IT and Church: Russian Orthodox Church develops standards of its presence on Internet

The Russian Orthodox Church has elaborated a “Standard of Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Eparchies on Internet”.

The “Standard” covers recommendations on the eparchy’s official website: spec’s variant, detailed subject headings, website’s technological aspects, examples of website’s management systems, forms of integration with social networks and blogs. Particular attention is turned to content of official Internet resources for eparchies.

According to the “Standard”, the eparchy’s official website is to become the key website to provide resources on the church life of that specific eparchy.

“Corporate website” principle could become an optimal variant for structuring the eparchy’s portal. The official Internet resource is to contain detailed information on the eparchy, its projects, events, and unlike a promo-site, it needs to provide comprehensive data reinforced by videos and photographs, and also various navigation technologies, including search services, archives.

As the process of shaping information work on Internet meeting the requirements of the “Standard” will take much time, the Synodal Information Department is expected to question eparchies on the project’s implementation half a year later — in May 2012.