I wrote my Florida Church IT Round Table notes inside the wiki for the schedule so they could be shared. However, I think it is a good idea to keep my own copy of notes like these. Since this blog is my notepad, I might as well copy them here.
Cloud Services
discussion led initially by Tim Whitehorn from http://www.ServiceU.com
SignUsUp.com going out of business.
Wireless syncing to phones: https://www.nuevasync.com/
Issues with single sign-on:
ServiceU looking at OpenID
Online Storage:
S3
Smugmug (they were comped a pro account as a church) site matches church site
Microsoft SkyDrive and LiveSync
GDrive potentially leaving Rumorware status
Podcasting:
Off site servers with iTunes
AMSI – http://www.flycast.fm
Mosso.com – allows multiple server technologies (Windows/Linux) for ASP, .net, PHP , etc on same service
Dreamhost.com – Lots of storage and some good features. Free for non-profits, I can get you a discount if you are interested (post in comments)
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Church Management Software
We sort of drifted into this topic as the next time period started up
ACS Technologies – See Jeff
http://ArenaCHMS.com – My church is using ArenaCHMS
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Firewalls
Focusing primarily on free options, but some mention of other options.
Christ Fellowship is doing a Round Robin connection through 2 Comcast accounts and reliable AT&T connections.
PFSense http://www.pfsense.com/ – FreeBSD based firewall system
SonicWall http://www.sonicwall.com/ – not free.
OpenDNS http://www.opendns.com/ – Free options available. Not really a firewall, but provides DNS filtering.
Others mentioned: Cisco PIX and Astaro (Astaro has a free version you can install to test on your own hardware or you can get one of their appliances)
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Open Source Software Discussion
Impromptu Open Source Conversation and IT Management
Asterisk (SwitchVox) PBX phone system (Christ Fellowhip starting to use), there is a church tying Asterisk to Arena and other church management systems for call center style autodialing.
http://www.spiceworks.com/ IT Management
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Crafting an IT Strategy
Getting IT connected into ministry
- Making staff comfortable
- Making staff competent
Getting the IT in the church connected
- Breaking down silos to make teams work together
Strategy is hindered by a firefighter situation
Strategy is not looking at a tool, but going toward a goal.
- What is a proper IT goal?
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