UUCAVA

UUCA: A Church Without Walls
June@JuneHerold.com

The Social Web is Based on:

Online Presence: A UU Version of
Sacred Presence?
It’s the experience of being and making yourself and
your web activities intentionally available to other
people to experience with or without you when they
are in cyberspace. Collectively, these experiences
reveal a community of individual relationships living
out values and effecting change together for the
common good.

I believe it’s the stuff of what I UUCA’s relational
church culture strives to do.

2

The Social Web and UU Principles

• Inherent Worth & Dignity of Every Person
– Without faith in each other there really isn’t hope, there’s no faith
community
• Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our
congregations
– Discussions, comments, Latest Activity box
• Justice, equality, and compassion in human relations
– Online activism
– No isms on the Net
– Micro-financing: New Orleans, Holdeen, Guatamala, Buckingham
• Democratic process for our congregation
– Everyone has something meaningful to contribute

3

paradigm shift
Democratic process: Members publish content, not just staff

Marketing: We/Our Deeds are Our Best Bets for Attracting New Members

4

What do UUCA’a members think of their new online home?

5

Our Site Supports Ministry in Many Ways

Our Ministers’ Pages

7

Supporting Ministry

8

Monday 9/14/03
One day after rolling the new UUCA
site out to our congregation, an
average of 14 members were on the
site and intentionally showing their
presence by being available through
the optional chat tool.

Latest Activity: 9/13 - 9/22

10

Easy Viral Propagation of UUCA: Not Evangelism!

11

The Process
Which platform and why: June 2009 Proposal
• About Ning
– Competitive analysis
• Ning’s weaknesses & Issues
• Privacy
– Friending
– Registration
– Limitations
• How to create a dynamic community online
• Next steps

12

UUCAVA.org: New Web Presence Goals and Benefits
 Member retention/ participation:
Social technology extends church life
online. To accelerate and support
relational congregation. Not in church?
Participate online.

 Relational congregation: Leverages
read/writeable, or Web 2.0, and social
technology without compromising
privacy of ministers, staff and members,
all of whom can now communicate and
collaborate anytime, anywhere. Profiles
enable people to get to know one
another.

 Attract new members & 3rd parties:
Provide participation online as an
incentive to motivate prospective
members to get involved/ to get
invested in the church. Registration
extends community participation to
inquiring, friends, and members.
Registrations must be approved. 3rd
parties for facilities rentals and
alliances.

 Activism and spiritual growth:
They’re supported and enhanced by
smaller versions of the site, or groups,
dedicated to them. (Also, Integrate
micro-financing. e.g.: www.kiva.org)
5/14/09
13

About Ning

• Ning means peace or tranquility, 宁 or 宁 , in Chinese: a unisex
name
• More than 4.7M users on 1M social networks in Jan. ‘09, about
200K of the networks are active, meaning members go into them at
least once a week.
– Size significance: servers for increases in load, minimize downtime
– Size = an indicator of longevity. It buys time if ownership changes
• $500M capitalization. Mark Andreesen, founder/inventor of
Netscape and other successful internet properties is the primary
investor.
• Experienced; seasoned management team
• Never say never

14

Safety and Privacy: Access controls
• Registration: UUCAVA can control who registers
• Feature access: A number of controls can restrict access to specific types of
features. E.g.: The church can elect to monitor and approve all uploaded items
and comments made in discussion boards
• Profile privacy: Registrants can control who can see their profile pages and
other content they create.
• Friending is not necessary: Activity feed on home page does not require
“friending” in order to see what is going on in the congregation online. Friending
is good for creating a list that restricts who can see blogs and other content
posted by an individual. Friending makes it easier to send private messages to
individuals.
• Inappropriate behavior discouraged: There is no anonymity, which typically
curtails inappropriate behavior. All comments and content will be attributable to
a member.
• UUCAVA name protected: Church protects its reputation online because it
controls the site, not members of the congregation.
• Who administers the site? Administrators and editors of the site: The church
can assign to any number of individuals rights to administer the site or to edit
specific areas of it.
– Individuals designated as “Administrators” can remove content anywhere on the site
and also ban members from participation.
• Identity controls: The church and the registrants can decide whether profile
photos of them will appear on their profile pages and also on the site’s home
page.
• Terms of service: Based on ning.com’s terms but can be amended. 15

Questions for Ministers
• What are the opportunities and potential you see for intentionally using
the site in your work?

• Think about your experiences on other social networks or in blogs you
may already have. Compare those experiences to what you see here.
You will likely have questions and comments from the comparison.
Examples:
– Privacy concerns?
– Additional work that will be created by the new site?
– What will the new site make easier for you?

• Will you actively use and participate in the online community?
• How can the religious education program benefit from the new
technology?

• Do you think other UU churches and the association will want to
consider what we do as a model for them?

17

Questions for Staff
• What are the opportunities and potential you see for intentionally using the site
in your work?

• Think about your experiences on other social networks or in blogs you may
already have. Compare those experiences to what you see here. You will likely
have questions and comments from the comparison. Examples:
– Privacy concerns?
– Additional work that will be created by the new site?
– What will the new site make easier for you?

• Will you actively use and participate in the online community?

• Will the new site help you to work more effectively?
• Do you think it will create more work? In what way? Can you quantify it?

• What marketing opportunities can you think of arise because of this new
technology?
• Are there new legal issues with a social site? What are they?
• Who currently knows how to update the existing site? Names and contact info?
• Are the sermons and mp3s on easily accessible CDs or DVDs? Who has them?
18

Competitive Analysis: Why Ning
• Ning provides the best platform for setting up good-looking,
sophisticated social networks with minimal effort.

– Sophisticated means: flexible customization tools; product features that
marry together blogs, forums, activity feeds, multimedia, and publishing
tools. It allows members to create promotions and news-like content
modules -- very easily. WYSIWYG.

– It is based on open social technology which means there are 1000s of
third-party-made embeddable applications to update the site when needed.
Eg: Wikis are coming in July.

• The runner-up, kickApps provides the best platform for integrating
social networking components into existing websites.

• CrowdVine and Haystack are for orgs./cos. that are looking for simple
social networks to improve personalized communication -- IM, email,
blogs and boards.

19

Competitive Analysis cont.

• CollectiveX is good for existing groups that want to collaborate,
which means co-author content such as documents.

• GoingOn provides a new hybrid solution with capabilities of Ning
and KickApps. It’s too new and too small a company to take a
risk with.

• Ning Offers the best solution for allowing networks to break
away from the standard Ning format. You can:
– Disable ads or run your own for $20/mo
– Hide the “Ning” name within the url and remove Ning promotions
for $13/mo
– Access to comprehensive developer documentation and APIs for
advanced customization

20

Ning(2005) vs. Facebook(2004) & My Space(2003)

• Casual Relationships: Facebook and MySpace connect people to
friends and family to communicate and to share entertaining exchanges
online.

• Networks of Purpose: Ning gathers users around common interests,
causes and affiliations. Ning’s platform encourages learning together in a
meaningful way. Because you can control nearly everything that appears
on Ning, you reduce or eliminate the “noise and irritations” of Facebook
and My Space and focus on the interest, cause, etc.

• Citizen Journalism: Ning has a “citizen journalist” air to its presentation,
it echoes that of a newspaper or news site experience. The difference is
that users are creating all of the content. It is that “citizen” quality of Ning
that gives the UUCAVA a democratic air about it.

21

Look and Feel: Warm, Welcoming & Dynamic

Fold

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Ning is Free: Premium Services are Recommended
• Ning’s revenue is derived from advertising: third-party ads and
promotions that drive the creation of more Ning networks

• The basic Ning network comes with free 10GM of storage and
free 100GB of bandwidth. Translation: The church starts out
with a capacity of about 5,000 photos and 500 videos.

• To remove the ads and Ning promotions it will cost:
– Remove ads: $24.95/mo
– Remove Ning promos: $24.95/mo
– Remove Ning from the site’s url $4.95/mo
– Total monthly cost: $55 or $660/year
• When more storage and bandwidth are needed, they can be
added in 10GM and 100GB installments for $9.95/mo.

• Premium services for faster turn-around time on help requests is
also available. The church starts out with a 48-hour response
time. 23

Ning’s Weaknesses
• Registration: Everyone on the UUCAVA network will have a Ning ID.
– It provides access to any other Ning network.

• Limited control of the Technology
– All of us will know that our web home is hosted by a company that don’t
control at all. UUCAVA will have no control of network updates,
maintenance and feature improvements.

• Some privacy controls are set globally and cannot be customized in
certain features. Eg:
– Discussion Boards (Forum): They cannot be set as private to members-only
unless the entire network is set as private.

– No Parental Controls: The only way parents will be able to track all of their
kids’ activities on UUCAVA online is if the family shares one user name and
password.
• Parents must give their permission for kids 12 and under to have a
unique screen name and password.

– Profile Privacy: The My Profile feature cannot be set globally as private for
the default. The church should recommend that each profile be made
viewable only to fellow members. 24

Weaknesses cont.
• Third-party affiliates: Members of V.O.I.C.E can participate only if we allow
individuals in V.O.I.C.E to register and have the same access/participation rights
of UUCAVA members.
– UUCAVA V.O.I.C.E members can set up a Group for themselves though.
– VARUUM Yahoo Group has Rainbow Ministry members from several other churches.
The same goes for them.
• Anything that VOICE and VARUUM do on UUCAVA can be viewable to affiliated members, but
they won’t be able to comment or subscribe to the respective groups.

• Search: Tagging is important on the Photos and Videos to ensure that search
returns credible results from all the content on the site. Items baring the same
tags appear for each other as Related Items.

• Changes in privacy controls: There can be a lag in time of a few minutes to
longer when members change their settings. Everyone should “refresh” the
pages whose controls were changed and possibly clear their browser’s cache.

• Photos & videos: When uploaded to the Gallery they pass through an approval
process. When they are embedded into text entry box for display in blogs,
discussions, groups and comments, they appear immediately without approval.

25

Friending & Ministers
• Concerns:
1. Exposure: Don’t want my personal activity known or confused/blurred
with ministry& inappropriate Comment Wall comments on the My Profile
page.
2. Overwhelming: Can’t keep up with what everyone is doing on the site.
3. Favoritism: If I friend some but not others, then people will be hurt.

• Suggested ways for handling concerns:
1. For you, the site is for your ministry -- nothing else.
– Members Only: Individuals in church member database can participate. If
that includes family, don’t discuss or reveal that which you don’t want known
by the membership or the general pubic if you choose to make anything on
the site that you do available to “Everyone” or “Anyone.” Those two words
mean the same thing. “Anyone” does mean, the general public included. And
Everyone doesn’t mean “Just Members” - it’s anyone.
– Monitoring: In your Settings, on the Privacy page, either choose to approve
comments before they appear, or set viewing to “Just Me” to keep the
comments private. If someone is harassing you with messages, go to their
Profile page and click on the “Block Messages” link under the profile photo.
26

Friending & Ministers cont.
2. Go at your own pace. Do not let the rate of activity control you.
Just browse the Latest Activity box on the Main page - scroll through it to
see “headlines”
Urgency: If something is so desperately important to a member and not
evident by what the Latest Activity box relays, they will send a
message, phone or see you in church.
Blog about Friending and in it say you’ll do your best but there are no
guarantees of response because of time constraints. Say the really
important things should be told to you in person or through messages
or email. (You decide which of the two you want to direct questions to.
Doesn’t really matter since ning will tell you if there are private
messages waiting for you.--Can you establish a folder in your email
inbox into which all ning communication can be directed to
automatically?).

3. Favoritism is solved by Friending anyone who asks you to friend
them
Friend everyone who asks because it will make them feel accepted, which
is central what you do. Not friending is contradictory to the seven
principles. Your behavior and activities on the site will be dictated by
this exposure. You’ll make choices. People will adapt.
Education effort: All efforts to train and educate the membership can deal
with “Online Pastoral Care” for who? The ministers!

Friending Pros & Cons

Pros:
You’ll make people feel good. Friending is “intentional welcoming.”
You’ll be able to see the video, photos and blogs of members who set access
controls for them to Friends. (You’re not obligated to look at them, and
people know this or will learn, as stated previously)
Cons:
Still nervous about friending because “Friends” may contact you too much, and
your Church email inbox will be overwhelmed?
Control which activity sends email to you.
Go to Settings, then Privacy, then email and choose what you wanted to be notified
for.
Your Activities in the Latest Activity Box: Choose which of them you want to appear
in it from the Privacy Settings page. If you want to make occasional exceptions,
turn off or on your individual choices, but remember to revert when you feel the
“reported” activity is old news.
The site Administrator can also remove anything reported in the Latest Activity box. So let
that person know if something should come off. If the Admin reports back that it’s been
removed but you still see it, it’s probably because of your cache.

Global “Friends” Access: You can’t specify individual friends to have access to
your meanderings on the site. “Just Friends” means all friends.

Creating a Dynamic Community
• What it takes to create a dynamic community online
– Imperative: Intentionally Connect Offline Church Life to Online Extensions
• Ministers mention it sermons, group meetings etc.
• Ministers hypertext and use multimedia in the online text of their sermons
• Ministers mention the latest topic in their blogs
• Lay leaders do all of the above
• Go green by sending members to the site. (Paper still should be offered for those
who cannot go to the site.
– Feed a community or it starves
• Be a role model upfront -- upload photos, embed videos, write a blog, start a
discussion and intentionally solicit people to participate
• Pre-population of the site: A site that starts with a big video and photo collection
makes a difference. Music also does. Any content that can be consumed upon
first login and for about 4 weeks and still be fresh for the members works.

29

Creating a Dynamic Community cont.

Upfront time commitment by admin staff/contractor and/or
Administrator
Timely reporting the latest off-line Church news highlights
Refreshing Highlights 1x a week with photos of weekly church life
Taking the time to tag; to write captions for videos and photos
Individual attention to members as they come online for the first time
Intentionally Welcome: A message should be sent either through the
Messaging/Inbox system or posted on the Comment Wall of each person’s
profile page.
Helping people to see how to do an activity or task better or more easily
Leaving another positive or supportive comment for them when their activities
start to appear in the Latest Activity box
General release:
When the site launches to all, the intensive member contact and care will
last for about 3-4 months. Then a routine will kick into place

Misc.

Creative Commons licensing rights
Become well versed in this
Pre-register everyone in the member database
Significant opportunity to jump start the community
Discuss pros and cons thoroughly
Enlist members (adult and teens) for summer content creation
Who are our stakeholders in this effort?
Members
Ministers
Administrative staff
Church as an organization
Trustees? (Shaida Johnston and Desda Moss are in the test site)
Hold on to existing web site. It holds archives of sermons; more uses
Church legal counsel
And counsel is all it is. Lawyers are not gods. They provide advice; they do not dictate
actions.
Check to make sure they know what they are talking about for online issues. Many don’t because
it’s not their area of expertise

UUCAVA

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