Communiweb News Nov-2003

WebEasel Contest

As you may have heard during the church service on November 9th, Community UCC, as one of five finalists in the WebEasel contest (details below) was offered a 50% reduction in the cost of the WebEasel license that is currently selling for $1700. That amounts to $850 for a lifetime license (e.g. no monthly fees, ever!) but we need to close this deal by the end of November. In less than 24 hours we raised $835 of the required $850 from members of the Communiweb group and the Communiweb associates (webpage managers). This was sufficient for us to feel comfortable going forward with the purchase. Additional contributions from other members and friends of Community UCC are welcome to help pay the $40/hour installation fee (estimated to take up to 4 hours depending on the complexity of the website and how much our techies can do). If enough money is raised, we'd like to use $300 to buy the extra "calendar" feature.

Checks should be written to Community UCC with "for WebEasel" on the comment line and submitted sooner rather than later because of the deadline of November 30th for paying OJC Technologies.

December 2003 update - additional money was contributed to cover the multiple calendar and several hours of consulting fees associated with installation.

Nature of the contest

[Photo] OJC Technologies Staff and WebEasel Winners celebrate!

The locally owned and run computer/web consulting firm OJC Technologies had a contest to celebrate the official release of their new software WebEasel. Contestants submitted a paragraph explaining why keeping their website current is important to Champaign County. The grand prize was a free WebEasel license.

Our submission said in part: "Serendipity - just as our "Communiweb Group" was looking for an easy way for nontechnical laity of Community United Church of Christ in Champaign to update and maintain individual web pages of www.community-ucc.org without having to rely solely on transient volunteers with technical skills - all of a sudden we discover WebEasel - the perfect solution!

Getting current Communiweb information out electronically is important to Champaign County as it allows engagement of those who would not ordinarily be driving by the church; they can find out what's happening and decide to participate, all from the comfort of their home or office. They can learn in advance about exciting events at Community United Church of Christ, for example, ... Carols and Lullabies - Christmas in the Southwest by Conrad Susa will be sung in Spanish by the Chancel Choir during the Worship Service on Sunday December 14, 2003. In addition, our up-to-date website can alert viewers to opportunites for becoming involved in Champaign-Urbana and Champaign County from hosting the UI students from the United Church Foundation for lunch, ... to joining forces with others to build a Habit house. When one views a static home page of a church, one wonders whether the members are lethargic too! WebEasel will change that image."

Just how does WebEasel work, you ask?

Communiweb still remains on its current server[http://www.community-ucc.org]. The "installation" puts our web pages in a format that is compatible with WebEasel. If you are the manager of your group's webpage, such as Religious Ed, you will be given a password so you can log on to the WebEasel central website and call up the particular page(s). Anything that you are allowed to edit on a given page - such as a paragraph of text, a photo, or a link will have the symbol of a small easel on one corner. You find the section you wish to edit and put the cursor over the easel and it will open up an adjacent window with the relevant text to be edited. Then you can delete words or sentences, delete the whole thing, add text, or add new paragraphs. As you type, you can see how it will look on the web. You can easily exchange one photo for another or add another photo. When you are done, the edited page is "published", i.e. replaces the page that was on the Community UCC website. More than one person can be working on the same page at the same time without a problem and without knowing it. If we can afford to buy the extra calendar feature, unlike the current tedious process prone to errors, it will be trivial to update current events - easily add or modify an entry as soon as the information arrives. Grace Lutheran Church in Champaign, the only other church with WebEasel so far, is able to do just that. [http://www.gracelutherancu.org]

January 2004 update - we held a WebEasel Site Raising afternoon and we hope to be ready for community-ucc.org to "go live" by February 1.