IT Overview for Executive Committee
August 12, 2008
Issues That the EC
Needs to Address
1. What to do about forming an IT Committee or some other administrative mechanism for managing Fellowship IT processes and development. Comprehensive, long-term planning is required.
2. The need to hire a database administrator. Again, long-term planning is required rather than short-term solutions.
3. Recognize that web services and admin database services are two separate areas each needing its own budget, management, and clearly defined relationship to a yet-to-be-specified administrative mechanism.
4. A great deal of pressure could be taken off of current IT/Web services by assigning:
a. Responsibility for e-newsletter publication to Publications Committee
b. Responsibility for web-based retail services to Uversa Press
c. Responsibility for e-book publication to Uversa Press
d. Responsibility for e-list maintenance to Membership
Each of these committees need to seek out and incorporate technically competent persons.
5. Recognize that expanding services creates additional admin work. Appropriate staff planning needs to be undertaken. At present all new work simply gets passed on to existing staff which is already overloaded. Again, while there are current problems that need addressing, comprehensive long-term planning would be much more appropriate.
Current Status of IT Projects
1. Website
The world of the Internet is still expanding and changing rapidly. The primary transition now taking place is the migration of web services from networked computers to wireless devices. For every computer in the world there are three mobile phones. Current studies project more than 4 billion mobile phones in service by 2010. 4 billion is 60% of the global population. For increasing numbers of people, their mobile devices will be their primary -- if not only -- connection with the Internet.
I am currently working on mobile services and have registered mobile domains for the Fellowship to be used for admin purposes as well as domains for public access to Urantia information. If someone sees or hears "Urantia" someplace they should be able to get information about us and about the book simply by looking up the word on their mobile device.
The next generation of our online study group directory will include a geocoding utility that lets users enter a zip code and find the nearest study group or contact person. Mobile devices increasingly come equipped with GPS services. This means that anyone with a mobile phone easily should be able to find the nearest study group or contact person.
I am currently redesigning all web pages and services to be as compatible as possible with a wide range of display devices. I am also focusing on the book itself and the gradual elimination of historic documents from the Fellowship website as the Urantia Book Historical Society website becomes more stable.
The website will gradually become more focused on providing services for folks involved in dissemination. For example, we're providing network services to support projects such as Don Green's campus Urantia Book Club efforts, the BlogTalk radio project, support for the Operation Reach-Back effort, etc.
We're formatting various publications for print-on-demand or Kinko's type services so that they can be downloaded and printed anywhere in the world by readers wanting outreach materials.
A major part of the present website transition is to more internationalization. With the ability to publish electronically any of the Foundation's translations we'll become more of an international web-based resource center for the book itself. The further development of the Polygloss as well as the Urantia Book Translator will add significantly to the usefulness of our international services. Note that the database project is geared toward internationalization as well.
Critical needs in the website arena revolve around availability of competent technical persons to further develop the following areas:
a. Migration to an automated content management system (CMS) -- by far the most critical need for web services. A CMS would greatly reduce website maintenance issues while significantly increasing the services that could easily be provided. Unfortunately the amount of time I'm now spending on the database precludes addressing this issue. I am currently projecting being able to devote time to this 1Q2009.
b. Management and further development of Fellowship web-based retail services
c. Management of web-based audio/video materials
d. Transfer of historic documents to the UB Historical Society
e. Maintenance of an online calendar
f. Creation of competently designed introductory materials
g. Management of print-on-demand resources
h. Optimization of web pages for search engines
j. Document formatting
2. Database Development
I am continuing to work with Alan on database development. I have identified several bugs and some usability issues that he is addressing. When these issues are settled we likely will have an IT conference here in the Denver area to chart out next steps. This will likely consist of Tim Hobbs, Alan Goodman, Larry Watkins, Robert Burns, Paula Thompson, and myself.
One of the guiding principles for the database development are needs related to internationalization. This includes adherence to international mailing label standards (which vary from country to country), international telephone number formatting, automated insertion of country codes into international phone number fields, and more.
Critical needs in the admin database arena are:
a. Database administrator -- someone competent to continue development of back-end database resources as well as web-based forms for various purposes; able to provide tech support for volunteers working with Fellowship data.
b. Publication of searchable minutes for GC and EC members
c. Conference registration management
d. Provision of services to support Societies and various outreach efforts (such as credit-card transaction processing for Society contributions).
e. Development of administrative guidelines.
1. Who has access to what fields?
For example: Bobby Dreier can edit
study group information -- should she also be able to edit reader address
records? Or should she send address information to someone else? (These are
rhetorical questions only intended to illustrate the kind of issues involved.)
2. What data should be web-accessible for work by volunteers vs. what should be limited to admin persons? My current view is that only one person should have admin access to the database. Everyone else should be working through web-based forms.
3. Development of admin guidelines for approval of data to be added to the database and assignment of this responsibility. Current work is being done to make sure that all data coming into the database from web-based forms is stored in a buffer until a competent admin person can check it, approve it, and click a button sending it into the core database.
(I have provided lists of additional admin guideline needs in other reports.)
f. Mailing list management -- someone competent to create filtered sets of address labels for various mailing needs.
g. Community e-list management -- someone competent to manage subscriptions, updates, drops, etc. on Fellowship e-lists such as socadmin.
Please review these issues and prepare any questions you might have for discussion at the upcoming IT conference call.
Please also understand that I have no plans to continue doing this work beyond the end of 2012 at the very most -- that is 4 more years maximum. I feel I need to choose one of three options for the time I may have remaining to work for the Fellowship.
1. Press forward as strongly as possible for the creation and implementation of a solid IT foundation for the organization.
2. Continue to hold things together with duct tape and baling wire.
3. Cut back on all fronts and leave the Fellowship with a very basic web presence and elementary database.
The choice is really yours.
Respectfully submitted,
David Kantor