The Washington Post has sent a memo around focusing on their Ten Web Principles. The basic thrust of their principles is that the newsroom exists as much for their web product as the print newspaper. Apparently, there has been some friction in the newsroom over changes made for their website.

Time Magazine issued a similar memo a few weeks ago saying the expect their staff to contribute to Time.com the same way they contribute to the magazine. The memo said, “evaluations of every Time writer, correspondent, and reporter will be based on the quality and quantity of the contributions each of you makes to both the magazine and to TIME.com.”

So, I’ve sort of ignored the iPhone hype up until know, but I thought I would post a few comments on it.

First, before the iPhone was released everyone was asking if I was going to get one (because I have a fancy smartphone and a Mac). My answer was I would wait six months to a year until I bought one because Apple likes to use their enthusiasts who run out and buy their new products as beta testers. The first iPods had issues with freezing up and then after about a year their batteries died. I know someone who bought one of the first intel macbooks and has had to send it back to Apple for repairs three times already because of hard drive issues. One person I mentioned this too remarked it was probably cheaper for Apple to not test their products thoroughly and just have their users test it and pay for recalls/repairs.

Now, that the iPhones are out and I have read the first round of reviews and played with a friends, I have to admit that I want to go out and buy one, but I don’t want to spend $500 on it and have to sign up for another two year agreement with AT&T. To me it is amazingly thin and the screen is very bright. Also, unlimited data services for an additional $20 a month is pretty cheap. I’m not too sure about the touch screen keyboard, but I’ve heard enough people not gripe about it that I am willing to try it. I bet it will be the first of next year before I break down and buy one. Let’s see how long I can wait it out.

Jeffrey Zeldman cries out for companies to create web divisions solely responsible for their web sites instead of placing them in IT or marketing/communications.

It used to be that web sites were created in IT departments because of the technology components, but most companies have moved the web creators over to marketing/communications departments because of the communication nature of the site. I certainly see arguments for the web to exist in both places. I know of one large private university whose web office reports to both IT and marketing/communications.

Portals with a high degree of programming and server administration belong to IT, but websites that target costumers or internal clients fall closer in line with marketing/communications. But, I guess both of those definitions of websites (portals and targeting customers) are early web ideas with today’s mature “web 2.0″ working on building a conversation with your target through portals, blogs, message boards, etc. So, maybe it is time for a separate web division or at least a division in one of those offices with some independence.

The Dallas Morning News takes a look the positives and negatives of churches accepting offerings via credit cards and bank drafts. Most of the churches accepted plastic over the Internet, but a few churches were using giving kiosks– ATM like devices where people swipe their cards and enter their donation amount.

Churches accepting credit cards argued that the technology made it easier for people to give and that they avoided the summer offering slump. Other churches argued that giving via plastic of bank draft eliminated the worship aspect of giving. Also, Christian financial advisors have frowned on plastic giving. Well-know Christian Financial Guru Dave Ramsey was quoted by the DMN, “Churches ought to be about solving [problem] areas, not contributing to them.”

A related survey from the National Association of Church Business Administration of church administrators revealed that 70 percent of churches surveyed accept bank drafts and 55 percent accept credit cards. Of course this survey is skewed toward larger churches that actually have church administrators.