The pope connects online
Thursday, May 21, 2009
By Megan Sweas
Comments (2)
It seems impossible to keep up with the new ways Catholics are embracing the Internet. In honor of World Communications Day on Sunday, here are some new Catholic corners of the World Wide Web:
Just today the Vatican has launched Pope2you, an effort to tap into social networking. The pope is not joining FaceBook, Zenit reports, but you will be able to receive messages from him or send B16 postcards to FaceBook friends through a new app.
Another component of Pope2you is "wikicath," basically the pope's World Communications Day message with interpretation below it and links to wikipedia to define terms. I think they missed the point with "wiki" here, which is "a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone with access to contribute or modify content." No indication that users could interact with wikicath, and I doubt the Vatican would want that.
The Vatican is releasing its own iPhone app with H2Onews. Catholics can follow Vatican news on their iPhone through text, video, or pictures. Others have developed a number of iPhone apps (see post).
Pope2you also include his YouTube channel, which is old news, announced with Benedict's World Communications Day message in January (see post).
It seems they've hit all the key places except for Twitter. Since writing about Twitter (see post), I've discovered Tweet Catholic, a useful gathering place for all Catholic Twitters. While many are embracing Twitter, one bishop isn't fond of the "inane chatter," the U.K. Telegraph reports. There might be some truth in what he says, but I like the reaction and "confession" of U.K. Guardian blogger Matthew Weaver:
"Forgive me father for I have tweeted. I've coveted my neighbour's MySpace page, and poked my mother and father on Facebook."
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While I appreciate the
By Robin (not verified) on Friday, May 22, 2009While I appreciate the Church's efforts to reach out via cyberspace, I'm afraid that the design of their websites is, at best, mediocre. I'm a professional web designer, so I'm probably a bit of a snob, but they're using outdated coding techniques that can present significant obstacles for, say, visually-impaired or mobility-impaired users. Search engines may also have difficulty finding information on their websites. And there's very little consistency from one design to the next, and to my eyes, the designs aren't very good to begin with.
For an excellent example of how to do it right, I have to give credit to the Mormons. They've hired one of the best web designers in the business, Cameron Moll to produce consistently elegant, attractive and usable websites. There's an enormous amount of information on their websites, yet they're very well-organized and easy to navigate. And quite beautiful, I'd say.
Clearly, the Church is enthusiastic about embracing new technologies. Perhaps they don't yet realize that the design of those technologies can have a significant impact on their success or failure. Maybe I can send the Pope a quick message on Twitter...
Wikicath
By T. O'Rourke (not verified) on Thursday, May 21, 2009Hey now!
Thank you for all of this wonderful information, Miss Sweas! And you got that right: “No indication that users could interact with wikicath, and I doubt the Vatican would want that.”
T+
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