[CS-FSLUG] Christian FOSS News/Portal Site

[Don Parris]

On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:31:07 -0500, Josiah Ritchie <jritchie at bible.edu> wrote:
> On Tue, 2004-12-14 at 11:38 -0500, Stephen J. McCracken wrote:
> > I would put in a word of caution here to make sure we aren't
> > re-inventing the wheel.  If we can have extra content that's not on
> > Slashdot and the others and have links to the other news sites, as well,
> > then I say fine.  But if we just want our own playground to put up the
> > same stuff that's already on the other news sites, then I would say no.
> >
> > Don's idea sounds good (if I read it correctly) as a supplement to the
> > other sites, but with a Christian slant.  If we can stay with that, then
> > I think it would be good, but if we just try to do what the others are
> > doing I would say no.
> 
> I agree. I grow weary of finding the same articles posted in multiple
> locations. I then simply begin thinning my news feeds to ignore such
> sites. Originality is important.
> 
> JSR/
> 

In my own view, we would focus specifically on Christian FOSS project
news, but include a few articles from other sites that might pertain
to churches.  For instance, while we wouldn't ordinarily carry
articles about OpenOffice, we could include an article about the
upcoming 2.0 release.  That impacts churches directly.

I think most of our articles should focus on news, ope/ed, and how-tos
regarding FOSS technologies that impact the Church directly (or fairly
so).  Moodle is a FOSS educational portal that deserves a review, for
example.  We can all cite many examples of Christian FOSS projects,
many of which have no way to "advertise" elsewhere on the web.  People
need to know about Lyricue.

We should also consider doing an occasional who's who article.  I
think that Troy Griffits, et. al., from the Sword Project, (among
others on this list and elsewhere) deserve some recognition for their
advanced work in the FOSS arena.  BibleTime was started roughly ten
years ago (or more).  Without them, we'd have to build from scratch. 
They've already done that.  They really laid a foundation for the rest
of us to build on.

I don't know the history of this list (how long has it been around?),
but there are good stories to tell in the midst of all the news.  Case
studies, need to be offered up.  Maybe we can even develop some
statistical info (money saved by churches, number of churches
using/switching to FOSS, etc.).  There's an awful lot that can be done
without replicating news from other sites.

I also agree that we need to tie into sister sites.  I've listed
previously the sites I consider to be the "forefront".  RSS Feeds
would be appropriate.  Sounds like a cross between a newsgroup and an
RSS feed would be innovative technology for sure.  We should see if
the other sites will carry the newsfeed from this news/portal site. 
The portal links would consist of the sister sites and individual
project sites, such as Lyricue, OpenLP, etc.

I think we also need to get the word out to Christianity Today, and
other mags that carry a large Christian readership.  Other
organizations need to be made aware of what's happening as well. 
Perhaps the larger denominations, etc.?  Anyone care to take a stab at
that?  If anyone's gotties to the Mozilla project, maybe they could
tell us who to talk to, press-wise.

James mentioned a possible January launch date.  I'm thinking late
January or early February.  Is the Slashdot format cool with everyone?


-- 
DC Parris GNU Evangelist
http://matheteuo.org/
gnumathetes at gmail.com
Free software is like God's love - 
you can share it with anyone anywhere anytime!