Notes Related to IT work for Executive Committee Consideration
April 2007

 

The progress of revelation dissemination in our world is largely limited by the availability of resources which can be brought to bear on the task.  The more resources--people and financing--brought to bear, the faster will be the penetration of The Urantia Book's insights into global religious cultures. 

 

The Fellowship is evolving supportive infrastructure for this project.  We have extremely limited resources, given the magnitude of the task.  We cannot afford to waste any of those resources.  At the same time the planetary situation creates a degree of urgency.  Gains must be stabilized before new projects are undertaken.  Rates of growth need to be managed. 

 

We must exploit opportunities that appear in the process of doing our work.  What will happen as the revelation becomes more widely known?  What sort of support may be needed to stimulate and sustain growth?  Over-rapid growth is suicidal.  Overly conservative decision making will result in mediocrity.  Our challenge is to chart a course which optimizes the return on our investment of our limited resources.

 

 

Website Architecture, Design, and Navigation

 

            Needed for progress:

            Good analysis of website visitor needs and issues;

                                    User survey.

                                    Reader survey.

Search engine manipulation;

                                    Optimization of page sequences.

                                    Development of keyword lists.

Code conversion of existing documents.

Integration with history archive.

Administrative procedures for archiving current documents;

                                    Which documents?

                                    How do they get sent to the database?  By whom?

Creation of document categories--public, members only, admin only,  private, etc.--along with subsequent classification of existing website documents and coding of website access to assure the integrity of this segmentation model.

Better documentation of organizational workflow.

Better management of conference presentations so that web equivalents of  effective workshops and plenaries can be made available to a much wider audience.

            Currently in development:

                        Audio streaming.

                        Video archive.

                        Video streaming.

                        Audio and video podcasting.

                        Fellowship event calendar.

                        Content management system.

                        Preparation of documents for print-on-demand applications.

 

            Ongoing tasks:

                        Server and network maintenance.

                        Backups and data integrity assurance.

                        Software upgrades.

                        Reader user support services.

                        Technology migration.

                        Maintenance of system documentation.
                        Optimization of website for access by persons with disabilities. 

 

Continuing Consolidation of Organizational Data

 

            Society use of database, credit card processing for local events?

            Society updating of local reader address information?

            Data access policy -- need to upgrade old mailing list policy;

Who has access to what information?  Data can be restricted down to the level of specific fields.

            Decisions need to be made about what information we want to collect and store            --minutes, contracts, etc.;

                          What information should be archived? 
                                    Contribution records?
                                    Organizational service information?
                                    Conference attendance history?
                                    Conference registration forms?

Procedures should be developed so that archived Fellowship data may be integrated with the work of the newly formed Urantia Historical Society.

Decisions need to be made about what information is readily available for administrative users as opposed to information that is more deeply buried in archives.

Mailing Labels: Present policy is for labels to be provided by the office but increasing access to online reader information may enable local creation of mailing labels--policy should be reviewed and appropriate steps taken to implement this policy on a technical level.

Provide restricted online spreadsheet access to committee financial records?  This can be integrated with Quickbooks so that committee chairs always know their balances.  In addition, other EC members could easily review any committee expenditures.

 

Ongoing Development of Organizational Data Services

            Webstore;

                        Sales of other products?  Historical Society, Mark Kulieke, Saskia, etc.

                        Event registrations.

                        Need to review and approve terms and conditions of use.

                        Need more product copy.

 

                        Additionally, the webstore software provides the means for:

                                    Processing of Coupon codes.

                                    Easy integration with Quickbooks database.
                                    Special discounts.

                                    Gift certificates.

Registration of users with auto-population of order  forms on subsequent visits.

                                    Ability to provide members-only pricing and members-only pages.
                                    Live online chat with a customer support person.

                                    Members only pages, promotions, and special prices
                                    Special promotions (such as holiday gift specials).
                                    Email promotions.

                                    Solicit contributions whenever a product is sold.

Ability to let customers create product reviews.
Solicit a contribution whenever a product is ordered.
Ability to set up an affiliate program which encourages other webmasters to       link to our store.

Special password-protected pages can be created for commercial orders and/or use by retailers.

Sell event registrations and manage event-related inventory such as the number of seats. available on a bus, the number of available rooms with private bath, etc.

 

Software applications for remote users installed on server along with data archiving and email list management.

Data access for related organizations.   

 

In all of these areas, we can proceed slowly using existing staff, or we can speed up development by applying more resources.  A number of the services we provide involve the use of discrete software programs, such as Quickbooks.  Just as we have Paula who is intimately familiar with the Quickbooks program and hence is able to maximize its value to The Fellowship, we could benefit greatly if we could find other individuals who would take on in-depth learning of specific software programs and manage them for The Fellowship.  I am planning an IT exhibit for IC08 which I hope will inform, excite, and lead to competent volunteers to help on an ongoing basis.  Discrete software programs needing committed persons:

 

            Webstore.

           
E-newsletter.

Website visitor statistical analysis and search engine optimization.

Server and network maintenance and management.

Database.

Website interface to organizational data.

Website search software.

Audio and Video processing.

Podcasting and programming for handheld wireless devices.

Website graphics and navigation design and development.

           

Development of print-on-demand resources.

Foreign language translations of key study aids and reader resources.

 

In addition, competent, technically informed administrative coordination of all these efforts will be essential for long-term planning, to assure economical use of resources, and to make sure that all efforts proceed in an integrated manner.
 

All of these processes are currently in various states of development, but their full potentials are far from being realized due to lack of resources.  New services continue to be added with no expansion of technical staff.  We've gained a temporary advantage for this year with my leaving the IFC chair, but the problem remains and will likely become acute in another year or so.  By "acute" I mean that temporary breakdowns in service and localized situations of data loss will occur with increasing frequency.  We are at present fairly well protected against a major disaster on a technical level.  That is, our data is well backed up and archived.  But we continue to increase the number of hardware and software applications that process that data and present it for use.

By far the greatest danger to The Fellowship is having only one person who is intimately familiar with the details of all these processes upon which the organization is becoming increasingly dependent. 

This is a very serious situation and should have the immediate attention of the Executive Committee leading to meaningful action and the implementation of a long-term strategy for IT management.  The real issues in this matter have been neglected for far too long and should have high priority.  

 

In the continuing adventure,

 

David Kantor