Another online church campus just launched this month, for Judd Wilhite's Central Christian Church in Henderson, NV. Its found at http://www.centralonlinecampus.com/

(in the interest of disclosure: my company, 360Hubs developed the backend for CentralOnlineCampus)

There is a lot going on in this space!

As part of my development of our site(s), I have done a significant amount of research into the Jewish world's usage of Web 2.0 features, and I think we are ahead of most. Here is some of what we are doing:

Our website includes weekly postings of original, Op-Ed length essays by our leaders and scholars on topics of interest to the Jewish/Israeli worlds. We include "talbacks" (reader comments) on our articles, some of which draw large responses.

We post educational material, as well, including complete course syllabuses.

We stream and host video lectures from our scholars and leaders both onsite and offsite. I have used Blip.tv for full-length videos, YouTube for short ones (we were named 2nd most-viewed Israeli non-profit on YouTube), and Jewish video sites Yideoz.com and JewTube.com for additional distribution (although both sites have their technical issues).

To upgrade the quality of our videos, which had been single camera plopped in front of a seated lecturer, we hired a professional cameraman this summer who intercut and edited the videos, as well as added intros and credits at the end. We have had interest in these from a Jewish cable TV network in the U.S., as well as placed these on an online Jewish Internet TV network.

We have done video-enabled distance learning to rabbis, teachers and community leaders in North America for 5+ years via dedicated, non-Internet lines. We are transitioning this fall to online video via Ustream.tv and/or Mogulus.com. Some of our courses are for small groups, so we will keep those streams private for a while before making the recorded videos public.

I started an offsite blog for our site - hartmaninstitute.wordpress.com - to allow us to use some Hebrew, to enhance search, and to give a less formal view of our activities.

I am working - with some frustrating lack of success - to launch an iTunes podcast audio and video versions - although I suspect the problem is more my lack of understanding than anything else (help appreciated!).

We have purchased URL's that correspond with the names of some of our leading individuals - donnielhartman.com, and rabbihartman.com (not surprisingly, davidhartman.com was taken), and are building individual sites for them.

We also are working on enhancing the Wikipedia entries others have created.

We are developing a Facebook strategy, as well. I use my FB page (Alan Abbey - real name - please ask to friend) to promote our content and videos, and have created a FB group for a group of North American rabbis studying with us. I regularly place our material on related Jewish/Israeli FB groups, as well as promote through Twitter. Several of our groups use Google or Yahoo groups, as well, and we are working to bring those under our umbrella (or at least to link to them).

We are weaker than I would like in social networking, however. Our existing audience is older than the standard online audience, and we are slowly making headway.

All this is not to say we are doing the best job in the Jewish world. There are some better-funded, and larger organizations with intensive Web operations. We are probably, however, one of the better organized "mainstream" Jewish organizations online (i.e., not Ultra-Orthodox, not "messianic" Jewish, and not "New Age-y."

I would love it, of course if you were to look at our ops and review, comment and critique. I could use some advice!

Regards,
Alan Abbey
Shalom Hartman Institute
Jerusalem, Israel

PS: I am the founder and former owner of TVMama.com, which probably failed - in part - because of your synchronous launching of last100.com. I am in frequent contact with Steve O'Hear, but I wouldn't presume on that relationship to get attention on R/WW. AA

To others: if there are other religious organizations doing great things with web technologies, please leave a comment here for me to check out.

They are strategically anticipating tomorrow's church, a place where the iGeneration will feel comfortable and engaged. Since online relationships are normative for people under 25, it only makes sense to design spaces (and apps) that will serve them best.

Good to see so many celebrating the work of a pioneer ministry embracing the web.

Not only do they stream a live feed online- they also have multiple churches across the country synced up via satellite feeds. Their installed A/V gear is pretty cool. And their video production quality is top-notch.

And once you get more involved locally, you'll find church leaders working in small groups with their own blogs, Facebook pages, YouTube/Vimeo/Blip channels, and more.

Very cutting edge for a church!

Pretty forward thinking in web terms..