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St. Francis of Assisi
How does one evaluate a Web page for a parish? The answer has some
interesting implications. In this new media of communication that goes beyond
words and all boundaries of locality and idea, we have before us a tremendous
opportunity. The World Wide Web is being used by parishes as a tool for
evangelization, for education, and for keeping parishioners (and anyone else who
is interested) informed. Toward this end, we have come up with a flexible
criteria for evaluating and rating these efforts on a scale of 1 (low) to 5
(high).
Accessibility: Is this site accessible to both parishioners and
newcomers? Does it have an element of hospitality? Does it present its ideas in
simple language, easily understood by a newcomer?
Content: Does the site go beyond the home page, going more
in-depth, revealing the inner core of the parish s mission? Does it tell us more
than the Mass times and the names of the staff?
Presentation: Is it well organized and attractive yet fairly quick
to load? Does it represent some effort at creativity, or does it simply read as
a store catalog? Is the site kept current?
When you load this page, you will get a simple presentation no color, just
links. The presentation lacks some luster, but the links are fairly good. What
follow are connections to their parish mission statement, their various parish
ministries (along wi with some ?click-ables? to send staff e-mail), and some
excellent explanations of what these ministries entail. A lot goes on at this
parish, and the Web pages go a long way to make it all available. When you go
further down the list, you will see a link to the current copy of the parish
newsletter, complete with its own links. There is news from their parish school,
but it is not up to date. There is a regular column from the pastor, and a link
to a picture tour of Assisi. Finally, there is a collection of related links to
various Catholic sites on the Web.
There is much here for the inquisitive browser. How does it rate with our
criteria? As to accessibility, I give it a 4. There is a lot of
information presented, and it is straightforward. The explanations of the
ministries are good. Newcomers could really learn a lot about this parish from
this site, but I wonder if they would come back for more. The site has not been
updated much in the past months. For content, I give it, again, a 4. One
gets the sense that there is real parish vitality here. Their programs are
widespread, and the web site does a good job to explain it all. For presentation,
I give it a 3. Yes, the page loads quickly, but it is all black text with white
background. The only image is a San Damiano Cross, but it is tagged on the end
without context. The links are good and plentiful, but they could go a long way
to spice it up with color and more layout ideas than a simple outline form.
Still, it is worth checking out and is definitely heading in the right
direction.
Bottom Line: 11/15.
Check out these sites:
Holy Family, South Pasadena, California
http://www.holyfamily.org/
Padre Serra Parish, Camarillo, California
http://www.rain.org/~serra/
St. Mary of the Assumption, Hockessin, Delaware
http://www.del.net/org/stmary/
Scott M. Fitzgerald is the Director of Music at St. Paul's Catholic
Church in Owosso, Mich. Scott also works as a composer, freelance writer, and
computer consultant. His homepage on the WWW is
http://www.shianet.org/~orgel.
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