Website Review
February 2005

The following information is intended as background orientation for further discussion about the Fellowship website and related IT services.  It is more of an outline and a listing of some relevant thoughts than a detailed description.  It may be helpful in the creation of an agenda for our upcoming meeting

It has been suggested that the website be viewed in three divisions: Aesthetics, content, and navigation (structure).  These are useful categories for dealing with website issues. I think it is important that we look at the overall IT situation for the Fellowship which includes a variety of Internet services, administrative services, and potential applications. The website and its related issues are only a part of a bigger picture which should be considered because of the amount of overlap of these various IT activities.  Without such review and subsequent administrative followup we are allowing growth and development to proceed in a haphazard and unplanned manner.  We are used to thinking in project-specific time frames.  We need to consider our IT strategy in terms of a much bigger organizational frame of reference.  This is an area in which we are investing substantial time, money, and human resources.  

For this reason I would like to divide the present review into three primary categories which are: Content, services, and technology. 

Content means information which we've stored and want to make available to the readership.

Services include email services, online registration for events, online contributions, administrative database services, etc.

Technology refers to the media through which our content and services are delivered to the readership and the wider public.

Content

Content which we are providing may be grouped into the following categories:

 

The Fellowship Archive

• Print documents  (Spanish, English, Portuguese, Russian, Croatian, German, Lithuanian, Polish)
• Video files
• Audio files
• Photographs
• Newsletter archive
• Text of The Urantia Book in English and Spanish
• Study Aids
• Paramony
• Topical Index
• Introductory materials  
• Source books
• Secondary books
• 21 Steps
• (Spanish and English)
• When Things Go Wrong
• (Spanish and English)
• Study of the Master Universe (Sadler)
• (Spanish and English)
• History of The Urantia Movement (Mullins)
• (Spanish and English)
• Bible (RSV)
• (Spanish and English)
• The Story of Everything
• Introduction to the Theology of The Urantia Book (Sprunger)

Administrative Archive

• Meeting minutes
• Historical documents
• Accounting information            
• Brochures
• Promotional materials
• Uversa Press information
• Fellowship content is presently published via:
• Print
• CD
• DVD
• Website

Services

• Email lists
• General Council
• Socadmin
• Executive Committee
• International Fellowship Committee
• IC05 Planning Committee
• Golden Gate Circle Society
• Chat services
• Websites
• UrantiaBook.org
• UBFellowship.org
• Ellibro.org
• UrantiaGGC.org
• UversaPress.com
• RetreatNetwork.com
• Polylingual Search Engine
• Electronic Newsletter Publishing
• Database Management
• Study Group Database
• Promotion of community events -- conferences, retreats, etc.
• Inquiry Response
• Reader Services
• Polling
• Online financial transactions
• Internal
• Logfile management
• Statistical analysis
• Server maintenance
• Software upgrades and maintenance
• Email list maintenance
• Security strategy

Technology

At present we have two servers.  The second one was put on line this past winter.  It will eventually host all communication and administrative services.  The original server will eventually host only web services.  Both servers are protected by hardware firewalls.  By the end of the second quarter these two servers should be backing each other up.  An immediate goal is to provide uninterrupted service should one of these servers go down. 

In addition to these two servers we have high-speed lines connecting John Hales and David Kantor to the Internet. 

Off-the-shelf software is used.  Custom code is kept to an absolute minimum and clever hacks are avoided.  This is to make it easier for someone to take over managing some or all of these functions should this become necessary.

Software on the server side:

• Search engine
• Web server
• Mail server
• Sendmail
• Web Crossing
• Database software
• Filemaker Pro
• SQL Server
• Newsletter publishing software
• Financial transaction processing

Software on administrative workstations

• Word
• Excel
• Access
• Photoshop
• Dreamweaver
• Adobe Acrobat 
• Filemaker Pro
• Misc audio and video processing software
• Misc CD and DVD formatting and burning software
• Misc utilities
• Additional accounting software is used at the Oklahoma City location.

A number of readers help with content development and management of the website.

• Paula Thompson -- Study Group Database
• John Hales -- Reader Database
• Richard Omura -- Fellowship community pages
• Ken Glasziou -- Innerface International publication
• Larry Watkins -- Misc programming
• Martha Babatola -- Administers Golden Gate Society site
• Michelle Klimesh -- Publishes weekly Society newsletter
• Bruce Porter -- Responsible for Retreat Network site
• Christel Schmidt -- Scanning
• Adrienne Greer -- Financial services
              Sage Waitts -- Coordination with publications; website design consultation

Outside Services

• Outside service providers are used in several areas.  These are:
• Appsite Hosting -- Primary hosting service
• Verity -- Annual maintenance fee for search engine service and upgrades
• SQL Server -- SQL Server hosting
• Skipjack processing -- Provides for online credit card transactions
• Chicago and Denver high speed connections to Internet
• Hammond Communications Group -- Programming and consulting
• Verovar, Inc. -- Translation services            

Some Administrative Issues       

•              We need to integrate the accounting information with the reader database.  I do not have the financial records needed to do this. 
•              PDF files are being created as part of our decentralized office setup.  I know nothing about the workflow here, archiving, file naming conventions, or anything else having to do with this part of our IT infrastructure.  Who designed this process?  Are things being archived in a way which allows easy retrieval of specific documents?            
•              Does the organization want to have a fully integrated IT function, or does it want it to be decentralized?  Right now we have operations in New Jersey, Chicago, Oklahoma City, Oregon, Denver -- and Uversa Press marketing concerns.  The operations at these centers are not well integrated.  Is integrating them desirable or would it be better to live with this decentralization? 
•              Need statistical analysis and search engine optimization on an ongoing basis. 
•              Need to more aggressively gather names and addresses from the website and provide a sequence of introductory materials via email to interested persons.             

Miscellaneous 

It is important to appreciate the difference between just keeping everything operational as contrasted with aggressively exploiting the technology for our mission of spreading the revelation.  We can do a lot to integrate the presently scattered readership by providing good customer service to those readers.  The strength of our organization (and the financing we're able to raise) will be a function of the quality of service we can provide to the readership and the effectiveness with which we engage in the task of spreading the revelation.  How can we effectively deploy technology to assist in this task?    

The core services and data which should have priority protection are:

• Reader database
• Accounting database
• Communications services
• Document archive

There are additional decentralized readership services with no functional technical relationship to each other but which are or will be important to the readership community.

• UBRON
• Education Committee website
• OKC accounting functions
• Chicago/New York mail services
• Coordination with Jesusonian
• Coordination with Urantia Foundation (orders and shipment of translations)
• Coordination with Uversa Press marketing

Backups

• The Fellowship needs to provide for administrative continuity of its IT assets. This requires more people who are knowledgable regarding our IT operations.
• Backup information file -- should contain all information about contracted services, passwords, software configurations, etc.Backup information file -- should contain all information about contracted services, passwords, software configurations, etc.  This needs to be updated regularly.  Presently updated quarterly. 
• Database and Website backups are maintained on my workstation in Denver.Database and Website backups are maintained on my workstation in Denver.  This is done by regular ftp of files from Denver to Atlanta, from Atlanta to Denver. 
• I have no information about accounting system backups.I have no information about accounting system backups.  John takes care of his own backups in Chicago. 
• Need long-term strategy for backups and restorations.Need long-term strategy for backups and restorations.  Executive Committee needs to assume responsibility for making sure it is done and done properly. 

 

Physical materials

• Fellowship needs to assure easy access to physical materials maintained at various sites -- Chicago, OKC, Denver.  I have original software CDs filed at Denver, along with backups.

Immediate needs

• Database administrator
• Statistical analyst knowledgable in the area of search engine optimization
• Administrative guidance; clear vision of long-term IT goals and articulation of a Fellowship IT strategy -- for internal administrative operations as well as reader and public services.  Remember that the basic commodity that we are bringing to the marketplace is information.  Our work falls into two categories -- the propagation of information and management of the attendant social repercussions.  This puts information and communications at the heart of our mission.  We have only begun to develop the tools and strategies needed to proceed with this mission.