As you might know, I am a diehard open source guy.  I love free stuff.  With that being said, open source is a culture that embraces the knowledge of everyone, not just one person.  I am not the expert at all things by any means.  I need your knowledge just as much as others need mine.   I want to implement some of those principles into this site.  Mister Nifty is more than a resource guide now, it’s a community.  I am still going to post as usual, but now there is a place for your voice to be heard.  This is brand new, so sign up and start posting what you know.  We want to hear!

Instead of trying to spend all of my time being the teacher, I decided to invest in an online tool that will meet my team’s schedule constraints and give them better training than I could ever dream of giving them.  I purchased them access to Lynda.com.  Lynda is great!  There are over 35,000 video tutorials covering hundreds of programs.  They can decide what they want to learn, when they want to learn it on their schedule.  With over 125 expert teachers, you get the professional training for your staff for a small monthly fee.  The cost is $25.00/month per user.   That may sound expensive to some, but trust me, it’s money well spent.   You don’t have to subscribe for an entire year.  If your budget is tight, subscribe for the summer months when your volunteers might have a bit more time on their hands to learn.  You can cancel anytime you wish.

I can’t list all of the programs they cover, but here are a few:  Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver, Blogger.com, Wordpress, Microsoft Office, Final Cut, Mac Operating System, Publisher, Quickbooks, and dozens more.   Go check out Lynda for yourself.  Investing in your staff means investing in the future of your church.  You don’t even have to teach them to catch the fish, let Lynda do it for you!  I’ve even started some of their courses on programming languages and I’m hooked.  It’s incredible.  I highly recommend it.

Tatango has built a framework for you to broadcast yourself to your group via text messaging.  For youth leaders this could possibly be your best friend for communicating with your young people.  One simple message under 100 characters and you’ve reached your entire group.   The beautiful thing about this is that your young people can reply via txt message and you will  receive it either on your phone or on your Tatango account according to your preference.

If you have a lot of members you want to broadcast to, you must first have them sign up for your group.  You cannot import a contact list.  I questioned Derek and he explained the rules of the mobile world.  It is illegal to sign someone up for txt messaging without their consent.  They have created several ways to help you get your members signed up for your group.  First of all, a public page on Tatango.com will facilitate the sign up process.  Secondly, they provide widgets that can be embedded on social networks and your own website.  Lastly, they use key words to help populate your group.  For example, if you subscribe to the pro feature for key words, you can simply have your members text MYGROUPNAME to a specific phone number and they will automatically be subscribed to your group.  All-in-all, they run a fair operation over at Tatango and are committed to stamping out SMS spam.

The service is free to use, however it is ad-supported.  This means your txt messages will be appended with an ad at the end.  I cannot vouch for the ads, but Derek said they are all above board and safe for your young people.   Check it out for yourself before you blast your group.  Derek informed me that there are a lot of churches already using this service and even more youth groups to communicate about events and send inspirational devotions to their members.   That makes me feel comfortable recommending it to you knowing there is a solid church base on this system.

So, what are you waiting for?  Go check it out and start communicating better with your people!  I’m Mister Nifty and I approve this message.

http://misternifty.com/audio/tatango.mp3

Keep in mind, the more Google products you have, you become a greater part of their audience for marketing.  One of my main concerns is how Google will use their own browser for ad sales.  One of their core features is the smart URL box that gives you suggestions for sites based on keywords.  I can see Google using Adwords to sell spots that will have greater relevance in the URL box.  I’m not too thrilled about that. Also, Google is trying to recapture third-party searches, so they don’t have to pay people like Mozilla or Apple for sending searches their way. (That cute little search screen that says firefox and google, or the browser search bar costs Google money millions of affiliate fees every year!)  The motivation behind this project is all about the benjamins.

My last concern is regarding their “incognito” browsing window.  Basically, a web user can open a ’secret’ window and surf anywhere without leaving a trail in the browser.  Once the window is closed, there is no local footprint of that session.  Parents who download this browser need to make sure their children are not surfing “incognito”.  It presents an easier way to view mature content without being tracked.  Typically, a user has to clear the history, form data, cookies etc. to cover inappropriate content usage.  This also leaves a distinct empty footprint.  With the “incognito” feature, a user will never have to clear history, cookies, etc.  They can browse whatever they wish, and then close the window without ever being detected.  Google, in my opinion has broken down yet another barrier to pornography in the home with this specific feature. If you use Chrome, please make sure you have an adequate content filtering system that will keep your users safe from mature content.

I am an avid Firefox user.  I have used it for years and I have it loaded with all of my favorite add-ons, userstyles, and Greasemonkey scripts to make my web experience more enjoyable.   I personally am not switching to Chrome as it is a first generation product.  I can see where Chrome could overtake the market in the future with it’s core processing features.  Other browsers will certainly have to come on board with this new technique.  (Side note: this is not new technology, it’s new programming technique built on the platform that Safari was created on).  All-in-all, Chrome presents a minimalistic experience that is clean and somewhat elementary in appearance.  It is made to be lightweight, very fast, dummyproof, and they are testing millions of sites on it every month to make it more stable and secure.    You can download your free copy of Chrome here and see for yourself.  I’m interested in your take on Chrome.  Leave a comment and tell us your opinion.

Check out this video for more features and a quick tour from my friend Ray Deck over at MinistryLife.org.  (If you can’t see the video here, use this link http://www.vimeo.com/1660881)

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If you are an entrenched Jott follower, plan on paying $3.95/month for the basic features we enjoyed for free.  Don’t be fooled if your account allows you to do what you’ve always done with Jott.  They signed everyone up with a Pro trial that expires.   I’m very disappointed with Jott.   I feel they could have made the transition smoother and more practical for the majority of their audience.  Their basic plan is not really a plan at all.  They have ousted the grassroots partners that have made them a great company.  For your SMS group messaging needs, check out 3jam!  It’s free, and they aren’t on the blacklist! :)  For other Jott replacements, check out Lifehacker’s post here.  Also, Dial2Do.com is a great place for updating Twitter, sending email, and writing notes by leaving a voice message.  it’s free too!  I’ll do a review on it in the coming days.

Twitstamp.com provides these cool images that show my latest posts.

1.   Enter the details of your proposed meeting into Diarised, including the meeting invitees and the possible times and dates for the meeting.
2.   Diarised sends out emails to all invitees.
3.   The invitees choose the times that suit them best.
4.   Once the invitees have chosen their preferred meeting dates, Diarised will give you a summary of the best dates for you to choose from.
5.   All meeting invitees will be sent an email confirming the chosen date and time
(via Lifehacker)