Fellowship Information Technology Services Report, June 2006

 

In his comments to the 2000 TDA, outgoing President Steve Dreier noted that, "Our major organizations are facing the choice of reform or failure.  Our present system has exhausted the potential if its infancy."  During the years since then our administrative procedures have changed in relatively minor ways.  Much of the way we conduct our affairs remains the same as when Steve made his comments in 2000.

 

Yet there have been two major developments in our work over this period of time which are now in great need of informed attention -- developments which require a substantial change of administrative perspective and procedures if we are to continue to be a relevant organization.  These are the emergence of IT services as the fundamental infrastructure of The Fellowship and the emergence of the Spanish language readership as the largest and most active readership in the world.  This report will address the IT issues.  I will attempt to address the Spanish language situation in my International report. 

 

The evolution of IT services presently dominates the leading edge of organizational development.  Present IT services go well beyond the provision of a website and email services.  Everything from basic communications with the readership to the bulk of the organizations financial transactions are being moved online.  The accompanying diagrams show not only our present system, but the degree to which this system has evolved in the past decade. 

 

The challenge of the next group of officers will be to integrate essential IT services and functions with more appropriate and supportive administrative procedures.  For this reason it is extremely important that officers elected to this coming term -- in addition to having the spiritual insight needed to direct the course of revelation dissemination -- must have the practical business experience with IT matters needed to effectively address long overdue administrative issues. 

 

Choices we've made about technology are moving us toward a greater degree of administrative efficiency while expanding the range of services which can be directly applied to dissemination activities.  But to be successful, new administrative strategies -- including more informed participation by members of the General Council -- will be essential.

 

At present, the organizational development which consumes the most financial resources and has the greatest long-term implications for how the Fellowship conducts its business and promulgates the work of the revelation continues to evolve without informed, timely, and relevant management by the Executive Committee or the officers.  This situation needs to be aggressively addressed by the next group of officers and Executive Committee members.

 

Current IT Progress and Issues

 

This past year we implemented an online contribution form which includes the ability to process monthly autodebits and credit card transactions online.  We have contracted with an outside firm to create for us an online Point Of Sale system. (See Robert Burns' Finance Committee report).

 

A POS terminal is similar to a cash register in a retail store.  But in the case of a POS, the "cash register" is online and can be used from anywhere that we have an Internet connection -- from an office anywhere in the world, from a conference bookstore, etc.  Detailed and customizable reports are created by associated software. The information gathered by POS activity will be integrated with our reader database, as well as with the bookkeeping and accounting activities.  This will open up a whole new range of opportunities for a geographically dispersed readership to participate more fully in the work of the revelation.  There are new potentials for better and more personalized reader services, more effective fund raising, new levels of web services, and much more.

 

Some Current Developments of Interest

 

This past year Bobbie Dreier took on the maintenance of the Study Group Directory and with Steve's help, we now always have the latest contact information available on the website.  What Steve and Bobbie are doing illustrates what will be a growing trend in the next few years -- individuals accessing subsets of our organizational data in order to perform specific service projects.

 

But very few of these new potentials can be actualized without substantial administrative change in the way work flow is managed in The Fellowship.  Fundamental administratives changes are essential.  The most pressing need at present is for a Database Administrator with sufficient programming skills to create good, easily used interfaces between our technology foundation and our members and staff who need to use these resources.

 

We are currently negotiating with a Denver-based technology company whose CEO is a Urantia Book reader and who has offered help with IT services hosting.  It looks as if we will be able to add a second server to our network (one for public web services and one for internal administrative services) while at the same time substantially reducing our monthly costs.

 

We need to recognize that we are evolving an IT administrative model which has three primary divisions:

            1. Database Administration

            2. Network Services Administration

            3. Website (and mail) Services Administration

 

Another way to look at this is to say that we need an IT person focused on reader services, another focused on administrative IT services, and another focused on the maintenance of the hardware and software infrastructure used by both.  This group should form the Fellowship's core IT committee and will likely need to consist of paid staff working with an informed subset of the Executive Committee. 

 

One of the challenges of the incoming officers and Executive Committee members will be carefully and consciously to manage the continuing evolution of IT services so that it does not proceed in a haphazard way as a response to crises demanding immediate attention due to lack of planning.  Proper management of IT resources requires that administrative decisions be made with the big picture in mind.   Because IT services are something of an ecological whole, focusing attention on isolated portions of the overall picture can create serious problems in other segments of the system.

 

Website Issues

 

The fifth iteration of a Website Content Committee has been appointed by the officers.  The decision to do this was done with absolutely no consultation with anyone who actually works on the website or has an understanding of the critical IT priorities facing the organization.  "Critical" here means "close to breakdown due to lack of appropriate administrative attention."  This is an example of an attempt to manage by focusing on an isolated segment of a much bigger and complex problem.

 

While the creation of a website content committee may be an important development, it is far down on the list of priorities.  What is most needed at the present time is a better understanding of the overall IT picture as well as people with technical backgrounds who can do the actual hands-on work.  The best of committees can only make suggestions which in turn can only add items to the backlog of work needing to be done.

 

Adequate financing is needed.  Everyone wants a better, more professional looking and functioning website, yet funds requested for professional design consultation have been consistently cut from my budget.   

 

I recommend that the work of the present website content committee be put on hold until situations threatening system breakdown are adequately resolved. 

 

The threat of breakdown is emerging from two areas. 

 

The first is from attempts to gain administrative control by individuals who have very little insight into the problems which they are attempting to manage.  This results in forward momentum becoming bogged down in inefficient and poorly conceived administrative procedures.

 

The second potential source of breakdown comes from the failure to provide adequate staffing while new demands for IT resources continue to be made.  There is an increasing amount of maintenance that needs to be done just to keep web, email, database, network, and other services running.  I am presently in a position of needing to neglect maintenance tasks from time-to-time in order to focus on the development of new resources.  If all we have running is a website, if it goes down for a couple of days it is not a big tragedy.  If we have all our financial business running online and a server goes down for a couple of days a great deal of chaos can be generated.

 

We risk breakdown of important organizational support systems just at a time when we are crossing the threshold into an era of increasing opportunities for worldwide dissemination of the revelation.   It is essential that we have healthy organizational foundations from which we can meet these opportunities. 

 

It is the responsibilty of each member of the General Council and the Executive Committee to see to it that those foundations are in place and are functioning properly. 

 

It requires that each person spend more time becoming better informed -- ask questions, don't passively wait for information to come to you.  Insist that the New York Society resolution from the June 2002 TDA meeting about communication be implemented.  Insist that Resolution #3 from the June 2000 TDA about communication be implemented.  Insist that the First Society Resolution from the 1997 TDA about communications be implemented.  Insist that these communications be about substantive issues. 

 

It is the responsibility of the TDA delegates and the General Council to make sure that our officers and as many members of the Executive Committee as possible are individuals who have sufficient backgrounds in IT related business issues to provide appropriate guidance for The Fellowship, to competently undertake the administrative procedure and staffing changes needed for stable and productive growth.

 

Less than 20% of my time is now devoted directly to website development and the majority of that time is devoted to maintenance just to keep present services working.   I have become a combination IT Administrator and reader services provider with the following primary tasks:

 

            1. Spanish language web and reader services coordination (with an unreasonable amount of work being dumped on Susan Ransbottom).

            2. IT managment: Database Administration, Network Administration, system maintenance.

            3. Corporate Help Desk services.

            4. Software and technology evaluation, implementation, maintenance, and long term planning.

 

These are not static tasks.  Our IT services are rapidly evolving processes upon which our enterprise increasingly depends. 

 

The big issues which need to be understood and deliberated by the Council and the Executive Committee are:

            1. Making sure we understand the direction in which technological development is leading us and plan appropriately.  Planning only in terms of an annual budget cycle is inadequate. 

 

            2. Differentiation of IT tasks into separate domains of responsibilty with attention paid to appropriate staffing levels and Executive Committee coordination. 

            3. Continuing evaluation of new technologies which might be implemented in the future for the more effective execution of our mission.  A good evaluation, planning, and implementation cycle is much better than management by crises intervention.

 

            4. The acquirement of an informed understanding of the market demographics for The Urantia Book and the coordination of the website presentation of the book with a comprehensive marketing plan that exhibits a well-coordinated consistency across all media used in the effort.  This necessitates a combination of carefully thought out philosophic considerations combined with objective marketing data.

 

Incoming officers following the July elections must be knowledgable enough to undertake a review of our IT situation and actively participate in the establishment of priorities and allocation of resources.  This is perhaps our most pressing administrative need.  The diagrams which accompany this report illustrate how the list of IT tasks has  grown while staffing issues have remained unaddressed.

 

The Urantia movement may be unique in that it presages a worldwide religious movement which only emerged after the development of information technologies.  We are not sinking large amounts of money into real estate or the construction of temples.  We can use present technological advancements for the effective and efficient spread of the revelation in our world without being weighted down with material cultural artifacts.

 

Current Website Needs (These are separate from overall IT needs) 

 

For your information, here is a review of present website work needing to be done.

 

            1. Upgrading of code used for web pages so that editing of content can be done on groups of documents rather than individual documents.
            2. Identification of key pages and their optimization for search engine returns.

            3. Person to specialize in search engine submissions and management.

            4. Collection of statistical data on users; evaluation of archived log files.

            5. Collaboration with professional designers on website visual layout and navigation scheme.

            6. Publication of backlog of Spanish materials, revisions to Spanish website, formatting and publication of Spanish language topical dictionary.

            7. Development of a more coherent website architecture; implementation of a user segmentation model as outlined in the 2003 website report.

            8. Translation of instruction pages for the polylingual search engine.

            9. Preparation of polylingual introductory materials -- for people discovering The Urantia Book for the first time.

            10. Preparation of orientation materials -- Introductory orientation for new readers to help them find their way into the text.

            11. Integration of Fellowship DVD recordings with text of The Urantia Book on the website.

            12. Format polylingual versions of Paramony.

            13. Review and update es to integrate with the index for the digital archive project.

            14. Complete integration of border templates with content pages.

            15. Create single paragraph descriptions for each paper in the book for use by search engines; complete this process for each translation.

            16. Complete programming for automated insertion of Paper:Section.Paragraph tags in translations.

            17. Consolidate audio files and prepare separate website section for streaming media services.

            18. Upgrade email list services

 

It is important that we move to a website content architecture that reflects the work of Fellowship committees.  At present, website services are evolving in a direction which parallels the work of a number of committees.  If we do not make a conscious effort to integrate our committees with website content and services, a parallel system of services will evolve along with a duplication of effort, philosophical approach, and use of financial resources.  Features provided on the website are already beginning to parallel the work of International, Outreach, Interfaith, Membership, Education, and Publications. The best integration presently exists with International and Finance. 

 

Councilors can help tremendously in this situation by considering any IT skills and experience that committee nominees might have -- especially when electing committee chairs and organization officers.    

 

One of the resolutions coming out of the General Council retreat in Newport Beach in February of 2004 was the following:

 

"The website needs experts who can help design and implement a more user-friendly online presentation targeted to audiences and their needs. It is too much work for one person."

 

At its meeting of September 19, 2004, the General Council approved the following: 

"Each standing committee needs to appoint a web liaison person. David Kantor will chair the committee. It will deal with content issues. It will conference periodically.  To begin David will send an email to each standing and ad-hoc committee asking for a representative."

 

There was never any significant followup on this beyond my sending of a few emails to the committtee chairs.  It turned out that there simply weren't individuals available who had the requisite skills to implement this.  But I still believe that this is the ideal approach to Internet services and website content development and highly recommend that it be pursued.   

 

Fellowship IT Operations Manual

 

Last year I created a document which contained backup information for our critical services.  This has evolved into an almost 40 page document which is becoming The Fellowship IT Operations Manual.  This contains information on all IT processes, software, vendor relations, and so forth which are relevant to The Fellowship.  Because of the extremely confidential nature of some of the information contained in this manual, it is made available to only a few individuals involved in keeping our IT services running.  At present it is updated on a quarterly basis.  

 

Digital Archive Project and The Urantia Book Historical Society

 

An important spinoff from the website has been the Digital Archive Project which continues to develop.  This represents an area of website development which has grown to require its own separate organization.  Victoria Clark, Don Green, Kristen Michaels, Larry Watkins, and Richard Johnson, and a number of others have played key roles in developing this potential.  A separate 501(c)3, The Urantia Book Historical Society, has been formed with its own board of directors to manage this information archive.  Universities in both Colorado and California have expressed interest in housing the readership's historical archive.

 

The Urantia Book Historical Society was formed to preserve the collective memory

of the Urantia Book Movement, to develop a central digital library, and find a

home for the physical library of Urantia Book-related materials. The board

presently has twelve directors, who are highly qualified in such fields as

history, library science, research, and copyright law. The board members are

also a unified body of readers representing many organizations.

 

From the founding documents of the historic society I share the following statement of purpose:

 

1.     Promote and foster an awareness and appreciation of the Urantia Book

Movement; through its religious heritage, origins, background, development, and

general history;

2.     Preserve and protect buildings, sites, and artifacts of value to Urantia

Book history;

3.     Gather and maintain archives and libraries and to serve as a collective

memory for the Urantia Book Movement;

4.     Encourage and support educational programs on the history of the Urantia

Book Movement which may mobilize and empower dynamic spiritual leaders and

teachers;

5.     Sponsor and facilitate educational activities about the Urantia  Book

Movement such as lecture series, library collections, articles, electronic

media, documentaries, museum tours, and educational gatherings and history

celebrations;

6.     Minister and serve the general public and people of all faith expressions,

such as historians, researchers, religious clergy; and those who for reasons,

both personal and/or spiritual, wish to learn more about Urantia Book history;

7.     Conduct and carry out its mission with the highest level of professional

and ethical standards;

8.     Serve and work as an agency of proclamation. We cherish the teachings of

the Urantia Book and share its vision of unity among all people of faiths. Our

mission, then, is to insure that this revelation which was delivered to

humanity—an open and welcoming message—and its history will remain an

inspiration for generations to come.

 

The Urantia Book Historical Society has secured a domain name, www.ubhistory.org

and is currently designing the website wherein the digital library/archive will be available for study. In addition to the historic library, the UBHS will continue to collect, catalogue, and preserve the current publications of the various groups and individuals that are carrying the revelation forward.

 

This project developed naturally from our efforts to digitize and publish readership materials which existed on paper, magnetic tape, and other media.  The archive represents an organized approach to cataloging and storing this growing collection of digitized materials.  It also will serve as a storehouse of online materials which may be drawn upon in the future for construction of specialized websites.

 

An overview of the progress of this group written by Larry Watkins is provided as an appendix to this report.

 

Website Philosophy

 

In considering how to improve the quality of our website presence and its content, it is tempting to focus on small things like the color of a logo, or the placement of a link.  Far more important and influential is the underlying philosophy which informs decision making about specific content, its placement, its organization and so forth. 

 

I submit the following to you for your consideration because if you want to fundamentally change the website, this is the place to start. 

 

The Primary Website purpose should be to focus on Book dissemination.  The importance of book dissemination is something that nearly all readers agree upon.  When we start shifting the focus to particular views of what the book is or means, when we begin to focus on presenting the social community of readers, we begin to plant seeds of sectarian division.  As soon as we leave book dissemination as the primary focus, we find ourselves dealing with a significant submerged conflict within the readership -- the conflict between readers who want to make sure that the book is presented to the world free of any religous -- and particularly Christian -- associations, and others who feel that presenting the religion of Jesus and working to transform Christianity should be the highest priorities.  This conflict has simmered below the surface in the readership since before the beginning of dissemination in 1955.  Agreement about the importance of book dissemination is the only thing which transcends this and is the element which can assure a unified effort to spread the book worldwide.  The world needs The Urantia Book far more than it needs more sectarian competition.  All readers need to work together on this task regardless of their differing views on what the book is.

 

Groups with special interests, rather than contending for control of Fellowship web resources, should focus on the creation of specialized websites.  Truthbook is a good example of a site developed to express the views of Christian readers.  But where is a site for introducing the book to Jewish readers?  To Islamic readers?  To Buddhist readers? To people primarily interested in philosophy?  To young people?  These questions represent important resources in need of development.  Dynamic diversity -- and diversity without conflict -- is likely to be more stimulating than a generic presentation which attempts to offend no one.

 

It is important to appreciate that there is a present effort to better integrate existing major Urantian websites.  Truthbook, The Fellowship, Square Circles, UBRON, etc -- a well-linked network of related websites is evolving.  We can focus on presenting the book; UBRON can focus on providing online forums, Truthbook can focus on providing Jesusonian inspiration, Saskia provides and maintains a calendar of reader eventts, etc.  I believe there is a great deal of advantage to the presentation of diversity and this diversity can be presented only through a network of specialized sites.  The alternative is to create a site like Theoquest which duplicates the effort and tries to consolidate in one place the services offered by the major Urantian websites. 

 

I believe that the approach we've taken with the Fellowship Internet presence fosters community by supporting worthwhile projects of other individuals and groups.  In addition, significant tasks are more effectively distributed across a greater number of independent workers.  It is a decentralized, self-organizing system that should be appreciated and considered in our efforts to understand how the revelation might more effectively be propagated.

 

Here is a list of specifics which currently inform website content selection and organization.

 

            1. Make sure all information is available to all readers -- there should be no opportunity for exploitation of the readership by individuals claiming to have secret information.

            2. Organize the wide range of information we have available so that people going to the Internet to search for specific information will discover The Urantia Book in the context of their particular search.

            3.  Focus on the book.  There is a great deal of diversity in the readership community.  But the importance of stimulating interest in The Urantia Book seems to be appreciated by all.

            4. Avoid the creation of a website which reflects the interests of only one subset of the readership.  We should expect the religious demographics of the readership to reflect the religious demographics of the larger culture.  This means a full spectrum with philosophical humanism at one end, and charismatic fundamentalism at the other end.  Can we represent The Urantia Book to the world without framing it within the viewpoints of any one segment of this spectrum?

            5. Publish only those materials which relate directly to the teachings of The Urantia Book or the historical social evolution of the readership.  A comprehensive archive of materials created by a diverse readership should help with item 4 above.

            6. Provide only those services which minimize the amount of maintenance needing to be done until more workers are involved.

            7. Don't tell people what they should believe.  Provide them with as wide a range of information as possible so that they can have their own experience.  Respect the nature of personal religious experience.

            8. Help Societies and various local groups to provide web pages which reflect their own activities and constituent groups, but don't allow any one of them to assume that they represent the culture of "Fellowship members".

 

To paraphrase the opening statement, "The Fellowship is facing the challenge of growth and administrative change. Our present system has exhausted the potential if its infancy. If we can rise to meet the challenges immediately in front of us, the future holds unlimited opportunities for effective and meaningful service." 

 

Optimistically submitted,

 

David Kantor