So, I obviously don’t have a blogging strategy as it’s been months (nine of ‘em) since my last post, but that’s not really what this post is about.

This is essentially a bit of a “brain dump” as I work though a task that I have on my plate presently. As IT manager (beginning to operate in CIO territory) it been requested of me to provide a strategic plan for the implementation of IT resources and services here at Crossway. That’s all well and good, and I could come up anything, however it would have little value to either myself, the IT department or Crossway as a whole.

As I am learning, a strategic plan is all about defining your end-points then plotting a path from A to B (if only I could just plug those into Google Maps as start and end points). Again, that’s all well and good, but useless (maybe even harmful) if the path I plot differs from the path that Crossway as an organisation is taking.

I am blessed to be part of an organisation (let alone a church) that takes such thing seriously. As a result Crossway not only has mission and vision statements, but also a 10 point strategy for enacting that vision. That makes my strategic planning a whole lot easier. All I have to do is measure how well meet the requirements of those 10 points, analyse how we (as an IT department) can better service those requirements, and then plot a path between the two. Easy *cough*

What about you? Does your church, business, ministry, club, organisation etc have a mission, vision and/or action/strategic/business plan?

Where there is no vision, the people perish
- Proverbs 29:18a KJV

Over the past few of years Microsoft have been a little cautious about generating too much excitement around upcoming Windows releases. They released Windows Vista to the world with triumphant fanfare (remember the “Wow starts now” campaign?), only for it to crash and burn once the bugs started to surface. When it was time to release Windows 7, it’s like Microsoft did it by stealth and the “My idea” TV ads were more sausage and less sizzle. For the most part the tech community (and I guess consumers in general) have had little reason to get excited about new releases of Windows. New features, does this, doesn’t do that, blah blah blah.

So now we’re starting to hear things, bits and pieces about Windows 8, and I believe it’s time to get excited again. Here’s why I think that…

During Steve Ballmer’s opening keynote address at the 2011 CES held back in January in Las Vegas, Microsoft demoed the Windows 8 kernal running on ARM based CPUs and other system-on-a-chip hardware. The very same hardware that’s inside smartphone and tablet devices, just like Apple’s new A5 CPU. Catch where I’m going yet? Windows running on smaller, lighter, power efficient PCs.
[Another link here]

Now to add to this, Windows gurus Paul Thurrott and Rafael Rivera have just co-authored a series of blog posts titled “Windows 8 Secrets”. Rather than repeat anything they have to say, here are the links:

• Welcome Screen – Looking currently like a cross between Windows Phone and Windows
• Windows Explorer Ribbon – Just like Office 2007/2010 (and bits of Windows 7)
• Internet Explorer Immersive – A touch friend UX for IE9 that shares many similarities with Windows Phone
• Modern Reader – In built PDF (and no doubt, XPS) reader
• Aero Auto-Colourisation – Have your Aero theme automatically match the colour of your wallpaper

Top all that off with talk about AppX (a new way of application packaging that could probably allow for cross-platform application distribution with Windows Phone) and a new (additional) shell (codenamed MoSH) which features a tile-based, Windows Phone inspired UX.

Now do you get it? Managing a mostly Microsoft environment I’ve been struggling to find ways to fully integrate iPads and find suitable replacements for a aging notebook PCs for our execs who want the portability and battery life of an iPad, while still having all their regular PC tools and applications available. Could Windows 8 finally be the way Microsoft can be a real player with the tablet form-factor (after having “invented” it with Windows XP Tablet Edition)? Time will tell, but it certainly looks like the PC world is going to get exciting again pretty soon.

Here’s the basic sequence of events:

• I send an email to Steve Ballmer
• He replies and CCs a number of people, include the Australian VP
• She forwards the message to an exec with oversite of my area of concern
• He contacts me and includes his work and mobile phone numbers and asks if we can set up a time to talk
• We talk… for about an hour
• He sends me some free t-shirts as a thank-you gesture

So what can we take from this? Even though Microsoft are a massive multi-national with a plethora of products and services they place real value on the customer. They listen (even if they’re the CEO), they take time out (an hour in my case), and they say thanks.

In our churches and ministries (or business for that matter), do we value our “customers” as much, or are we too focused on running programs, seminars, small group and classes?

Microsoft have impressed me (and continue to as I deal with people on the inside). Let’s hope people who contact us (our church/ministry/business) feel as valued.

Even though I really haven’t blogged all that much this year, there were still a few good moments and people still came to read what I had to say (amazing!).

Here’s the top 5

5. Databases/ChMS for Aussie Churches

Original publish date: 4-Dec-09
Views in 2010: 111
Views total: 165
Summary: The name says it all. A short list of some possible solutions for churches looking for a good database to manage their parishioners.
http://neil.nuttall.id.au/2009/12/04/databaseschms-for-aussie-churches/

4. Kick butt kiosks – Part II

Original publish date: 25-Jan-10
Views in 2010: 181
Summary: As we (at Crossway) prepaired to roll-out Fellowship One as our ChMS I documented our setup of our check-in kiosks. I’ll be doing a part III soon to document some of the modifications we’ll be making. Keep a look out.
http://neil.nuttall.id.au/2010/01/25/kick-butt-kiosks-part-ii/

3. Fellowship One MacGyvered

Original publish date: 28-Jul-10
Views in 2010: 190
Summary: One of Fellowship One’s best features is self-check-in using just a touchscreen and barcode scanner. One of it’s flaws is that you need a keyboard to exit it. With a bit of MacGyver-esc thinking we found a way around that one.
http://neil.nuttall.id.au/2010/07/28/fellowship-one-macgyvered/

2. Pandora: I want to go there!

Original publish date: 21-Dec-09
Views in 2010: 293
Views total: 333
Summary: Avatar (James Cameron). ‘Nuff said.
http://neil.nuttall.id.au/2009/12/21/pandora-i-want-to-go-there/

And finally…
1. State of confusion: WP7 and carrier selection

Original publish date: 15-Oct-2010
Views in 2010: 310
Summary: Microsoft released Windows Phone 7 to much applause (deservedly so). One thing bugged me however, and that was what seemed to be a miss-match of device specs from Microsoft, the OEMs and carriers. I became so frustrated by the situation that I even emailed Steve Ballmer (MS CEO) who actually replied and had someone from MS Australia contact me. For the record, I’m still using my iPhone (another 12 months to go on the contract).
http://neil.nuttall.id.au/2010/10/15/state-of-confusion-wp7-and-carrier-selection/

I’m not anticipating any big changes in 2011, but in whatever way I can, I hope that this blog will be a useful source of helpful information for you (both personally and in your ministry).

- Neil

PS. Now the neighbour’s fired up his lawnmower

One of the things that bugs me a little are carrier exclusives. This is one of the great thing about the iPhone here in Australia, it’s available from all the carriers. It’s not exclusive to one. I feel a little sorry for friends in the US who can only use their iPhone on AT&T’s over burdened network.

So on Tuesday in Sydney, Microsoft announced that six Windows Phone 7 phones will be available from three different carriers. Awesome! However the bummer is that each carrier has it’s exclusives, so if you want to get a Samsung Omnia 7 (pictured above), you can only get it from Optus. Furthermore, is the selection of phones to match each carriers’ slice of the 3G/UMTS spectrum. For instance: The Telstra Next-G network works at 2100 & 850MHz, but the first phone they’ll have out the gate is the HTC 7 Mozart which operates at 2100 & 900MHz.

For your assistance, after much trolling for details I have complied the table below to assist you in your selection of your new WP7 phone.

Firstly I would like to apologise for any errors I’ve made in the table above. If you’d like to correct me, point me in the right direction in the comments below.

What we learn from the table, is that Telstra and Optus should have swapped their LG products. We can also see clearly that the Samsung Omnia 7 and HTC 7 Trophy are probably going to give you the best carrier match.

What would be really nice is if the manufacturers released a true world-UMTS phone a with quad-band chipset to support 2100/1900/900/850MHz just like Apple have done with the iPhone 4.

So, what are your thoughts? Is WP7 enough to win you over? Comment below.

Update (17-Oct)

Since posting, I’ve become aware of a “official” Telstra postings that state that devices sold by Telstra will be Next-G dual-band compatible using 2100/850MHz radios (not 2100/900 as specified on the MS Australia or manufacturers websites).
Deets here:

• http://twitter.com/#!/Telstra/status/27425344606
• http://exchange.telstra.com.au/2010/10/12/windows-phone-7-a-new-challenger-arrives/

Update (20-Oct)

Just one sleep to go until Telstra lift the covers off the HTC 7 Mozart and still there seems to be zero advertising or info on the Telstra Mobile website (the Optus and Vodafone sites are equally devoid of WP7 info, aside from press releases hidden in the media section). Couple that with the fact that MS Australia seem to be unaware that the specs on their site contradict what Telstra are saying and it only compounds the confusion. Of course what Microsoft should have done is specified that all WP7 phone be quad-band UMTS (along with all the other non-optional specs). This would mean that consumers would have real choice when it comes to handset and carriers selection.

On positive note mobiletechworld.com have published a very comprehensive table of all the WP7 phone due for release. It even indicates that the three phones that Telstra will be offering are fully Next-G compatible by being available as either 2100/900MHz or 2100/850MHz.

Check out the table here: http://www.mobiletechworld.com/2010/10/16/all-windows-phone-7-devices-hardware-specifications-in-one-place/

Resources:

• http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-au/buy/7/phones.aspx
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UMTS_networks#Oceania
• http://www.istartedsomething.com/20101012/australian-pricing-options-for-windows-phone-7/

One of the really fun feature that the folk at YouTube have introduced of recent times, is the Closed Captions feature. This is computer transcription of the audio. I say this is a fun feature because there is no way anyone could ever use it for serious purpose, like actually understanding what’s being said.

So, here for your pleasure is the transcription text:

He already used up second but
He that you’ve got to use a keyboard just the fifties King see the end of the day
When the greater it was just on the screen
The a lot of prosecutors
All in Australia gave us this recipe your a lot of
So it is that if you follow that went below
You’re going to get some point this alpha or you can land it you can make a statement
On the back you’re teaching where you want it
Skinner or said
We just took this case
No keyboard necessary salvos words of the day

Understand? No? That’s OK, hit this link to check it out: YouTube
Then come back and read this post: Fellowship One MacGyvered

So, here are my Fellowship One related posts in one handy, easy to digest meal…

Databases/ChMS for Aussie Churches

While not specifically about Fellowship One, it is a quick round up of a number of ChMS options with a slant toward what might be of interest to churches down-under.
>>> Read on

Kick Butt Kiosks: Parts I and II

One of the best features of Fellowship One is the way it does event check-in (read: kids church). To do that you need to have PCs setup to do the job. In these two posts I chronicle the how and why of our check-in kiosks.
>>> Read on: Part I
>>> Read on: Part II

Fellowship One MacGyvered

I didn’t need to blow anything up (this time), but a little bit of Aussie ingenuity solved a problem that nobody else had seemed to crack (not even Fellowship Technology). How do you hit the Escape key on a check-in kiosk without a keyboard? My answer is here for the good of all humanity.
>>> Read on

If you found those useful/interesting, you might also like to check out my series on IT and the small church office.
>>> Read on

Even more IT geeky stuff. The full swag.
>>> Read on

We’ve been using Fellowship One for about five months now and the check-in system for our kids church is great. This weekend we introduce another change, we’re starting self check-in using two of our kiosks. Self check-in is great, the parents have been issued with barcode tags (like the ones you get from the video library) and just walk up to a kiosk, scan, select their kids on the touch-screen and collect their labels. When it’s pack-up time you just hit the escape key, enter the code and shutdown the PC and… wait a minute how do you hit the escape key when you’re scanning and using a touch-screen (therefore: no keyboard)? Sorry to say this Fellowship Technology, but FAIL.

I started thinking about this a few months ago. I was sure there must be a way of having an escape barcode. I tried printing several using different barcode formats, but nothing worked. In frustration I tweeted my church IT peeps on twitter (#citrt). To my dismay I discovered that the way most churches were “escaping” from self check-in was to cold-boot the PC. Only Justin Moore (at GCC) seemed to be thinking along the same lines, but still he didn’t have an solution either.

So now in a world first, I have the solution thanks to a little bit of MacGyvering. Turns out the problem was the scanners themselves. They will only scan barcodes of a minimum length (4 characters, in the case of the Metrologic). So the solution was simple, create a barcode that reads: ESC+NUL+NUL+NUL. And here it is:

It’s encoded in CODE128, (1) because it supports control code characters, (2) it’s enabled by default on the Metrologic scanners (and probably most others), and (3) I have software that produces them.

So there you have it. Leave your comments, thanks, adoration, praise etc in the comments below. Cheques can be mailed to me here at Crossway.

Special thanks to Steve Fogg for the title of this post.

In these days of public and private clouds, 3G and 4G data, iPhones and iPads does it still make sense to for churches to have offices equipped with traditional PCs (Mac or Windows) for pastoral staff? Sure for administrative staff, that make sense, but does it for our pastors?

Here at Crossway I’m currently smack-bang in the middle of three IT projects of varying sizes. We’re upgrading our servers (and adding several tonne more storage space), replacing about a third of our PCs (and equipping our media & communications peeps with shiny new Macs), and expanding our Wi-Fi to cover the whole campus.

All of those projects have caused me to reflect, are we doing IT all wrong? Should we get rid of half our PCs and equip our pastoral staff with iPads and get them out of the office to where the people are?

What’s your church doing? Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below.

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