Famvin.org

From VincentWiki

(This is a first draft)

Overview

famvin.org is intended to serve as a portal to information relating to the world wide Vincentian Family. It is sponsored by the Congregation of the Mission as a means of fostering communication among the more than 2 million followers of Vincent and Louise.

More specifically it serves as a daily newspaper of the Vincentian Family, a repository of historical and current documents( Vincentian Encyclopedia) and place where people can exchange ideas on ministry in the Vincentian tradition as well as learn of new techniques and trends in the use of media in their ministry.

FAMVIN.ORG

FAMVIN.ORG speaks to the concerns of providing both

news and information about how the charism is being lived today
resources for those seeking a deeper grounding in living the charism (the Vincentian Encyclopedia and Vinformation)

It also has the potential for being a tool of collaboration in various form of ministry and collective advocacy on behalf of those we serve.

Purpose of FAMVIN.ORG

The purpose of famvin.org is to use the internet to foster better service of those served by the Vincentian Charism through

knowledge of one another - our similarities of purpose and the complimentarity of our differences of approach, in the words of Fr. Robert Maloney, CM a former Superior General, a "kind of daily newspaer for the entire Vincentian Family".
fostering collaboration for more effective ministry, formation and advocacy

Collaboration presupposes knowledge.

Early in his life Vincent realized that service called for efficient utililization of resources and cooperation.

We each believe in the value of our charism and the unique way we have been reflecting the charism perspective. Ultimately the issue each of us faces is how do we encourage others to walk in our footsteps.

In the age of the internet each of us is seeking how to harness its power so we might continue to serve and serve most effectively. To this end each of us uses email and has established websites.

The issue addressed by famvin.org is that so often the various groups that today carry the spirit of Vincent, Louise and Elzabeth seem to work in "silos", to a large extent unaware of what the other hand is doing.

The charism is richer than any one of our manifestations of it. The advantage of famvin lies in its current size and depth.

Relationship of FAMVIN to websites of individual branches

The aim of famvin.org is not to replace the individual websites of our various congregations but rather to mutually reinforce our efforts.

We all seek visibility and richer content for our sites.

Famvin.org can be a valuable resource for developing material and enriching the content of our sites.

An analogy to consider is that famvin.org is like the anchor store in a large mall that draws visitors not only to itself but to all the individual stores in the mall. "Location, location, location is the watch word in real estates whether real or virtual.

At present each month the English language version of famvin.org is visited by people from more than 160 countries. And then there are the less well-developed versions in Spanish, Italian, Polish and French.

For a variety of technical reasons famvin.org entries bubble up to the top of search results for things related to our charism.

A prime ranking in Google search results is worth more than many expensive mass mailings.

Components of famvin.org

At present famvin.org has three major elements.

News blog (WordPress)
Encyclopedia (WikiMedia - Wikipedia)
VinFormation

Link to Powerpoint exploring the facets below

News blog

The news blog is the equivalent of an online newspaper for the Vincentian Family.

Featured Article - a more significant piece of news that remains at the top of the page generally for a week at a time.
Recent articles - News items are added at a rate of approcimately 2 per day.
Daily Reflections - These reflections are taken from the writings of various key figure in the Vincentian Family.
Featured Videos - Vincentian oriented videos are appearing almost daily on YouTube and other social networking sites.

Continuing further down the page...

Subscribe - Links to receive information from the site in email or other ways.
Older posts - A drop down menu of the archives listed by month.
Visitor locations - A click on this link leads to a larger graphic which show where the visitors to famvin come from and their approximate numbers.
Learn more - This section contains links to VINCENTIANA, the official international journal of the Congregation of the Miss and could just as easily link to yours; the Vincentian Encyclopedia (moree this later); the International Vincentian Formation Center in Paris (and could include a link to the international Vincentian Integration experiece of the Daughters of Charity

Even further down the page...

Tags - These allow one to search according to various topic listed in the "cloud".
Recent Comments - This contains a listing of comments made by viewers about various articles and can serve as the beginning of further dialogue.

Finally continuing scrolling down the page

Vincentian Family events - This links to a Google calendar focuses on current Vincentian Family Events. It is interactive so it can be added to by registered members of teh site. It can also be expanded to view upcoming events. (This could be something you could use to both publixize your events and check out whether a major events conflicts with someone elses major event.)
Headlines from CMGLOBAL reflects the fact that up until this point the Congregation of the Mission has been the sole financial support of this site.

Encyclopedia

The Vincentian Encyclopedia, modeled after Wikipedia and using the same open source software, is intended to serve as a kind of reference library for material of more than passing interest for the more than 2 million people walking in the footsteps of Vincent, Louise, Frederick and Elizabeth.

Highlights

Currently it comprises more than 1,000 articles about us and our charism

It is definitely a "work in progress" but already has attracted significant notice from search engines like Google when it comes to searching for information related to our charism.

By reason of its size one of the key features is a very powerful site-specific search engine. Entering a word or series of words in the search box to the top left of every page is the magic key to finding materials. Just below the search box is a link to "Categories" which amount to pre-configured searches for material related to a specific category.
There is a growing gallery of images which can be freely downloaded and used. Visit http://famvin.org/wiki/Special:Newimages to explore these images in groups of 48 at a time.

There are Spanish, French, German and Polish versions of the Vincentian Encyclopedia in varying stages of development.

In passing it might be important to note the original Wikipedia can be another source of spreading word about our charism. It is well worth our while to searchin wikipedia articles related to us to see what is being said and also to contribute articles.

We could spend a full day exploring its depth and learning how to contribute material. In this workshop we can only touch on the basic elements and pont to appropriate tutorials.

Of interest to participants of the workshop are articles in the following categories:

VinFormation

VinFormation represents the latest project of famvin.

VinFormation is rooted in the belief that adult formation online is different from methods commonly used for traditional students in secondary education settings as well methods used in a classroom situation.

Mission of Vinformation - Equipping Vincentians with the tools of technology for service and systemic change by

1. Showcasing the advantages of technology for formation through;

Sharing the variety of best practices available;

Increasing awareness of learning-style diversity;

Demystifying terminology and concepts surrounding technology.

2. Supporting the adoption of technological innovations for formation through;

Researching emerging technologies;

Assessing the effectiveness of innovations for particular audiences and levels of formation;

Developing games, simulations and other interactive media; and

Offering models/templates adaptable for various audiences.

3. Fostering collaboration for formation through;

Increasing communication necessary for collaboration;

Enlisting and supporting the expertise of charism specialists who develop and present content; and

Compiling a data bank of resources.

Current Elements of VinFormation

Shared stories
Puzzles
History - (note how these time lines can be integrated with the Vincentian Encyclopedia or with material from your sites.)
Systemic Change
Games
Podcasts - See how dePaul University uses its personnel to educate about how mission impacts them

Other features

Quotes
Spiritual Advisors
Daily Reflection
Do you speak Vincentian
First time visitors
Guest book

History

Phase I - 1998 (1998 General Assembly site)

www.famvin.org began life as a tri-lingual site to allow confreres to follow the proceedings of the General Assembly of 1998

In light of his having created in late 1995 the first web site devoted to the Vincentian Family in connection with his work at the Vincentian Center for Church and Society at St. John’s University, John Freund was asked to set up this site.

However it should be noted that this General Assembly site was always intended to serve as a vehicle of communication within the entire Vincentian Family. This is reflected in the choice of it registered domain name “www.famvin.org” chosen by Fr. Pat Griffin, then Econome General.

Fr. Maloney wrote a letter to the members of the Vincentian Family (1) about the Internet site of the Vincentian Family which was opened on June 6, 1998

My very dear Brothers and Sisters,

May the grace of Our Lord be always with you!

Recently Pope John Paul II encouraged those using new technology to "increase the Church's presence on the Internet as a means of proclaiming the Good News in what we call the `Information Age'" (Message to Information Network of the Church in Latin America, March 3-6, 1998).

As we inaugurate this page, I want to urge the many members of our Vincentian Family to employ this means of communication well. Today sharing information is extremely important. It raises consciousness, as the bishops of Vatican II envisioned, about "the joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of our contemporaries, especially of those who are poor or afflicted in any way" (Gaudium et Spes, 1). It is my firm hope that, as we exchange information and creative ideas within our family, we will be able to channel our energies more effectively in the service of the most needy and also to investigate the causes of poverty and formulate short- and long-range solutions for dealing with it.

During the weeks ahead, this page will begin to publish news bulletins about the General Assembly of the Congregation of the Mission, whose theme is "The Worldwide Vincentian Family and the Challenges of the Mission in the Third Millennium." I have asked all our Vincentian provinces to establish an Internet connection so that they can tap into this information, and an e-mail connection so that they can be in contact with one another and with our General Curia in Rome. I hope that all the branches of our family can profit similarly from the information provided on this page as it grows and on the many other pages offered by Vincentian groups.

"On June 20, 1647, St. Vincent cried out very spontaneously at a meeting of the General Council of the Daughters of Charity: "Oh, my God, how necessary it is to have great communication with one another. To share everything. There is nothing more necessary. That is what binds hearts together" (SV XIII, 641).

I can only respond to that: Amen! So may it be among us.

Your brother in Saint Vincent,

Robert P. Maloney, C.M.

famvin.org - 1998 General Assembly of the Congregation of the Mission

Phase II - 1999 (Conscious shift to a Vincentian Family site)

Fr. Maloney wrote to the visitors January 29, 1999

To all the Visitors of the Congregation of the Mission

My very dear confreres,

May the grace and peace of Our Lord Jesus Christ remain always with us!

From January 14-16, we welcomed the heads of some of the principal branches of the Vincentian Family here to the General Curia in Rome. Representatives came from the Daughters of Charity, the AIC, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Vincentian Marian Youth Groups, the Religious of St. Vincent de Paul, and the Association of the Miraculous Medal. One of the themes which we discussed was the establishment of a central WWW site for the Vincentian Family.

1.As a first step towards the establishment of that site, we agreed that all the branches of the family would gather the WWW addresses for all the sites already established by members of our family. For that reason I am writing to you at this time. I ask that you send to me in Rome all the addresses of the sites established in your province. Even if you have already communicated this information, would you please send it again, since the Internet is a rapidly changing and fluid medium. Please note that I am not asking for e-mail addresses, just web pages.

When all this information is gathered from the various branches of the family, we will post it to a central site soon after April 1. Our hope is that this first step of gathering all the sites at one place will lead to a next step of growth, but we will move patiently in this regard.

2.As a second step towards the development of this site, the representatives of the Vincentian Family agreed to explore the possibility of finding some talented Internet persons within each membership. And so, I am also asking you to suggest members of your province who have an interest and some experience in the use of the Internet and its development. Any confrere who would be willing to cooperate on the maintenance of the CM part of the site could be of help. It may also be possible that there is a member of your province who would be capable of coordinating the whole Vincentian Family site. For either of these roles _ as a local coordinator or the overall coordinator _ a confrere need not be a professional, but only someone who has some knowledge and a desire to develop this medium. This service would surely require a number of hours weekly from the confrere, but it would not demand that he move from where he presently lives or works. We would be interested in knowing who such confreres are.

Please send this information to me by February 14 via the Curia e-mail address (md0801@mclink.it) or via fax (if necessary).

Thank you for your cooperation.

Your brother in St. Vincent,

Robert P. Maloney, CM

Phase III 2000-2001

Fr. Maloney wrote a letter of welcome to the site dated January 25, 2000

To the members of the Vincentian Family throughout the world

My very dear brothers and sisters,

Welcome to the web page of the Vincentian Family. Service of the poor is the ultimate goal of this page. With that in view, I hope that it can be a facile instrument of communication for exchanging information about our life and works on various continents, for providing formation materials for our members, for channeling our energies toward common projects, and for enabling the voice of the poor to be heard clearly and rapidly.

This web page is now entering a new phase in its history. On January 17-19, 2000, a Commission for the Use of Internet met here in Rome. In my opening words to the Commission, I asked it to focus especially on the use of the page. There are many sites that we look at once but never go back to again. They are static, unchanging. We may admire them, like objects in a museum, but we will rarely return to visit them. I am convinced that the key to its being used is that our web page would change frequently and that its format would be attractive to the members of our family. In response to my appeal, the Commission has, as a first step, determined to place new materials on the page at least every Monday. Gradually, as more persons and more branches of our family become involved in contributing materials to the page, our site will change much more frequently, perhaps even every day (like the daily newspaper!).

This page aims at bringing together in one place all the information and resources related to the Vincentian Family that are presently available on various sites throughout the World Wide Web. Our family is very large. It has millions of members and exists in more than 135 countries. It includes huge groups of volunteer lay men and women and very numerous communities of priests, brothers, and sisters.

Of course, the Commission needs help. The creation of the page involves an enormous amount of work. If you are interested in volunteering your services and have some experience in working with web pages, I encourage you to contact one of the Commission members or one of the persons responsible for your branch of the family.

If you have information that you want to appear on the web page, please do not hesitate to transmit that too to the appropriate Commission member. The same is true for suggestions about the content and format of the page. The page is yours. We are eager to have your comments.

I encourage you to make our web site your home page, so that when you go online, you will immediately find the latest news about our Vincentian Family. You will find lots of other interesting things too, like postcards to send to friends, fellow workers, parishioners, and students. You will also find, as a help to those working in distant lands, a convenient link to newspapers in your home country and in other countries throughout the world.

I hope that, through greater connectedness, we can be more effective servants of the poor. In a very spontaneous moment during a council meeting of the Daughters of Charity, St. Vincent once exclaimed: “O, my God, how necessary abundant communication with one another is.... There is nothing more necessary” (SV XIII, 641). I hope that our web page can be an active, engaging channel of communication that unites our worldwide Vincentian Family in the service of the poor.

Your brother in St. Vincent,

Robert P. Maloney, C.M.

Superior General

International Famvin.org workshop

The FAMVIN Workshop (8-11 August 2001)

With the encouragement of Fr Bob Maloney CM, site Director John Freund organised the FAMVIN Workshop from 8th - 11th August at St John's University, New York, USA.

The workshop was facilitated by John Freund, CM and Beth Nicol.

Participants

The list of participants at the workshop revealed an amazing breadth of experience and perspectives.

Some 50 people gathered from 5 continents and 15 countries (Australia, Indonesia, India, Madagascar, Nigeria, Italy, Spain, France, England, Ireland, United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Brazil, and Venezuela), speaking at least 5 languages represented 7 branches of the Vincentian family world-wide (the Daughters of Charity, Congregation of the Mission, Sisters of Charity, Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Ladies of Charity (AIC), Companions of Vincent, and the Association of the Miraculous Medal).

Opening Message from Fr Maloney CM At our first gathering we watched a video message from Fr Maloney sent a video-taped message welcoming participatns to the workshop; giving encouragement to let the Internet be of service to our charism and offering us a 3-goal-challenge when designing our web sites:

Know the audience you are seeking to attract
Keep the site simple
Make it attractive, especially to the young

We came together to learn more about the use of the Internet as a means of communication within our Vincentian Family. Some of us had experience designing and maintaining web sites. Others had extensive background in writing skills such as preparing newsletters, press releases and communications. Others had technical know-how with hard and software. This mixture provided a wonderful opportunity to share and learn the complementary skills of technology and presentation from one another. Another major benefit of the workshop came from networking across organizational and disciplinary lines.