Every day, I’m bombarded with more and more “Web 2.0″ announcements. Every new program or service has been branded 2.0, and the ones with AJAX (not the cleaning product) get some sort of awe usually reserved for deities.
I just don’t get it.
Did I miss something, but I can’t remember the gears shifting from 1.0 to 2.0. Can you?
The internet is not like a piece of traditional software: there aren’t actual versioned releases. Of all of the things of life, I’d say the web is most evolutionary…the steps that software developers take aren’t huge. Someone comes up with a good idea and implements it. Then everyone else jumps on the bandwagon. Repeat again and again.
But it seems to fit with the human tendancy to define things and it in its own little box. And so people saw a difference in the recent web applications, and some writer / speaker said “2.0.” And the world, like a bunch of lemmings, jumped at the chance to have a new buzz-word.

After many many months I have finally gotten around to redesigning my blog! I rearranged some of the elements, trying to make the site easier to read and easier to access.
I haven’t completely migrated away from the previous design quite yet, so don’t be suprised if you see some remnants here and they, but I hope to finish it up by the end of next week.
Cheers! And let me know what you think…

Yes, I know my week of “Happy Posts” didn’t really come to fruition. Perhaps I didn’t have as many “happy” things to post about as I had suspected. But mainly I got busy with other things and forgot about writing. So I return…
I am pleased to announce the launch of the brand new Fusion Student Ministry Website. Fusion is the student ministry at First Baptist Texarkana. The site is standards-compliant (whatever that means, right?) and is cross-browser compatible.
The site has the cleanest code I’ve ever written is certainly the easiest to update that I’ve ever created. It combines a poll system, calendar system, and photo gallery system while maintaining the same appearance throughout the site. And of course, it contains the style switcher to accomodate different background colors.
But the happy part is that it’s done! And so you should go check it out.

I haven’t posted about the sites / project that I have recently finished. But here are the highlights:
1) Two Twenty Four
Check this site soon because it will be disappearing before too long! Originally conceived as a boost for the Young Married Ministry at Champion Forest, this site is simple and thematic, using every day elements to help the ministry.
2) Aim Digital Media
This is my “official” work site, and it needed to be refreshed using standards-compliant XHTML / CSS. Bla bla bla.
3) Life to Years Coaching
A site for a small company in Dallas / Ft. Worth, this site was co-conceived with LEKS Creative in Dallas. Simple, nice, and simple.
4) Hello at In Your Element
Hello is a miniature Facebook and directory for the Student Ministry at Champion Forest. It’s a nice system to login and update your information (including pictures). I think this will be a great base for building more user-centric applications for the church.
5) Freedom Weekend – Element
The Freedom Weekend is Element’s yearly Disciple Now. This is a small Flash piece that I crafted entirely with ActionScript. The purpose of building this was to improve my knowledge of ActionScript, and I did. Oh yea, and I think it turned out well.

Today we launched the new Young Married Adult website at Champion Forest: Check it out here…
It took a little longer than planned, but I am generally pleased with the results. In my opinion, it’s much harder to make a site when the information is sparse–that is desgining a site with lots of information is easier, because you don’t have to do as much graphically to fill up the site.
At any rate, I think it’s a nice site and a huge improvement over what they had.

For Immediate Release:
Aim Digital Media and the Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) of Texas proudly announce the launch of the new Mary Hill Davis Offering website.
Aim Digital Media was contracted to create a well-crafted website to match existing promotional materials.
The website was built using web standards and is compatible in all of the major browsers. It also marks the first major website Aim Digital Media has created without the use of JavaScript (all interactivity is done by the use of CSS).
The WMU of Texas will use this website to raise awareness about the offering and provide resources to local churches.

Tony Morgan wrote an article (10 Easy Ways to Keep Me from Visiting Your Church Because I Visited Your Website) a few months ago; since then I’ve been meaning to compare the Champion Forest website to it. And after seeing the link on Church Marketing Sucks, I’ve decided it’s time.
First of all, I was shocked to see how perturbed some of the commenters were…it was like he stepped on their pet (or their feelings). At any rate, these are HIS ideas and thoughts (and in my opinion, good ideas)–not a chance to berate anyone.
On that note, my analysis:
1. Avoid telling be what’s going to happen at your church this weekend.
√ The Champion Forest homepage has the latest and greatest events. The most important have graphics, the lesser important have text links.
2. Put a picture of the building on the main page.
√ We emphasized people for our main graphic (and did away with the building picture). However, our steeple makes occassional appearances in promotional material (it’s a nice steeple).
3. Use lots of purple and pink and add pictures of flowers.
√ No purple. No pink. No flowers. Except maybe in the women’s ministry.
4. Make me click a “skip intro” or “enter site” link.
√ Don’t get me started on this. You’re unlikely to ever see that on a site I’m responsible for.
5. Add as many picutres and graphics as you can to the home page.
√ What you see is what you get. There is no scrolling on our home page (unless you use the archaic 800×600–then I just pity you). But remember, a picture is always more compelling than a paragraph.
6. Use amateur photography.
√ We use only quality images. And we strive to stay away from the “cheesy, I’m smiling for the camera” photo.
7. List every single ministry you have at your church.
∼ I don’t know if I agree with this one. I think a better perspective is to make it easy to learn about the ministries…no one likes to see a list of 2,000 ministries. It’s oppressive. But it is important to provide that information to inquisitive visitors.
8. Make it as difficult as possible for me to get directions, service times or find information about what will happen with my kids.
√ Click on the “New to CFBC?” link. All your most important questions will be answered on one page.
9. Put a picture of your pastor with his wife on the main page.
√ Since we’re between pastors, this is easy. But the idea is great; the church really isn’t about the pastor. He just happens to be the leader. And I doubt you will find the CEO of a Fortune 500 company on their home page.
10. Try to sell your church rather than telling me how I will benefit from the experience.
∼ I partially disagree with this too. Our church website is informational. We’re not interested in hyping the product (church). We want to provide information to visitors and guests and allow them (and the spirit) to take the next step. And explaining how they will benefit could a long process.
All in all, I think Champion Forest passes with flying colors.