Bush League

I am so out of my league in this conference. Not that I don’t
understand what they are saying, but that I am representing such a bush
league IT situation. The guy next to me is talking about needing 22
terabytes of storage for his church and we have, what a single 500MB drive that is
maybe 1/3 full. Oh, and they virtualize all of their servers (plural). Sheesh….I’m keeping my mouth shut for fear that
someone asks me what I’m running.

7 Minute Vendor Pitch

A nice way to do it. Give everyone the same amount of time to zip through their PPT. Nobody gets more time than the other. Vendors: ACS Technologies, Saxon (local Xerox dealer), ServiceU, etc

Intermittent Connectivity

An hour later, the wireless is back up again. Feels like IT….

Church IT Roundtable

I’m attending the Church IT Roundtable in Palm Beach Gardens. I’ve been here for 2 hours and Internet connectivity just came up. …hehehe

Updates

For some reason I got sidetracked there for a couple of months with some other tech-related project. Whew! Thank goodness that is done. <grin>

Today’s post comes to you from the cafeteria at Camp Kulaqua in beautiful northern Florida where fortunately they have a decent WiFi connection. Dany and I are aquainting ourselves with the new WordPress 2.7 dashboard. So far the results are quite favorable, although I am still getting aclimated to the new interface.

GiEN 08-Friday Afternoon Sessions

Session #2-Marvin King, Web Manager, Adventist World Radio

Podcasting: the new radio

Various forms of media are converging now into various formats

Defines podcast as a form of radio where a program is distributed automatically based on a subscription model.

Easy to create, publish and advertise. Record, edit, compress and then upload the xml file. Once these steps are done, the file is RSS ready. Aggregator software is used to subscribe (ie. iTunes).

Podcast gear. Spend money on your microphone, otherwise you can podcast on most any budget.

Recording standards. record audio at 44.1 or higher, record music at 64k or better. Clean the sound up afterwards.

Validate the RSS at feedvalidator.org.

WebPasties.com-website with cheap software for generating RSS and XML files

Podsubmitter will submit to over 55 aggregators

Create album art for your podcast.

Automated workflows–example, Leopard Server–if you generate several podcasts at a time, every day, etc.

If files get to be too much to manage, may need to consider getting a asset management solution to keep track of all your media.

Megavoice-source for a low-cost device to load your content on to

GiEN 08-Friday Afternoon Sessions

Presentation #6- David Broberg, VP-Consumer Video Technology, CableLabs

“Where is (Video) Technology Taking Us?”

TV is about to get far alot more realistic

TV is about to get far more interactive

TV is about to get far more personalized

TV is about to get far more portable

Realistic-Ultra High Def or 4K digital cinema and 3D viewing

Ultra high is 8Mpixel while HD is 2Mpixel

3D technologies are coming, of which there are several

Interactive-a new technology called <tru2way> is coming

Interactive advertising and live voting, etc.

Half of all subscribers to have this in 5 years

Personalized-what I want, when I want it and where I want it

What-HD channels, internet TV

When-Tivo, Replay, DVR

Where-Slingbox, Anyplay DVR

User-generated content is exploding as well

Portable-challenges include file/format conversion and DRM

Significant changes are coming that are going to put even more strain on the content side of the process.

GiEN 08-Friday Sessions

During the break…

Launch announcement of Hopenet.tv–Hope TV for China, web-based to start with (no TV stations available yet)

URL is www.hopenet.tv

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Presentation #5-Dan Houghton

“Adventist netInitiatives”

Story about his recent 7 churches tour in Turkey. Speaks about Paul and his methods while in Ephasus, along with the challenges to his ministry. Acts 17

NetAdventist program developed with Zapara money.

netPrize categories–to be presented at GiEN 09 in Mo Bay

Communication, Education, Evangelism (three in each category-$10K, $5K and $3K)

Grand prize-$15K across all three categories.

The hope is that this will stimulate new development for the netAdventist platform, a requirement of the competition is that it be compatible with the netAdventist system)

Also a netAward will be given (Ray Dabrowski speaking now) to those who have been supporters of online ministry and innovative in using technology. This comes from the GC Communications Department. Missed who received and for what…oh well.

GiEN 08-Friday Sessions

Worship-Gary Krause

The Internet as Subversion

Example: New and old models of politics-Obama vs Hillary. Using the Internet to campaign and raise money. Viral versus hierarchical.

Is Adventism subversive (ie, undermining the status quo)? It has been in the past, due to anti-slavery, health reform, etc. But is it still this way? Many of the “peculiars” are now considered mainstream (non-smoking, drinking, vegetarianism, Sabbath-keeping) and no longer seem subversive.

Romans 12.2 “….be no longer conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”

So why isn’t Adventism still on the cutting edge of reform, the ones caring for the marginalized, the Sabbath keepers who care for the environment? Too long we have alienated people because of our theological snoggery, but have we perhaps swung too far the other way and avoided all confrontation.

The challenge today is to become subsersive again.

New Blog–First Entry

Welcome to the new Delwin Finch blog: likethebirds. Since my last name is Finch, see if you can’t figure out the connection between my name and the name of the blog. It shouldn’t be hard for a bright person like you.