Jason Powell - Church IT and Other Musings

Join The New Church IT Community Platform!

If you missed the news, we unveiled our new Church IT community platform at the recent Church IT Roundtable in Dallas. This is now THE online hub for connecting with your church IT peers. Ask questions, join in discussions, post job openings, list gear you're selling, stay on top of the lastest Church IT Network news and more! 

Go signup, add a headshot pic so people can put a face with a name, then you'll need to subscribe to the IT Discussions and Web/Dev Discussions groups .. oh and the marketplace too! Select the Daily Digest email option if you like to keep your inbox tidy and you'll get 1 email each day listing all the activity in the groups you're subscribed to. What are you waiting for? There's already great discussions going on that you should be a part of :-)

Dell Technology Symposium for Non-Profits in partnership with Joyce Meyer Ministries and the Church IT Roundtable

If you're not signed up for the CITRT enewsletter you missed seeing the below info ... and shame on you for not being signed up already!  Since this Dell deal is short notice I'm posting the enewsletter here for your viewing pleasure :)

UPDATE 7/7/11 ... if you filled out the survey you should have gotten this email from Dell..
As we draw closer to the Tech Summit, the excitement within Dell is growing!  We are making final preparation for your arrival and have a great agenda we will be finalizing this morning.  I wanted to take this opportunity to send out Dell’s preferred hotels.  We have negotiated rates for our colleagues and guests so please take advantage.  If you have any questions, please let me know.
 
Dell will be providing transportation so for logistical purposes, we recommend the following hotels (Price sheet below):

Candlewood Suites Austin-Round Rock
Springhill Suites Austin-Round Rock
Homewood Suites Austin-Round Rock
Marriott Austin North
 
Note: You will be receiving a formal invite in the next couple of days for this event.  This will be critical to fill out and return as it will capture your flight and hotel information so that we can provide transportation.

FWIW - I know a number of CITRT peeps, including myself, are going to be staying at Springhill Suites.

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Hurry!  Limited time/space left for Dell's Free Technology Symposium for Christian Non-profits July 20-21!
This is a fun long story, but here's the short version - CITRT leadership recently learned of an upcoming meeting at Dell's HQ to foster peer learning among Christian non-proft orgs being spearheaded by Andrea Turek, Executive Director of IT at Joyce Meyer Ministries.  Since this sounded very similiar to CITRT, we reached out to see if collaborating might make sense.  Andrea hadn't heard of CITRT, but was very open to talk with us.  Several emails and conf calls later, we're excited to annouce our partnership with Andrea and Dell and to invite CITRT folks to Dell's campus for this free 2 day event.  Dell will be bringing in their engineering staff to talk with us about various topics many of us are wrestling with.  So while this is sorta last minute, it's an incredible opportunity to network with IT peers and learn about technology solutions to further ministry.  The event is free!  You just need to get yourself to Round Rock and find a hotel :-)

Here's the official invite from Dell:
You are invited to attend an exciting 2 day FREE event July 20-21 at the Dell Round Rock Executive Briefing Center focused on Christian non-profit organizations.  This event will provide content and best practices around the following topics:
Security – How to “plan” and create the best security roadmap solution
Storage -  Object Based Storage
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure – Save your budget by deploying VDI
Systems Management/Automation via KACE
Mobile Management-Apple, Android, Windows
DR and Backup – We all want it, very few have it
Digital Asset Management – Create, deploy reuse
Database /Application Integration- flow data back without hardcoding with Boomi
We hope you will be able join your peers for some exciting learning and fun.  If you would like to participate, please add your information the survey below so that we may send you a formal invite.  We currently have 17 registrations and will only have room for 30 total.  Registration closes July 11th.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/R8XHGF9 - to begin registration process (note: survey was created before we talked to Andrea & Dell so don't fret that there's no mention of CITRT)

OTHER NEWS...

Fall 2011 Regional Church IT RoundTables last week of October: 
The last week of October is our timeslot for all the regional sites to host their events with the exact day of the week up to the host site.  We have 2 sites confirmed but need many many more.  If you're interested in learning about becoming a regional site this fall check out this FAQ http://citrt.pbworks.com/w/page/7717466/hosting-a-regional-event-FAQ
You can also view the list of last year's host sites here http://citrt.pbworks.com/w/page/34816125/Past-CITRT-Events
If you're interested in being a host site this fall please send an email to [email protected] .. thanks!
Cost is $35 and once we firm up all the sites we'll send out registration info.

Spring 2012 National Church IT RoundTable:
It NOT too early to start planning for next spring's event!  Based on the attendance this past spring, we anticipate 200 IT peeps will be converging on Dallas next spring :-)
Put this on your calendar NOW and get it in your budget ASAP! 
Spring 2012 National Church IT RoundTable
April 18-20
$75 includes lunch/dinner both days
Watermark Community Church
Dallas, TX

As always, we welcome any suggestions/input you have on making CITRT better. What's working? What's not? How do we grow it? This is YOUR community.

Thanks,
CITRT Leadership Team
Geeks for Jesus!

Recommended Church IT Vendor/Partner List Ideas?

There are more and more churches looking for reputable IT service and product vendors that are ministry focused or at least very friendly towards churches/ministries.  There are also great ministry focused vendors looking to provide a great service/solution to churches/ministries at a great price.  The challenge is how to get the 2 sides together for a win-win?

I know from my own experience that I give a LOT of weight to vendors/products that I know other Church IT peers are using successfully.  Case in point: we’re looking very closely at Ruckus Wireless from Mirazon because of strong recommendations from Daryl Hunter.  I’m not alone, when I asked other’s in the CITRT IRC channel they all had a similar reply:

“I would be more likely to investigate those products and vendors ... especially if i hadn't heard of them or thought of them” – ccnash-scott

So … what’s the best way to create a list of Church/Ministry friendly IT partners/vendors … how/who would submit the vendor/partner … how could others then comment pro/con on their experience with said vendor/partner … maybe give it a star rating? … maybe something similar to Amazon and eBay comments/ratings?  How and how much do you moderate?  Allow anonymous feedback?  etc etc etc!

Does something like this already exist we might want to leverage?  May we can somehow create something inside our upcoming CITRT getshadetree release?  Someone in IRC mentioned this Wordpress plugin http://www.wpreviewsite.com/ Certainly looks interesting.

Already got some good feedback/ideas from a few IRC peeps like “allow anyone to submit a vendor/solution to the list, but require 2 or 3 people to vote “yes” before it gets approved”

Now it’s your turn.  What would be helpful to you from an IT role or vendor role?  Dream big and let’s see what we end up with :-)

Workshops Coming to GCC

 

Wondering about practical events where you get tools and training for your team? WiredChurches.com workshops are teacher-led, classroom-style, one-day events. Boring they are not. You'll hear from Granger leaders about what works and what doesn’t. Practicums are facilitator-led, round-table discussions. It’s the sit-down, roll-up-your-sleeves conversation you’re craving. Not quite a support group but an informal, safe place where you can share and gain ideas from others like you.

NEW! Events grouped into two-day chunks. Make the most of your travel...come for one day or stay for two. NEW! Everyone gathers together for a half hour of worship on both days before breaking into individual workshops and practicums.

Events happening Thursday and Friday, March 5-6, 2009

Thursday
• First Impressions [Keep guests coming back]
• Kids [Creating safe, fun space for kids]
• Less Clutter. Less Noise. [How to get the word out]
• Pop Goes The Church [Leveraging pop culture in your church]
• Student Ministry Practicum [Reaching students]
• Worship Leaders Practicum [Leading worship]

Friday
• NEW! Lasting Impressions [Keeping guests engaged & growing]
• Maximizing the Arts [Unleashing the arts]
• Simply Strategic Volunteers [Finding and keeping volunteers]
• Web Strategy [Strategies to build an effective Web site]
• Technical Arts Practicum [Using lighting, sound & media]

One-price: Pre-register to get $20 discount rate of $99 per person, per day. Includes materials and lunch. Where & When: Granger Community Church campus, 90 miles east of Chicago,
9 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursday and/or Friday, March 5-6, 2009.

My Blogging Frequency Diminished Due to IRC, Twitter and Life

Ah life ... it's been one of those extended seasons in my life where it seems no matter what I try I can't keep up.  Basically I'm living in a mode of the most critical stuff gets dealt with while all else fades into the background.  It's not pretty or efficient, but it's working well enough for now.  A number of you have emailed me various questions over the past few months ... I got your email ... I will reply ... it just won't be anytime soon ... sorry :-(

I've even stopped reading blogs for the past several weeks unless I get a ping via my google alerts ... aren't you curious what alerts I have setup? ;-)

I'm bummed I don't have more time/energy to be blogging more frequently, but I've found 2 outlets that feed my need to be "connected" with others in the church IT world ... IRC and Twitter.

IRC: Typically a few times each day I poke my nose into our Church IT Roundtable IRC channel ... it's basically an online chat room where a number of church IT staff and volunteers hang out.  Here I can catch up on the latest news, ask questions, give answers, and just get to know better my fellow IT peers.  A contributing factor in my recent hiring of Justin Moore was from being able to interact with and watch him interact with others in the channel almost daily since last winter.  You can learn a lot about a person by hanging out in a crowd together, even if that crowd happens to be virtual.

So I'd strongly encourage anyone involved in IT (yup, we have non-church IT guys/gals joining us as well) to get involved in this virtual community.  Together we can accomplish so much more! Here's a link you can bookmark that will take you to the chatroom with a single mouse click...nothing to install...that's about as easy as I can make it for you.

TWITTER:  I know a number of you think Twitter is stupid and pointless...I did...then I started seeing it's potential value.  And I'm happy to report it's return has been greater than I expected ... even moreso if you tie Twitter to your Facebook status (I rarely visit facebook anymore so this was a big plus).

So, I don't have/make time to create blog posts to keep those interested up to date on what we're doing IT wise at GCC.  I DO have the time to blast out quick 140 character updates throughout the day.  I've also asked for help via Twitter and gotten almost instant feedback ... even from vendors!  Now that's service!  I'm diggin' that 2 way instant interactive aspect of Twitter.

You can easily get overwhelmed by the amount of "noise" flowing back and forth in Twitter.  You have to determine what your acceptable signal to noise ratio.  My suggestion is to add people you "follow" slowly and strategically.  And no, you don't have to follow everyone that follows you.  I'm VERY selective in who I follow right now.  No offense to anyone if I'm not following you (yet), but I've only got so much space right now :-)

So while you wait for future blogs posts ... you may want to follow my Twitter.

There ya go ... Twitter and IRC make me feel like I'm still able to contribute to the IT community even if time is scarce and their reach is not near as great as the number of people subscribed to this blog.  There are other neat social aspects to of each of these as well, but I'm out of time for now to tell ya ...

New "improved" IDF webcam feed ...

GCC Rewired on UStream.tv

We were using EyeSpyFX to stream the webcam Friday and it was pretty sluggish.  Switched to UStream.tv last night and it's MUCH better ... even has audio.  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/daves-cam

 

 

Go sign up for an account and you can chat with us right there on the above site today (Saturday).

LIVE GCC Webcam of our continuing IDF overhaul

Starting at 5pm tonight we're going to continue overhauling this IDF at GCC.  Enjoy the live feed :-)

http://www.eyespyfx.mobi:8080/webcams/SnapShotBlog?id=83f93f1ec3791840a488e711bddde2ae&path=webcams

 

Here's also a bunch of pictures from last nights overhaul courtesy of Justin Moore ... we went home around 3am http://flickr.com/photos/wantmoore/sets/72157604066246771/

Network Unpleasantness Part III

I'm very pleased to report that we had an uneventful Easter weekend in IT ... things worked as expected although our credit card transactions are still laggy.

Today Ed and I spent about 5 hours talking about next steps for our network infrastructure.  Before hand I spent some time cleaning up my office and rearranging it a bit so we have more wall space for brainstorming ... time to get another 4x8 whiteboard for me crib :-)

A couple people left comments on my prior posts inquiring about our network diagram ... here's the basic IDF diagram in all it's whiteboard glory

We have 5 IDF's (aka wiring closets/rooms) ... we don't count our server room.  No, the "new IDF" is not really new anymore, it is the most recent though and is the future network core and server room.  Even our cat5e IDF ties are short enough that we get Gig to the desktop to everyone.

After chatting with Terry last week and Ed and I pondering on this over the weekend, here's what our dream scenario would look like

It includes putting a new HP 5406 + GBIC module in the new IDF which then frees up managed Dell 5324 switches to displace the remaining non-managed 2624's we had.  We'd add 2 new fiber runs and end up with fiber home runs from each switch back to the 5406.  The server rack gets 6 cat6 direct runs to the 5406 (only 4 are currently needed).  This would give us a fast fully managed switch environment and the shortest path from clients to servers ... and the big key is finally moving us to routable VLANs.  Problem is the price tag .. CHA-CHING!

So instead for the immediate future we'll put a 5406 in the new IDF, replace all 2624's with 5324's, run the straight server shots, and start adding lots of VLANs.  We'll work on the rest as time and budget allow.

So now to adding more VLANs ... we currently have 2.  We basically started with clean slate and started listing what devices or "unique" end users are attached to each IDF.  Then we started writing down what devices/users should be in their own VLAN for management, monitoring, security, performance, etc.  Then finally we started assigning IP ranges based on a few criteria to each VLAN group staying with the 10.10.X.X scheme (because that's my favorite).  By 5:30pm we had what we felt was a great draft to work from.

On paper we're going from 2 to 18 VLANs which will really carve up our traffic for much improved network performance and better monitoring/troubleshooting.  Now it's time to start getting bids on the HP 5406 so we can start work on this when we get back from the roundtable next week.