Specing out a Web site within Drupal is a lot of work. I'm finding that I almost have to build the Web site first, before I can confidently write the spec. Anyone else have that experience??
I’m in process of doing a ton of research and testing in an attempt to put together a church distribution. I’d appreciate any comments/critiques/recommendations. I even have some unanswered questions that perhaps someone can answer.
The requirements for this church Web site are below. My comments/questions are in parenthesis underneath each listed requirement:
Esthetics (an attractive design)
o (I’m using the ‘Image’ and ‘Image Asst’ modules. I’ve not had good luck in the past making these modules work in the past. I may possible need assistance. I also referred church client to www.templatemonster.com for a design, or design ideas. I’ll then find someone to design and integrate the theme. I’m open for quotes from good themers.)
Interactivity
o (I selected the following modules: CiviCRM, Organic Groups, Invite, User Points, Buddy List, Subscription. I could have recommended several of the other OG modules, but I’m not sure about the interplay between OG and CiviCRM. It seems there is lots of overlapping functionality, which I haven’t figured out yet. Which OG modules should I use? Do they cause any interplay conflicts with CiviCRM? Also whats the difference between the Invite module, and User Referral module?)
Event Calendar
o (I selected Events, Event Repeat, Event Volunteer. There were others that I would have chosen, but they don’t seem to be upgraded to 5.x. In fact I’ve been advised by one Drupal Consultant, that the Events modules are likely to be abandoned in favor of CCK Events (whatever that is). There are many interesting modules that interplay with the Events suite of modules. I’d like to use all this functionality, but not sure how to get all these modules working. There is also the question of CiviCRM and the interplay between the Events suite of modules. Any thoughts on this??)
Conference Registration and payment system
o ( I’m using a 3rd party registration service: www.prestocart.com. I see that the e-Commerce modules were just upgraded, but I’ve never worked with them, and since they were recently upgraded, they may still be buggy. Conference registration needs to work reliably, so I’m waiting until these modules mature.)
Conference information section
o (I thought Organic Groups would enable me to create a ‘Conference’ section on the Web site. I’ve never done this before, but based on the OG module description, it seems plausible. Any thoughts?)
Advertising
o (I selected the ‘Advertising’ module. This is a 5.x beta module. I’ve never used this module, so I hope there are no surprises)
Donations
o (I selected the ‘Donations’ module. . I’ve never used this module, so I hope there are no surprises)
Directions to the church
o (I think I’ll use a custom ‘Block’ on the Home page displaying a simple graphic for directions. I have only a vague idea of how to do this. Any tips are appreciated.)
About Us
o Pastor
o Church
o Mission/Vision
(These are simple text page nodes. But what do I do if I need to vary the page format. Is this a use for ‘Panels’? A module I’ve never used…)
Other nice Modules I added…
Scripture.filter
o (Now that I’ve figured out how to use this module…I love it. How could any Drupal Church Web site not utilize this module? I’m not sure how I would change to a different online bible, in case my reverend prefers a different online bible.)
CountDown
o (Using this module to count down the days until the conference. I’ve used it before. I think its great for creating a sense of urgency and getting people to register. I wish I could modify the color and font of the display. I also wish it continue to count down, rather than requiring a page refresh. I think the countdown would be more compelling if the site visitor could physically watch the time continue to decrement.)
RSVP
o (Allows site visitors to RSVP for an event. This is one of those modules that interplays well with the Event suite of modules. Why is this module not being upgraded? It seems like a wonderful module. Is it being obsoleted?)
Context
o (I thought there was a ‘Context’ module, that links commonly occurring words/phrases together for social networking purposes. My research continues. For example, all profiles which contain the phrase “Democratic Party’, or ‘NRA’, or ‘Harvard University’would be automatically linked to one another respectively. All these profiles would presumably want to be linked to one another-though they may not know one another. After all, a church is a social network. I’m finding that most of the social networking concepts apply. So far the only one I’ve left out is “Hot or NOT’. Maybe eventually I’ll even add that one in)
Comments
size and style
it's tough to do a one size for all distribution for churches. There are small churches that don't need much, medium size churches that want more, large churches that want a lot, old school churches that can use cool looking but don't want their community online, and new school churches that want the online community.
I think it might be best to have several distributions.
Have you looked at WYSIWYG functionality with something like TinyMCE and the IMCE module for images with that?
What you are describing is a fairly specific setup for a church and seems less like that of a distribution. Many of the churches around me don't have conferences. It's typically the mega churches. There are other things that seem to target mega churches.
I see them as just a small segment of the churches out there and they are the ones with the money to have someone take the time on it. Maybe a distribution would be better for a church that's small and can't have a web guy on staff. Have you thought of their requirements?
Just my 2 cents for the day.
I agree with you mfer
My own interest is in trying to get older churches to make the leap and try out Drupal because I want them to eventually grasp the idea of an online community (not one that replaces their f2f community, but one that enhances it, and attracts new members to it).
But you have to start with where people are, not where you want them to be (this is kind of a basic principle of evangelism, whether its religious or technical). So, I tend to focus on helping them get their collections of static web pages migrated. At the same time, though, I don't want this to be too entirely easy for them, because I actually want them to have to encounter the potentially disruptive nature of the technology that is being offered to them, and respond to it.
In the recently completed first phase of my church's migration, we deliberately took custom coding and graphic design off the table. I started out not knowing anything about Drupal (although knowing a fair bit about technology in general, and in a sense "believing in" its transformative power under the right circumstances). So, I had to build a site that the church would like, and feel inspired by, with entirely "out of the box" features.
I'm fairly pleased with the result. You can check it out at www.metunited.org. People seem to like it, and church members are starting to get stoked about having blogs, and participating in online discussions. Interestingly, the modules I wound up installing are almost exactly the ones that were initially proposed for inclusion in the "Drupal for Churches" distribution. Take that as validation of the initial list, I guess!
Participation in online community
Unfortunately many people are not ready to participate in online community yet. Only small percentage of people that use the internet create blogs and even participate in any social networks. My experiences with build community sites for churches is that people like the idea of online community but are scared to participate. They like to see what the pastors of the church have to say but many still do not post to their own blogs. I do think that these tool will become more effective with the younger more web savvy generation but I have found that the main body of the church is not ready to embrace the concept. I think to fully leverage the technology of drupal for a church you must have the church staff behind the idea and committed to updating their content and using the technology. With the example of the church using the technology the congregation will become more comfortable and start to participate.
David Buchanan
www.westwinds.org
you can try to find a
you can try to find a template at http://toxictemplates.com their free
It is an interesting *sell* to make
Churches and other non-profit religious organizations are a strange lot.
Some only want a web site cuz .... they want a web site. They don't realize the work involved nor the goals they are trying to achieve.
Others want a new web site to update their look and feel. They aren't even caring about adding anything to it other than make it look updated. And they still have no goals.
Finally, some are on the edge (at least as churches go) and they want alot. They have goals. They have vision... and they have the backing of the leadership.
But ultimately it doesn't really matter what Drupal does--- it matters what the client wants. So I just look for ways of using Drupal to make the client a better web site. This gives them a platform to do alot more than an old-school web site could ever hope to do. Using Drupal for a simple web site is a much better use of time and money than either a straight html site OR buying software that they will never embrace. This is the beauty of open source software. Great quaility- Low Price.
I have 2 ciients right now that are going in opposite directions: one has hired someone to do their web site- they will be stuck with all sorts of integration problems and they will never really have a unified web presence both from a look-and-feel prospective nor from a data prospective.
With the other client, we are starting to use Drupal to bring new functionality to their web presence and one by one, we will combine 3 different web sites( Joomla, oscommerce and a custom app) into a single Drupal instance.
GBU!
Do the simplest thing that could possibly make a difference
I finally got around to writing up the academic paper about my experience with my church's website. In the process, I discovered how a lot of the decisions we made were aligned with the principles put forward in various Agile Methods texts: eXtreme Programming and Scrum, mainly. I wholeheartedly agree with both audiocollective and davea-getting a mature non-profit organzation like an old, mainline church (my situation) to adopt newer community building technology is hard, because it means adopting new ways of thinking about community which are entirely unfamiliar.
We found that the various Agile methods worked wonderfully well in moving things forward. The story continues, and we're just now at another critical point where the core leadership group is being challenged to intensify their level of participation in the online community. They might actually turn out not to be ready for it. But even if they're not, they still have a site that is good as it is, and will be ready to spring into action for them when the light of participation does go on.
That's one of the principles of XP and various other Agile Methods - recognize that not everything you try is going to work, so make sure that if it doesn't, you didn't blow the entire budget trying that one thing, and that you still leave the organization with a working website that all agree is better than what they had. That's just a less elegant way of saying one of the core principles of XP: do the simplest thing that will both be accepted and that will make a positive difference. Trust in your ability to add complexity and features later if you need them. You may still want to include a bunch of extra modules in your church distro, but maybe not necessarily enable them until the need for them is clear.
Thanks for all the input
Much of this has proved true as I work with my current client. Trying to get them to embrace blogging, social networking, and community has been difficult. But I think they will do it. I think the younger generations will lead the way.