You may already know from my last post, but I am passing the baton of Church 2.0 - the blog, so I can plant a church in Cleveland, OH.  I know, I know "What good can come from Cleveland?"  But I tell you God loves to show up in those places, and I have already seen him at work there.

As I step off to start a church, would you give generously to support our effort?  We want a killer web presence and we can do it well for significantly less than the tech industry at large can.  For $5000 we will have...

• Professional Logo and Graphics
• Professional Layout and Website
• Media Hosting (Vimeo, Podcast, etc)
• Online, Facebook, and Google Ads
• Customized Micro-sites and Missional Social Networks
• ChMS system for event check in, online tracking, and online giving
• TheCommon.org to meet needs within and outside the community
• Personalized Social Networking Tools (CSS Code)
• PhotoShop and Video Editing Software
• Mobile Applications (iPhone, iPad, Android Apps) 
• Business cards, postcards, and letterhead

Through our online presence we will mobilize and invite people to enter into the Kingdom of God.  If 200 generous people would give just $25 this project would be fully funded.   Consider supporting us by planting a cyber-seed of $25!

Isaiah 32:8 says.. “Generous people plan to do what is generous, and they stand firm in their generosity.”

Thank you in advance for your generosity!
Kevin Rush [www.planterinthemaking.com]

TruthCasting is a website that will allow you to host your sermon video's for free.  Now they are offering you a customized iPhone app that will show up on iTunes for a small fee.  Check it out.

Call Recorder for Skype is by far the best little add-on that I've seen to use to record interviews via phone call through Skype.

It's $15 and it's for Mac only.



PowerGramo does the same thing for Windows users and it's free.

More and more churches are evolving from podcast to vodcast (video podcast). If that includes you check out MetaX, it's a really simple and effect FREE meta-data tagger for mp4 files and their derivatives like m4a audio files.

Basically after you've edited your video and your ready to upload, you just drag and drop your file on MetaX and the above dialog box opens. You can change the tittle, the artist, the genre and just about any other category you can think of. You can even add a copy write, episode url, keywords, a brief description and cover art to give your vodcast a nice polished look.

And the best part is when your done adding and editing the meta-data, you just click the write button and you'll hear a cow moo when MetaX is finished.

It's only for mac but they did just updated to Leopard. So if your a windows user you could try Jaikoz . The downside is it's $30.00 and probably more powerful then what you really need.

Now that my podcast review over...

• Churchy Media: FOUR 1/2 out of FIVE Stars
• Jesus Geek: THREE 1/2 out of FIVE Stars
• Geeks & God: FOUR out of FIVE Stars
• Creative Synergy: FOUR out of FIVE Stars

And we are gauging interest on a C2.0 Podcast.

What Podcast are you listening/watching?
[Technology, Leadership, Ministry, Sermons, etc.]

So here's the big news...

We are thinking about starting a podcast. If we do start it the premise would be...

TEN minute interviews
with ONE Pastor
sharing ONE Tech-Tool.

Interested? Vote!

TAGLINE/PURPOSE: a relevant resource to inspire and influence church leaders

AUDIO/VIDEO: Audio only

CONTENT: Great stuff

FREQUENCY: Approximately once every three months

DURATION: Average 35 minutes per episode

CRAP or QUALITY: Quality

NERD FACTOR: Newbie to Tech-savvy

NICHE: Worship Leader, A/V Director and Lead Pastors

SPONSORED: Easy Worship

Creative Synergy Podcast: FOUR out of FIVE Stars. Great episode on Copyright in the Church. Multi-site campus, worship planning/preparation and church marketing are other topics covered. My only reservation from giving this five stars is having to wait so long between episodes. This is a top notch podcast.

To subscribe to this podcast go to www.creativesynergypodcast.com find recommended podcasts in the right column of C2.0 - the blog site and click on Creative Synergy.

TAGLINE/PURPOSE: A podcast that educates and encourages technology in Christian ministry.

AUDIO/VIDEO: Audio only

CONTENT: Great content

FREQUENCY: Weekly

DURATION: Normal Episode run 1hr, Mini-casts run 5-10 minutes

CRAP or QUALITY: High quality

NERD FACTOR: Mainly speak the novice to Tech-savvy spectrum, however they do some technology evangelism to Senior/Lead ministers who are clueless.
[Check out their upcoming conference]

NICHE: Those interested in having a GREAT web presence for their church.

SPONSORED: No, they take donations.

Geeks & God Podcast: FOUR out of FIVE Stars. Great content, these guys really know what they are talking about. They are very knowledgeable and do a great job of helping church's and ministry out. If you are considering using Drupal for your website, these are the guys to talk to. My only suggestion is for the Geeks & God Podcast is to get back to making some more 'mini-casts'. Although their podcast episodes are great, they run a little long. Most people don't have an hour to sit and listen and/or are to A.D.D. to do so. Keep the good work up!

To subscribe to this podcast go to www.geeksandgod.com find recommended podcasts in the right column of C2.0 - the blog site and click on Geeks & God.

TAGLINE/PURPOSE: Jesus Geek: technology news and how-to’s for the connected Christian. 10 minutes of technological TNT and spiritual know-how pumped straight into your brain. Jesus Geek is a member of the My Life Ministries Network: a community of ministries that views the everyday Christian life as a ministry and seeks to encourage Christians in their daily walk with Christ.

AUDIO/VIDEO: Audio only

CONTENT: Mac Mondays, Tech Tuesdays, Wired Wednesday, Thurs How-to's, Friday Basics

FREQUENCY: Daily

DURATION: Average Episode runs 10minutes

CRAP or QUALITY: Definitely Quality

NERD FACTOR: Newbie to Tech-geek

NICHE: Anyone interested in technology

SPONSORED: not sponsored at this time, but it is apart of the Tech Podcast Network

Jesus Geek: THREE 1/2 out of FIVE Stars. Good stuff... big props for keeping your daily episodes to 10mins. It's very difficult to deliver a daily episode and still have good content. 9 times out of 10 the Jesus Geek delivers. The only comment I have to the Jesus Geek is you need a tighter niche market.

To subscribe to this podcast go to www.jesusgeek.info or find recommended podcasts in the right column of C2.0 - the blog site and click on Jesus Geek.

VIDEO/AUDIO: Both

CONTENT: Very helpful/practical videos, solid audio episodes.

FREQUENCY: Weekly

DURATION: Average for Video Episodes - 5minutes.
Average for Audio Episodes 25 minutes.

CRAP or QUALITY: High Audio and Video.

NERD FACTOR: Novice - Tech Savvy

NITCH: Anyone using [or who wants to use] Audio and Video in their Church service or gathering. Those in Worship, Media, A/V directors.

SPONSORED: Collide Magazine, Sermon Player

Churchy Media: FOUR 1/2 out of FIVE Stars. To subscribe to their podcast go to their website [here] or find recommended podcasts in the right column of C2.0 - the blog site and click on Churchy Media.

Next Podcast to be reviewed: Jesus Geek

This week I'm starting a series reviewing Podcasts that help ministries utilize technology. I will follow this series with a poll and an announcement, stay tuned.

Review will include...

VIDEO/AUDIO: Is it a vodcast, podcast, or both.

CONTENT: Is it good stuff or are they rambling?

FREQUENCY: duration between episodes
[days, weeks, months, random]

DURATION: 15-30 minutes is the sweet spot.

CRAP or QUALITY: Evaluating the audio and video.

NERD FACTOR: Who should listen; newbie, novice, tech-savvy, tech-geek.

SPONSORED: some podcasts are sponsored by the product they are recommending.

NICHE: Do the have a target demographic?
[Worship/Music, Pastors, Web-design, etc.]

After this I will give them a rating [5 stars being the maximum]

Podcasts that will be reviewed:

• Churchy Media
• Jesus Geek
• Geeks & God
• Creative Synergy

None one likes re-runs:
Don't just podcast sermons,
create fresh new content

Reasons Why?

• Fresh- unless your nationally known speaker or someone missed the worship service they aren't going to subscribe to your podcast to hear you talk for an hour. By creating new content you will give them incentive to subscribe.
• Discipleship - make a short podcasts to further the sermon or call them to action. Or use podcast to distribute small group/house church videos for discussion.
  
• Ministries - make short podcasts highlighting ministries and/or testimonies.
• Events - promo events, concerts, do interviews, etc.
• Free Music - have a musicians [in your church] give their songs away.

Tip: Get some young creative types to help you brainstorm ideas.

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]
---------------------------------------------------------
In what ways are you and your ministry reThinking how to use podcasts?

Post video episodes,
not audio [if possible]

Why?

• Visual learners - [read my thoughts here]
• Traffic - video is king on the internet right now [read post]
• Online Video - in addition post the videos to YouTube/Viddler
  [Viddler allows chapters/comments similar to a track on a CD]
  

Tip: if you aren't very visual in your teaching style, learn! It's the 21st century.

[Part 1] [Part 2]

With some nudging from Chad I have decided to post what I calling 'reThink podcasts' [original posted on my personal blog]. This three post series are my suggestions for podcasting in ministry as well as my reasoning for it. Let's get started...
-------------------------------------------------------------

Instead of 30-45 minute podcasts,
think 10-15 minute
[even 5 minute]

Reasons Why?

• A.D.D. - 20mins is the avg attention span
  [sometimes 20mins is pushing it]
• Commute - people spend 50mins in a car each day
  [avg trip being 10-15mins]
• Workout - they're working out, not taking notes.
  [keep lectures in the classroom]
  
• Focus - this makes the communicator hone his/her communication skills.
  [Get to the point no rambling]
  

Tip: If you are podcasting your three point sermons - break it up into three separate episodes.

Are you looking for a site to host your [sermon] podcast for free? May I suggest Gcast.

Pros

• Easy to post and use
  
• Easy to subscribe via iTunes
• Post audio directly from your phone
  [great for quick ministry updates]
• Easy to embed a player & subscribe links into other sites
  

Cons

• Only allows MP3 files [does not accept MP4 ACC files]
  
• Audio only [no video or pdf publishing available]

Here is my [Kez] podcast, below I have the player embedded.




Other podcasting services that are worth looking into...

• Sermon Cloud
• PodBean
  
• Odeo
• Or build one using a blog and Feedburner [see here]

If you need help signing up/setting up your podcast let us know.

Due to the closing of Yahoo Podcasts, I have stumbled on a few articles and blog posts that suggest that podcasts may decease in the near future.

What do you think?

The next few weeks we want to collect some data concerning Podcasting via a web poll. Here is the first of many.