UMCom launches syndication service for church Web sites
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The Rev. Larry Hollon |
April 18, 2005 By Linda Green* NASHVILLE,
Tenn. (UMNS)—The United Methodist Church’s communications agency is
introducing new syndication formats that will enable local church Web
sites to make the latest denominational news available more easily. United
Methodist News Service, a part of United Methodist Communications, and
UMC.org launched a series of “syndication” tools April 18 that allow Web
designers and site visitors to customize the display of articles and
news generated by the agency. One
such tool—called “RSS,” or real simple syndication—enables designers to
provide fresh, updated content without sending the reader to another
site. UMCom
launched the Internet-based service in response to daily requests from
webmasters and designers for ways to tailor articles generated by the
denomination’s official news agency. Several syndicated offerings were
already available through UMCom, and the news service and UMC.org are
working to develop more on a regular basis. The new syndication formats, available at
/interior.asp?ptid=1&mid=7120 and /interior.asp?ptid=1&mid=2324,
go beyond earlier tools that required clicking on a graphic and being
directed to a Web page. Updates are made in real time on local church
sites as new headlines are posted to umns.umc.org, and the formats let
local church Web designers tailor the presentation. UMCom
designers say constantly updating local church Web sites with new
information, stories and articles is the best way to keep and grow
readership. The
United Methodist New Service will offer a variety of free syndication
options: RSS feeds, text and image links, as well as a tool for local
church webmasters to build syndication based upon their own needs. A
webmaster can remove Web-based formatting and manipulate information
without changing content for display in ways compatible to the local
site. Each time umc.org or umns.umc.org is updated, the local church
site is also updated. The
syndication tools were developed to better serve local churches that
might not have the staffs or budgets to update their Web sites. The
tools also give up-to-date news about the worldwide denomination. The
new formats also will benefit “bloggers”—or people who write online
journals called “Web logs” about events, social issues, news, etc. A Web
log is chronologically organized, with the latest entry appearing at
the top of the page. It is updated by an individual or group of people
using personal commentaries, ideas and stories typically written in the
first person. Bloggers can run RSS feeds into their blogs to receive
fresh information on discussion topics and the latest headlines about
the United Methodist Church. RSS
and “dynamic” syndication “allow more people access to the stories of
the church and they allow more people to pass those stories along to
others,” said the Rev. Larry Hollon, UMCom’s top staff executive. “This
has the potential to greatly increase the visibility of the church and
allow it to tell its stories to many more people,” said Hollon, who
keeps his own blog called “Perspectives” at http://homepage.mac.com/larryhol/iblog/index.html. United
Methodist News Service, established in 1940, offers a wide range of
media services through its Web news desk: news and feature articles,
background information on current issues, weekly digests and commentary
and an extensive photo gallery. A multimedia agency, UMNS provides
stories in print, TV/video, audio and Web formats. *Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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