out I found…

I’ve been looking for an alternate online calendar solution for over a year now and just recently began testing Google Calendar. We’re planning to move it into production this Fall, but you can take a sneak peak at what it may look like now if you’re interested.

What is Shelby Doing?

Dave Stone — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:20:34 +0000

I received an email from Shelby Systems announcing a new product. Shelby Systems is now offering yet another set of programs (called Aspire) beyond its core legacy-offering and its web-based Arena.

Problem 1: the Aspire website is woefully lacking pertinent details…when clicking the “Tour” button, I’m sent to a page that says “This feature is coming soon…” Note the image below. Screen shots are great, but there’s no explanation about this fitting over an existing Shelby DB or if it is all new.
Solution 1: Hire a web design firm (like Stepframe!) They will help you present your website and email communications more clearly and effectively (and there will be no more “coming soon” pages).

Problem 2: the products (Arena and Aspire / Shelby and Aspire) appear in competition.
Solution 2: Take the plunge and lose the legacy aspects of Shelby (it was designed by programmers for programmers), and create a single web-based application.

I would love to see Shelby aspire to modernity!

Sermon bumper

Dave Stone — Wed, 28 May 2008 18:18:35 +0000

We embarked on a themed, 3-week series on Anxiety last Sunday. Sherri Cookson created a set of images for use in slide backgrounds (essentially the image you see below). I took Sherri’s creation and turned it into a sermon video bumper. The animation was created in After Effects using the Trapcode Particular (for the text to smoke effect) and Trapcode Starglow (for the glow effect) plug-ins from Red Giant software. Here’s a few screen caps.

Text to smoke, above.

I like my job. Sound FX creation

Dave Stone — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:48:29 +0000

Praise God for my job. It is super-multi-faceted allowing me to venture into several areas of interest. The latest one is sound FX creation. This sound effect (supposed to be a hammer on a nail) is for Bethel’s annual business meeting. That’s all I’ll say for now. Perhaps later I’ll post some video showing how it will be used.

Great blogging tips

Dave Stone — Tue, 13 May 2008 22:46:37 +0000

Want to become a better blogger? Check out these tips.

So, you want a website for your church ministry

Dave Stone — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:29:54 +0000

Everybody wants a website. They’re trendy. They’re also easier than ever to create. Websites as a tool for ministry fall into a category that I call “just because you can doesn’t mean you should.” Before creating a new ministry-focused website, the following questions need to be addressed:
These first two questions are designed to help you realize what makes a website compelling.
a. What websites do you visit daily? at least once a week? once a month? just once?
b. Why do you visit those sites? Why do you visit them at that frequency?

The remaining questions are designed to help you focus your website purpose.
c. Why do you want a website for your ministry?
d. What purpose of your ministry will a website help achieve?
e. What content will the website offer?
f. Who is your target audience for the website?
g. Why would the target audience go to the website? and as a follow-up, ask a disinterested person in the target audience for an honest answer.
h. What would the target audience do at the website?
i. What percentage of the content is date-sensitive?
j. Who will manage/maintain the date-sensitive content on the website?
k. How will the Gospel inform this website? How will the website help advance God’s Kingdom?
l. Based on answers to above questions, what can the website you want to create offer that is not already offered through Bethel’s existing web infrastructure

As I’ve noted before, WordPress is a great tool for quickly launching websites that can be maintained with no HTML\CSS knowledge required. Add Bethel’s Children’s ministry to the list.

Marketing and/versus Inspiring

Dave Stone — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 20:54:03 +0000

what if, in our marketing ideas/strategies within the church, we also asked about each event, why should people come to this event/meeting?

why is it that we have to promote events/meetings/programs? are we competing for people’s time? are we simply trying to get the word out? if we are competing, is that the right level on which to spend our resources? that is, by competing for people’s time, what are we implicitly acknowledging?

is there a event/meeting/program that is so inspiring that it needs no marketing? (youtube?)

can marketing get in the way of inspiring people to live lives in accordance with God’s will?

perhaps more later.