I typically don't have time to respond to comments posted on my blog. I read them and often take suggestions from them, but can't get into the back and forth dialogue many of them require. However, there are times when a post generates a lot of comments/questions so I try to answer them all at one time in a follow up post.

In this case there were quite a few questions about the online media player and the subscription service that accompanies it. So here is are some extra details:

The Online Media Player:

• Rivals cutting edge players like those used by VH1 and ABC in terms of player layout and features offered (including channels, categories, playlists and send to a friend feature.
• Is totally dynamic and created completely in Flash with over 700 hours of development time invested.
• Is fully supported with excellent customer service.
• Has a simple Administration Panel allowing the user to add Channels, Categories and media items.
• Comes with free upgrades: All ongoing upgrades and tweaks are offered free to subscribers.
• Is designed to accept streaming video feeds directly from LightCastMedia (streaming packages sold separately) which allows larger and longer video clips to be used in the player. Adding a LCM streaming video is as simple as putting a video ID# from LCM into the Online Media Player Administration Panel.
• Has a monthly subscription cost so you don't pay for upfront development, ongoing development, hosting or storage.
• Allows you to present your created media in a cutting edge player in less than 24hrs.
• Allows you to stream full length messages, services, trainings, etc. in a player capable of displaying content in full screen mode (additional streaming service required).

Hopefully this helped answer some of the questions I saw in the comments. If you have other questions feel free to email me (see link in footer of this page) and I'll try to reply or post again if there seems to be groups of similar questions.

We're currently in a weekend message series where the focus is serving. And the church makes no apologies in this area - encouraging everyone to find their niche and plug in.

It should be no surprise that the website has always had a volunteer page - there to help people find that niche and get involved. However this page hasn't always worked well and wasn't always user-friendly. It has been worked and reworked over the years. But it wasn't until this series that we really took it to the next level.

Opportunity: Completely rework the volunteer structure from the back end (Fellowship One database) to the front end (website and print materials) in time for the weekend message series on serving.

Solution:

• Weekend Message Series: Serving focus
• Information Architecture: all serving opportunities grouped into eight simple "buckets" named so they make sense to the person looking for the opportunity rather than the department providing the opportunity
• Database Structure: Volunteer opportunities entered in Fellowship One to match the Information Architecture
• Print piece: one handout created displaying the eight serving areas - capable of being used long term and also being printed during the serving series with a stub for submitting volunteer interest areas
• Web: Volunteer page redesigned to match all of the above with new interface for quick viewing of the eight areas with two levels of information - bullet points upon rollover and more detailed information with "I'll Try It!" button after one click

This turned out to be one of my favorite projects. Not because it's flashy or cutting edge, but because it streamlined a process that means a lot to the church. It reduces barriers to serving and fixes a clunky part of the website. Good job team.

When your job requires you to develop or work with developers you will undoubtedly experience the "burden of knowledge." You will create things or know that things are being created, but must keep your mouth shut until they are fully completed.

And so it is for me much of the time. A bit frustrating, but with this comes the excitement of being able to reveal the new stuff and watch the process happen from beginning to end.

All this to say there is something very cool I get to reveal. After months of development and testing the Online Media Player went live last week during the Innovate 07 conference.

We have received numerous calls requesting the technology behind our media player. Unfortunately when people learn that the player was created from scratch by our web developers (Aspire!One) they sigh and thank us for our time.

But now I can point people to the Online Media Player which solves this problem and allows anyone to get a media player up and running quickly. Here are just a few of the benefits:

• Professional look/feel and interface that can be popped up from any website.
• Allows online video capability for those of all budgets.
• Streaming capable/ready (separate streaming service required - but no additional setup fee).
• More here...

For those of you that attended the WEB Workshop the day before Innovate 2007, here is the list of resources we talked about along with some vendors:

Our Vendors:

• Aspire!One (our web strategists)
• Constant Contact (our enewsletter solution)
• Fellowship One (web based church management system)
• Light Cast Media (video streaming)
• NetSuite (e-commerce solution)

Tools:

• Templates: Template Monster, Template Factory
• Blogs: Blogger, TypePad, WordPress, SquareSpace
• Database Solutions: Shelby, ACS
• Enewsletters: World Merge, Sevista
• eCommerce: Miva Merchant, Yahoo Small Business
• Calendar/Event management: Google Calendar, EventU
• Stats/Reporting: Google Analytics, GoStats, StatCounter
• Copyright/Licensure: CCLI, CVLI, Church Copyright Administration
• Software: Anything Adobe
• Converting video to flash video: On2, Sorenson Squeeze, Flash Video Encoder (ships with Flash CS3 Pro)
• Web Design & Development: The Web Developers Handbook, Yahoo Developer Network
• Imaging/Graphics/Photography: iStockPhoto, Stock Exchange, Big Shot Media, Veer, Flickr
• Video: Adobe Premiere Pro, QuickTime Pro

Blogs / RSS Feeds:

• Less Clutter & Noise (Kem Meyer: Director of Communications at GCC)
• TerryStorch.com (Terry Storch: Digerati Pastor at LifeChurch.tv)
• A List Apart (web design)
• Creative Multimedia (all things media)
• Kirupa (web design / tutorials)
• Leave it Behind (Brian Bailey Web Director Fellowship Church)
• Ordered List (Steve Smith Web Developer Notre Dame)
• Web Developer (everything to do with web design)
• 3Cords (a community of Christian bloggers)

Hope this simple list is helpful.

Today we held the second WEB workshop as a pre-conference workshop before Innovate07. Kem Meyer (Communications Director at Granger) again pulled together a captivating experience dedicated to excellent web strategy and taking a proactive approach to building your website.

The Samsung (specifics here) is officially hanging on the wall now with all cables routed through the wall. It has been there for a few weeks now so I thought I'd take a stab at a preliminary review for those who care:

• Awesome - Once you've experienced HDTV there is no going back
• 720p - I'm sure some day I'll want 1080p but for now there isn't a reason. I don't typically do the gaming thing and with how good an upconverted DVD looks I'm assuming a Blu-ray or HD DVD would blow me away even at 720p
• Inputs - More than enough. HDMI x3 and a PC input that allows for second monitor functionality from my laptop
• Look/design - I think the piano black finish looks great in our living room and the little blue power light is pretty sweet too. Presents well with low profile wall mount
• Remote - Some lag in response after hitting buttons - though typically not used. You'll end up using the remote that comes with your DVR anyway
• Picture settings - Nice and easy options for dynamic, standard and movie presentation modes along with 16:9, 4:3, wide x2 and "just scan" aspect ratio settings
• Screen refresh rate - Standard 60Hz refresh rate which is great 75% of the time. But what I wouldn't give for the 120Hz for the other 25%. If there is a lot of movement on the screen (some sports and some transitions on regular HD channels) you get pixelation

Overall I'd give it a 9.5 out of 10.

If you're like me the word "stats" is enough to make you sweat. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard, high humidity or having to eat something served on Fear Factor. I never liked the class and probably didn't do very well either.

There are people hardwired to crunch numbers (we have a couple on our team that I'm sure God sent us...), but I have never been one of them. I had the class in college and even had advanced stats classes in grad school so you'd think I'd have warmed up to it sooner than this.

Nope. Not until recently that is...

I know stats are important. In the mental health field if you couldn't show you were making a difference, people stopped paying you. And I'm sure it works that way in many occupations. So it shouldn't have been a surprise that those in leadership at the church want to know how the websites are doing.

Here's a tip: "It's going great!" is not the answer they are looking for...

They want to know if the money they budgeted for the site(s) was worth the investment. They want to know if people are actually using the site. The want to know if certain parts of the site are adding value or were just fun to put into place.

So how do you give them the answers? Well, you keep stats of course...

At Granger we use the following:

Google Analytics: Google Analytics is the main application we use to get stats on web traffic and a host of other things related to our sites. It's free, easy to set up and powerful. You can use it out of the box or get in and tweak away to get specific reports run and even emailed to you. We have one account with multiple URL's that are being watched.

StatCounter: Also a free stats package. Easy to set up and good for a variety of reasons. Google Analytics probably makes it unnecessary to continue using something like StatCounter but it was one we used prior to Google Analytics and it's still watching MyLameSexLife.com for us.

Various: Statistics pulled from other applications like our online streaming service (LightCastMedia), eNewsletter service (Constant Contact) and our Media Player (stats pulled from our CMS behind the scenes).

I'm currently working with our database guru on a solution for consolidating these stats into one usable report that can be shared with those needing to see it. The obvious choice is dumping the stats into an Excel spreadsheet but I'm still looking just to make sure there isn't something better out there.

I can't say I've become a statistician, but I actually find myself enjoying the process. You can't beat the feeling when you are able to show consistent web traffic to a page that you recently added, or when you can remove pages on the site after the stats show that one person has been there in the last three months...

I don't think I'm ready to say "stats are my friend" but it may not be long...

It's that time of the year again. Innovate is next week! And things are firing on all cylinders. There are more meetings, more deadlines and more deliverables - all on top of the normal stuff.

But you gotta love it!

I can't wait to see how things turn out. For me there isn't a lot of speaking. I help out with the Web Workshop on Wednesday and a Blogging Breakout during the conference. But for the most part I get to sit back and soak it all in.

I'm looking forward to Guy Kawasaki (of course) and I can't wait to hear Scott Hodge tell his story. And don't forget to attend the Granger Film Festival after New Community on Thursday night for some innovative stuff on the big screen...

I hope to see you all there.

Before I sat down to get some work done this evening I pulled some ice cream out of the freezer for a quick energy boost and quickly realized the product I was indulging in failed to advertise an important product fact: The probability that one will become addicted to the product after trying it for the first time...

I have always loved Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream (typically the chocolate type with mint) but I forgot just how good it really is.

I ate a centimeter off the top and put it away...before losing control and eating the entire thing.

Now I'm ready to work...

Yesterday we finished up at MinistryCOM and said our goodbyes to those we met and were able to hang out with during the conference. Here is the simple wrap up from Day 2:

Shawn Wood (main session): Awesome. I've been able to rub shoulders with Shawn from time to time at conferences but never knew he had the gift of communication until today. He is world class. A few simple take aways:

Three W's to focus on: Weekend, Web and Word of Mouth

Characteristics of an experience: Distinctiveness, Relevance, Memorable and Effective

Ashley Schuermann (breakout session): Ashley spoke on trends in graphic design, handling the stress that comes with design work in a multi-site environment with tons of "stuff" on her plate and tips for designing based on your environment/culture.

Kem Meyer (main session): Awesome as well. Kem rounded out the conference with a talk on why it seems other departments "hate" us. She used well placed media elements to keep people on the edge of their seats and offered the following tips:

1. Get an image consultant who can advocate for you and hold you accountable.
2. Check your ego to make sure you are doing things for the right reasons.
3. Find common ground by taking the time to meet and hang out with those you serve.

Yesterday we left Indiana and headed for MinistryCOM in Nashville, TN. The five of us "grangerites" get to spend some quality time team building and learning more about the doing communications for a higher purpose. The conference was hosted at The Peoples Church and here is a simple wrap up from Day 1:

Terry Storch (main session): Good as always. Discussed the history of communication from printing press through radio through TV and finally to the Internet. He spoke about our "responsibility" to reach others with the technological tools we have and that with the exponential growth in population there is no better time to take the gospel to the entire world.

Curt Cavnar (breakout: video boot camp): Great summary of techniques, tools and basic composition layout for digital photographers and videographers. I can't wait to get home and try some of the stuff out on our Nikon D40x...

Karen Smith (breakout: project management): Great summary on the use of project management skills in a communications department. Very practical. Good delivery with humorous yet pointed information. She definitely knows her stuff.

Brad Abare (main session): Good way to wrap up the day. Brad questioned what we would do if technology were to disappear. He challenged us to be salty, be transparent, be local and to live with less. Always good to hear.

Dinner: Genghis Grill (when are they coming to the Michiana area?)

Can't wait for tomorrow. Shawn and Kem are up on the main stage and there are three more breakouts. I'll let you know how it turns out...

Well, it finally happened. Last week we made the jump to an HDTV after our 36" CRT had an untimely meltdown. We had planned on keeping it until 2009 when analog goes bye bye, and HD content is more readily available, but the crisis pushed us into the HD market early.

However, my wife will tell you I wasn't heartbroken over the prospect of being able to watch LOST in HD.

Here is what I'm looking forward to:

• Standard (widescreen) DVDs played through an upconvert DVD player: I'll tell you right now 300 and the Lord of the Rings series look incredible
• Local stations in HD: Yes that means LOST, 24 and possibly the Bionic Woman this year...
• Sports: I want to see a football and a puck in HD!
• DiscoveryHD: I would watch the mating habits of the African Tree Frog on DiscoveryHD...
• Last Week's Service: The TV has a PC input so I will be able to connect the laptop and watch last weeks message on the big screen

It feels a little like the "bleeding edge of technology" when you watch the standard definition channels on an HDTV but I just have to tell myself that more good stuff is on the way...

Now I just need an HD video camera so I can capture and watch the kids doing kid stuff in HD. Anyone want to donate one?

This week I faced the unfortunate reality that I am hopelessly chained to (reliant on) technology at my current job. Literally everything I do is either done on the computer or done so that others can use their computers to do something. Even the meetings I attend are to discuss how to make things happen on our websites via computers.

So when the computer stops working - you stop working.

This week I ran into two serious glitches that held up productivity while I (and IT personnel) attempted to correct the problem.

1. Windows Vista decided it didn't like an installed printer so it began shutting down the print spooler automatically. Now I can't delete the printer in question and the spooler keeps restarting and shutting down every few minutes. Very annoying and as of yet - no solution...
2. My computer decided it didn't like the latest version of iTunes + QuickTime so it hangs every time I try to update it and now my library is blank. Solution: I had to uninstall QuickTime and reinstall a stand alone version. Things seem to be working now.

Countless hours of searching for solutions and trying things that don't work can really get in the way of a typical weekly task list.

I think I've settled on this disturbing fact: I hate the technology I love.

Do you use the "Out of Office Reply" feature in Outlook (or other email clients)? My wife always does but I am not totally sold - possibly because I get so many of them in my Inbox and have to heat up my delete key to get rid of them...

I guess my current stance is this:

• If I'm gone for less than a week and will be checking email then no...
• If I'm gone for a family vacation where I won't be checking email then yes...

But that isn't really the point of this post. What I really wanted you to see is this:

Have fun!

We all need to get away and rest. It can be date night with your spouse, a long weekend away or the traditional family vacation. But it needs to happen on a regular basis to keep the engine charged.

For the past two years we have also joined with friends for a group vacation to the Wisconsin Dells. Last year it was the Kalahari Resort and this year it was the Wilderness Resort.

Four days of waterpark fun. The kids (ages 5 months to 7 years) had every size slide/pool to play in/on and the adults were even challenged to do some slides that push the envelope of sanity.

It was a great time to strengthen relationships, watch kids laugh and push themselves and prepare for the next run of ministry.

When we get back to work we'll attend the 2007 Leadership Summit and then get back to the task lists on Monday.

Life is good...