080 – WELS.net Goes Web 2.0

This week on the WELSTech podcast we look at the strategic use of Web 2.0 tools on both WELS.net and the Camp Phillip web site.

The discussion:

Leveraging the read/write web – As WELS.net migrates from a custom Content Management System (CMS) to the more mainstream, open-source CMS, Drupal, several WELS.net resources are also migrating to Web 2.0 sites.  Martin and Sallie discuss the logic behind going public with WELS resources versus hosting them locally in a “walled garden” and how congregations and schools might take advantage of a similar strategy.

The interview:

Aaron Wakeman and family(19:26) Sending the stories home – Camp Phillip Development Director, Aaron Wakeman, joins Martin and Sallie to share some creative ways they use technology to share the stories of camp near and far.

New Technology Showcase:

(36:00) Acrobat.com – Adobe’s slick answer to Google Docs

Picks of the week:

Of interest:

(49:50) Follow the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) – Even if you aren’t in attendance, you can take advantage of all of the great online resources which are available

Community feedback:

  • (53:36) Following up on our BWTG: Google Calendar episode, we heard from Pastor Brian Hackmann from Peace in Eagle River, AK with several questions related to the calendar embed options, and also Jason Petoskey, a member of Holy Trinity in Wyoming, MI, tweeted his success of embedding a Google Calendar into his FinalWeb church web site
  • Jason Schmidt from Gethsemane in Omaha, NE sent us a link to YouMail.com which can receive and transcribe your voice mail and even has a few interesting twists for customizing voice mail.  Martin shared that he has used Jott.com in the past for voice transcribed reminder messages but is now using Reqall.com as a free alternative.
  • David Schumann, webmaster from Peace in Janesville, WI, raised concerns about posting children’s photos online.  We’ll dedicate a future podcast to this topic.
  • And lastly we heard from Gail Potratz from Emanuel in New London, WI with follow up comments about her picks (ShareThis and GroupTweet) on last week’s show. We’d also love to hear from you!! Leave us a voice mail @ 414-375-2334.

Coming up on WELSTech:

(1:04:01) Tune in for a double scoop of WELSTech summer audio next week:

  • Episode 081 – We’ll share a little “Bonus WELSTech Goodness” (BWTG) on how-to create a Facebook fan page for your organization (Release date 07/06/09)
  • Episode 082 – The “normal” WELSTech episode will look at tech tools for the small world in which we live, a discussion based on Chapter 9 of Clay Shirky’s book, Here Comes Everybody.  Also included will be an interview with someone from ProCare Software, an information management system for daycares. (Release date 07/08/09)

The featured artist:

(1:05:36) The music of WELS artist Michael Schroeder (www.michaelschroeder.com) closes this week’s podcast – We hear John 3:16 from his CD titled “A Witness”

Get involved:

1 reply
  1. Eric Mueller
    Eric Mueller says:

    Thanks for introducing me to your podcast, Sallie. Looking forward to listening to more. From the looks of the Convention 2009 site, the new wels.net is gonna be great. Have fun!

    Reply

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