the way i see IT

You can now collect data from people via a form in a Google Docs spreadsheet.  Instead of sharing out a spreadsheet and asking people to add their information, you can share a form that you can send via email, link, or an iframe.  Data is collected via the form and dumped into the spreadsheet.  And it’s in real time, so you can sit there watching your spreadsheet automatically filling up with data.

It’s still pretty basic and missing some much-needed functionality.  There should be some data validation (at least a “required” option for a form field), and it would be great to have some embed code to embed this into a web page.

There are more full-featured options for collecting data out there, but Google’s products are always evolving and I’m sure this one will too.

Official Google Docs Blog: Stop sharing spreadsheets, start collecting information

As if a Blue Screen of Death isn’t bad enough - how about having it plastered on a giant screen over the Vegas Strip!

http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Crashing-Las-Vegas.aspx

Okay, so I know there’s no perfect Church Management System.  But I’ve just begun the process of finding the best one for us. 

We’ve been using our current system (enter product name here) for over 20 years, which is why we’re still using it today - we’ve always done it that way.  I really believe that our current system is built for administration, not ministry.  If I, as the “IT Guy” can’t open up the program and quickly and easily run a report w/ several criteria, then I know our admin assistants can’t either.  In order to be just baseline proficient requires days of training.  And even after those days of training, most of our users still regularly go to one or two “experts” to do anything other than looking up a phone number. 

If it’s not easy to use, it won’t get used.  I know we’re not using our current system to its fullest potential. Maybe that’s our fault for not investing in enough extensive training for all of our users.  But why should we have to? Make it friendly and easy to use for the target audience.  If it’s not easy to use, it won’t get used. 

I’m not saying a good system requires no training, but I should be able to figure out the basics by just opening up the program and poking around for a few minutes.  ServiceU (EventU & TransactU) is an excellent example of user-friendly, intuitive software. It’s an incredibly powerful, complex system w/ tons of features.  It handles all of our facilities/resource scheduling, event calendar & registrations, and online payments & tithing.  I administer the entire system for our church, and I haven’t been to a single formal training session.  The system just makes sense - it’s intuitive.  No foreign language or cryptic alpha numeric codes.

Tony summed it up best with three wish list principles for a ChMS - trusted, used and EASY.  I couldn’t agree more.

So, we’ve been looking.  I’ve assembled a team of ministry leaders & support staff and we’ve had several meetings & demos w/ various companies.

Of course I wanted to review the most familiar names, including Fellowship One and ACS .  What about ProVision or Arena?  We’re most interested in the web-based, Software-As-A-Service model.

I’ve talked extensively with F1 over the last few years, both with Jeff Pelletier and Jeff Hook.  I actually proposed moving CLC to F1 a couple years ago but it was shot down - mostly due to my poor preparation.  We scheduled another demo last week, but our rep seemed less experienced than Pelletier and was even somewhat evasive with our questions.  I’m going to have to give it another try.

Just recently I was alerted to another name that I hadn’t heard before - ConnectionPower.  Anybody out there using them?  Experiences?  A church just south of us is a customer and couldn’t say enough good things about it.  We’ve had several demos now and we really like what we see.  Why haven’t I heard of them before?

Who else am I missing?  Are there other solutions being used by big churches?

Needless to say, this is a daunting and overwhelming task that I would almost just rather ignore.  I know our staff and congregation need a better tool to manage our data, and that’s my number one goal.  I could use all the prayer and advice you can give.

I like Vista - it’s okay.  There are a lot of little things that make it appealing.  But when it comes to stability and compatibility right now, you can’t beat XP.  I’ve been running Vista for a year or so, and I run into a bug at least every day.  Internet Explorer and iTunes regularly stop responding, and my dual display setup gets screwed up all the time.  So I’m not surprised when someone asks me to remove Vista and install XP for them.  I’ve made some money doing just that, and a computer shop in New Hampshire is making a business of it.

Wednesday I tagged along with our Service Programming team to Lakeview Church in Indianapolis.  They had planned a few hours to hang with their worship team.  But when I found out where they were going, I made last minute plans to go along and hang out w/ David - Lakeview’s IT guy.  We first connected through the blogosphere, and then we met at the Roundtable last September.

We all had lunch together and then David and I got to hang out, tour the church and talk shop.  We’re both “lone church IT guys” so it was good to compare notes and connect for a couple hours.  I think that type of personal networking and relationship building is really underrated, and I definitely don’t do that enough.  Thanks for the time & tour David!

If you’re looking for a good substitute for the free Acrobat Reader, check out Foxit Reader.  It’s FREE, fast and incredibly lightweight (2MB instead of 20).  I’m in the process of replacing all of CLC’s Acrobat Reader installations with Foxit Reader.  With Foxit, PDFs open almost immediately.  And you don’t get Adobe Photoshop Album and all that other junk that you really don’t want.

Want to add, rearrange, or delete pages in a PDF for FREE?  Check out http://www.pdfhammer.com/.

If you want to do things like create and edit PDFs and design PDF forms, you could shell out $450 for Acrobat Professional (much less for non-profits).  Or you can check out NitroPDF ($99).

“Edit PDF content, no matter what it is. Fix typos, remove and change text. Perform advanced image editing tasks such as inserting, replacing, cropping, resizing and downsampling. Insert headers, footers, watermarks, numbering and more across multiple pages.”

“Fill in and create PDF forms. Nitro PDF Professional gives you a cost effective way for your end-users to fill in, submit, print, and save PDF forms. With its form design tools, you can easily turn flat PDF documents into fillable, interactive PDF forms that contain text fields, buttons, checkboxes, JavaScript and more.”

I’m running the free 14 day evaluation right now and so far I’m impressed.  Even though I’ve got Adobe Creative Suite 2, which includes Acrobat Acrobat 8 Professional, I primarily use it for Photoshop.  I’m thinking NitroPDF will be a great option for some of our staff to create PDF forms.

Despite the incredible engineering that went into the new MacBook Air that Steve Jobs so dramatically introduced yesterday, I’ve got to say I’m less than impressed.  Granted, it’s a beautiful, elegant, thin machine.  But who really cares that it can fit in an envelope.  Now that I’ve had a day to think about the “world’s thinnest laptop,” I realize I don’t know anyone who would actually buy one.  This is an extreme example of form over function. It’s ridiculous to spend $1800 for sub par specs (80 GB, 4200 RPM drive), or an extra $1000 for the 64 GB solid state drive, and you don’t even get an ethernet port or an optical drive!  Those are USB add-ons, but with only 1 USB port you’ll also need to carry around a USB hub.  So now the world’s thinnest laptop has to be hauled around with an external optical drive, a USB hub and any number of USB add-ons.  That had better be one big envelope.

On top of all that, there is the lack of a replaceable battery.  What happens when you run out of battery on an airplane trip?  Normally you would swap out the battery - but not anymore.  I know Apple will replace the battery for you when it dies, but what a pain.

Normally I’m a big Apple fan and I’m glued to the live stream of Jobs’ keynote.  But yesterday after the initial “wow” wore off, I was kind of disappointed. I’m sure the price will come down, as it usually does after generation 1 of any Apple product has been out for a while.  And I’m sure they’ll add more features in the future (ethernet and more than 1 USB port, at least?).  But for now I’ll be sitting on the sidelines, along with most people I know.

In case you haven’t seen this yet, here’s another very creative and funny marketing piece straight from Microsoft for Windows Home Server.

“Mommy, Why is There a Server in our House?” 

Who ever said Microsoft doesn’t have a sense of humor?

Just saw this video from the Microsoft Server blog - very funny!

“Aahhh - M.E.’s in the back washing dishes.”  Ha!

Yesterday I got several emails from Apple about their new 8-core Mac Pro - very sweet indeed.  I think I actually received the same email 2 or 3 times - not sure why.  Maybe they’re just really proud of it.

Then today I get the same email again, but this time in Japanese.  How in the world did I get on their Japanese distribution list?