Check out DeoWeb lite

[Gerry]

I've put together a prototype site for "active" parishes, that is
those that actually add content to their site. Here is an overview:

- add messages (news/articles/obituaries/whatever). a message has a
photo + caption fields by default, additional images can be added
anywhere on page as needed
- add events. events are shown as a listing, rather than as a
calendar. calendar view is available
- add photos
- add forms. form data is kept in the form folder, which can be
downloaded as a spreadsheet, or emailed to an address. use them for
sacramental registrations, for people requesting information, etc
- a lighter 'about us' section with info on parish, pastoral
services / sacraments
- a 'prayer wall' where people can post prayers. Note: the current
example is not as easy to use as I envision. I envision a simple
process where you click a button, post a prayer and up it goes. No
replies to postings.

- each type of content is in a different folder for easy organization
- there are 3 folders for content managers: image library, file
repository, forms. Store related content in those.

- additional folders and pages can be added as needed
- additional features can be added to specific parishes as needed, for
example podcasting, homilies

- basic info on the front page: contact info, mass schedule

- news feed for news in the diocese

You can find it at http://lite.diocesessm.org. Please ignore the
styling. I just grabbed a sample design for this prototype.

If you want to log in and play around (please do!), go to
http://lite.diocesessm.org/login_form, and use username = manager,
password = manager.

For inactive parishes, those parishes will have a one-pager in the
system, with basic information displayed.

Let me know what you think, the good, the bad and the in-between. :)

- Gerry

[Gerry]

A few other things:

Tags are used to group together related content. Anything - a news
item, photo, page, form can have a tag. Look on the right-hand side to
see the tags already applied to content.

This is a different approach to using Workspaces to group content.
It's more flexible, because any number of tags can be applied to a
content item.

I would also like to see some more social elements, ways to connect
people in the parish. Perhaps all of this would happen in Facebook,
and the parish site would only have a link to a Facebook group... not
sure.

- Gerry

[theojig]

Hi Gerry,

Well it certainly sounds interesting. I took a peek but ran into one
small problem. The content overlaps the menu, rendering it almost
unuseable. Part of the menu is totally blocked. I logged in with the
Id and Pwd you gave and did manage to get the Prayer Wall page to open
and gave it a try, but the prayer posted did not show up. Perhaps you
have designed these sample pages this way to prevent unwanted text
from being posted. But it certainly was easy to use and that is of
the utmpost importance. I do like the concept, it is on the right
track.

Cheers,
Robert

[Gerry]

Ok, I've removed the template theme I had installed and tweaked
another one. It's pretty basic, but again the main idea is to look at
the features and layout, not the colour choices and fonts or whatever.

I'm working on a few additional tweaks that I'll add to the site some
time next week.

Cheers,
Gerry

[Bill Kerr]

Hi Gerry:
I have taken a look at "deoweb lite" and to be honest I do not follow
it, perhaps because of language and age. I "/do not have the time/" to
follow all the terms to see how they are connected which is making this
seem overly complicated. If you want to simplify the system, do not
invent the wheel but tweak the existing system. Remove those parts that
are not being used such as "pastor pen", "chats" etc. but leave the
others intact. It is simply to use, as it is. I do not understand
things like "tag clouds", "file repository" etc nor am I interested in
learning a new language when the existing system is fine. Perhaps I
have crossed the threshold of Ludditism but again I come back to the
original premise. The existing deoweb is fine, but tweak it by removing
those parts that are not being used and leave the others. Visually it
looks fine and has a good response from the readers etc. People want
to know mass times, events and news in the parish or adjoining
parishes. Perhaps some useful links is good as well as supporting
articles and pictures. That's it!
Take care Bill

[Gerry Kirk]

Hi Bill,

Thanks for your honest feedback and grey-haired humour. To clarify, what I have done is to remove much of what is in the current system, stuff that wasn't being used.

This includes workspaces, most of which stay empty. The problem is then, how do you group together related content items, say for "baptism", if there is no Baptism section?

That's why I introduced tags. It's one optional extra field you fill in when creating content. Tags are used a lot on web site systems these days, because they are more flexible than folders. Click on a tag, and every content item with that tag appears.

Maybe I'll create a short video to demonstrate how to use them, even you can grow to like them Bill. Again, they are useful, but optional.

The other items are just folders Bill, a way to keep content more organized and less cluttered, nothing more nothing less:

• image library - here is a place to stick all those photos, clip art and other images you use for your pages, news items and events. Makes them easier to find and re-use.
• file repository - put all files that you want to make available for download here
• forms - we received a number of requests to be able to create forms, for things like registrations. If you want to create a form, you can do that in this folder.

Don't sweat the look of "deoweb lite" Bill. I don't have the time to apply the DeoWeb look to the prototype site, it would take a lot of effort, so that is why the default Plone one is there.

- Gerry

On 17/06/07, Bill Kerr <ke...@shaw.ca> wrote:

>
Hi Gerry:
I have taken a look at "deoweb lite" and to be honest I do not follow
it, perhaps because of language and age.  I "/do not have the time/" to
follow all the terms to see how they are connected which is making this
seem overly complicated.  If you want to simplify the system, do not
invent the wheel but tweak the existing system.  Remove those parts that
are not being used such as "pastor pen", "chats" etc. but leave the
others intact.  It is simply to use, as it is.  I do not understand
things like "tag clouds", "file repository" etc nor am I interested in
learning a new language when the existing system is fine.  Perhaps I
have crossed the threshold of Ludditism but again I come back to the
original premise.  The existing deoweb is fine, but tweak it by removing
those parts that are not being used and leave the others.  Visually it
looks fine and has a  good response from the readers etc.   People want
to know mass times, events and news in the parish or adjoining
parishes.  Perhaps some useful links is good as well as supporting
articles and pictures.  That's it!
Take care  Bill

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