Batman and Superman working together

Remember cross-over shows or issues of comics where super-heroes would work together to stop unusually tough bad-guys? That has been the situation here at Word of Life Headquarters over the last two days. Only, this is bigger and better than anything Batman and Superman ever did.

We have had some guys from WMTek (the company that built our new system and is working with us to get it up an running) in Schroon Lake training us and helping us sort through some of the difficulties we've been running into (and some that might come in the future). It's been a very productive time and very encouraging to see their commitment to our success on this front.

One conversation we've been having is about how to help people learn and use this new (incredibly sweet) system. The answer? Use the system itself! The plan is to use the our CMS to build a "help" site for training, ideas, and software fixes. The site will have videos, articles, and walk-throughs and will allow people using the site to ask questions, share ideas, and recomend upgrades.

Live Web Cam

If you're like the rest of America, you're dying to know what goes on inside the WAR Room. In a word: magic. However, we know that a picture is worth 1,000 words and rather than give you a few pictures a day, we've set up an almost-live web-cam feed straight from the WAR Room. Every 10 seconds the feed is updated with live images that are whisked away to your computer screen.

Check out the latest picture in the sidebar. Click on the link above the picture (or click here) to go to a screen that will automatically refresh every time there is a new image to see. We'll rotate the view every few days to focus on different members of the Word of Life web team.

New Superbowl page looking great!

We're on our third day in the WAR Room and we have three quotes on the board (one for each day). We decided we would share with you the wisdom that drives us. So far, here are the quotes:

Day 1: "Get the facts first, then you can distort them as you please." -Mark Twain
Day 2: "The LD-50 (lethal dose) of caffeine is generally 10 grams. That's about 100 cups of strong coffee in rapid succession. Not to worry. Well, er, most of us." -Anonymous
Day 3: "I've got too much blood in my caffeine system." -Anonymous

In other news, I'm posting the first glimpse of what the new Word of Life Superbowl website will look like. Thanks to the genius of John Yarosh for providing this incredible step up from where we used to be on this front. In fact, I'm providing a before and after picture to underline just how far we've come (click each picture for a larger view):

Web Architecture Reboot

As you can see, the Web Architecture Reboot (WAR) Room is all set and ready to go. Since this will be my first full week in the WAR Room, I thought I'd give you a glimpse of our work-spaces and give you a window into the lives of the Word of Life Web Team:



We'll start with Nathan. He likes a clean desk with a lot of monitor viewing space. The key thing to notice here is the red and gray Stewart's travel mug. While only one is pictured here, he owns no less than 4 (with up to three being in the office at any one time). Caffeine (apparently) plays a major role in giving Nathan the passion necessary to meet the challenges of this immense project.


John Yarosh is next. You'll notice that he uses his desk space to lay out things that he is working on or needs to get done (obviously a visual thinker). Again, notice the two wide-screen monitors in front of him. This allows him to work on layout and look-and-feel without having to switch back and forth between different windows. Also notice the MacBook Pro (you can see the screen peeking out from behin his right shoulder) on his right. We all know that truly creative people use Macs...


We'll finish off with my desk. The key thing to notice is the stand on the left (usually used for holding pages that you need to look at for quick reference) featuring a picture of the Mario Brothers dominating some bad-guys with turnips just like they used to do in Mario Bros. 2 (the picture is titled "Turnip Death"). This serves as my inspiration on most days.

On a slightly more serious note, we officially have our new system in the building! It didn't come with a cool box or a flashy intro movie (I guess that's the price you pay when something is custom built for you) but it was definitely a big step. Right now we're working to get the system up and running on our servers so we can kick it into high gear and start cranking out websites. They won't be viewable by the public until our "go live" date of August 1st, but hopefully, we'll have everything built and ready to go beforehand. Then we'll move everything "online" (so to speak) once everything is working on our own servers.

Keep checking back here (or subscribe in an RSS reader or by email) to keep up with what's happening with the Web Project.

Changeover Day

Today is the day that happens every year where all of our 08-09 specific products get set aside and all the 09-10 products get put on the shelf. We've got a great bunch of guys working to make it all happen. We've got Dave, Brett, Matt, and Megan down in the shipping room doing all the physical stuff.


We've got Butch, Melissa, Megan, and Ellora changing over information in our online webstore.



Nobody knows what this guy is doing.


And I'm just following people around with a camera!

Actually, we're all working hard to make it all possible and provide the world with the best youth and children's curriculum out there. We'll let you know when the site is all back up and running and you can order the new products. For now, check out these new products.

D-Day - August 1st

In the last couple of days, we have begun assembling a WAR room. You know how political campaigns, news agencies and the like always create a room which is the central hub for the operation? We're doing the same. We've moved some of our most talented people all in one room together for the next 6 weeks. August 1st is our DEADLINE. On that day, we intend to have all LCM missionaries up and online with a brand new website. IN addition, we hope to also have a brand new overall site for Local Church Ministries. The software is almost completely developed and bug tested.... now it's go time! We'll keep you updated.

If you want to help, here's what you can do... Find your nearest area missionary and ask them, "Have you uploaded all your content for the web guys to create your site?" If they say no, you have my full permission to beat on them and then demand that they go upload their stuff :)