I'll be the first to admit that I'm NOT a hardcore coder. In fact, I went to school to become a psychotherapist and assumed that was my profession because it's what I did.

Web design was just a hobby like chess. I bought Macromedia Flash 5 bundled with Freehand 9 and taught myself how to create rich media for the web. My next step was to purchase Dreamweaver and Fireworks as a bundle. I then learned html and this little thing called Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) which has rocked my world. From there I never looked back. I began volunteering at the church and was eventually hired to do this stuff full time. I love my job!

Over time I have been successful at plugging in simple javascript or php elements as long as the person creating them did a good job and documented the implementation well. But that is as far as my coding skills have progressed. With my responsibilities the way they are there isn't time or a need for me to drop hours at a time on learning to code.

So if there is one thing that has helped me muddle through with coding it's cheat sheets. I've found them invaluable for quick reference when designing/developing and getting stuck over some simple syntax error.

Web Design Ledger has pulled together some of the main ones in their article: 18 Seriously Helpful Cheat Sheets for Easier Coding.

Hope you find them as useful as I do :)

We've been talking about it for over a year now and though it isn't a reality yet, you can definitely hear it coming.

Websites like ipTV News and ipTV Community offer up to date information on where we're at with Internet Protocol Television (ipTV) and how soon it will become available.

But for me, it's all a bunch of noise until I see some actual movement in that direction. Maybe movement like this:

For immediate release: Silicon, OEM, Cable and Content Partners Embrace Adobe Flash Platform for Televisions, Set-Top Boxes and Blu-Ray Players. (full press release)

Now that's the type of news I'm talking about! Flash video has taken the Internet by storm and is easily the standard by which all other streaming media is measured.

But the unfortunate reality is that flash has not expanded quickly beyond the web.

On gccwired.com we offer streaming flash video of our media clips and weekend messages. Right now if you want to watch them you have to use your computer. But as flash support spreads to various devices we will be able to do the following:

1. Watch flash media on your LCD/LED/Plasma HDTV: If your HDTV has a network plug you could stream flash content directly off the Internet. HDTV's that support flash could also stream flash video directly off a network (NAS devices or other computers), off flash drives and even off PMP's like the Zune.
   
2. Watch flash media through a set top box or Gaming System: If your television does not support flash you might still be okay if you have a set top box or gaming system like the Xbox360 or PlayStation3 that supports flash. These devices would decode the flash video and send it to your television.
3. Watch flash media on your phone: Currently flash support is weak on mobile devices. But the Palm Pre is launching soon and claims that they will support flash by the end of the year. I'm assuming most other cellphone manufacturers are scrambling to do the same.
   

Obviously there is work to be done, but believe me the pieces of the puzzle are coming together faster than ever. And I can't wait.

Before coming to work at the church I worked in the mental health field. And unfortunately I learned some bad habits. Everything from watching my back, to hoarding knowledge to paying someone as little as possible to do a job without thinking how it might impact future interactions with the person or company.

It was about keeping your job and trying to live up to unrealistic expectations - typically to pad the companies bottom line and allow the CEO to feel good about himself on his next exotic vacation.

But the church has taught me new habits. Trust, sharing your ideas, collaborating with teams and partnering with people.

It's that last part that I want to stress - partnering with people and vendors. I've seen it over and over again. Instead of contracting the cheapest solution and then dropping them the next time if something cheaper is found, the church develops strategic partnerships. These relationships begin like any other but over time become a sharing and collaborative interaction that helps strengthen both entities.

For years now we've had this partnership with AspireOne. They help us maintain the foundation of our website - allowing us to manage the daily/weekly updates and dream about future revisions. They push us on our decisions and we hopefully keep them on the cutting edge by asking for the next crazy thing out there.

Little by little it all made sense - to the point where last week I formed a partnership with a company in the community. It's starting over a specific project, but I hope it continues for years to come.

Isn't growth a wonderful thing?

As our diving trip to Key Largo, FL approaches, I become more and more aware of the concept of preparation.

Diving is not, "Hey! We're going to the beach so bring your suit!"

It's more like, "Hey! In 3 months we're going diving. Start getting your stuff together."

Of course if you own all of your own gear it might be a bit easier. You go down to the basement, get your stuff, make sure it has been serviced recently and pack it up. But I'm new to this whole thing. I'm still in the process of deciding what gear to buy and what to rent, what type of wetsuit to take on the trip, how to get good and familiar with my dive computer and how to get all the stuff down there safely.

I'm sure it will get easier. But for now, the process is very time consuming.

Bring it On Back
So how does preparation apply to web design and development? Well, around here we talk about web projects (everything from complete web redesign projects to the implementation of a new web element like a media player or a social networking application) in the following terms:

1. Discover: Figuring out what it is you need, why you need it and who it is really for.
2. Define: Taking the concept and fleshing it out.
3. Deliver: Pulling it together and implementing well.
4. Repeat: As needed...
5. (concepts from the book Less Clutter. Less Noise. by Kem Meyer)

Call it doing your due diligence before putting something out there.

In discussing the dismal release of the Blackberry Storm, RIM CEO was recently quoted (here):

That's our first touch product, and you know nobody gets it perfect out the door. You know other companies were having problems with their first releases.

Not only does he make excuses for his own product, but he also tries to drag other companies down with him.

Preparation is key to the success of anything worth doing, eating, making, owning etc.

Go into it saying, "It's going to be the best thing out there." Instead of saying, "We're just putting it out there and it will probably tank."

It was fairly warm out the other day so I pulled out the kids bikes and started to fix them.

As I did I realized there are two ways to solve a problem: One is to provide the solution and the other is to describe the solution.

Provide the Solution
This is fairly simple and straightforward. When a problem arises, you fix it. Even if it's someone else's problem, you fix it. You don't ask for help or pull someone else in to see how you fixed the problem. You simply fix it.

Describe the Solution
In this scenario, you still fix the problem, but as you do, you describe what you are doing to someone else. It could be the person with the problem. It could be someone that could fix the problem with you (or for you) in the future. Either way, you are capitalizing on a teaching moment rather than just solving the problem.

Disclaimer: In both scenarios above you are solving the problem because the other person is either too young to solve it themselves or because the other person is incapable of resolving the problem on their own with the skills/knowledge they have. If the person is capable of resolving the problem, by all means teach them how and allow them to become self sufficient. Enabling is NOT helpful behavior.

I find with my kids I am constantly doing things for them and describing what I'm doing at the same time. When I was fixing their bikes I described why full tires were more beneficial than flat tires. I explained the proper height for a bike seat so your legs fit the pedals right. And I even went over the proper use of brakes so that they wouldn't grab the front brake with all their might someday and go over their handlebars.

But it occurred to me that I didn't have to do it that way. I could have told the kids to go play and then fixed the bikes without distraction. But what a waste of an opportunity!

Summary
To bring it full circle I started asking myself the same thing at work. Am I just fixing problems that arise or am I taking opportunities to describe the process? Even if it might be faster to fix it myself, would it be more beneficial to describe the process to the person with the problem? Would it help to train someone so there would be two people in the future capable of resolving the problem?

In the future when you face problems, try thinking about them in this way. You just might find your problems becoming opportunities for growth in others.

Another demo video for the Palm Pre (watch demo video here). How much more of this do they expect us to endure?

Each video gives a little more information and unveils a couple more cool features. But it's like a carrot being dangled in front of you to keep you interested.

How long must we wait? I've heard end of April as one scenario but looks like May or June is more likely.

Ever fallen in love with something and then realized it wasn't love at all?

I started drinking coffee in St. Charles, IL in 1994. It started with French Vanilla coffee at Dunkin Donuts and eventually moved to Starbucks Venti Mocha's. Last month I was drinking a Venti Mocha almost every morning, a Grande Coffee in the afternoon and then some Chai at night.

All together these drinks packed a combined 610mg of caffeine - not to mention the other stuff that is added (sugar, 2% milk and whipped cream).

The Mayo Clinic suggests that anything over 500mg can be an issue and lead to problems while using it. Not to mention the problems you can have if you try to stop...

And that's what I did recently. Eight days ago I stopped drinking caffeine of any kind. And within 24 hours I was hating life. Apparently 100mg per day can trigger withdrawal symptoms...who knew? WebMD has more on caffeine withdrawal symptoms here.

Why Stop?
I have tried stopping before, but never really had a good reason...until recently.

On the Today Show one morning they talked about how caffeine can affect people with back problems by causing swelling in the discs between the vertebrae. Interestingly enough I was diagnosed with a protruding disc last year.

I also did some reading about caffeine and the affect on SCUBA divers. Apparently it can have a negative impact on you if you're using Nitrox (Enriched Air). I'm going to Florida in a month and we'll be diving with Nitrox the whole time...

Needless to say, it's time to stop.

The problem is, I love coffee. There's nothing better than waking up early to drink coffee and work on websites.

I guess it all comes down to priorities. And right now there are other things that take priority.

Coffee: I love you. But you're gone.

I thought I'd post about browsers since I just downloaded two of them.

One I'm extremely happy about. And the other I'm totally indifferent about.

Let's start with Internet Explorer 8. Yes. I'm indifferent. I downloaded the Release Candidate (RC1) just to start preparing myself for the change. I don't use IE anymore except for a few things where IE is the only browser that will work. I'm just not that interested in what new things IE has to offer anymore since there have been so many letdowns in the past.

At this point I'm more concerned about web standards. Hopefully IE8 will bring the major browsers that much closer to displaying content consistently and correctly. As a designer/developer I've played the game for so long I'm used to it. But what if you could build a website in a standard format and expect that all browsers would render it the same? What would that be like?

I'll play around with it a bit to see what the new "features" are all about but I'm not holding my breath...

The other browser I downloaded is called Fennec which is the alpha release of the mobile browser built by Mozilla (makers of Firefox).

Now Fennec isn't available yet for your mobile phone (unless you own a Nokia N810). But I downloaded it to my desktop just to play with it.

I'm totally stoked about this browser and how it could revolutionize the mobile browsing experience. It displays full websites with ease, has flash integration and can even install some of the extensions popular to the full version of Firefox.

In this walkthrough video you can see how a touch screen coupled with physical keyboard makes for a happy surfing combination :)

If I truly wind up with a Palm Pre (which means I physically picked one up and didn't hate it), I think this would be the perfectly matched browser for everyday use.

We'll see!

The other day my team was locked in a conference room doing data entry for an upcoming project. We were working hard trying to stay positive when the door opened and in walked the Senior Pastor.

He said something like, "Just checking in...making sure everyone is doing alright."

We laughed, said hi and then got back to work. But the small gesture wasn't lost on us. In a church this size the tendency is for the Leadership Team (what we call SMT) to retreat to large offices behind solid oak doors and administrative assistants that serve to deflect and redirect. But not at Granger.

Not only is SMT approachable and an integrated part of how we do ministry. But they make themselves available to other churches as well. They open themselves up to criticism by discussing things we do well and not so well. Many churches put locks on their doors and hold onto what they do well. But the SMT at Granger are always looking for ways to resource other churches and give away their knowledge through things like WiredChurches.com Workshops and the recently added Leadership Live Event.

I look at other large churches and there seems to be one significant personality at the top. One person that everyone looks up to and yet has little to no access to. But not at Granger.

That doesn't mean there isn't respect for the SMT. If anything, their approachability and humility makes our respect that much more sincere.

I'm SO glad I'm part of some"thing" and not some"one" at Granger

We recently began a data cleanup project in preparation for a BIG change to WiredChurches.com (I think you'll like it when it hits).

Project summary: Every person in the WiredChurches.com database should be connected to a church, company or organization. Of course this isn't the case half the time and even if they are connected to one of the above - the contact info for that church, company or organization isn't correct or complete. So we're going line by line through this list and doing a web search to find the correct information.

There have been a few companies and organizations but for the most part we're looking up church websites. And wow were my eyes opened.

I know a lot of the churches represented in the WiredChurches.com database are small churches that don't have the know how or resources to put together a cutting edge website. But today there are so many other options out there. Even a free blog can look more professional than a poorly done website.

In my searching I quickly put together the following list. Please don't take it personally. Simply look at it as a quick and easy task list for making revisions to your website.

Also - here are two great resources to help you take your website to the next level in a very systematic and structured way: First, read Less Clutter. Less Noise. by Kem Meyer (available soon). Second, attend the WEB Workshop on November 12.

Top 10 Things to Fix on Your Website

1. Contact information: Sounds simple but you wouldn't believe how many sites had no contact information anywhere! Create a redundant page footer OR a "Contact Us" page that has at a minimum your address, phone number and email contact (info@yoursite.com). By the way, I don't need the phone number and email address for each pastor on your staff.
   
2. Color scheme: Colors are picky about who they hang out with. Make sure to use friendly colors for your site - not random colors from rival gangs...
   
3. Multiple navigation menus: I can't stress this enough. Use a whiteboard and visually lay out your site. Clump things into categories (big buckets) and then create your navigation from that. Keep this navigation consistent throughout the site so people don't get lost. This can be a huge task for churches with more than one campus. But getting it right means people will actually returning to your site.
   
4. Bad pages/links/content: Website maintenance is really what I'm getting at here. Having a website is like having a new responsibility. You can't just put it out there and forget about it. Check it regularly for broken links, missing pages and out of date content.
   
5. Promotional banners/graphics: Don't fall into the trap of creating a new logo and banner ad for every event and placing these on your home page. I seriously doubt each of these events is THAT important... As they add up so does the tension in my head. Keep all of your events on one page or in one location. Weight each the same. If something is BIG and needs elevated - move it to the home page as a small graphic with intro copy. Or add it to your large graphic slide show on the home page.
   
6. The "inside jokes": I don't actually mean jokes - just thought it would help illustrate my point. I mean the events or ministries that have some obscure name that only people attending your church understand. For example: A large graphic/button that says "Jlife" or "T3" or "TheMax" without any explanation as to what it means. Even if you do describe it three pages in - the person hitting your site for the first time might be confused and not want to click that far in.
   
7. Widget Overkill: Keep widgets to a minimum. I don't need a hit counter, weather bug and rss feed to local news stations on the home page - or any page for that matter. Keep your site streamlined and for the stuff people come to you for. If I want the weather I'll look at the weather bug on my Vista Sidebar.
   
8. Basic functionality: People who use the web come to expect certain things. Make sure you aren't confusing them by forgetting basic principles or doing "cool" things that force them to learn new (unnecessary) skills. Examples: Links should turn the cursor to a hand. Email addresses should be links that pop an email client (not just plain copy that we have to copy/paste). Basic html beats graphics and flash hands down because people can select text. Etc.
   
9. Search engine optimization: Your site wants to be found! Don't stand in the way of Mr. Google when he comes calling. Make sure your home page has "meta" tags in the "head" section at a minimum (go here for more info). Giving your website a description and keywords are what will get you found easily.
   
10. Overwhelming content: Finally, please don't kill me with content. The eyes and the mind can only handle so much at one time. A good solution for this is to pull out the whiteboard (like while you are getting the navigation figured out) and do some soul searching. Figure out what information is vital. Get rid of the fluff. Turn big chunks of copy into bite sized summaries. Streamline. Streamline. Streamline. Less is definitely more on your website. People can come to your church to get the details.
    

This list is by no means all-inclusive. I simply picked ten things that stood out and seemed to be constructive vs. picky (meaning: if fixed they could help take the site to the next level).

Hope this was helpful.

First off. Yes. That is the Palm Pre.

Second. No. I don't actually have one. Never even touched one. You can thank Photoshop for the visual...

But don't be distracted by the phone. This post is about mobile websites - or the lack thereof.

This week we launched our mobile site (gccwired.com) after going years without one. In the past it either wasn't necessary due to the small number of mobile browsers hitting the site, or we simply focused on other projects that pushed mobile to the bottom of the list.

In my limited knowledge of the mobile explosion it seems like there are at least three ways to do mobile websites:

• Accessible/Integrated: By creating your html/css pages following strict standards of accessibility your pages should "degrade" gracefully depending on the browser viewing it. Not only older browsers, but mobile browsers too. Adding separate stylesheets for other devices can also help with this. Summary: No new pages. You website is both full and mobile in one.
• Completely Separate: The other extreme is to develop a mobile site just for phones/PDA's. If the device hits the main site you can check the browser type and funnel them to the mobile site. Summary: Truth be told you have two separate sites. The mobile site is often renamed m.yoursite.com :: yoursite.com/m :: yoursite.com/mobile for example.
• Hybrid (our solution): We have a dynamic backend that uses a limited number of templates to present data from a database. Because of this it made sense to try and integrate the mobile site into our weekly processes in our administration console. We created a few static pages that use a mobile template. This rounds out our navigation and static pages. Pages that require daily or weekly changes, are dynamic in that what we create for our main website can be pulled into the "mobile site" but presented on a mobile template. Summary: Best of both worlds...

Another project off the task list - even though there are some sweet enhancements to be made in the future (come on Fellowship Technologies - where's the mobile version of WebLink complete with online giving for mobile?)

But for now I feel we have achieved a much needed sense of mHarmony...

There are numerous conferences available each year. Some are straight technical, some focus on leadership and still others help renew and refresh your faith. There are those driven by marketplace professionals and those driven by Christians doing marketplace stuff...

I attended SXSW last year and got a taste of what it is like to rub shoulders with Adobe, Google, Facebook and Flickr folks. And while it was fun, it was also a bit overwhelming.

I recently saw an advertisement for the Dirt Conference. I visited the website and quickly became excited. I know it doesn't compare with the firepower of a SXSW, but I'm not sure I even want that fire power right now.

What I'm looking for is a smaller venue with less people. And I'm even good with the fact that the majority (if not all) of the speakers are from the Christian community.

I love what's going on in the church right now and I love the future we have ahead of us.

I haven't booked my flights - though I'd love to. It's on my short list for sure.

List of Topics and Presenters.

Here we go - day 2.

WiredChurches.com workshops for 2009.

Currently sitting in Kem Meyer's workshop called Untangling the Web.

Great stuff that every Web Director (or person in charge of stuff like that at your church) should hear: Like how to "make paper" prior to launching your website and that it might be better to take down a bad website than have one at all.

This workshop is offered at least one more time this year so if this is your gig - make plans now to attend the next one.

I was looking at my Quick Launch bar the other day and thought, "How cool would it be to see how other people lay out their Quick Launch bars?"

Why?

I don't know...maybe because it says something about a person. A person's desktop is less interesting to me because it's typically just cluttered up with shortcuts to programs and documents.

The Vista Sidebar isn't of much interest either because there is typically a clock, the date, a system analyzer and some goofy gadget that guesses your weight...

However, the Quick Launch bar is typically scaled back and can be a direct reflection of a person's abilities, work habits and interests.

Disclaimer: I'm not a regular Mac user so I'm not sure how this translates...

So Here Is My Quick Launch Bar (moving from bottom to top):

• Desktop
• Vista Window Manager
• VPN access to work server
• External Hard Drive (used to back up personal files)
• Excel File (password protected: List of all my passwords for work and personal use).
• SyncToy 2.0 (excellent free tool for syncing folders on computer or even to external sources).
• Outlook 07
• Windows Live Messenger (love the new look)
• Blu (sweet Twitter client)
• IE7 (can't wait for IE8 - even though I rarely ever use IE anymore)
• Firefox 3 (my default browser - with the FoxMarks extension I can keep faves synced across all computers)
• Safari 4 (cool looking - just not using it much)
• Zune (sweetness pure and simple - subscription plan is the only way to go)
• Windows Media Player (how did that get in there? I need to delete that since Zune handles all that stuff for me...)
• (next six) My most used CS4 Apps (Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash and the Flask media encoder are my core)
• Work files (located in My Documents and synced with the server for backup purposes)
• Personal files (outside My Documents - synced with my external hard drive for backup purposes)
• Recycle Bin (for easy disposal of my trash :)

OK - Your turn - show me yours...

Here we go.

WiredChurches.com workshops for 2009.

Currently sitting in Kem Meyer's workshop now called Less Clutter. Less Noise. to match the title of her soon to be released book (official website).

Great stuff that every Communications Director (or person in charge of stuff like that at your church) should hear: Like how to start with a plan and develop a communication strategy before throwing up a website or loading up your shotgun with promotional print pieces.

I'm lucky that I get to work with Kem and benefit from the framework she has developed and champions at our church.

You gotta get here for this at some point this year.