Tech Tips for Catholics

The Season of Lent is a great time of reflection, prayer, and growing in our relationship with Christ and with others. Our Eastern Orthodox brothers are doing a great job of helping Christians grow in their faith with an online resource; it’s called OrthodoxSermons.org.

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When I saw a request for a guest blogger for the CNMC, I jumped at the chance to share about my experience. This year the Catholic New Media Celebration was held at the Pastoral Center of the Archdiocese of Boston in Braintree, MA and I had the joy and pleasure of of being able to attend. I also attended last year when it was held in San Antonio. This event was hosted by the Star Quest Production Network (SQPN) and included a Meet and Greet and a full day event.

I have been involved with SQPN for a few years and this community has been so great to me and I have made so many amazing online friends through the social networks with the folks in this community. Going to the Celebration for the second year was great because I was able to meet friends I met in person last year and also meet many people who did not attend last year. The most fun part of going to the CNMC is being able to put actual faces to the Twitter avatars. It was so great to get to meet so many of these friends and have a great time with all of them this weekend.

I came in very late on Thursday night because my flight was delayed an hour because of storms in Boston. Many people who also came in Thursday were delayed. Instead of staying in the hotel with everyone else, I stayed with my friends Jeff and Zina in Cambridge. During the day on Friday I took two tours of Harvard and of Boston and then it was time for the Meet and Greet to begin. I took an afternoon with another family and we walked over to the hotel together (where the gathering was taking place).

The Meet and Greet was hosted by The Catholic Company and there was great food and wonderful friends. The whole event (both Friday night and all day Saturday) were broadcast on Ustream. The computer for the stream was stationary and Fr. Roderick was recording an episode of “The Break” near it. That episode, featuring interviews of attendees can be found here. All videos can still be viewed on the Ustream page found here.

The main event occurred on Saturday. Around 9 am, Mac Barron, of Catholic in a Small Town, made some opening remarks, very much in the style of Steve Jobs (complete with black t-shirt). He presented the fact that SQPN now has 6 gazillion downloads (or some similar crazy number). He also presented shows we currently have on the network and ones that were rejected that are similar such as “Catholic in Da Hood.” Many of us agreed on Twitter (many of us were live-tweeting the day) that although “Catholic Drinkie” was rejected, it sounded like a great idea! So much so that there’s now a Twitter account for it! Mac did a great job and we were all very entertained. He knows how to start off this event very well.

After his talk, Scot Landry, Secretary for Catholic Media of the Archdiocese of Boston, welcomed us. He was followed by Pat Gohn who welcomed us and gave us the layout for where things were in the building. Fr. Roderick then welcomed us and said the opening prayer. Mac then introduced the morning keynote speaker, Fr. Robert Reed of CatholicTV.

The theme of his talk was “Spirituality and Catechesis in New Media.” Main points: The Holy Scriptures are the root of our Tradition and the foundation of our faith, icons make God present, our work makes God present as well and we need to be fed as we feed others. Here are photos of the four gifts. The “Bit-O-Honey” was his favorite candy as a child.

After a break, the sessions started. There were three tracks with a few sessions each: podcasting and blogging and a new track for children. I went to two podcasting sessions and one blogging session throughout the day. The podcasting track featured Cliff Ravenscraft and Fr. Roderick, two of my favorite people. In the first session they explained (with a great Keynote presentation) how the whole podcasting thing works: you record your show on an mp3 file, save it in the internet cloud, upload it to a website, create an RSS feed on the website, submit to iTunes and then listeners download to their player or computer. It was very informative and helpful. They also were able to address questions from the audience and gave a few tips and suggestions for equipment.

After another break, the second session of the morning started. I attended a session in the blogging track presented by Sarah Reinhard. She is a very adorable pregnant lady with a lot of guts (she wore a cowboy hat at the Meet and Greet on a dare)! The Three C’s of Blogging according to Sarah are Community, Content, Catechesis.

In this session, we were seated in small groups and each group had a basket of objects. Our task through the session was to choose an object and decide what kind of blog we could make around it. Overall, it was a great session, and I learned a lot from it. Even if you are very experienced at something, there is always more to learn.

After the lunch break, Lino Rulli, of Catholic Guy Show on Sirius XM Radio and Lino at Large on SQPN, had the afternoon keynote. Anyone that listens to any of his shows knows that he is self-deprecating and hilarious. This talk was no different. He started things out right by entering from the back of the room to the theme music of “Eye of the Tiger.”

Lino encouraged us to explore what we are passionate about. He is passionate about entertaining people and now does it for a living. He told us that all forms of media are art. It takes work to make it successful. Study what works to make it better. He also encouraged us to ask who we want our audience to be and who do you want to reach? Most importantly: “Make it new, fresh, different, quality. Make the name ‘new media’ mean something.”

At the end, he took out his iPad and read some of the mean things that people have posted about him online. He was having trouble managing the iPad and this happened:
Lino: I hate this thing (iPad)
Sr. Anne (from the audience): I’ll take it!

After the keynote, we had a break and then the final breakout session. I went to the final session on podcasting. In this one, Cliff and Fr. Roderick broke down how you put together a show, what equipment is needed and how you set it up. They suggested a website for music and explained the “7 second rule:” start the music loud and in 7 seconds, decrease volume and speak. Your name, title, what show is and the topic at beginning of each show.

Cliff drew what goes into the mixer and where and then they showed it with actual equipment. At the end of show, state ways to get a hold of you and other important information. Use a pop filter for your microphone unless one is built in. Have your show notes in a window on the screen or on piece of paper. A separate screen than the one you are recording on is better. Use Libsyn for hosting and use the RSS feed they provide to send to Feedburner. Add the new podcast in iTunes. It was an extremely helpful session and I learned a lot.

After an hour break, Cardinal Sean O’Malley made some remarks. He is very passionate about new media (he blogs weekly) and encouraged us to do all we can to use it to share the Gospel. Fr. Roderick then gave some closing remarks and ended with a prayer and invited the cardinal up for a blessing. With that, the CNMC was over – it went so fast!

That ended the formal events of the weekend. I had dinner with Jeff and Zina, and then on Sunday went to mass at a church on the North End and did some sightseeing on the HarborWalk and the Public Garden. I went back home Sunday night.

I am so happy to be a part of the SQPN community and am so grateful for all the friends I have met (and have been able to meet in person at CNMC!) through this community. I highly encourage you to check out some of the shows on SQPN because they produce some amazing programs.

Thank you to all the friends that I have met and those that I have yet to meet. I look forward to continuing to nurture relationships in this community. I’m “angelsteph” on Twitter and I’d love to meet you if I haven’t already! I also have a blog titled Steph’s Random Thoughts. For the last few days I have been posting very detailed recaps of each day of my trip and the last one was posted on Thursday.

If you wish to view all 388 of my photos (and a few my friends took), they are all posted on Flickr I welcome your comments on this posts and on my photos.

~Stephanie

Here is a great monologue about some of the opportunities of being a priest today. At about the 3:05 marker, Fr. Barron gives our young (and old) priests the advice of using new media technology to spread Christ’s Message! “…This is a great time to be a priest.”

Fr. Barron comments on The Vatican and The New Media

Fr. Barron on The Web:

• Visit the Official Word On Fire Website
• Subscribe to e ChannFr. Barron’s YouTubel
• Follow Fr. Barron on Twitter
• Become a Facebook Fan of The Catholicism Project

EventStart is a really cool online event registration tool that integrates with social media sites (Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Picasa, etc.)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (July 22, 2008): EventStart was born out of Startup Weekend Columbus, an intense entrepreneurial event focused on launching several new companies within a single weekend. Equipped with an all-star team the company is aiming to create the ultimate event experience for organizers, sponsors, and attendees…

I first learned about EventStart when I went to register for this year’s PodCamp Ohio. Registration was relatively easy and the community aspect of EventStart is great.

With EventStart, you have the capability to schedule recurring events (weekly, monthly, daily, yearly, or any schedule you choose). Not to mention, you can set up different ticket types and add  discount codes! For instance, PodCamp Ohio set up a “Free” ticket entry and several other levels of “Sponsor” tickets (each ticket type listed the perks of being that level of sponsor). EventStart also has built-in forums, blog, and buzz pages. It even has statistic/tracking tools built in. So as you can see, EventStart is so much more than the Event pages of Facebook and MySpace.

There is no cost to use EventStart for Free events, however there is a small fee per monitory ticket sold.

Whether you are planning a Catholic Youth Conference, a Christian Rock Festival, or a Weekly Bible Study, EventStart might be a great way to organize your event.

Below are some related links to this topic:

• FlockNote Beta
• Kindle Beta – Posting your prayers to Twitter
• If you are going to the Catholic New Media Celebration… (or not)

I finally got around to updating iTunes after ignoring the reminder(s) for a very long time. Along with so many other new features, the one that I like most (and this might not even be a “new” feature — that’s how long it’s been since I’ve updated iTunes) is the “Artists” category in the Music display.

Below are some related links to this topic:

• Editing and Creating Shortcuts in Audacity
• HolyRoadies! Christian Music from a Catholic Perspective
• Shrink the Volume Control Panel in XP

Last year or so, I attended the Media & Faith Conference at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio.  The conference featured several well known freelance authors and journalists, a television news anchor, independent video producers, podcasters, bloggers, and students and faculty from surrounding Christian colleges.

These are the only pictures that half turned out from this fun-filled event! I had boughten a cheep B&W throw-away-camera at a gas station on the way there, because I realized that I had forgotten our digital at home : (

I really enjoyed this conference and getting to meet so many new friends. It was also really cool hangin’ out with all the SQPN people!  There were many non-SQPN speakers that were also excellent. Sherry Kennedy Brownrigg and Michael Kreidler were of my favorites.  I also got to hang out with my cousin Ross, who is a graduate of Steubie U, and spent some time in Prayer & Adoration too!

Me & Fr. Roderick Vonhögen of SQPN.com

George Leite of the Catholic Rockers Podcast, Dr. Paul Camarata of The SaintCast, Myself of The Perseverance Podcast, and Fr. Bill Kessler of TechnoPriest.

Me with Jennifer & Greg Willits of the Rosary Army Podcast. If I would have known they were smiling so nicely, I wouldn’t have thrown two thumbs up (which were cropped out of the picture)! Hints why my smile is such a weird looking one : )

Some friends I met from Lancaster, PA!

I finally got around to posting some of the talks from this conference onto the world wide web.  Here is the opening talk by Fr. Roderick.  You can view this talk in its entirety here.

There used to be some of the other talks on uStream, however they have since been taken down, which is kind of sad. I did some searching on YouTube, but the only video that I was able to find was this video by Susan Bailey.

Here is the list of talks that were taken down from uStream: The closing talk with Rosary Army and the open-forum with a pannel from SQPN. “Web 2.0: Challenges and Opportunities” presented by Eugene Gan, David Schaefer, Ruth Lang, Wally Metts. “To Liturgy…and Beyond: Boldly Bringing Catholic Music to the People” presented by Susan Bailey and George Leite. Friday Evening Opening Talk by Fr. Roderick Verhogen.

If anyone has this footage posted somewhere else online, let me know!  I’d love to link to it.

This Saturday (June 27, 2009) is the second annual Catholic New Media Celebration! This year the celebration is being held in San Antonia, Texas.

In case you missed last night’s San Antonio radio interviews about the Catholic New Media Celebration Click Here.

So whether you are attending or not, here are some great sites to follow the festivities, speakers, musicians, and anything else going on at CNMC 2009:

SQPN.com will be the headquarters for streaming video, live tweets, and a place to virtually hang out during the celebration.

TweetGrid.com is a great way to follow multiple #hashtags during an event such as #cnmc09.  If you post any pictures with the according #hashtag via TwitPic, TweetPhoto, yFrog, or the such, a thumbnail of the image will appear within TweetGrid.  Pretty cool!

HashTags.org is a great way to see stats on a particular #hashtag.  Though it does not post all tweets relating to a particular #hashtag, it is a neat way to find other people who are tweeting about specific hash-tags.

Of course there is TweetDeck and other sites that may also be useful to follow live events — What are you using?  Let us know.

You gotta check out the great new series by Busted Halo! It is called “The Princess, The Priest and the War for the Perfect Wedding” and it features Dr. Christine Whelan, author of the Pure Sex, Pure Love column and Father Eric Andrews, a Paulist priest with more than 15 years of wedding experience.

They do such a good job of sharing the faith, and in a lighthearted way.

Some of the topics include:
Why Can’t We Get Married On The Beach?
“The Jerky Priest!”
What Does a Celibate Priest Know About Sex?
How Can We Keep Our Wedding Simple?
Why Can’t We Get Married To The Beatles?
& More!

From over-the-top registries to destination weddings, the American wedding industrial complex is a $161 billion consumer bonanza. But a wedding is more than just a party: It’s the beginning of a life-long marriage, an important sacrament in the Catholic Church. Brides want everything to be to their specifications — and priests bristle at being treated like hired help. Friends and family ask about color themes for the reception, and the priest plies pre-Cana compatibility quizzes. It’s a cultural war, and engaged couples are on the front lines.

What happens when the princess planning her “one perfect day” clashes with the priest who would rather preside over a dozen funerals than one wedding?

Find out in the new BustedHalo.com series, “The Princess, The Priest and the War for the Perfect Wedding.”

If you have a question for the Princes or the Priest, e-mail them and who knows, you might start the next battle.

On March 31st, 2009, Mevio plans to discontinue the sale & support of the recording software known as CastBlaster (which was created by Mike Versteeg, creator of other popular programs like VidBlaster, WinPodder, and Mscan Meteo).  But not to worry, Mike and his company, CombiTech, have been working on a new program called StudioRack.  StudioRack has recently been made available to the public as a free trial download.

If you are using a hardware mixer, StudioRack does everything CastBlaster does and more!

There are currently three editions:  StudioRack Trial (everything enabled but the Load Profile command), StudioRack Audio (does not include the AV Client), and StudioRack Pro (all features enabled).

Note: StudioRack is currently only compatible with Windows.

So PodCasters, give it a try and see what you think.  Post any comments here.  And since StudioRack is in the first stages of public beta, feel free to post any suggestions to the Think Tank on the StudioRack Forums.

Also, make sure you check out Mike’s podcast.

Below are some related links to this topic:

• Editing and Creating Shortcuts in Audacity
• Is your RSS feed valid?
• Shrink the Volume Control Panel in XP

Dr. Paul Camarata did an awesome job on this SQPN iPhone Commercial Spoof!  I saw this a while back, but forgot all about it!  If you don’t know Dr. Camarata, then you need to check out The SaintCast and then check out this picture of Dr. Paul and me.

Visit SQPN and Disciples with Microphones for all the great Catholic Christian podcasts you can get on your iPod or iPhone.