theLAB

theLAB is a collection of people skilled in the areas of design, technology and analysis.

Each of us has been captured by the call to turn lost students into Christ-centered laborers.

Whether it is creating a video to cast vision, building a website to equip students for ministry, or offering tech support to our field staff, each of us is making a unique contribution to help fulfill the Great Commission.

This is Cru

Video put together by Ball State University

UF’s Thriller Video

Did you know? Fall 2009

Inspiration

CMS Light

I just finished reading Chris Coyier’s article, The “Light” CMS trend. For those of you who don’t know, CMS stands for “content management system.” The content is stored in a database and then served up on a page using a predefined template. The idea behind a CMS is to allow non-technical people the ability to update, add or edit the content on their Web site. It also allows multiple authors and can also allow multiple Web sites to share the same content that will be updated in one place instead of on each individual site.

Chris points out the problem with most CMSs is that they are really only useful to Web people, those who have experience with working with Web sites. WordPress is Chris’ favorite CMS and mine as well. But as I have done more development with WordPress, I see that is does fall short in really empowering content owners in the way that I would want.

A possible solution: “light” CMSs. There are a growing number of these solutions available on the market today. Several of them are free services and at least one of them costs money. One of the reasons that I like WordPress is that it is free, open source software that is continually developed. The price is right for the non-profit organization I work for.

These light CMS solutions contain less features which make them simpler, and I believe, a better user experience for the content owner.

Here are the light CMS solutions that Chris highlights in his article:

  • Unify – Currently in private beta. It is a product of Unit Interactive which is headed up by Andy Rutledge, one of the designers I follow on Twitter and RSS. I was not able to take a close look at it.
  • Cushy CMS – this seems to be the first player in the light CMS. It is a free service.
  • Page Lime – in free public beta. It has a visual editor and reminded me of Contribute.
  • Perch – I really like their Web site and they have great documentation. Perch costs about $57 per domain. You host it on your own server.

Anna Debenham reviewed Perch on this week’s Boagworld Podcast. She has also used Cushy CMS. She pointed out that the major advantage of using Perch over Cushy CMS is that the files are all hosted on your own server with Perch. She had problems with the Cushy CMS server going down which meant the service was unavailable. PageLime is also hosted on their servers.

Cushy CMS, PageLime, and Perch have videos introductions about their service and good documentation to get started. It seems pretty easy to implement any of these three solutions. Cushy CMS and PageLime involve adding classes to your HTML code. Perch involved using specific PHP tags and reminded me a lot of WordPress.

From the little research I did this afternoon, I believe that Perch would be the product that I would choose. Yes, it costs money, but the big advantage is that you don’t have to worry about another server going down that you have no control over. As I mentioned, some of it’s features remind me of WordPress. It would take more technical knowledge to setup Perch. It looks like their templating system is quite powerful and gives more control to the Web designer or developer. But the advantage it has over WordPress is it’s simpler interface for the content owner.

Perch

One final note: I really liked Perch’s site. It has nice texture and illustration. It uses JQuery for some fun animated effects. The birds in the tree at the bottom animate and move into the screen on pages where you can see the footer right away.

Put Your Spokesperson Hat On

Happy July to all. Please put in your schedule to work on your task of being a spokesperson for our mission and your ministry. Affirm your partners and give them vision for the work ahead. Make sure you post your prayer letters as a pdf in your Google Docs and then share that document with the entire team. If for some reason you are not able to get a letter done this week, let us all know when you will, if you need help say so, and if there are specific ways we can join you in prayer let us know that as well. Personally I am going to have to really hustle to make tomorrows deadline. I will pray for you and I hope you will pray for me.

God Changing the Lives of Latino Students

I am currently working on a redesign of destinomovement.com. I came across this video on YouTube which is the testimonies of several Destino students in Texas. The first interview is with Jessica Olivares, who started the Destino movement at Texas A&M in 2006. She was recently honored at the last weekly meeting of the school year for her faithfulness.

I was encouraged when I saw these clips. What a privilege to be part of this project.  I pray will lead to more Destino movements raised up to reach more Latino students in the next 5 years.

Don’t forget!

I failed to mention in our last meeting that in two weeks our update letters are to be ready and out the door by May 8. That means that this week you will want to gather your ideas as to what to share with your team partners to help them experience the journey of our mission. So be on your toes.

Also we have talked about spending a day with the Lord. A few have done this already and I am pleased. It is a great encouragement to me, and I am looking to follow them. Perhaps you are like me and your schedule is quite full for April. Due to previously scheduled commitments, and little time to adjust I won’t be able to take a whole day in April, but I will almost get two half days. If you are like me, do it, and if you can still get a day in do that. I believe God would be so pleased that you would show up for a day with Him. Also, plan your day in May while there is time to clear a whole day.

Remember the Worldwide Day of Prayer tomorrow.

I look forward to serving with you this week. Peace.

Team To Do’s

Thank you for a good team meeting. I appreciate your engagement. A special thanks to all that presented something. Here are few take aways from our meeting:

  • Pray for Anna and Tina as they travel (Anna in Texas, Tina in Fort Lauderdale mission conference), Ian and Sarah Burns as they find their team, and Dan as he connects with his team.
  • Send your personal ministry update to the Burns’ (theburnsatthelab@gmail.com)
  • Select your day with the Lord for April and May and put it in our LAB calendar
  • Be thinking about your next letter to your team due the first week of May (two weeks away)

Another Great Example of Using Information Graphics

I really like these new commercials for the Sprint Now Network. They are both great examples of “information graphics.”

A great book on the subject of information graphics is Envisioning Information by Edward R. Tufte

Next Page »

© 2010 theLAB, the media & technology solutions team for the Campus Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, Int'l.