But if you were to believe some vocal Christians complaining about Google changing their policies, you would think that they do hate us.  Google used to give away the Education version of Google Apps to all non-profit organizations, including churches.  Now they do not.  You can still use google apps for free, but they limit the service to 10 email addresses / accounts.

To be honest, I was sad to hear the news, too.  But we cannot assume that this is because they have a low opinion about faith-based non-profit organizations. The laws that protect churches registered as non-profits are also under attack – specifically the tax laws.  We should not be surprised by government or business that wants to remove financial advantages that churches have enjoyed for years.  And to go further, I don’t think we should make assumptions about the motives behind these changes.

What I do know is that Google provides a great value for churches who want to use their services.  If 10 email addresses isn’t enough, I suggest you pay for the service – its $50/year per seat.  If you have an IT guy on the payroll who is managing Exchange server, you would save money to retire the server and use Google Apps for email/docs/calendar/contacts  and dropbox.com to share files.

That is my advice and I am sticking to it.

My church wishes to livestream our morning worship service on our website. Our webmaster does not know how to live-stream. What hardware and software do we need to do this inexpensively but professionally and how does our webmaster need to do to our website?

VIDEO STREAMING BASICS

ustream.tv is FREE, but will display ads.
watershed.ustream.tv is the PAID version w/o ads.

Watershed gives you a BROADCAST embed code (a copy/paste affair) that you can put on a protected page on your website that handles routing the video from an attached camera to the streaming service.  They also provide a VIEWER embed code that you put on a public facing page on your website.  When you broadcast a video, the public can view the video from your website.

The USTREAM service has more options – a web interface, mobile phone apps, and a downloadable app for your computer.  These handle moving the video from a camera to Ustream.  The video is broadcast on a page that they create for you, or you can embed some code on a page on your website.

http://www.ustream.tv/get-started
http://www.ustream.tv/producer
http://www.ustream.tv/everywhere#all

The choice of an external camera is complicated (more on this below).  Many video cameras used to have firewire, some have USB 2.0, and now HDMI is most common.  The obvious point here is that you need to be able to connect your camera to your computer and see the live video.  IF you can do this, the USTREAM software should be able to capture the stream with the FLASH video tools it uses to send the video up to their servers.  My best advice is to first try what you have.  If you want to buy, research before you buy!!

I have used a variety of types of cameras and connections.  I’m a MAC, so we decided on a Mac Pro and the Blackmagic Intensity Pro to capture HDMI and stream it via Watershed.  They do have USB 3.0 solutions for the PC too.
http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/

MORE ON CAMERA CHOICES

I don’t think an expensive camera is necessary for streaming because the size and quality of the video is so low on a stream. There are 2 issues with the cheaper cameras – and even phones, or flip cams…. 1) the focal length tends to be quite low and 2) the audio input.

A short focal length means you can’t zoom in from waaaay back in the auditorium to a point that the pastor is sufficiently close up in the shot. In a shallow auditorium, its no problem, but if the tripod is set up too far away, you won’t be able to zoom in enough to allow people to see the preacher up close. You could move the tripod up closer to the subject, but that gets into the second issue.

Sound input is a problem, because you need to run an audio cable from the sound board to the camera if you want to capture video and AUDIO. For cheaper cameras, you may need to move the camera closer and then have to run a long audio cable. We like to record the video (and audio) on the camera as a back up AS WE STREAM to the computer / ustream. If you don’t stream, you won’t need to run the cables back to the computer to feed to ustream – this may simplify your option to move the camera closer.

One final note on phones. I have yet to hear of a church either recording or streaming their service from a phone. That said, it could work. They are small enough to put very close to the pulpit and (perhaps) not be a distraction. iPhones and Android phone could theoretically stream right from the phone, but the audio quality is the issue. I haven’t tested using the mic input to take advantage of a mix from the sound board, or using a better directional microphone.

If you can overcome both problems – a short focal length AND limited audio… AND you have good wireless internet,  a phone could work.

The easiest solution is probably a cheap camera with analog video and audio out, a tripod in the sound booth and the Elgato Video Capture (http://www.elgato.com/elgato/na/mainmenu/products/Video-Capture/product1.en.html).

WordPress is the only choice in my book and I have solid reasons for this, but for now I will give you one killer reason: you can run your site with just an iPhone. To be honest, you can run it from any smart phone through a web browser, but this free app makes it so much easier.
Wordpress on iOS allows you to write, edit, publish, post pictures and video, even moderate comments. It’s simple and slick. I use it to blog – in fact I am using it now to write this post!
If you run WordPress, you MUST grab this app and step away from your computer to write a post. Managing your site from anywhere is a pleasure and quite freeing. There is very little I can’t do from my phone now. I don’t want to be at work 24/7, mind you… I want to have the option to work when and where I want. WordPress makes that easier.

iPad2 just announced by Steve Jobs. I will own one soon. The payoff of not being a 1st gen adopter.

iPad 2 Features

• Rear and front camera.
• HDMI video output!! 1080p out with cable!!
• Dual Core.
• Records 720p video.
• Graphics are 9x faster.
• Gyroscope.
• Thinner. 1/3 thinner.  8.8mm thick. Thinner than iPhone4.
• .2 pounds lighter.
• White iPad 2 now available.
• AT&T and Verizon will both carry it.
• 3G only still. No 4G.
• Same battery life – 10 hour battery life.
• 16GB, 32GB, 64GB.
• Same pricing.  – $499 – $829. Ships March 11th.iPad2 -
• Charging while using HDMI out, even.
• Apple puts magnets inside new ipad… corners the iPad2 case market. Ouch.
• Same display resolution.
• GPS only available on the 3G iPad 2
• Facetime. PhotoBooth. iMovie. GarageBand.
• iOS 4.3: Apps now available on AppleTV, essentially, via 2-way streaming of media and apps from iOS devices and TO iOS devices.

Tech Specs on all models from Apple.com

I am the accountant / business manager at my local church. We are looking for a suitable replacement to our current SaaS church management system and I have been asked to research Google Apps. Which of the apps successfully administers the member database? Is it possible to track attendance and to print directories from this app? The system we have been using does a great job with these features as well as tracking donations but it is too expensive. What have other church administrators found that works for them? As for tracking donations … I have worked with QuickBooks for several years and find it to be a great accounting tool. However I am not convinced that it is a good tool for tracking donations. The donor giving statements are time consuming to create and are not clear for the donor to understand. Are there other churches that are using QuickBooks successfully as a donation tracking tool? If so, how are they specifically doing this?

My Reply:

Carole,

In short, a feature-for-feature comparison of a robu$t ChMS (Church Management System) to Google Apps for non-profit is apples to oranges. But I maintain that the 95% of features that encompass the day to day operations of a typical pastor/volunteer are easily handled by Google Apps. In fact the ease of use, accessible nature of apps in the cloud, documentation, third-party add-ons, security, etc, etc… all add up to make Google an easy winner… for free. FREE! All your email, contact list, calendar, online forms, and document needs are handled with Google Apps.

Since Google Apps is all based around email, the staff will use the online suite daily – from work or home. Getting them to adopt a new ChMS will be difficult. Getting them to adopt Google Apps will be natural. Google Apps will also replace your intranet, if you have one. The staff can share secure calendars, documents and even share the contact list.

Google Contacts, found within the main email application, is the contact database. You can have unlimited groups, custom fields or tags that can be used a million ways, pictures, maps, multiple addresses, even list the family members. It is quite powerful, yet simple to use. Google focusses on speed and simplicity, not obscure power-features.

As far as printing pictorial directories, there is no easy way. Printing mailing labels is easy though. and if you have a Mac, you can really get things done fast. Once you use a Mac for mailing labels, you kick yourself for not switching to a Mac sooner. (stepping off soapbox now….)

I need to get some professional accountants in on this discussion to speak of the pros/cons to quickbooks. The main benefit it that it is THE INDUSTRY STANDARD. Period. THousands of churches all over the world use Quickbooks for all their financial needs. The clever marketing of some of the big ChMS companies sway many to go with a PROPRIETARY, NON-STANDARD system, but I recommend the best. It has the best documentation and support of anything out there. And you will never have to migrate from another dying/changing proprietary system ever again.

BTW – I recommend you hire a local accounting firm to handle all finances. Keeping the tracking and distribution of finances with a professional “outsider” can save sooooooo much pain. There will still be opportunity for volunteers to work, but your mission-critical processes will be solid, safe and sound.

-Brook Drumm

Dragon Dictation

The verbage from their website says it best…

Dragon Dictation, powered by Nuance’s world-renowned Dragon NaturallySpeaking software, allows you to stay connected all the time, even when your hands are busy.

Press the button, speak into the mic and Dragon Dictation will magically transcribe your speech to text.  When I demo this app to my friends, they get this crazy look on their face- they can’t believe their eyes.  It is hard to believe this is even possible.  Once they get past their amazement, I show them that they can text or email their friends, update their Facebook status, send themselves notes and reminders, or tweet to the world… all using your voice.

This would be a great parlor trick in itself, but it is surprisingly useful on a phone where I struggle to thumb-type my messages. I can dictate WAAAYYYY faster than I can type on a tiny little software keyboard.  I was impressed with how long it allows you to speak before cutting you off and sending your recording to its server for transcription.  Don’t let that fool you, though, its lightning fast.  There is very little lag before your text populates your screen with what just came out of your mouth.  The phone doesn’t have the processing power needed, so it is quickly relayed to the company servers for the heavy lifting and sent back to the phone in seconds.

Once you have your text, you can correct any mistakes – and there will be some from time to time.  They include the familiar slide up keyboard.  I especially like how it handles a word as a unit.  You can easily tap a word or a phrase to highlight and delete.  It even guesses that certain words COULD be translated as a different word and will give you a few alternates to choose from in a list.  Just tap to choose, or you can delete and type in your own corrections.

The real fun begins after your text is proofread and edited.  You can copy to paste into a document, or send it out to email, facebook, twitter or SMS.  Brilliant.  Try typing out 10 short emails in a row – we will race.  I will dictate into my phone, you type with your thumbs.  I bet I win.

Quick summary: super-robust PDF reader with advanced reading, annotating, markup and highlighting capabilities, excellent file manager, TXT file reader and editor, audio/video player, Safari-like viewer for MS Office and iWorks files.

I attend Metro Calvary, and our pastor, Richard Cimino, posts his notes in their entirety each week.  They are, essentially, manuscript sermons.  We used to post the notes online after the sermon audio was posted, but people began to ask for paper copies of the notes to follow along during the service.  People saw others with the printed notes and before long, we were photocopying over 100 copies of the notes – sometimes over a dozen pages each!  Before long, the folks with smart phones asked to have the notes available BEFORE the service on the website.  That was good, but when you are used to handwriting notes on paper, or highlighting certain sections, reading text online doesn’t satisfy.  Then there were those who thought the small screen of their cell phone wasn’t adequate.  We have a website with a black background and white text, and some didn’t like reading in that color scheme.  What is a webmaster to do?!

Enter: PDFs and GoodReader.

The first step was to teach our pastor how to post his content with WordPress (more on that in upcoming posts).  We tried taking the notes and converting them by hand with Pages on a Mac (Windows folks can use PDF Creator… anyone can use PDFonline.com, too). That works, but when you have a catalog of over 300 sermons for which to post the notes… its a painful process.  We found a great solution – a plugin for wordpress called PDF24 Article To PDF.  I tried several plugins, but this one if 100% free and devoid of fees or ads.  This plugin takes any post – in our case, the sermon notes – and provides a link that creates a PDF on the fly!  So, with hundreds of PDFs in hand INSTANTLY, we were one step closer.

PDF files are great for those who want to print out a pristine copy at home, without wrestling with the caveats of printing a web page.  It also provides a white background with black text, for those who prefer that to our white on black HTML on our website.  All smart phones deal with PDF files without issue, save the small screen and the annotating issues.  This is where GoodReader shines.

I have an iPhone 4 and, like many smart phones, it will display PDFs natively, but when you zoom in, you end up zipping the document back and forth – like watching a tennis match – to read the magnified text that extends beyond the edge of the screen.  You can turn the screen to landscape, but it doesn’t help that much.  This has always bugged me, and I stopped using PDFs on  my phone due to the limited real estate.

GoodReader to the rescue

When you install GoodReader on your iPhone or iPad, your phone will recognize when you are trying to download and view a pdf from the web and it lets you choose to open the PDF in GoodReader. Once in GoodReader, a whole new world is open to you. If you want to read the PDF as-is, the app adds a few nice touches, like a scrollbar that will jump right to a given page, screen brightness control, and a killer cropping tool that can crop out the margins to make better use of the screen real estate. I actually used the app for a month or so quite happily before I finally discovered it’s true magic.

For those who are frustrated with zooming in for a larger font size, but hate the back and forth scrolling to read each line, GoodReader provides a button that strips out the text from the document and places it in a text reader.  This is brilliant, because that allows you to size the text up as big as you like and it automatically wraps the text.  No more scrolling right and left.  It also lets you choose whatever color you like for both the background and the text itself.  This makes reading a breeze.  At first, I worried I would get lost in long documents, but it preserves the pagination of the original document.  You scroll down and it alerts you when you scroll past a page turn.  There is also a page indicator at the top.  A search tool allows you to search the entire document for any text and jump right to it.

Prolific note takers will love this app.  When you view the regular PDF holding your finger down anywhere in the document brings up the familiar copy / paste tool, but GoodReader adds Note, Highlight, Markup and Draw.  The note tool allows you to drop a text bubble as a marker on the document that links to a text document filled with whatever note you added.  Highlight, well… highlights the text.  The Markup tool adds underlining, cross out, insert and replace.  The insert and replace add in a text note as well, but mark the PDF with a small pointer for insert and a cross out with a pointer for the replace feature.

The Drawing functions REALLY impressed me.  You can draw freehand or with the tools they provide: line, arrow, square, or circle.  All the drawings can be strectched, squeezed or  moved around after you finish and you can adjust the thickness of the lines as well.  What more could you want?

GoodReader does a lot more, but you will have to get the app to explore.  Also keep the iPad version in mind if you have one… I can only imagine what goodies that larger screen size unlocks.  Good Reading to you!

Google Voice – Super-powered VoiceMail and Texting

Step 1: Sign up and get your new FREE Google Voice phone number HERE.

Step 2: Assign ANY phone(s) to ring when someone dials the new number.  Change the destination as often as you like.

Step 3: Let it ring. Get transcribed messages delivered to your inbox.  The audio file is there too.

Step 4: Texting is free, so you can do what I did… cancel your regular text message plan and save some dough.

Your new Google Voice number can become THE number you give out to everyone for both voice and text.  You can keep this number forever, no matter what cellphone carrier you have at the time.  It will forward all calls to the phone (or phones) you designate.  You can send all calls directly to voicemail without ringing the phone, if you like.  You can pick up and listen to them leave your message – LIVE – and either break in to answer the call or let them leave the message. Each and every phone number that calls you can be handled as you see fit.   Each person can have a unique answering message.  Any number can be blocked without the option to leave a message.  It’s pretty slick.

Beyond the ultimate control that the FREE service offers you, the iPhone app – just recently released – is an invaluable tool for a pastor.  This app will help you keep your messaging in one place and in order.  Your contacts are all in one place – it even brings in your Google Contacts into your phone for easy access.  It places your voicemail and texting all together into one INBOX so you can see all your messages at a glance.  You also get a 1-click link to any of the following: Voicemail, Text, Placed, Received, Missed, Recorded.

Your main buttons at the bottom of the screen are: Inbox, Dialer, Quick Dial and Settings.  The dialer is straight forward, but adds a button labeled Text.  In settings, you can set up the phone to dial from your regular cell phone number or let Google place the call, using a feature called Click2Call.  Click2Call signals Google to call the number you dialed AND call your phone simultaneously, connecting you after they pick up in a strange sort of 3-way call with Google as the silent mediator.  It takes a bit of getting used to, but it keeps the recipient from actually knowing where you are calling from.  One benefit here is to keep your personal cell phone number private, while the person you are calling will see your Google Voice number.

I like to think of Google Voice as a personal assistant blockading the door – allowing me to choose how I  spend my working hours. Most of the time, I am busy doing other things, so I let all calls go to voicemail.  I will immediately get a text message with the transcription of the voicemail right there for easy reading.  I can also forward these text messages to an email address.  That could be useful as a way to keep your secretary informed of all your voicemail, although, you may already have have the service set up to ring your secretary’s phone.  Are you beginning to see the power of this service and app?

The text message portion of the app is fast and elegant, if you like the Google no-nonsense approach.  Your text messages are stored in conversations – so you can follow the content as it comes across in staccato, ping-pong fashion. There is no way to send pictures.  When you tap on a contact’s name in your list of text messages, or history, the app will pull up several options / buttons: Call, Text, Add to Quick Dial, or Add to Contacts.  That may seem obvious, but its so nice to think of the PERSON first, THEN the medium you will use to communicate.  That just seems like the right order – people first – instead of first thinking, “I need to TEXT” (click on the Text App), THEN choose the person from your contacts to text, THEN write the message.  By seeing the name of the person I need to contact, then being able to stand at that fork in the road and ask myself, “Do I want to talk to this person? Maybe I will be sent to VoiceMail.  Or do I want them to immediately get a text message”.  More and more I am making this decision based on my time – opting to invest a few seconds to bang out a stripped down, one-liner verses a few minutes yapping about things that could be off-topic.

All in all, this is probably my favorite app because it immediately translates into TIME SAVED.  I can switch to “Do Not Disturb” and get my work done.  The phone doesn’t even ring.  When I am done, I can open up the app and quickly READ all my messages and respond appropriately.  In a day and age where people are increasingly building the expectation that they can be reached at any time and place, this Google-powered workflow is a healthy step in the right direction for pastors… nay, anyone.  Leave a message and I will get back with you… if I decide I need to.

1. Bible: God’s Holy Word
2. Dropbox: Magical Cloud Storage
3. Instapaper: Stuff you want to “Read Later”
4. Elements: Dropbox Powered Text Editor
5. Simplenote: Sync your notes to all devices

Listen: Subscribe Here or Here.

Chris shares his story of epilepsy and how he uses tech to face the challenges of his limited short term memory.

Books by Chris Maxwell
Beggars Can Be Chosen
Changing my mind
Unwrapping His Presence (what we really need for Christmas)

Links mentioned in this episode
http://chrismaxwellweb.com
http://epilepsyadvocate.com
http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/epilepsy-advocate-radio-blog/id391527990
http://facebook.com/EpilepsyAdvocate

Apps / Software mentioned in this episode
Simplenote: http://simplenoteapp.com/
Google apps: http://google.com/a
Google Sync: http://google.com/sync/
Notational Velocity: http://notational.net/

Presentation Slides for FREE. No Ads. Not Kidding.

SLIDES4SERMONS offers a few images for FREE each month.  These images are intended to be useful for the local church in their announcements, sermons, slideshows, bulletins, and web sites. We want to help the church volunteers around the globe SAVE TIME and raise the quality of their work.  There are some simply amazing photos (like the one above) of California taken by my friend, Rob Macklin. It is worth dropping by just to get those! We are just getting started. We would love your feedback.

Simplenote is a simple text note app that syncs your notes to your iPhone, mac computer and a website. It is free with ads on your phone, but you can buy a $4.99 upgrade to remove ads. There is also a premium version with some extras for $11.99 a year that adds some extra features. For me, the free version is plenty.

Why do I need this- I have Notepad?

Wherever possible, I have abandoned any apps that  lock my data into the phone and apps that require syncing with a cable to get the data to my computer (I am talking to you, iTunes). This app is great for keeping short notes that you must always have within your reach. It has been great to cut down on post- it notes, envelopes with scribbles, short reminder emails and the app-happy note sprawl that I suffered early on in my iPhone ownership.

Bonus: Mac users

If you have a Mac, you can get a free program for that lives on your mac and provides a secure copy of your notes (password protected). You can download the program, install it and visit the preferences to turn on the sync with Simplenote function.

Elements vs. Simplenote: FIGHT!

Why recommend 2 apps that essentially do the same thing? In short, Simplenote is well suited for quick-entry note archival and quick-search kung fu. The bare-bones interface is no-nonsense and if you opt to use it with the the even-more-straight-forward Notational Velocity for Mac (what! No save button!?), it is the holy grail of round-trip note-raking. Elements is for longer entries and a bit more relaxed with an eye to font choice and user interface and features. Elements also requires a Dropbox account to sync your textual stylings to your computer. I use them both and it has helped me clearly define and separate the two major buckets of content and modes of work that I typically use. Elements for long form pieces and Simplenote for the short, random or important snippets that fly through my brain wildly throughout the day.

Here I go violating my previous rule: I wrote this article in Simplenote on my iPhone.

I even tried to lock it up …

… before the service with as many multi-task operations as I could think of, and it was rock solid. Not a blip, blink or glitch. Before, during and after the service.

During?

Yes.

Thanks to some great inside information from Nate Ragan at MediaShout — in near-instantaneous response to my gripe-heavy tweets over the past couple of weeks — and a bit of pre-service experimentation, my confidence in the platform was way up, so I tried several new elements and did some on-the-fly editing when I noticed the need for a couple of layout improvements.

Inside Information?

Yes.

Brook Drumm and I had a great conversation with Nate last Friday afternoon, and that interview is scheduled to be a coming-soon episode of The Vault podcast.

He did much more than just give us the low-down on the upgrades of MediaShout — all the way to version 4.5 AND breaking news about the brand new Mac version. In the process, I also found out how likely it is that many of my troubles with the program had to do with the way our church’s presentation computer interacted with version 3.0 (not well at all).

For 3 weeks now, 3.5 has been a pleasure to use, and I’m getting the chance I’ve wanted for over 2 years of trying to figure out and fully implement 3.0: to have a stable system to use, better and better, as I practice and experiment and even play around with it.

Nate was kind to offer a copy of 4.0 to try out, too. I appreciate the generosity, and I may take him up on it if I ever feel like I’ve maxed out 3.5.

The transformation was dramatic and absolute: it took me over 6 months of thinking and testing and documenting and double-checking the problems I was having before I decided to write up my posts about MediaShout 3.0 being a glitch-plagued loser for our purposes.

It only took me about 6 hours with the upgrade to realize that I was working with a winner in version 3.5.

In a twinkling, as far as I’m concerned.

Please stay tuned for our MediaShout episode of The Vault. In the meantime, we recommend that everybody give MediaShout a try if you aren’t using it already. If you are, please share your experiences — good or otherwise — with us here.

dlvr.it - FINALLY! A One-Stop-Shop Social Media Publisher

I build websites for a living and the requests for Social Network Integration have risen over the years.  I publish on WordPress exclusively, but never really found a great solution.  Today, I have found my solution: dlvr.it – and the great part, is it will work for any website or service that published an RSS Feed (that’s everyone, Folks). I signed up, added in Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, and Buzz.  Although it wasn’t obvious at first, I was able to add additional Facebook pages and Twitter accounts.  SCORE! The icing on the cake: Analytics.  I am hooked.

Maximize your Facebook Profile Pic!  While most people upload a small image, Facebook allows you to use an image with a dimension of 540 X 180 pixels.  This is FREE REAL ESTATE, and can help clear out some of that above-the-fold Facebook sidebar clutter. VISIT MY EXAMPLE FANPAGE. I included the thick border in my example to help outline the image, but if you use a white background (see below), you get an even cleaner feel.  Read on for more details and examples…

Elements – Dropbox Powered Text Editor

Elements is a beautiful, versatile text editor for iOS. Elements allows you to view, edit and share plain text documents on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. All of your data is stored in a folder on your personal Dropbox account so that it’s accessible from any device you have.  Whether you are a pastor, a church volunteer, or a member taking notes during the sermon, this is a great app that will help you write long documents, or capture short lists.  The Dropbox sync is the killer feature, but read on to see the rest…

FEATURES
- Create, view and edit text files (.txt) on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch
- Cloud based: Elements stores all its data in an /Elements subfolder on your personal Dropbox account so you can access it via your iPhone, iPad, Mac or PC
- Autosaving
- Offline support: upload your changes to Dropbox next time you’re connected
- Full text search of your Elements files
- Word counts, line counts, character count
- A Scratchpad to flesh out ideas or store random bits of information
- Email files as an attachment
- Sort file listings by name or modified date.
- Customize the look of the text editor to fit your workflow
- TextExpander touch support
- Free customer support via email

Text vs. Word Docs

Just a PostScript to address a FAQ: “Why .txt documents, when we could be creating Word .docs?”  Great question.  If you are a Word .doc lover – go get Documents2Go from Dataviz.  The amount of moving parts and compatibility issues with Word have pushed me to Keep It Simple by defaulting to plain text… ALWAYS.  Text works in email, websites, all text editors, and you can take full advantage of copy/paste on your iphone.  Its quick and easy.  It just works.

TAKE TEXT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Want to delve into the little-known world of the text-power-user? This app can take advantage of TextExpander – type a few characters and insert longer text blocks that you have prepared beforehand.  This is sort of mind-blowing if you find yourself sending the same responses over and over.  Another suggestion to utilize this feature: add in entries for all your ministries into TextExpander and use them to quickly add useful info as you compose replies to emails.  This approach will require a copy/paste into mail, but leverages TextExpander and you can opt to simply send a text doc as an attachment as well.

If you don’t need the customizable screen and font, the ability to delete documents from Dropbox, word/character/line count, and spellchecking – try PlainText. PlainText has a free version if the $4.99 is a deal-breaker.  Both happen to be Universal apps and will work on the iPad too.

Several of the particulars covered in our first podcast went well beyond my personal experience and technical expertise, but they were all things I’m glad I learned more about. Actually, the subject of “bringing your tech-friend to church” was especially interesting to me, in part because it’s a geek-factor game for me to guess what tech might be like in in the future-soon.

Now, here comes engadget.com with their usual, ahead-of-the-competition, insider-esque reveal of a game-changing development in the hardware we’ll be using to make precious little bits (and bytes) rain down on us from our connection(s) to The Cloud.

Up Next: No Screens is Good Screens. The story goes like this …

“See” what I mean? In our ‘future-is-now-as-of-yesterday’ world, we will see into the digital world without “real” screens– the virtual world will be projected virtually (or something like that). It doesn’t take much imagination to understand that a techs-pression applied now to a heads-up displays for driving will, in short order, become ubiquitous all across the gadget ecosphere.

Personally HUD’d Bible passages in Sunday School and worship services anyone? Group-visible HUD projection screens for congregations who want to see their praise teams do what they do in the context of a virtually-displayed, hi-def-quality video-stream of the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee? Gethsemane? Golgotha? How about video-enhanced, HUD’d daily devotions — wide-screened and in sim-surround — on the subway or bus or back-seat carpool to work or classes?

What would you like to “see” while you’re also watching something else? I’m visualizing a subtitled reading of personally-selected excerpts from C.S. Lewis’ body of work on my HUD imagery of the length of Addison’s Walk (why not have a Phil Keaggy instrumental set-list as a sub-textual soundtrack while I’m at it?).

Lewis & Keaggy: One of the 20th Century’s Great Songwriting Teams …

So, how to get from where I’m at to where this edge-cutting tech is right now?

I’ve used my cell phone/PDA for years with Laridian’s MyBible program as my “take to church” Scriptures. Yes, many people have assumed the worst. They’ve been sure that I’m texting or playing a game during a Sunday school lesson or sermon, but I find the program SO convenient and helpful that any negatives are outweighed by the benefits. Lord willing and the data contract prices don’t rise, I expect to have my iPhone 4 “soon,” and then I’ll be integrating my virtual and real world lives more than I’ve ever imagined possible in my Palm-life.

But that’s just a PDA! I turn into my critics when I see someone with earbuds in, and I can’t yet imagine feeling comfortable cracking open a laptop — not even a mini. Of course, the iPad has made moot that whole teapot-tempest. We all have our own internal “rules” about what is and isn’t appropriate and inconspicuous in a formal situation, but the time for re-understanding those “rules” is upon us.

I’m too much of a cheapskate to even think about trying to be an “early adopter” of much of anything (even the “new” truck I got in March is a 20-year-old Blazer, for cryin’ out loud), but I do definitely enjoy seeing what’s going on in the world of prototypes and conceptual designs and what it might mean for the church right away (and mean for me when the price-breaks start kicking in).

And I’ll keep saving my pennies in the meantime …

–Tim “They Call Me Eddie[tor]” Stark

The bullet-basics of the most relevant info touch on …

• cost — just because buckets full of money can be poured into tech upgrades doesn’t mean that they should be … especially now that so much is shifting to the cloud.
• security — data back-up and access-authorization controls are all too often loved “in word in tongue” but no so much “in action and in truth,” and it is essential to know the word, security, and not merely listen to it, but “do what it says.”
• social networking — more and more prospects (as much for flock in the fellowship as for stock on the shelves) are being “moved” by way of micro-messaging in webs of personal interconnections. It’s nothing to question or disparage– it just is, and we need to make it work for our mission.

The cut-to-the-chase suggestions are copied after the jump.

“Owners,” “businesses,” “company” and “customers” can be substituted with “ministry leaders,” “fellowships,” “faith communities” and “seekers/members.” Duh, right?

What may not be so obvious is the subtle-but-very-significant wisdom of the 4th point for today’s church leaders: “Tap into IT’s Know-How.” When working to meet the needs of the post-Gen-X, post-Millenial “Generation iY” — and the parents and grandparents who love them and are looking for real relationship with Christ, too (not to mention the generations which will follow after them), our IT experts (both expert, paid staff and generous, skilled volunteers) may be able to extend a vision of our mission far beyond our personal understanding.

TIPS ON TECH NEEDS

Talk with other owners: “Join a peer group, a local Chamber of Commerce or clubs in your area,” says Thomas Clancy, founding partner of IT consulting firm Valiant Technology. “See how other people are doing it.” Also ask those folks for IT staff suggestions. “Referrals are usually a pretty good way to find someone,” he says. “That’s why it’s important to get connected into your local business community.”

Go with a pro: Don’t hire a tech-savvy college kid, an iPad-loving brother-in-law or the receptionist’s boyfriend to tackle tough IT needs, Clancy says. Those without formal training don’t have the skills to help a company grow — and if the receptionist gets fired, the company may find itself with a bunch of deleted information, he says.

Do some homework: A firm should do some sleuthing before contracting with an outside IT provider. Find out how long the company has been in business and ask to speak with current customers, says Todd Thibodeaux, CEO of the Computing Technology Industry Association, the country’s largest IT trade association. Also, ask about their past “disaster recovery” efforts: “Ask them to think of a situation when their customer’s (systems) went down and how fast they got it back up,” he says.

Tap into IT’s know-how: Disregard the false notion that most IT folks are geeks who only like to tinker with computer code and wire — and bring them into business discussions about forecasting needs. “An IT provider shouldn’t just be serving your e-mail and making your printer work,” says Clancy. “That’s just the most basic level of service, and it’s not going to help you grow your business.”

Consider more than price:“Ask, ‘What kinds of services can I expect?’ ” says Clancy. “You shouldn’t think about price first. First find out what the company can do for you. Be open minded. In the end you may pay 10% more, but you could get 50% more capability.”

For what it’s worth: I stopped counting how many times I tried to drop this source article out of my list of possible topics, but it is the blog idea that rejected rejection. I kept trying to tell myself that it was one of “those” things. One of those round-peg-to-square-hole adaptations that we so often see: a quick, forced, stretched-onion-skin-thin application of a niche article’s idea into another little microcosm.

But the doggone thing kept sticking in my head when I’d “look at it one last time to confirm that it wasn’t gonna work,” and every time it seemed to make more sense.

But, hey, that’s just me. See what you think.