austraLasia
1538
The wider world of
Consecrated Life: check out http://www.vidimusdominum.org/
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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