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Entering the Secular Webisphere

written by Blake Atwood
Wednesday, December 20, 2006

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When there’s no place for the church to enter into the conversation of the city around it, why not just create it yourself?

Using Pligg, an open-source CMS reminiscent of digg.com, I created iFoundGeorgetown.com, a free community website that’s user-driven and user-created. It’s only been up for a day, and I just finished sending out notifications to friends in my town, but I’m anxious to see if this site will be used, and to what extent.

I created the site because nothing like it exists in my town. There is no ‘one stop shop’ to find out about restaurants, or businesses, or churches, or events, or all of the above. It is my hope that people (who are unlike me and don’t spend hours in front of a computer screen) will find the information, reviews, and opinions to be beneficial.

If the site takes off as I hope, it will be interesting to see what types of posts are the most popular. It’s not the most scientific way to see what kind of town you live in, but it would certainly tell you something if posts about the latest movie receive more votes than a post about a church’s Christmas Eve service. (Then again, what if the movie’s The Nativity Story ?)

Also, since the web is so voluminous, those who would never give a second thought to a church service never have to while browsing the web since their searches will seldom randomly cross a religious subject. On my city portal site, news of upcoming church events can sidle next to an update on who might be performing at the local bar. Add the ability to open discussions on any post and you have quite an open marketplace of ideas. (FYI: A post for a church’s Christmas Eve service is currently residing under the “Unpublished” tab at the right side of the site).

I’m excited about the possibilities.

And many thanks to open-source developers everywhere, especially for Pligg. I would never have been able to pull off a site like that by myself. And for those that want to know, getting the site set up and somewhat customized only took a couple of days.

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2 Responses to “Entering the Secular Webisphere”

  1. Very cool….my mind is already turning about possible applications for us as a church…

    BD

    Ben Dubow December 20th, 2006 at 10:40 am

  2. Blake - very interesting. I run a community portal for believers in our county (ChristianCruz.com), and have been thinking a lot about a more generic portal for our county. I ran across Pligg just a couple days ago and was thinking about possible usages for a geographic portal, so your post was timely for me.

    I’m curious as to how you will react when stories that might have content which is contrary to the Christian faith get top billing. My instinct would be to do nothing, but I’m curious to know you you see it.

    Frank Johnson December 23rd, 2006 at 2:31 pm

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