Why Social Technology for Our Church's Online Home?

Hello! This blog post explains why we have adopted social technology as the foundation for a new online home for our church. I have been working with Bill Peters, Church Administrator; Desda Moss, a Church Board Member; several members of the church's administrative staff; and Rev. Mary, specifically. We've had about 65 testers over the summer of 2009 on the site to experiment and to recommend improvements.

Ning is the platform upon which this site is built. For more about Ning, see ning.com. Registration to UUCA Online is restricted to individuals who are in the church's member database. It includes people who are Inquiring Friends, Friends and Members.

Why a Social Technology Platform for Our Church?
Social technology powers what is more commonly known as Social Networking, which My Space (2002) and Facebook (2004) popularized. The technology is now employed for many applications other than just relationships between friends and family. These networks are "relational" by nature but use the word "social" to convey the same meaning: members of the network create the experience or control the nature and direction of them. How do they do that? They create discussions and blogs; upload content such as videos, photos, music and documents; and they decide who participates in the network - whether it's private, public or a combination of both.

When our church talks about its "relational" culture, it means, in an online context, that we are a "social" congregation. Not social as in fun and games, but social, as in, how we learn and grow together from each other's experiences and knowledge. The online tools and environment just make it incredibly easier to do that -- from anywhere and at anytime. This means: If you cannot attend church in the flesh, for any reason, you can still participate in church life. The unique aspect of social technology is that it effortlessly allows people to share and create knowledge. And with privacy and access controls, we can do this in a safe way. Our online presence can be extension of church life; not a replacement.

The business and professional worlds already understand this. Board certified doctors collaborate on cases through Sermo.com. Meanwhile, LinkedIn.com, perhaps the most well known of the career networks, connects professional and business contacts across nearly every industry that exists. And then there's Finance 3.0, where accountants crunch together. Schools are adopting the technology to meet their needs: K-20 students collaborate with each other and teachers on Elgg.org, Saywire.com and Uniservity.com. These learning-based networks increasingly are becoming vital aspects of online schooling for all levels of education. Finally, small businesses and non-profits use social technology for acquisition and retention marketing, meaning to attract and also keep existing customers, donors and members.

The internet is no longer just about information. It's about knowledge creation, which fuels many aspects of individual and collective growth. Spirituality can be one such aspect. And, in fact, it is for a number of churches that have begun to employ the technology to bring members of their churches closer together and to enable the churches to attract new members.

In 2006, Ning.com launched. It enables anyone to create a social network for any purpose. Ning is the platform behind this prototype site for UUCAVA. The tools are free if you accept the advertising that Ning runs on the network you create. However, for about $300 a year, you can remove the ads. That's what we've done on this prototype site. And for a few dollars more, all references to Ning are stripped out, including in the web address of the site. The idea is for our church to do just that. What's the total annual capital cost of operating this site: Less than $700, excluding any customization of the back end (under the hood) technology. If the church decides to buy more storage space on Ning, there'll be an additional charge as well. But it will be minimal and, really, it most likely will not be necessary.