ELCA News Blog
August 27, 2007
Faith & Values Media acquires the assets of Ecunet
by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News Service
Faith & Values Media, the nation's largest coalition of Abrahamic faith groups dedicated to media production, distribution and promotion, acquired the assets of Ecunet, a nonprofit online network of Christian organizations. LutherLink, an online conferencing network of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), is part of Ecunet. Begun in 1985, Ecunet is home to thousands of forums on subjects that support ordained, lay and denominational staff ministries. The ELCA is part of the Faith & Values Media member association, made up of faith groups, organizations and individuals encompassing Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions in the United States.
According to a Faith & Values Media news release, "Faith & Values Media's digital arm, Lightworks New Media, will enhance Ecunet's functionality by providing new tools and services previously unavailable to Ecunet members. Through FaithStreams Network, Lightworks New Media will offer Web site publishing, podcasting, content distribution, forum discussions and streaming video options."
"In addition to providing a stable, feature-rich platform for the LutherLink online community, our agreement with Lightworks New Media also promises to involve many more of our congregation members in LutherLink, which will enrich the conversations in that network," said Dr. Paul Edison-Swift, Ecunet president and director for interactive media and networks, ELCA Communication Services. "This move will provide the more than 5,000 ELCA members who use LutherLink for public or private group work with the ability also easily to create groups for their local congregation members, such as youth groups, congregation councils or Bible study groups," he said. "LutherLink has evolved over the past 20 years as online communication and the Internet have evolved. This move to the FaithStreams Network is the next logical step in this evolution. We were doing 'social networking' on LutherLink long before the Internet. It's nice to see the rest of society catching up."
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org http://www.elca.org/news ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog