THE URANTIA BOOK FELLOWSHIP
ADMINISTRATION WEBSITE
As faith-enlightened and spirit-liberated sons of the kingdom of heaven, you face a double responsibility ofduty to man and duty to God while you voluntarily assume a third and sacred obligation: service to the brotherhood of God-knowing believers. [178:1.5]
LOGO,
LETTERHEAD,
MAILING LABELS
PUBLIC
ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION
THE
URANTIA BOOK
FELLOWSHIP
PO BOX 4583
GRAND CENTRAL
STATION
NEW YORK, NY
10163
1-877-288-3772
303-467-7858
FAX: 303-403-4091
THE
URANTIA BOOK
FELLOWSHIP
9190 W 90TH PL
WESTMINSTER
CO 80021-4418
Website Report on Content Issues
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:
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
Unused domains
life-of-Jesus.org
urantia-book.org
librourantia.org
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
Windows 2000 server running IIS5 -- Websites
Windows 2000 server running Apache -- Email services
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
On the Horizon: Pending or in Process
Content
"Man, God, and the Supreme" -- Book by Stuart Kerr
More historical archive materials
Additional Sadler tapes
Audio tracks from Boulder School tapes
Audio from early Urantia conferences
Fully interactive topical index
Spiritual Psychology -- Book by Meredith Sprunger
Services
Online communications -- enhanced email and chat services
Community calendar
Polling/voting
Sales of books, etc.
Services and technical data for translators
Electronic indexing of The Urantia Book in Korean, Russian, Lithuanian, and French
Website for Urantia school in Bogotá, Colombia
Additional services for Societies and Affiliates
Mailing list management
Ledger/accounting services for Fellowship committees
Technology
Migration to SQL Server
Improved backup and failover procedures
Some Administrative Issues
John needs to use the online database as the primary database; he needs to keep it current vis-a-vis Society officers, Councilors, etc.
We need to integrate the accounting information with the reader database. I do not have the financial records needed to do this. When I set up the reader database I was provided with reader records stripped of all financial information.
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? Can this archive be searched?
Legal documents, contracts, financial documents -- should be archived online for access by EC members and officers.
Workflow -- better mechanism needs to be established for assuring that electronic versions of all publications are published on the website simultaneously with their print media publication.
Copies of approved meeting minutes need to be archived online in a timely manner.
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. This should form the foundation of website design.
Need to more aggressively gather names and addresses from the website and provide a sequence of introductory materials via email to interested persons. A program needs to be developed to guide interested persons toward becoming serious readers and perhaps contributing members of our organization.
Need to create online help and information section
Need to improve navigation and website architecture
Need more comprehensive database administration
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. This needs to be updated regularly. Presently updated quarterly.
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. Additionally, backups are archived to CD.
I have no information about accounting system backups. John takes care of his own backups in Chicago. I assume that Fellowship accounting information is backed up along with Alliance data.
Need long-term strategy for backups and restorations. Executive Committee needs to assume responsibility for making sure it is done and done properly. Checking on this should be an item of business at every Executive Committee meeting.
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.