Slides which accompanied a day long workshop focused on helping a group of year long Catholic volunteers -- St. Joseph Workers -- imagine and build portfolios to support their vocational discernment and development.

1. Building digital presence
a workshop for the St. Joseph Workers
St. Paul, MN
15 February 2016

2. welcome!
• caveats: flexible, honoring
time, respecting participation,
learning together
• LV 19:1-2, 11-18 (ten
commandments, don’t bear
false witness)
• MT 25:31-46 (corporal works of
mercy, communication as a
human right and responsibility)
• Pope Francis’ “World
communications day 2016”
message

3. Emails, text messages, social networks and chats can also be
fully human forms of communication. It is not technology which
determines whether or not communication is authentic, but
rather the human heart and our capacity to use wisely the
means at our disposal. Social networks can facilitate
relationships and promote the good of society, but they can
also lead to further polarization and division between individuals
and groups. The digital world is a public square, a meeting-
place where we can either encourage or demean one another,
engage in a meaningful discussion or unfair attacks. …
Pope Francis

4. Communication, wherever and however it takes place, has
opened up broader horizons for many people. … The encounter
between communication and mercy will be fruitful to the degree
that it generates a closeness which cares, comforts, heals,
accompanies and celebrates. In a broken, fragmented and
polarized world, to communicate with mercy means to help
create a healthy, free and fraternal closeness between the
children of God and all our brothers and sisters in the one human
family.
Pope Francis

5. the journey forward…
• why? (why build a digital presence)
• where? (where can you build)
• what? (what content should you include)
• how? (basic advice and some rules to follow)
• when? (sustaining a presence, building good habits)
• co-laboratory time together

6. why build a digital
presence …
• a way for people to find you
• a way to build context for your
work intentionally
• no longer a choice, but easily
an opportunity
• the web is our new “white
pages”
• context collapse is
problematic
• you need to expand your
news sources
• a response to God’s calling

8. be aware…
• context collapse
• authority, authenticity, agency
• personal and collective, rather
than public and private
• be communicative and
relational, rather than
commodified, “branded”, or
“status-hungry”
• don’t bear false witness, seek
to embody mercy

10. where can you do
this?
• facebook.com
• linkedin.com
• academia.edu,
researchgate.net
• digital repositories
• blogging (wordpress)
• of course, there are others
[about.me, wix, weebly, twitter,
instagram, pinterest, tackk,
etc.]

11. building a cloud presence in social media

12. building a cloud presence through archiving

13. building a cloud presence through blogging

14. institutional digital presence

15. what content to
include?
• resume (include a pdf version)
• samples of your work
• references
• interesting tidbits (volunteer
work, passions, etc.)
• only pictures you have taken, or
CC-licensed images
• choose based on your personal
“mission” statement and goals
• and perhaps…

16. how…
• protect and regularly maintain
a professional email address
• develop a basic, enduring
(static) starting point (linkedin
or your own website are
probably logical choices)
• regularly collect and curate
examples of your work
(slideshare, scribd, school
repository, etc.)
• save, save, save! investing in a
portable hard drive is a great
idea for ongoing backup

17. some security tips
• update your software
• fix your passwords, use two-factor
authentication where you can
• use a password software so that you
are using different passwords on all of
your sites (1Password, for example)
• check your apps (general, privacy,
location services) and turn off location
services you don’t need
• don’t play with quizzes on Facebook
• clear your browser, make sure you are
entering anything financial on an https
page
• don’t open attachments to email unless
you know they’re safe!

18. some profile tips
• curate your photos
• respond to tag requests, don’t
accept inappropriate ones
• pause, reflect, think twice
before posting
• share as a way to build context
• know your privacy needs/
settings
• be intentional about curating
your newstream!

19. when…
• make time for building and
learning from your digital
presence
• balance carefully with all else
that you are doing — don’t let
it “take over”!
• use social media as much to
listen as to express (consider
using a newsreader)
• try to practice “contemplative
computing”

20. a co-laboratory

21. wordpress.com
• versatile, open-sourced
software for developing
dynamic/changing websites
• accessible via the web and
mobile devices
• free, or via subscription for
more advanced capabilities
• great track record (both in ease
of use and durability)
• great support available

22. make an outline
• what are the primary chunks of
meaning you want to share?
(eg: “about me” “experience”
“education” “examples”)
• do you have a primary theme
you want to convey? (a
vocation in justice, for
instance, or a life lived
reflectively, or a library of
references)
• what content do you have
easily at hand? what will you
have to find or create?

23. set up an account
• know which email address you
want to use
• choose a user name (oblique is
great)
• choose a title (this might be the
same as your username, but
could be clearer)
• create a password
• choose a theme
• get started!

24. first steps…
• try out an initial post
• remember: posts are listed in
reverse chronological order,
and appear as a stream while
pages are more static or
enduring, and can be included
in a navigation menu
• pages can hold posts, but
posts can only link to pages
• practice inserting media

25. next…
• figure out what primary pages
you want
• set up a navigation menu
• choose which information to
highlight by including directly,
and which you want to link to
(eg: on a references page you
might want to list specific
references but not include the
letters, or you might want to
simply note “references
available upon request”)

26. resources
• a guide to using wordpress
with nonprofits
• NTEN (nonprofit technology
network)
• #ChSocM : church and social
media blog/hashtag
• Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Creative Commons

27. what else? questions / concerns / insights

28. references
social media revolution video: https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=9O1sIXlv2nI
wisdom in the age of information video: https://vimeo.com/
105692521
pope francis’ 2016 world communications day message:
https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/
communications/documents/papa-
francesco_20160124_messaggio-comunicazioni-sociali.html
all photos/image captures by mary e. hess

29. more information:
meh.religioused.org
mhess@religioused.org