There are quite a few blogs that I follow on a daily basis.  Keeping up with friends and family as well as trying to stay sharp in the area of technology and communications.  One of my favorites is a blog called ChurchCrunch.  Because of that, I’m pumped to be a guest blogger there today.

Maybe not the most exciting article unless you’re into video, but it’s cool to get to contribute there today.

I recently updated my personal home page and when I was finished, I recommended the same format for my friend and leadership mentor, Dan Novak.

The graphic in the background is a social network diagram – one of Dan’s specialties as he consults with churches and other companies that want to improve communication and cooperation across their organization (If you were a part of our West Campus, you’ll remember that he did this sort of thing with our group before we launched).

I’m sure that we’ll end up doing more with his site in the future, but this is a cool start.

This past week I finally got around to updating Josh Whitehead’s blog, and I think it turned out pretty nice.  It’s the same basic theme that he already had on there, but I spruced it up a bit.

You’ll need a wide-screen monitor to get the full effect.

I’m a rather huge fan of the Faith Promise Internet Campus.  We’ve added a third service at 9 pm, and this online ministry continues to gain momentum.

The ministry happening online continues to blow me away.  Just this weekend:

• People were connected from four countries outside the United States (Canada, the Philippines, Nicaragua, and El Salvador).
• One family connected from their hospital room the day after their new baby was born. (Yay, Crass family!)
• One family connected while traveling on vacation to Disney. (I think to make the rest of us jealous.)
• Our worship staff connected while traveling home after the roads were closed on their way back from a mission trip in NYC.
• I spoke on the phone with someone who gave his life to Christ three weeks ago while watching the iCampus and now wants to follow up by being baptized.

And that’s just the stories I heard about this weekend.  Many others attend anonymously until they are ready to take the next spiritual step.

My favorite part of the iCampus is that although the staff has provided this tool, it’s people leveraging their social networks via email, Facebook, and Twitter that has spread the word.  If you haven’t already, you’re help letting people know about this would be appreciated and could even make an eternal difference in someone’s life.  Just make sure that you include http:// so that the link will be clickable, and posting right before or during an online service is the most helpful.

To those of you who already play a part in spreading the word and who serve online as volunteers… thanks so much!  You guys rock!

Last night I realized that it was time to update the KyleGilbert.com page.  In the photo above, you can see the old design and the new design format.

I like how it turned out for a few reasons:

• Larger and bolder fonts
• Clear focus on content
• Super monkey-huge photo
• Red hair

The new format is highly borrowed from flavors.me, and I would highly suggest it to anyone who’s looking for a cool and easy portal-style page.

A few months ago, I had the privilege of working with Jason Davis, a local photographer, on the redesign of his blog.  He and I collaborated on the design, and I built out the site.  It features a huge area for content and lets you add a comment without having to reload the post (something I probably need to add here).

If you’re looking for a photographer in the Knoxville area, you need to check out his site.  You’ll see that he does some first-class work.

Some of my favorite freelance website and graphic design website work I get to do is for Tamra Novak and The Cashmere Bouquet.  Unlike most of my clients, I always wonder if the design is crazy enough.

The image above is a small piece of the front and back of their new business card that they hired me to design.

Not trying to hurt anyone’s feelings, but I personally hate websites that feature background music.  Don’t get me wrong – I love music.  There’s just an appropriate place for it, and it’s not on your website.

Here’s a scenario: you’ve finally gotten the kids to bed and you’re enjoying the quiet evening, browsing the Internet, when… BAM!  Your silence is shattered, and it sends you flying for the volume control.

At home is bad enough, but the office is even worse.  Especially if you have a shared office environment (like I do).

This very thing happened to me on Monday.  I was going to pick up dinner for Aaron Goin and his wife who have a newborn, and I was checking a local restaurant’s website for their phone number and menu.  I was looking things over and pretty much settled on chicken fajitas and the Pollo Supremo when suddenly and without warning… the office filled with mariachi music.

The good news is that everybody liked the song (the guy’s laughter is contagious), and we’ve adopted it as the Office of Awesome theme song.  We’ve started a tradition of playing it each day at 4 pm.

If you want to hear it, swing by the Office at 4 pm sometime, or you can listen to it here.

This weekend I had the opportunity to put together a really cool website.  Sacred Storm is the dramatic Easter production that our church has done for the past few years.  I’ve not personally watched it, but from the photos and the testimonials of my friends, it’s pretty amazing.  This year, we’re doing Sacred Storm the weekend before Easter (six productions), and if things go well in the development of our Internet Campus, we’re going to rebroadcast it the afternoon on Easter Sunday – probably 3 pm EST.