Sun 22 Feb 2009
OrthodoxSermons.org "2.0" is in the Works
Posted by Andrew Mitry under OrthodoxSermons.org, Web/Tech
[6] Comments
Last May we started thinking about the next version of OrthodoxSermons.org, we took comments from our users, studied the market, did some of our own brainstorming and put together a wish list. We spent six months getting quotes from vendors and evaluating “out of the box” solutions. We narrowed all the possible options from a list of 20 to 3 and then with some intense comparison and prayer we were able to select Mustardseed Media as a ministry partner for the development of OrthodoxSermons.org 2.0. There are a few things that stick out about Mustardseed:
- 99% of their work is done for Christian Churches & Ministries
- They support the online Christian technology community via their podcast community Geeks & God.
- They are a Drupal shop and are active contributors to the Drupal Community.
You are probably wondering, what did make the final cut on that wish list for OrthodoxSermons.org 2.0? Here is some of what you can look forward to:
- Improved navigation and search. Sermons will be categorized and tagged. Transcripts (if available) will be searchable.
- Ability for churches and organization to upload their own content and feed their content back to their own sites via RSS.
- Support for attaching transcripts of sermons, users can volunteer to transcribe sermons.
- Full audio and video podcast support, compatible with iTunes/iPhone/iPod as well as site wide RSS feeds and RSS feeds on all tags.
- iPhone based site for browsing from mobile Safari.
- Audio and video of sermons can be embedded on your own site, also can be shared by emailing to a friend.
We started the development process a couple weeks ago and are making good headway, we are hoping for launch around the beginning of 3rd quarter, 2009. If you want minute by minute updates on the development process, I suggest you follow us on Twitter: @amitry, @mustardseedinc, @rob_feature, @suydam.
A few of the early mockups:
Home
Sermon with video and audio
Sermon with only audio
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:05 am
Dude! Mockup looks awesome!. Looks as you guys will have an fantastic new site soon. Looking forward to seeing the launch.
February 23rd, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Thanks Darrin, yea I am excited, can’t wait for launch!
March 4th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
It would be an honor and a privilege to do some transcription work, and/or to help edit existing transcriptions. That’s been one of my big “please-dos.”
)
March 21st, 2009 at 12:09 am
I think this looks like an awesome site in the making. One thing I would recommend is a rating system. Therefore, people can rate sermons after hearing them on say a scale of 1 to 10 and then people looking for the best sermons (e.g. time constraints and can’t listen to many) can sort via rating among otherthings.
March 21st, 2009 at 8:12 am
Fady, I think a rating system is really practical… but I think it would also hurt priest’s feelings… don’t you think?
March 21st, 2009 at 2:01 pm
We thought about a ratings system, but considering that all sermons are (should) be inspired by the Holy Spirit, we didn’t feel that was appropriate. We figured that the most applicable sermons could be found by looking at the “Most Popular” category.