New Media Glossary for Congregational Leaders
Blog: A website or part of a website that publishes posts written by one or more authors. Posts are displayed in reverse chronological order and readers may be allowed to write comments on posts.
- Baseline cost: Free.
- Example: “Wellspring” blog of the First Unitarian Church of Rochester, NY.
- Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Resources: “Best Practices for Unitarian Universalist (UU) Blogging” and “Tips for UU Beginner Bloggers.”
Creative Commons: A system of copyright notation that allows creators of content to designate varying levels of restriction on the usage of their content.
- Baseline cost: Free
Domain name: The online address that corresponds to a given website and is the basis for that website’s URL. Domain names generally must be purchased through a domain name registrar.
- Baseline cost: Varies.
E-commerce: The online buying and selling of goods and services.
- Baseline cost: Varies.
Facebook: A social networking site that allows users to create personal or organizational profiles and connect with friends or fans. Facebook facilitates the sharing of photos, videos, text, and other media. Congregations may find Facebook useful because it provides interactive functionality, facilitates the viral spread of information, and has an intergenerational user base.
- Baseline cost: Free.
- Example: Facebook page of Edmonds UU Church.
- UUA Resources: “Dos and Don'ts for UU Congregations Using Facebook.”
Flickr: A website that facilitates the uploading and sharing of photos among users. Photos can be labeled with keywords. Flickr groups allow multiple users to pool their photos.
- Baseline cost: Free.
- Example: Flickr group of the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, PA.
Gmail: Email provided by Google. A Gmail account is required in order to use some Google services, including Blogger and Google Analytics.
- Baseline cost: Free
Google Analytics: A Google service that allows users website adminstrators to collect information about visitors to their website, including the number of visitors on a given day.
- Baseline cost: Free.
Hosting providers: Companies that rent out space on servers which is used to support websites. Hosting plans may vary by price, space and bandwidth, and other factors.
- Baseline cost: Varies.
RSS feeds: “Really Simple Syndication” feeds alert readers to new posts on a given website. Some blogging software, including Blogger, automatically generates an RSS feed for each of its blogs. Individuals who want to follow multiple blogs can set up an account with a “feed reader” like Bloglines.com and then subscribe to the RSS feed of each blog they wish to follow.
- Baseline cost: Free.
- Example: UUpdates, a website displaying feeds from hundreds of Unitarian Universalist blogs.
Second Life: A virtual world where users can create personal avatars and form communities.
- Baseline cost: Free.
- Example: UU Church of Second Life.
- UUA Resources: “Going to Church in Second Life.”
Twitter: A short messaging service (SMS) that allows users to send short text messages to a large group of readers. Readers may view their messages on their cell phone or on the internet, and may reply to messages.
- Baseline cost: Free.
- Example: UUA Twitter feed.
YouTube: A video-sharing website that allows users to upload and display videos. Users can also respond to videos by using ratings, comments, and other tools. Baseline cost: Free.
- Baseline cost: Free.
- Example: Video by Rev. Michael McGee of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, VA.
Note
For more new media terms and definitions, please see Jacqueline Wolven's blog post, "UU and You Online - Unitarian Universalist Resources Online."
For web development terms and definitions, please see the UUA Glossary of Web Terminology.
Last updated on Thursday, December 11, 2008.
