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New 'Beta' Version of Covenant Website Available
CHICAGO, IL (May 2, 2006) - A "beta" version of a completely redesigned
Evangelical Covenant Church website was unveiled today to give
Covenanters an opportunity to explore the new site and provide useful
feedback as the finishing touches are applied.
To visit the beta site, click on the "New Beta Website" logo just above
the news report on this home page, or select the link in the text
accompanying the logo. Then, make certain to complete the brief survey
form and tell us what you think of the new site and what suggestions you
may have for further improvement.
"There are a number of enhancements reflected in this construct," says
Don Meyer, executive minister of Covenant Communications, who observes
that this represents the third significant change in graphic appearance
of the home page over the years, but is the first major structural
overhaul of the website since its inception in the late 1990s.
"When we constructed the website, we were faced with a basic choice,"
Meyer recalls. "We could have taken the time to develop a more
appropriate architecture and structural framework to house content, with
content developing more slowly, or we could provide various departments
and offices the freedom to post lots of content within a fairly
unstructured website, which would accelerate the pace of content
development. We chose the latter option, knowing the day would come when
a better framework would be put into place. That day has arrived."
For many individuals already familiar with the Covenant website, the
sense of continuity within the new site may be the most apparent change.
For others, it may be the improvements in navigation that allow visitors
to move more freely within the site and return to key locations more
easily. Key to this is addition of the Google search engine, considered
by many to be the industry standard. However, due to technical
restrictions, the Google engine will not search content in the beta
version of the site – it points instead to the current version of the
website.
"Content will be expanded and refreshed at a faster pace than ever
before," Meyer says, thanks to the new content management system
inherent in the new system. This allows individual departments and
ministry areas to directly update and add content on their pages at any
time, eliminating the need to channel changes through a single individual.
Other enhancements include:
- Covenant News RSS feeds. This allows local Covenant churches and
conferences to position news on their own home pages that originates on
the denominational website.
- Searchable resources – and an expanded resources database.
- A new jobs posting feature that will contain employment
opportunities available at denominational, conference, and local church
levels.
- A comprehensive events calendar including denominational and
conference events.
- A new look – and an individual page for each local Covenant church
listed in the church directory.
- Addition of an "email to a friend" option, an improved "print this
page" function, and a more comprehensive site map that provides an
alphabetical listing.
"We are indebted to the good work of our Internet Services manager,
Heidi Griepp, in giving leadership to this effort, ably supported by
members of Team Glue, representing every department, office and ministry
area," Meyer notes. Appreciation is also due the members of the Covenant
Information Systems department who developed much of the newer
technology incorporated into the site, Meyer added.
"It is also important to honor the contributions of Covenant web
pioneers Steve Bilynskyj and Joel Pearson," Meyer adds. Bilynskyj, a
Covenant pastor, developed several basic web pages for the denomination
in the mid 1990s. Pearson, who joined the Covenant Communications team
as its first Internet Services manager in 1999, developed the first
comprehensive website for the Covenant.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
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