Sam Peckham, Feba’s new Web Developer, has been working on a new Feba UK supporters’ website. Here’s an inside look directly from Sam: “I think the keyword for the new site is ‘interaction.’"

"With the new website Feba supporters will see, hear, read and watch what is going on in the Feba world through video, audio, photos as well as traditional articles.

Since my appointment at Feba in late March, I’ve been fully involved in planning and strategising for the website, along with the Feba UK New Media Working Group. To create a visual design of how the site will look, I used an art package on the computer and sample content from the current website. We critiqued three different designs, before settling on one to develop further. Then my real work began - to transform the ‘picture’ of the website into a real working website. And that is where I’m at now, right in the thick of it.

The new website will include key things, such as: improved design, better navigation, more content, easier online giving, better description of Feba projects and new church resources.”

The Future of New Media

“I think the future of New Media in Feba means two things for us. Firstly, audience engagement, I’m thinking of our supporters as well as our listeners. With ever developing technology, the world is changing rapidly, information is going online, communication is by text message or email, rather than pen and paper. The demand is for a more multi-sensory experience. This new site takes some of the first steps to move in this direction.

Secondly, New Media has potentially a huge impact on how we create, store and distribute our content. Today, nearly all of Feba’s broadcasts are created and stored digitally on a computer somewhere, rather than on cassette tape. If this can be collated and centrally stored, it could have a greater potential to reach others who speak the same language, but are dispersed across the globe, using the internet and connecting them back to their home country, and potentially raising further support from them, for operations on the ground. It means greater co-operation with our partners and potential new partners, enabling us to share our knowledge and experience of broadcasting.”