InnovatingTomorrow.net | Innovating Tomorrow

Registration is open for the next Geeks and God Conference called the Interactive Church Conference. After the success of the previous Geeks and God conference we decided to continue having these conferences. The Interactive Church Conference is going to focus on web based technologies and their uses in the local church.

The Interactive Church Conference is different than your average church conference. This conference is designed for your average non-technology centered church leader and for your web savvy church tech worker or volunteer. For the non-tech church leadership there will be sessions led by Bob Christenson, of Mustardseed Media, and myself. These sessions will walk through Internet usage in our culture and how the church can be a presence in that form of communication. For the web savvy attenders (geeks) there will be an unconference where the attenders submit sessions and will lead the different talks. If you think this is unconventional you would be wrong. Many of the top technology conferences follow and unconference format.

Our goal is to bring together the technology savvy church members and church leadership. To help with that, if a leader and a geek sign up together the geek ticket is FREE. That's right, I said FREE.

As a bonus, if you sign up before February 1 you'll get a free Mustardseed Media t-shirt.

The conference will be happening February 27-28 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Tickets are only $149.

For more details or to sign up for the conference head over to http://geeksandgod.com/conference.

If you visit the Geeks and God website this image is what you will see rather than the thriving community.

Last month we took a break from recording podcast episodes to put some much needed work into the website. We have now hit the point where we needed to take the website offline to get much of the real work done. This isn't typical of websites we build and it's not typical of drupal websites.

Design Debt

The Geeks and God website was initially build on drupal 4.7. The podcast episodes were page nodes and we used a program to generate our feeds. Eventually we moved to feedburner to replace our desktop app. A short time after that we moved to the audio module for new episodes.

This is just a small picture of the design debt we have going on. There is a lot of cleanup work and that's the stage we are at now. To do the cleanup we have left we needed to take the site offline.

New Design

Along with cleaning up the mess we created over the years we have a new design. The wire frames are in good shape, the functionality is layed out, and the design is moving along.

For anyone wondering, this means we are actually using this break to update the site in a way to make it more useful for geeks and non-geeks.

In our first episode back we'll cover the ins and outs of the new design and the new features. Stay tuned for more details.

Today is Blog Action Day and this years topic is Poverty. Poverty is a problem that affects millions of people in the United States and billions of people world wide. That's right, billions. If you have never started in the face of someone in poverty or herd some in poverty's story it can be an easy thing to dismiss. Especially for those who like in U.S. middle class suburbia where the issue is usually out of sight and out of mind. But, there is something each and every one of us can do to help people in poverty. As a Christian I see this not as something I can do but as something I'm called to do. Let's take a look at a few simple things we can do.

World Relief Organizations

There are more than a few world relief organizations, like Lutheran World Relief. Organizations like this offer opportunities to by fair trade products (like coffee) to put more money in the hands of people who do the work while we still get out products. Or, they offer opportunities to use our skills to make things for people in need (like blankets). And, they offer opportunities to give money to help in aid.

Play Online Games

Bet you didn't see this one coming. An example of this is the Free Rice Game. While you play this game advertisements are displayed. The proceeds from the advertising money is used to buy rice for hungry people around the world.

Adopt A Kid

There are a number of places like Compassion International where you can sponsor a child and help them for less than most smokers spend in a week. It's a simple way to help someone less fortunate than us Internet junkies.

This is my short list of easy ways we can start to help people in poverty. Any suggestions for other easy ways to help people?

This is the week of the Geeks and God Conference.

If you're interested in coming there are still tickets available (we really aren't turning anyone away). This means I won't be blogging again for a week but, when I come back there should be lots of good juicy material to blog about.

Thanks to Pauls blog post I've learned about a new widget, called skribit, that I'm trying out on Innovating Tomorrow.

Skribit provides a platform for social suggestions, as they call them. The idea is simple. People can ask you questions or suggest blog topics through the widget and then others can vote for them. This can help bloggers know what their readers are burning for them to answer.

So, what questions do you have for Innovating Tomorrow to answer? What would you like me to blog about? Click on the widget title (on the right) and up will pop the question form.

Today, May 1st, is the National Day of prayer in the United States. It's a day set aside for everyone to pray. So, what are you praying for? What are you praying for in the technological world?

My prayer is that God guide us to find more and better ways to use technology connect, guide, teach, and help people. I'd like to see more efforts like FreeRice.com and the fshbwl. I'm praying that God does even more of this for his good.

How about you? What are you praying for?

It's time for another vacation. For the next week I'll be off on vacation with my lovely wife, Kristin. We are going to disappear for a week and I'm going to take a much needed break from my regular Internet rituals. Posts will start up again on Monday February 4th.

To help disconnect while I am gone I won't be checking email, blog posts, forums, or any of the places I regularly lurk. Talk to you when I get back.

We have now entered the fun filled and joyous holiday season. I'll be taking the next week and a half off from blogging to take in the holidays, spend time with family, and work on a few pet projects. Look for posts to start up again on January 2nd.

What are you talking a break from during this holiday period to remove some of the clutter of life and take in some more of Christmas?

A couple months ago I was trying to tie in a web service my church was using into our new church website. The service advertised tying in their service to church websites as flexible and easy to do. Not finding it so flexible, I contacted their technical support for answers. What I found was that the amount of customization and tie into church websites was lacking. It was methods and technology that were available at the turn of the millennium. When I asked why their service was out of date they, honestly, said that churches and ministries didn't expect more. This is what my friend, Bob, likes to call 'Good Enough For Church'.

Good Enough For Church

'Good Enough For Church' is where churches settle for just having something rather than doing it well. Maybe the church has a website so they can say they have one rather than having one that makes a difference. Maybe the church has a podcast to say they have one rather than having one people actually listen to. There are a million places this can and does happen. Technology is often a place where 'Good Enough For Church' shows itself.

It's Understandable

This makes sense. Churches and churches leaders have a lot going on. Why should a podcast take a priority over something else? Why should they time to support and be involved in one?

Technology people are busy in churches. The time and skill to do things well takes time and energy. Something that is often not there.

Then there is the elusive dollar issue. Technoloy costs money. Is a CD/DVD duplicator worth the $1000 cost? How about the church sound system? How about the difference between a great church website and one that passes as having one?

Time For A Change

It's time for a change. Churches should expect more from their service providers. Church service providers should be doing more for the mission. 'Good Enough For Church' doesn't cut it. Good use of technology in ministry can make a difference. It can reach people. It provides other ways to reach people with the message. It can aid in connecting people with people to help each other out. Taking advantage of what's out there helps us in the church take the message to people where they are at.

The Challenge

The challenge is for every church technology person to go for more. Take it beyond 'Good Enough For Churches'. Learn how to do it well. Learn what to expect. Learn how to take full advantage of what's out there. Learn how to use technology to take the message to the people where they are at. Learn to use technology to serve others.

That's what this blog is about. Stepping up to the challenge. The Geeks and God podcast has been one avenue to seek doing it well. This blog is another.

If you're a church technology person, or even just someone interested in how and why it matters, subscribe to the blog and check out the podcast. technology is now about people and where they are at.

Welcome to the new Innovating Tomorrow. Innovating Tomorrow has always been about technology but it's time for a change. Innovating tomorrow is now a blog about technology and the church. Here is what you can expect:

Ideas

Ideas are what power technology. We will share ideas. Some from here, some from guest bloggers, and some from readers. The idea is to get ideas out there, brainstorming on ideas, and people using them to reach people with the greatest message out there.

How To's

One of the things I am asked the most is how to do technical things. Maybe it's get transparent pngs to work in IE or how to setup a content management system to build something. There will be posts about these and everything in between.

Why do something

Time is important. With pastors, church leaders, and people through the church not having enough time to get everything done why should they do something we are suggesting or something new.

From another angle we have questions to talk about like, why do an online community a certain way?

Reviews

There are a lot of products and services that affect and can empower the church. We'll review them and give you the opportunity to chime in. Details on this in the coming weeks.

More to come

This new site is starting out small but it will grow. Look out for more to come. If you have any questions or comments please use the contact form.