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Cypress, TX 77410

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800-Re-Ecunet
(800-733-2863)
Helper@Ecunet.org

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Contact Info

Faithgroups from Ecunet
A new face, new name, new features... and that's just the beginning!

This past year saw the debut of "Faithgroups from Ecunet." Members who haven't visited the Ecunet Web interface recently may not be aware of the enhancements that accompanied this change. The new interface is more intuitive, easier to use, and sports many new features. These changes are just the beginning of a move toward making our system into the premier environment for people of faith to collaborate and build community online. Of course, our members can still enjoy and use our system just as many always have -- from the comfort of their own e-mail inboxes!

Thanks to a contract with The Episcopal Church, Faithgroups will be expanding and enhancing the Ecunet system for use by the Episcopal community. This extended version of the Web interface will provide many of the features commonly found in groupware, allowing groups and communities to share calendars, improve event planning, share resources, provide interactive content, and build online community. Yet at its heart is the unique and powerful discussion engine that our members have used so successfully. To take a look at some of the planned features, visit http://www.ecunet.org/newsletter/episcopal_specs.html .

Since the technology behind Faithgroups from Ecunet remains a collaborative effort of many denominations, Ecunet members will find most of the features funded by Episcopal community in the next phase of the Faithgroups interface. If your faith group might be interested in its own customized version of the Faithgroups interface, please contact Brian Lang at 281-345-8022.

New favorite interface features
Individual group forwarding, file areas, and improved Webmail

This past year a new Ecunet Web interface debuted with new features and improved ease-of-use. Many thanks to the Ecunetters who worked with us in the meeting "Public Beta Chat" to finish the release! While there have been a number of new features added, below are the three favorites Customer Service hears most about from Ecunet members.

#1 - Forwarding select meeting groups to e-mail accounts. For years Ecunetters have been able to either read discussion groups in the Web interface, or forward them all to e-mail. This new feature allows members to select which groups to read online in the Web interface, or forward to an e-mail address.

#2 - New File and Link areas associated with each meeting. Members may now upload files or list hyperlinks in special libraries associated with each discussion group to which they belong. When new files are uploaded, or new links added, e-mail notifications can automatically be sent to each member of the discussion group.

#3 - Improved Webmail interface. Ecunet's Web interface now automatically provides "draft" and "sent mail" folders for each account, and new mail folders can be created by members to sort and store mail.

During 2005 even more new features and interface refinements are planned. For an advance look at these features, please join the discussion group http://www.faithgroups.com/topic/public_beta_chat .

Rate increase
Full Ecunet membership moves from 8 to 11 cents a day

In order to ensure the financial viability of this online community, the Ecunet board has authorized a rate change -- the first in five years -- from $28.95 to $39.95 per year. When full members renew at this rate they continue to enjoy the ability to create new discussions, to join unlimited groups, and to use the Ecunet mail servers-all for less than 11 cents a day. Those who have tried and appreciated their trial "Ecunet Lite" membership are encouraged to step up now and upgrade to a full membership. Renewing, upgrading to full membership, and encouraging others to become Ecunet members are three ways to ensure that Ecunet continues to provide important services as a faith-related online community.

Revenue generated from this increase will help keep Ecunet running, and will help support continued improvement of Ecunet. One such new feature targeted for further development and marketing in 2005 is the new egroups product from Ecunet. With this product, local congregations, regional governing bodies, and national church offices can have a robust Listserv-style feature added to their Ecunet account. For local congregations, this will mean each church member, regardless of their affiliation with Ecunet, can be a member of e-mail distribution or discussion lists. This new product will also feature a member directory and will allow an administrator to add e-mail addresses of consenting members in a bulk operation.

The rate increase will also allow Ecunet to incorporate the appropriate new features contracted for by The Episcopal Church into the Ecunet system. Below is a brief look at those features Ecunet members will enjoy during 2005-2006:

• Calendar with group dates. The system will include group calendaring that aggregates dates into the personal Workspace. It can export calendar data for import into clients such as Outlook. New group calendar features will include: e-mail notifications of new dates to members of the group; and e-mail reminders of events.
• Polls. A polling feature will allow members of a group to vote in a poll, create a poll if they have permission to do so, and see the results of a poll.
• New group discussion features to include:
  - Digest e-mail delivery of notes. This is a single message that is sent daily that contains multiple messages to that group for the day.
  - Threaded discussion view, where group notes may be viewed by subject.
• Delayed send feature. The ability to schedule release of notes by date (for example, creating a months worth of devotionals and have the system send them out each morning).
• Frequently Asked Questions and a news/announcement area for groups will be available for use by a group's creator.
• An RSS feed module customizable by the group creator (for bringing in news, blogs, or other RSS enabled content from the Internet that might be of interest to the group).
• Improvement of the live chat feature. Upon completion of a live chat, notes can be archived, reviewed by a moderator, and released to the group or to the public.
• Blog module for groups and personal workspace. A blog (Web logs are a method for online journaling) could optionally be available for public view on the Web.
• RSS formatting of group notes. RSS is a standard way of displaying information that is being used to provide news feeds (for example), to other Web sites, PDAs and phones.
• Enhanced search feature.
• Directory hierarchy of discussions.

Discussions about the contents of this newsletter can be found by visiting http://www.ecunet.org/topic/ecunews_chat