ROME: 24th April 2006 -- For those who do not know the
story, Vidimus Dominum, other than its Johanine reference, is a
website that first came into existence nine years back after a
gathering of young Religious in Rome. The first director of the site
was a Salesian, Fr Carlos Garulo. To make a long story short, the site
continued, had its ups and downs, transmogrified
from a 'young Religious' site to a site for Consecrated Life.
At one stage it became an association with certain rights and duties
and financial dealings, but wasn't doing too well with its financial
dealings! A Salesian once again landed up at the controls, (Fr
Scaramussa) with the strong backing of Fr Chavez who believed in the
site for its witness value. The recommendation was made that the USG
and UISG, the two world-level Religious Leaders' Bodies actually take
over the site jointly, in terms of giving it financial backing but more
importantly, by finding a way to revivify its operation.
An energetic Spanish Dominican, Fr Sariego, took up the challenge.
With the
help of an ex-religious now working in the info tech area, and a good
deal of native savvy, he brought
the management and technology of the site into the 21st century. He
gradually called a group around him. That group involves a Salesian
once more.
The difference in approach involves an
Open Source option, thus ruling out one element of cost; the site was
built using a content management system known as
Joomla. This is a distributed
system not centred on a single webmaster, but with levels
of access and editorial possibilities. You can simply view the site if
that's all you want to do. You can also register and then
interact with the site - for example, registered members can add
comments to news
items. A small group has publishing rights. The Salesian involved,
for example, has those rights. That means he can publish news items
from his own desk at home anywhere in the world. But any registered
individual may also submit news which goes through a quick editorial
process before being accepted for publication.
This distributed process plus the fact that the site is in four
languages means that you will not always find the same news items in
each language. The requirement of translation has been done away with,
the other main cost factor besides software. In the case of news
stemming from the Salesian ambit, often
enough the same news item can be put up in English, Italian, French and
Spanish since our own news service already translates into those four
languages.
Our Rector Major has forwarded a letter from USG/UISG which
requests the broad support of all Congregations and Institutes of
Consecrated Life. He encourages Salesians around the world to support
Vidimus Dominum as a reference point for Consecrated Life. You
have the
URL above. You are encouraged to take
a look and to register.
If you wish to comment on this news feel free to do so at BoscoWiki
austraLasia page.
GLOSSARY
transmogrified: transformed. This is
humorous coinage, so the background to the word is unknown.
savvy:
commonsense and intelligence
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